Architecture of integration : way to an inclusive elementary school

Arrivals of foreigners and their integration process have always inflamed conflicts, due to matters of identity and cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds. Even though migrations have happened from the beginning of history, self-categorization and labeling of “the other” has never been overcome. My interest in this subject comes from the question of identity and how differences can be recognized and accepted or tolerated and weather architecture can have a reconciling role in this process. So, in the course of this thesis, you will encounter some figures such as Martin Heidegger, Juhani Pallasmaa; as well as Homi Bhabha and Edward Said, the latter two being experts on post-colonial studies, whose writings deeply had an effect on me, and helped me to value the balance between architecture and identity. Italy today is suffering increasing numbers of immigrants and trying various methods for their integration, for the development of the country. The reason I am focusing this research in Milan is firstly because, I live here, as a foreigner and also because Milan has the highest percentages of immigrants in the country, hence engaging with the issue at a larger scale in comparison to the rest of the country.Education is one of the most efficient and influential ways for integrating immigrants into the local community. Significant studies are carried out by the EU commission and organizations such as UNESCO, in order to facilitate this difficult process, with which you will come across in more detail, further on in my work. These studies take schools as their means of reaching out to the immigrant communities and applying the suggested professional methods for a coherent progression. The relationship between education and architecture is not a new idea. For education there has always been the need of an adequate environment and space. As we know today environment and surroundings (colours, noise, adequate music, and arrangement of the room…) affect our perception and learning skills. We come across such explorations on the improvement of learning already in ancient Greece. Nevertheless, our approach towards this subject was re-awakened by pedagogues such as Frobel, Montessori and Pizzigoni only in the beginning of the 20th century, whose ideas are still widely followed and practiced. Today education is a right but laws integrating also the immigrants came very late in time. Even though schools have existed since ancient Egypt and ancient Greece, firstly they were available only for rich families’ children. The first schools available for a wider range of the public were seen in the Ottoman Empire under a system called “Kulliye” including, dining halls, healthcare and accommodation built around mosques. In Italy, the law which gave the right to education all children including foreigners came in 1989. Today pedagogues such as Mariangela Giusti are working on inter-cultural pedagogy in order to ingrain this system to the existing institutional structure and to involve foreigners further in this established composition. “Integration pedagogy is brought to life in the classroom that is why it’s an area which is worth to explore.”1 My thesis is exploring an architecture that can support the contemporary pedagogical theories and other major researches on this topic in order to facilitate the integration of immigrant students into the local culture.