From Fascism to Progressive Education: Relationship Between Architecture and Pedagogy in Two Italian Holiday Colonies After Second World War.

Holiday colonies, characterised by their own very specific range of pedagogical objects, first among them architectures, have been deeply connected with the school dimension since their origin: as well as proposing a model that in some ways resembles that of the school - a community of minors divided into groups, each of which entrusted to the care of one or more adults in charge of activities with a educational value -, throughout their history they have recruited a large part of their staff from among young teachers, for whom they have constituted an opportunity for a sort of apprenticeship in the world of childhood. This contribution examines holiday colonies from the point of view of their architectural structure and the organisation of their spaces as "pedagogical technologies". Two cases will be presented which are of particular interest to scholars of the material history of schools: in their buildings the so-called "winter colonies" were set up during the school year, real schools which accommodated children particularly in need of "good air" for a few months, thus giving them the opportunity to continue their studies by spending a period in a healthier environment. The first case concerns the Fiat colony in Marina di Massa, a tower built in 1933 at the height of the Fascist dictatorship, with an architecture designed to facilitate the management of large groups of children: the dormitories follow one another along a single spiral that rises towards the top of the tower, in a sort of panopticon for meticulous monitoring of children’s behaviour, in order to facilitate propaganda and the transformation of the guests into faithful servants of the regime. Even in the post-war period, after the fall of Fascism, the structure of the building continued to profoundly influence the educational practices that took place there: until the end of the 1970s, the colony's activities remained marked by an authoritarian approach, based on a rigid discipline of bodies and the clear prevalence of the collective dimension. The second case concerns the Italsider holiday colony in Montechiaro (Turin), built between 1959 and 1962, based on a project aimed at radically renewing the approach to children's holidays, drawing inspiration from the principles of progressive education. The colony, managed by the Ceméa, is located in a building that is deeply integrated into the surrounding environment and is characterised by spaces organised in sectors designed to accommodate small groups, in a more intimate, democratic dimension that is attentive to the needs of the individual: it is a context that becomes a place for experimenting with progressive education, capable of suggesting to the school – especially through the teachers who work in both areas - a new way of educating. In the cases presented the architectures, expressions of clearly opposed visions of childhood and society, are able to influence - in the case of Fiat, even decades after the end of the regime of which the building is an expression - ways of living spaces, activities and the child-adult relationship.