A play space is a serious matter

“I can only learn in this kindergarten”. These are the words that best describe places such as the Sant’Elia Kindergarten, in Como, a space created by Giuseppe Terragni, the Italian Rationalist architect, in 1935.

During Lake Como Design Festival it reopened to the public. In the presentation to the press the architect Paolo Brambilla, in some way the modern father of the building (“I attended this kindergarten as a child, and so did my daughter”), stressed that Terragni did not think of building a kindergarten but “a school of architecture, where form is fundamental to the creation of a thought”. An experimental building that “takes everyone to the next level”, where people can attend workshops and where a video installation has been installed about the project Piccoli Razionalisti, conceived by Wonderlake Como, in collaboration with the Accademia dei Piccoli Artisti. In the school year 2024/25 it involved over 1400 primary school pupils in the city and province of Como on a journey to discover the Rationalist architecture of Como. A place whose future is not yet certain but which hopefully can provide a new frame of reference for learning and play.

This is what has happened over the years, for example, with the Fondazione Prada’s Accademia dei Bambini, a project conceived by the neuropaediatrician Giannetta Ottilia Latis, whose program is now curated by the paediatric neonatologist Gabriele Ferraris. A space, designed by a group of students from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Versailles, which adapts to e different programs by always taking on new forms. In the next two months (from 20 September to 23 November) it will be filled with mirrored surfaces for the new workshop “Il riflesso” curated by Sebastiano Brandolini, during which the children “will be able to play with their image and graphically experiment with new ways of representing themselves”.

Triennale Milano has also just opened “Gioco” a new  space, as part of the redesign of its Piano Parco, completely renewed and opened to the public last May. It hosts meetings and workshops curated by the Triennale educational department but is also used freely by families. There are modular blocks of cork and spruce boards, which can be combined to form desks, seats, dividers, sunbeds, containers or play structures. The design of the Gioco space, like all the rest of the Parco Piano, was entrusted to ARCHIT Luca Cipelletti, while the furnishings were designed by the French studio smarin, which specializes in creating spaces for interaction and collective invention.

Biblioteca Ostinata is not a museum but it might seem like one. It was established in 2022 in Via Osti, under the shadow of the Torre Velasca in Milan, at the behest of Paolo Porta Giurleo, a lifelong book collector.
In addition to students from the nearby state university, neighbourhood communities and all the citizens, girls and boys are often invited for free readings and workshops devoted to them. Designed by Studio de Lucchi, AMDL Circle, Produzione Privata and Artemide, a concern for detail is everything in this neighbourhood library. On the occasion of the opening of the space, Pico De Lucchi told me: “The profile of the shelves recalls the crags of a mountain that rises, based on the concept that reading is a conquest.” Starting from an early age.

The history of museums devoted to children has very distant roots. Just think of institutions such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, which promotes design in all its forms and for everyone, including kids through its “Young V&A” premises in Bethnal Green, completely devoted to imagination and play. Renewed in 2019 by AOC architecture and De Matos Ryan, it has enhanced and restored the original Victorian structure, bringing to light the large windows and a mosaic marble floor dating from the 19th century. It was not a simple restoration project but a veritable collective workshop in which the architects involved girls and boys and teachers from the local schools, as well as experts in child development. A space that shares the values and creative history written by the V&A over the centuries. 

Speaking of history, for those who want to try living like a real imperial family, in Vienna there is The Children’s Museum inside the Schonbrunn Palace where both children and adults can wear Her Majesty’s clothes through the 12 rooms that reproduce life in the time of Maria Theresa. How did they dress, what did they play with, what was the design of the setting of their tables? An immersion in fun and original history to rediscover a timeless Vienna.

But it was in New York that the world’s first museum devoted to children was founded: the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, established in 1899 with the mission of “creating experiences that ignite curiosity, celebrate identity and cultivate joyful learning”, now directed by Atiba Edwards. A neighbourhood space that inspires the whole world, and which, 125 years later, has never ceased to renew itself – quite the contrary. In fact, in 2026 it is planning the inauguration of a new 1800-square-meter interactive garden designed by the studio Gans and Company, which will host a permanent exhibition entitled the Earth Science Exhibit devoted to biodiversity. 

If it is true that, as Bruno Munari said, “play is a serious matter”, so are the spaces devoted to it. 

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