This book documents and analyses the experience that has seen students and professors of the Politecnico di Milano collaborating with the Municipality of Pecetto di Valenza to create a short circuit between the university’s training and research activities and the needs of the public administration to find solutions for the redesigning of Carlo Orsini Primary School and Joseph Canepari Afterschool Learning Centre. An important opportunity for students in training, but also for academic researchers, to operate in a context where there is no simplification of reality, but in which the confrontation with the public administration that defines the requirement framework takes place directly and without filters. It is also the demonstration of the role of university, with its triple action of training, research and “third mission”, as one of the fundamental poles of the new knowledge society. In Pecetto di Valenza a creative, participatory and open design process was tested, capable to guide the transformation of the School to meet new and different social and community demands. The approach that emerges from the proposals synthesized in this book integrates the correct response to innovative didactic and pedagogical models with feasible technical-constructive solutions and identifies the “need” of pupils and teachers as the guiding criterion of the choices.

Giovanni Castaldo

Pierluigi Salvadeo

Andrea Tartaglia