Reggio School, a project that combined experimental eco-architecture with a radical approach to learning, is the 2022 instalment in our 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings series.
This innovative building on the outskirts of Madrid was designed by Spanish architect Andrés Jaque, dean of the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University in New York, and his Madrid-based studio, Office for Political Innovation.
Located in Encinar de los Reyes, the building is packed with features encouraging biodiversity, including sprayed-on cork walls that provide habitats for insects and fungi, and greenhouse-style atriums filled with plants.
The building programme was designed around the progressive Reggio Emilia teaching methodology, which promotes child-led rather than adult-dictated forms of learning.
Just as the Montessori method led Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger to design some of the most innovative schools of the 20th century, Jaque used the Reggio Emilia method to develop a new type of educational building for the 21st century.
It is one of the most inventive school buildings of the centuryOliver Wainwright in The Guardian
The school’s non-hierarchical layout, indoor landscapes and open-air teaching spaces encourage self-guided exploration and interaction, which are central to the teaching style.
“It is one of the most inventive school buildings of the century, breaking ground in everything from its layout, to the use of materials and its relationship to the natural world,” said critic Oliver Wainwright in a review for The Guardian.
That sentiment was echoed by Matt Shaw, writing for The Architect’s Newspaper.
“In 2023, it is rare to see a building that actually innovates in programme, material or ecological strategy, let alone all three,” he wrote.
“The Madrid Reggio School does this in a way that aligns with the best intentions and examples of modernism.”
Reggio School was a turning point for Jaque, whose output before this point was limited to private residences like the playful House in Never Never Land and experimental installations such as the water-purifying Cosmo at MoMA PS1.
As the architect divides his time between New York and Madrid, his studio typically only takes on one project at a time.
We will see architectures in the next few years that will totally surprise usAndrés Jaque speaking to Domus
The school is his largest building to date, expanding on several themes from his earlier works.
These include his ethos of multispecies architecture, with the building designed to support various other lifeforms besides humans, from birds and bats to insects and microbes.
Another is a process Jaque calls “thinning, skinning and making fluffy”, a budget-saving strategy that involves reducing the amount of structural materials and incorporating natural, breathable materials.
He claimed to have reduced the amount of construction materials at Reggio School by 48 per cent by including no wall claddings, interior wall linings, suspended ceilings or raised floors, and adding in the thermally insulating cork.
The age of pupils increases as one moves up through the building, but spaces throughout are designed to allow activities to blend. There are no corridors and there is no clear distinction between areas for study and those for play.
“That was a big part: thinking that there’s no divide between the classroom and, let’s say, leisure areas,” Jaque told architect Toshiko Mori in a 2023 interview with Domus.
“The ecosystemic character of the building means it can prompt serendipity and allow for the unexpected,” he said.
Reggio School was one of seven projects shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, the Mies van der Rohe Award, in 2024.
It was also shortlisted at Dezeen Awards in 2023.
For Jaque, it signalled a move towards a more radical form of sustainability in architecture.
“At a time when we face so many crucial transformations, we will see architectures in the next few years that will totally surprise us and will probably make our environment not look or perform as it did in the past,” he told Domus.
“I’m very excited about that.”
Did we get it right? Was the Reggio School by Andrés Jaque the most significant building completed in 2022? Let us know in the comments. We will be running a poll once all 25 buildings are revealed to determine the most significant building of the 21st century so far.
This article is part of Dezeen’s 21st-Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings series, which looks at the most significant architecture of the 21st century so far. For the series, we have selected the most influential building from each of the first 25 years of the century.
The illustration is by Jack Bedford and the photography is by José Hevia.
21st Century Architecture: 25 Years 25 Buildings
2000: Tate Modern by Herzog & de Meuron
2001: Gando Primary School by Diébédo Francis Kéré
2002: Bergisel Ski Jump by Zaha Hadid
2003: Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry
2004: Quinta Monroy by Elemental
2005: Moriyama House by Ryue Nishizawa
2006: Madrid-Barajas airport by RSHP and Estudio Lamela
2007: Oslo Opera House by Snøhetta
2008: Museum of Islamic Art by I M Pei
2009: Murray Grove by Waugh Thistleton Architects
2010: Burj Khalifa by SOM
2011: National September 11 Memorial by Handel Architects
2012: CCTV Headquarters by OMA
2013: Cardboard Cathedral by Shigeru Ban
2014: Bosco Verticale by Stefano Boeri
2015: UTEC Lima campus by Grafton Architects
2016: Transformation of 530 Dwellings by Lacaton & Vassal, Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin
2017: Apple Park by Foster + Partners
2018: Amager Bakke by BIG
2019: Goldsmith Street by Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley
2020: Anandaloy by Anna Heringer
2021: Sara Kulturhus by White Arkitekter
2022: Reggio School by Andrés Jaque
This list will be updated as the series progresses.
