The Italian government and regions are preparing to approve new legislation in the field of educational building. The main topics being discussed and analysed are: quality; technological innovation; multi-functionality; resources.

In 2005, the OECD Programme on Educational Building (PEB) organised two international experts’ group meetings to discuss how countries define and evaluate quality in educational facilities. The research and experiences of six experts are presented in this article, in addition to the lessons...

PEB and the Ministry of Education of Portugal brought together 67 library and resource centre professionals, policy makers, educators and information technology specialists from 21 countries around the theme “Designing Schools for the Information Society: Libraries and Resource Centres”. The...

In New York they say that the architecture of the new <i>Lycée français</i> (serving French students from kindergarten through upper secondary education) was inspired by the rationalism of Descartes. What is beyond doubt, however, is that the design and materials chosen by the American firm of...

This article is a report on the Time Workshop held at the international conference on “Innovative Alternatives in Learning Environments” in November 2000. The report, written by Prakash Nair, a U.S. expert on school facilities and technology, includes significant input from Hans F. Van...

What is involved in creating learning environments for the 21^st century? How can school facilities serve as tools for teaching and meet the needs of students in the future? What components are required to design effective schools, and how does architecture relate to the purposes of schooling?...

The design of this flexible school for early childhood education in Milan, Italy, takes into account children’s development and the different ways they experience space according to their age. The facilities will include not only a nursery school and kindergarten, but also a drop-in day-care...

The restoration of an historic school building in Battipaglia, Italy, will provide new public facilities and is hoped to boost urban renewal. The municipality of Battipaglia, in the province of Salerno, held an architectural competition for renovating the E. De Amicis Primary School and the...

The Intelligent Educational Training Station has been developed in Italy to meet emerging school building needs. The project, for schools from the primary to upper secondary level, proposes flexible architecture for an “intelligent school” network, and was developed by CISEM, the Centre for...

<i>Bruce Jilk is an architect and educational planner at KKE Architects in Minneapolis, Minnesota (United States). Jilk was chair at the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) November 2000 conference in Amsterdam (Netherlands), where he introduced the conference on “Innovative Alternatives in...</i>