Preservation and innovation of the Rinnovata Pizzigoni School, a symbolic place of the early 20th-century experimental pedagogy in Milan

In the early 1900s, Giuseppina Pizzigoni launched an experimental pedagogical programme in Milan based on the reform of teaching methods and the design and construction of a new school in keeping with her innovative educational principles. Today, the Pizzigoni method is still implemented in this school, whose special spaces are still in use. However, a lack of investment in maintenance and retrofitting and the emergence of new educational needs and requirements over time has led the building to deteriorate and become functionally inadequate. In 2020, a set of interventions was initiated with a view to conserving this architectural heritage asset. The restoration project demanded an innovative and multidisciplinary approach given its aims of conserving original materials, enhancing the building’s energy and seismic performances, updating its systems, and adapting its layout to meet the current needs of the school community. In this paper, we first present the key features of both the Pizzigoni method and the school building. Then we outline the technical issues with the building and the main intervention strategies. Finally, we focus on the co-design process brought to bear on the functional layout of the school building, and the outcomes of this process, which was implemented with the participation of the school principal and teaching staff and the involvement of the other stakeholders, including the main sponsor of the intervention.