The original dimensions of the "colonie di vacanza"

The essay concern the ”colonie di vacanza” (holiday camps), an enigmatic phenomenon diffused in our territories and representative of multiple reflexions on childhood. At first sight it seems impossible to identify one single architectural type, one single programme that can explain the forms or even simply the type of activities for which these places were used. In fact, the “colonies” seem to make up a manifold reality, a complex bundle in which architectural experimentations and social structures continuously interlaced since the first buildings in the 19th century , and today we are not able to recognise the connecting elements. The essay discusses some “original dimensions” of the architectural and social experience of the “colonie di vacanza”. The first of these dimensions is the medical one, from the discovery on XVIII century of the healing power that the sea and the natural environment have on the human body for the treatment of a series of diseases, to the definition of the climatic therapy founded in the contact of the body with salt water, air and sun, and to the experimentations in the corresponding typological organisation of the architecture for children. The welfare nature of the structures was another original dimension of the “colonie di vacanza”; they had the role of institutions that offered a service to the citizens, widespread as locally as possible, run in a decentralised way and deeply rooted in their territory. From the original work of the “apostle of childhood”, the Florentine doctor Giuseppe Barellai, the experience of the “Ospizi Marini” represents an innovative movement who moved the charitable current of society away from funding of temporary periods for children in makeshift structures or in families, to the consolidation into local Committees with the concrete long term objective of constructing buildings that could offer permanent assistance. “To take care of the moral and intellectual culture of children” is apparently the third dimension of the “colonie di vacanza”. This pedagogical dimension, introduced by the Swiss reverend Walter Hermann Bion, marked the beginning of the movement for the "ferienkolonien" (literally translated as “colonie di vacanza”). The point was that children needed something more than salt water, air and sun. The contact with nature considered so necessary to restore one’s health was also to be considered attractive for the beauty of its landscape and represented the paradigm of the desire to broaden children's horizons beyond the city. One of the reasons for its success was the clear way in which he postulated a close relationship between a “colonia di vacanza” and the school system. The fourth dimension is the architectural dimension. This is a field filled with a degree of uncertainty. In fact an overview of the situation in terms of ideals and buildings reveals a variety of abundant hypothesis and experimentations in terms of types and symbolisms that it is impossible to find a common thread. In this scenario the essay discusses the different strategies which was used for representing the specific identity of the “colonie di vacanza”, from the discussion of the first typological schemes linked to the climatic therapy, to the representation of different educational projects. Particulary evident in the Italian experience between the two warld wars, the “colonie di vacanza” manifesting their nature in which healthcare content was fading in favour of the objective of instilling a military and totalitarian ethic. During the fascist regime the means to control children and the quality of public spaces were of vital importance for the achievement of its objectives and for this reason they had to reflect an almost military organisational model. The years after the second world war saw the pursuit for a different educational model in which to experiment a different relationship between the children and the institution. For the architectural world this m...