Colors in preschools, between theory and praxis

Preschools are special spaces for children personality development. The pupils, aged from 3 to 6 years, change rapidly, everyday. The intensity of change varies from subject to subject and the stimuli received are responsible for much of their development. The educators are familiar with the behaviors that children exhibit in this particular period of their life, especially because their communication is particularly evident, extroverted. In terms of color, this amplification produces a consequential adult behavior: they provide colorful spaces for children. In fact, usually strong colors are provided for pupil objects environment (toys, clothing, household goods, furniture, etc.) and for the spaces where they live. In particular, the preschools fully reflect this logic. We apply many different wall colors, sometimes using colorfulness, chroma and saturation often irritating. In addition, the colors of our society use color as a kind of conviction marketing weapon, increasing colorfulness, chroma and saturation. We can see colors affecting large segments of population, unaware of being unconscious tools for marketing purposes. These changes and the use of electronic devices in everyday life (different from the classical paper read/write) are stimulating educators to update their theories and approaches to the teaching in every school degree. Sensitized by this, as researchers, teachers and architects, we activated a research concerning a new approach to color in the schools. The Municipality of Verona and the University Iuav, Colour &Light in Architecture research unit, signed an agreement to study the impact of the color choice in schools, from preschool to high school. The first exercise was, occurred as a result of the need for expansion and requalification of a small preschool, to try an approach using some wall colors for both internal and external spaces. The study case will be monitored over time. This preschool, situated into a suburb, was designed originally for only three classrooms. The enlargement consists in the addition of one more unit. This preschool is one of the few schools in Verona where children are separated by age, which is why the classrooms were only three. Most other preschools in Verona put together, with dramatic effects on the children development, pupils of all ages: 3,4,5. This pilot example, the "Giovanni Rodari" school, built around the year 1970, looks like a private home: pitched roof, external walls in scratched white plaster, brown shutters and white wooden windows. The interior is painted with lower band, high 1.50 m, in washable tint it seems without any criterion of choice, and the ceiling and the upper part of walls of water-based white paint. There is a law imposing, in public places like schools and hospitals, to have the first five feet from the ground made or painted with washable materials. It is in this space that the crime takes place, not excluding the floors and ceilings of rooms and common areas.