The private "School for Europe" (Scuola per l'Europa) in Parma is part of the network of "European Schools" that has existed since the middle of the 20th century. These are schools with an emphasis on “common European” knowledge and ideas, where most of the teaching is in the local language, although they also have “international” branches.
The school in Parma was founded in 2004, today children from 4 to 18 years old study there. The new building, which opened in 2017, is designed for 900 schoolchildren.
Description of architects:
When viewed from a height, it is easy to see that the Padan Lowland is more marked by the matrices of ancient Roman colonization than other regions of Italy. The centuries-old footprints from the Route of Emilia in the role of decumanus maximus have survived to this day as an accurate and recognizable map of the territory, which has passed from the agrarian structure to the roads and cities. Within this network, the southern outskirts of Parma are defined by canals and farmland boundaries. The section of the project between the Via Langirano highway and the university campus is symbolic in this regard: a large rectangle with its long side parallel to the Via Emilia, the first Roman axis towards the conquest of European lands.
On the "furrow" of this historical trail of settlement, the foundation of the "Schools for Europe" project itself, its main pivot, was laid. It is interpreted as a long cloister and supports a unifying territorial approach. It is embodied on the scale of courtyards as a combination of the necessary buildings with the functional integration of various educational stages and related structures.
Finally, there are porticoes in the building: this is the design of the facade facing the city (highway), as well as the main cloister and courtyards, where the center is occupied by lawns. The portico becomes a distributor and mediator in the composition, which anchors and connects the educational space, the city and the remnants of agricultural land.
Thus, the European School faces the city from the main portico, demonstrating an image of unity, while a clear autonomy is developed inside. The large porticoed courtyards of the individual study units are distributed along the sides of the cloister and differ in the length of the buildings facing the courtyard lawns.
The phalanxes of the courtyards gradually dissolve in the architectural and natural system, acting as protected islands of communication, study and games.
Three absolute architectural and typological elements applied at different scales - cloisters, courtyards and porticoes - define the landscape design, fully expressing the identity of the place and its modern transition to the European horizon.
