{"id":337182,"date":"2025-12-09T12:58:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/337182\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T12:58:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T12:58:14","slug":"aacm-designs-kindergarten-in-italy-to-feel-like-a-small-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/337182\/","title":{"rendered":"AACM designs kindergarten in Italy to feel like &#8220;a small village&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An &#8220;abstract ensemble&#8221; of pyramidal roofs cloaked in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dezeen.com\/tag\/terracotta\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terracotta<\/a> tiles was designed to evoke the feel of a small village at Kinder Rain, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dezeen.com\/tag\/kindergartens\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">kindergarten<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dezeen.com\/tag\/italy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Italy<\/a> recently completed by local architecture studio AACM.<\/p>\n<p>The 672-square-metre kindergarten is located in Piove di Sacco, Padua, where it occupies a green site surrounded by trees.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2277658 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/aacm-kindergarten-italy_dezeen_2364_col_0-852x1278.jpg\" alt=\"View from above of Kinder Rain\" width=\"1576\" height=\"2364\"  \/>AACM has completed a kindergarten in Italy<\/p>\n<p>Looking to create a form that would feel familiar for both pupils and the surrounding community, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aacm.it\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AACM<\/a> drew on traditional Veneto cabins known as Casone Veneto, which informed the kindergarten&#8217;s pyramidal roofs.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The idea of building a public piece of architecture made us think about how to link the project to the history of the place, to make it a building that is welcomed and understood by locals,&#8221; AACM co-founder Rodolfo Morandi told Dezeen.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2277662 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/aacm-kindergarten-italy_dezeen_2364_col_4-852x1278.jpg\" alt=\"Exterior view of school by AACM\" width=\"1576\" height=\"2364\"  \/>Its structure is topped with pyramidal roofs<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The shape is an echo of the traditional fishermen&#8217;s houses called Casone Veneto that, with its sloped roof, is a sort of a monument in the culture of the Piove di Sacco area,&#8221; he continued.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The school appears then as a small village, an abstract ensemble of pyramidal &#8216;houses&#8217; gathered around a central square, the &#8216;agora&#8217;, an inner playroom faced by each classroom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2277673 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/aacm-kindergarten-italy_dezeen_2364_col_13-852x1278.jpg\" alt=\"Courtyard interior by AACM\" width=\"1576\" height=\"2364\"  \/>Terracotta tiles cloak the exterior<\/p>\n<p>Kinder Rain&#8217;s classrooms are organised around this central playroom, which acts as a connecting space alongside a hall and cloakroom to avoid the need for any circulation corridors.<\/p>\n<p>In each classroom, the pyramidal roof forms are expressed by steep, high ceilings culminating in skylights, which AACM hopes will &#8220;ignite the imaginations&#8221; of those inside.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2277671 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/aacm-kindergarten-italy_dezeen_2364_col_11-852x585.jpg\" alt=\"Children playing in courtyard of Kinder Rain in Italy\" width=\"2364\" height=\"1624\"  \/>The courtyards are flanked by concrete benches<\/p>\n<p>A minimal palette focuses attention on the building&#8217;s geometry, with wooden floors, white walls and wood fibre panel ceilings, which both control acoustics in the taller spaces and nod to the traditionally thatched roofs of Casone Veneto.<\/p>\n<p>Around the building&#8217;s perimeter, three courtyards or &#8216;external classrooms&#8217; open out onto the surrounding site through large openings, where a paved walkway and concrete bench seating wrap the edge of the building and expand into an entrance plaza to the south.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dezeen.com\/2025\/12\/01\/ciales-kindergarten-puerto-rico-toro-arquitectos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"191\" height=\"191\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ciales-kindergarten_toro-arquitectos_1_dezeen_sq2-191x191.jpg\" class=\"excludeLightbox wp-post-image\" alt=\"Ciales Kindergarten by Toro Arquitectos\" decoding=\"async\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"  \/><\/p>\n<p> Toro Arquitectos designs ring-shaped Ciales Kindergarten in Puerto Rico\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The main idea is to not have any corridors and to transform the circulation spaces into teaching and playing spaces,&#8221; explains Morandi.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every classroom is connected through the central agora, so children can overlook one another knowing they are part of a &#8216;society&#8217; bigger than their own single classroom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2277666 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/aacm-kindergarten-italy_dezeen_2364_col_6-852x1277.jpg\" alt=\"Classroom interior at Kinder Rain by AACM\" width=\"1577\" height=\"2364\"  \/>Skylights crown the classroom spaces<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The outdoor classrooms act like a filter, an &#8216;in-between&#8217; \u2013 it&#8217;s outside, but it could also be inside. From the central agora, there&#8217;s this idea of visual permeability where you always see the surrounding greenery,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Externally, both the walls and roof of Kinder Rain are clad in terracotta tiles, with the external concrete benches and window frames finished in a matching shade to create what Morandi calls a &#8220;reddish unity&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2277668 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/aacm-kindergarten-italy_dezeen_2364_col_8-852x1209.jpg\" alt=\"Kindergarten interior by AACM\" width=\"1666\" height=\"2364\"  \/>Wood fibre panels wrap around the ceilings<\/p>\n<p>AACM, which stands for Atelier Architettura Chinello Morandi, is a Milan and Padua-based architecture studio founded in 2020 by Morandi alongside Nicol\u00f2 Chinello.<\/p>\n<p>Other kindergarten projects recently featured on Dezeen include the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dezeen.com\/2025\/09\/29\/archikon-kindergarten-budapest\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">updating of a prefabricated 1960s building in Hungary by local studio Archikon<\/a> and<\/p>\n<p>The photography is by <a href=\"https:\/\/alexshootsbuildings.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Shoots Buildings<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An &#8220;abstract ensemble&#8221; of pyramidal roofs cloaked in terracotta tiles was designed to evoke the feel of a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,2555,134,2328,115290,187774,61745,61746,2701],"class_list":{"0":"post-337182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-education","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-italy","17":"tag-kindergartens","18":"tag-pyramids","19":"tag-sectionall","20":"tag-sectionarchitecture","21":"tag-terracotta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}