The Beauty of the Unusual: An Architectural Inquiry into the Reggio Emilia Approach

Abstract

For many years, the Reggio Emilia approach has been in the spotlight of the international debate on early childhood education, attracting countless devoted followers in preschool centres all over the world and inspiring an ever-increasing amount of pedagogical research. At the heart of this educational philosophy, space is considered a ‘third teacher’ and so is carefully thought and arranged, functioning as a key source of educational stimulation and insight. However, although a great number of studies from the field of pedagogy have been carried out to gain a better understanding of Reggio Emilia’s physical learning environments, not so much has been said from the designer’s perspective. This paper tries precisely to fill that gap, not purporting to isolate these fields of knowledge from one another but rather with the intention of setting an original inquiry that brings them closer together. This is made possible thanks to the definition of an innovative critical lens that diverges from previous discussions on the topic. More specifically, the work is triggered by Alfredo Hoyuelo’s statement (La estética en el pensamiento y obra pedagógica de Loris Malaguzzi, Octaedro, 2006, p. 120) in reference to Loris Malaguzzi’s theories: “building pedagogy means dreaming the beauty of the unusual”. Simply by replacing the term ‘pedagogy’ with ‘physical environments’ in that sentence, a novel insight for both architects and educators can emerge, with major implications in terms of conception, design, use and signification of space.