From improvised to planned schools: school spaces in the Area of Italian Colonization in the state of Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Taking into account scholastic architecture as an educational element, this article discusses the process of change which, inspired by hygienistic and civilizational ideals, led public authorities to invest in the design and construction of school spaces. The analysis focuses on the Area of Italian Colonization in Rio Grande do Sul by the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The research sources include reports by consuls, intendants, inspectors and teachers, photographs, floor plans and correspondence. In the first decades the schools were located in places adapted to become “classrooms”. From the mid’1910s onwards, intendants began to stress the need for investing in the building of spaces that should be exclusively reserved for schools and meet certain demands in terms of luminosity, ventilation, adequate location and aesthetics.