Description: In this paper I will investigate the open-air school 'Umberto di Savoia' of Milan. The school may be considered 'iconic', if not in design or education, then certainly in size. It was part of a megalomaniac project of urban architecture that received considerable attention in international circles, although it may not have been as 'original' as 'truly' iconic schools like the one of Duiker in Amsterdam or the one of Baudoin and Lods in Suresnes. Nevertheless the school symbolized the institutionalization of the Italian open-air 'movement'. Initially conceived by the socialist city council as a vacation colony during the summer and as a day school for the rest of the year in the line of other 'experiments' in Bologna, Padua and Milan, the project would soon lend itself perfectly for mass celebrations of fascism (Penzo, 2003). Constructed in a public park and built around a former hippodrome of the 'Trotter Society', the project encompassed numerous school pavilions, an open-air swimming pool, and football, tennis and skating grounds. Later on, former horse stables on the premises would be transformed into a 'preventive' boarding school for children living in "particularly difficult family circumstances" (Idem). Finally, a genuine cinema and a little church were constructed as well. However, what interests me in terms of 'transformation of knowledge', is not the architectural as such, but the relation between design and education in general. In the line of previous research on this topic (Depaepe, Simon & Thyssen, 2005) my main question is: to what degree was the education offered within this allegedly 'renewing' school buildings 'renewing' in its turn? Did the pavilion structure of the school result in less frontal and teacher-oriented education? The school's rhetoric stressed on 'new education' principles such as natural education, observation, reflection, learning for life and so on. How was all this knowledge transformed into practice? To what extent was it capable of altering the 'choreography' of schooling? Methodology: The methodology used, fits into the framework of 'new cultural history', and more specifically, 'classroom history' (as 'thick description', with particular attention for everyday education, the visual and material school culture). Among the primary sources that will be used, are minutes of international congresses of open-air schools, several issues of the bulletin of the international committee on open-air schools/education, sources about Italian open-air schools in general, about socialism and fascism and so on. The most important part, however, will consist of internally published and unpublished written and visual sources, located e.g. in the State Archive of Milan. Finally, oral accounts will be used as well. Conclusions: It is expected that the education offered within this particular open-air school differed less from the regular education than the architectural design and the 'new education' rhetoric may have promised. Given the fact that the school was part of a eugenic project that segregated materially, 'hereditary' and 'morally' poor children from 'healthy' ones on a extensive scale, aiming to produce economically, military and morally profitable citizens, it is expected that the school regime resulted in paradoxical effects of liberty and coercion, individuality and collectiveness etc., which may well have been experienced by the school children and their parents as such.