Reggio School “to become a multiverse” designed by Andrés Jaque

With ‘Colegio Reggio,’ a new private school in Madrid created as an assemblage of multiple ‘worlds’ that inspire in youngsters a drive for exploration and inquiry, Architect Andrés Jaque of Office for Political Innovation has challenged the paradigms of educational settings. ‘By avoiding homogenization and consistent norms, the school’s architecture aspires to become a multiverse in which the layered complexity of the environment becomes legible and experiencing. It functions as a synthesis of various climates, ecosystems, architectural traditions, and regulations,’ he writes.

Jaque is known for his experimental approach to architecture, which can be observed in projects such as the Never Never Land House in Ibiza and the Cosmo exhibit in New York‘s MoMA PS1 courtyard. His studio’s largest built work to date is Reggio School. The goal is for the facility to reinvent the concept of a sustainable school, looking beyond the fabric of the structure to the types of uses and activities it can accommodate.

Jaque, the dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture and the founder of the Office for Political Innovation in New York, sees it as “a complicated ecology” for teaching. The Reggio Emilia preschool approach was developed in northern Italy, where a series of preschools foster child-led rather than adult-directed learning. These schools, based on a notion devised in the 1940s by educator Loris Malaguzzi, provide more opportunities for creativity and imagination than typical learning environments.

The second concept emphasizes drastic building reduction: no claddings, drop ceilings, elevated technical floors, wall coating, or ventilated facades. Furthermore, the crew was able to minimize the overall amount of material in the facades, roofs, and interior partitions by 48% by substituting a large portion of the construction with simplified techniques and mechanical system distribution. ‘The outcome is a naked structure whose aesthetics are defined by the unaffected visibility of its operational aspects,’ Jaque continues.

Finally, following the second concept, the architect approached the project with a more thinking, less material’ approach. The team, led by researcher and structural engineer Lago González Quelle, designed, evaluated, and dimensioned the structure in such a way that the thickness of loading walls was reduced by more than 150 mm, suggesting a 33% reduction in the building’s embedded energy.

The school’s architecture seeks to become a multiverse where the layered intricacy of the environment becomes legible and experiencing while avoiding standardization and unifying norms. It functions as a mash-up of various climates, ecosystems, architectural traditions, and regulations. Its vertical ascent begins with a ground floor that is in contact with the terrain and houses classrooms for younger children. On top of that, the uppermost levels are where students from intermediate classes coexist with reclaimed water and soil tanks that nurture an indoor garden that reaches the uppermost levels under a greenhouse structure.

The higher levels hold the classrooms for senior students, which are structured around an inner forest, much like a little village. This vertical distribution of usage suggests an ongoing maturation process, which is reflected in the pupils’ increasing ability to explore the space.

Cork wrapping provides thermal isolation as well as protection for life other than humans. Externally, 14.2 cm of predicted 9,700 Kg/m3 dense cork covers 80% of the building’s envelope. This natural solution, designed expressly for this project by the Office for Political Innovation, is employed in both vertical and pitch elements of the building’s external volume to give R-23.52, which is double what Madrid’s rules require. This adds to the passive 50% reduction in energy consumed when heating the school’s interiors. Beyond that, the irregular surface of the cork projection is designed to allow organic material to accumulate, so that the building’s membrane will eventually become a habitat for a range of microbiological fungi and vegetable life.

“This distribution of uses suggests a continuous maturation process, which is translated into kids’ rising capacity to explore the school ecosystem on their own and alongside their friends,” the architects explained. This 5,000-square-foot central area is almost 26 feet high and designed as a cosmopolitical agora; a semi-enclosed expanse crisscrossed by the air tempered by holm oak trees from the adjacent countryside. A network of ecologists and edaphologists created miniature gardens specifically designed to host and nurture insect, butterfly, bird, and animal communities. Here, everyday aspects such as exercising coexist with conversations about how the school is administered as a community and how to interact with the nearby streams and fields. Finally, this floor functions as a more-than-human summiting chamber in which students and teachers can sense and attune to the ecosystems of which they are a part.  

As an alternative to the standard practice of covering up mechanical systems in architecture, where all services are kept visible so that the flows that keep the building active become an opportunity for students to interrogate how their bodies and social interactions rely on water, energy, and air exchanges and circulations. Pipes, conduits, cables, and grilles are boldly encouraged to become part of the building’s visual and material environment.

References:

1. Dezeen. (2023). Andrés Jaque designs Reggio School ‘to become a multiverse’. [online] Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2023/01/03/reggio-school-andres-jaque-office-for-political-innovation/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2023].
2. Arquitectura Viva (2022). Colegio Reggio, Madrid – Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation. [online] Arquitectura Viva. Available at: https://arquitecturaviva.com/works/colegio-reggio-madrid [Accessed 13 Jan. 2023].
3. designboom, lea zeitoun I. (2022). andrés jaque designs private school in madrid as a stacked and complex ‘multiverse’. [online] designboom | architecture & design magazine. Available at: https://www.designboom.com/architecture/andres-jaque-office-for-political-innovation-colegio-reggio-spain-12-02-2022/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2023].
4. ArchDaily. (2019). Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation Unveil Experimental Madrid School. [online] Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/921802/andres-jaque-office-for-political-innovation-unveil-experimental-madrid-school [Accessed 13 Jan. 2023].
5. Es, K. van (2022). Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation designs school that empowers children to deal with unpredictable challenges and potentials. [online] Åvontuura. Available at: https://www.avontuura.com/reggio-school-andres-jaque-office-for-political-innovation/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2023].