A farming pre-school will be teaching kids how to grow their own crops and domesticate animals in an effort to bring children closer to nature. Project Nursery Fields Forever is a part of aut – – aut, a ‘dynamic agricultural practice’ that aims to ‘propel social enhancement’.
Today’s younger generations—and let’s face it, society as a whole—has become disconnected from nature. According to aut – – aut, “the absence of direct experience has completely misled children’s perception of the world and of its most basic processes.”
As a result, the school aims to teach children about sustainable energy, teamwork and domesticating plants and animals by offering three approaches to learning: learning from nature, learning from technique, and learning from practice.
“It’s commonly known that children are inherently and intuitively curious naturalists. We believe that this innate quality should be exploited, stimulated and guided through the educational approach of the nursery of the future,” explains the website.
The children will also be taught to develop a respectful relationship with nature, the human community and the places in which their life takes place.
The proposal of the project, which has been developed by a team of Rome-based designers, Gabriele Capobianco, Edoardo Capuzzo Dolcetta, Jonathan Lazar, and Davide Troiani, won First Prize at the 2015 AWR International Ideas Competition.
The absence of children’s understanding of nature was an issue that became highlighted when British chef Jamie Oliver conducted a multiple choice pop quiz with American high school kid to determine if they knew where their food came from. The experiment, which was part of his TV series Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, revealed that many of American children do not know where butter, chocolate or corn dogs come from.
Forever aims to bridge the gap between education and environment, by offering “a real hybrid between a farm and a school where children’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development would be encouraged by interaction with plants and animals,” says Jonathan Lazar, one of the architects.
To achieve this ambitious goal, the Nursery Fields Forever will establish an integration of traditional scholastic environments and experimental spaces that merge didactic and farming. In this environment children will gain invaluable confidence, communication skills and will thrive in a team work environment.
“We think that kids should enjoy nature,” said Edoardo Capuzzo Dolcetta to Fast Company. “So we designed this strange school: No classrooms, but open spaces where vegetables grow inside and animals can come in too. It’s a mixing of the two things, school and nature.”
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