According to Frank Lloyd Wright, by playing with the “Gifts” invented by the German pedagogue Friedrich Froebel, ‘form’ started to become ‘feeling’. This is how Wright, in his memoirs (1943), presents this connection between Froebel’s theories and his design practice, which would be widely discussed again in the recent 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth (Bergdoll & Gray, 2017). Wright would implement his own school of architecture at Taliesin, as an organic environment between learning, practice and nature. 

Conversely, as a case study, this paper will focus on Froebel’s legacy in Portugal, after Teophilo Ferreira, the director of ‘Escola Normal’ in Lisbon, also introduced Froebel’s conceptions of where and how children should learn in a symbiotic relation with nature, after he attended the International Teaching Congress in Brussels in September 1880 and visited some kindergartens.

Two years after, the Portuguese cities of Lisbon and Porto commemorated the centenary of Froebel’s birth. Ferreira advocated to the city council that ‘Passeio da Estrella’ could be the place to build the first kindergarten (‘Jardim d’ Infancia’) in Portugal. Furthermore, the Portuguese periodic ‘O Occidente - Revista illustrada de Portugal e do estrangeiro’ – celebrating Froebel’s centenary in 21^st April 1882 - presented in its cover a stencil by Caetano Alberto da Silva that is worth mentioning (Mercês & Guilherme, 1882). This consisted of an idyllic landscape, with Froebel’s portrait in the centre and children playing with abstract blocks on the bottom, the represented building was an object that resembled a church with a longitudinal nave and a tower. Hence, the architectural imaginary was still the ecclesiastic one and also the persisting Portuguese vernacular architectural paradigm overall.

José Luiz Monteiro was the architect entitled to design the first kindergarten, inaugurated in 1882. Months after its opening, two teachers, a singing teacher and a gymnastic teacher, were the educators of sixty children in this new space. The directors, Carlota Pinheiro de Brito Freire and Alfredo Julio de Brito (professor at ‘Escola Normal’) brought to the kindergarten the necessary organisational and regulatory principles. 

Likewise, the introduction of Froebel’s pedagogy in Portugal also found its early signs in Porto, with ‘Sociedade de Instrucção do Porto’ and its secretary Joaquim de Vasconcellos along with Carolina de Michaëlis. The latter, of German origins, had studied in Berlin the theory and practice of the Kindergarten and had brought to Porto, circa 1875, the Froebelian materials. In 1882, a study to implement the kindergarten building in Porto was presented by the above ‘Sociedade’ and designed by the engineer José de Macedo Araujo Junior, that ended up by not being built.

These represent the two moments of the Portuguese reception of Froebel’s modern pedagogical theories on learning practices and respective environments, that could be paralleled to Frank Lloyd Wright’s initial Hillside Home School (1887) and his later school designs of non-built ‘Kindersymphonies’ (1926). 

Considering today’s need for open spaces, involving again children and nature in education never been so relevant. How can we then learn from Froebel’s pioneer theories for our contemporary spaces where future generations grow? This proposal argues that, after revisiting Froebel’s legacy in Portugal and elsewhere, it is time for rethinking once more the triangle ‘children, nature, and architecture’, in an overall search for a healthier ambiance and an organic education related with nature, more resilient to current and future post-pandemic challenges.

This proposal resorts to different sources to ponder on the legacy of Friedrich Froebel in architecture, namely the ones related to his influence on three main scenarios: 1. The pedagogical theories with the use of volumetric toys (gifts), as a completely new method for educating children and their impact on architectural pedagogies further on. Frank Lloyd Wright’s case is the most relevant, but also the most researched one related to Froebel’s theories in architectural pedagogy. Hence, his experiences and memoirs – as a child, but also as a pedagogue – helps to assess other case studies elsewhere, namely how these were implemented in Portugal. 2. The foundation of a new architectonic typology, the kindergarten, as the place that stresses the interconnections between nature and self-learning. In this proposal, this new typology is assessed via different thinkers and architects, who gave their expertise to design and implement Froebel’s theories. 3. To underline the geographical expansion of Froebel’s legacy in architecture, different geo-cultural receptions between the centre of Europe will be analysed, namely Brussels at the International Teaching Congress in September 1880, and the European peripheral country, Portugal, where new teaching societies were founded and pedagogues started to implement their first kindergartens. This would also contribute to the cross-Atlantic transfer to Brazil, when in 1891 the Brazilian educator Luiz Augusto dos Reis (1892), visited Europe and, arriving in Lisbon, took notes on the Jardim da Estrella kindergarten, continuing his trip to Madrid, Paris and Brussels (Pinto, 2011). All three approaches will be scrutinised through archival research of the related pedagogical institutions (namely the Portuguese Sociedades de Instrucção, from the end of the 19th century), bringing to light significant documentation and publications – as the magazine created in 1882 “Froebel: revista de instrucção primária” – which will help to trace the legacy of Froebel in Europe, and specifically in Portugal. Finally, invariants perceived in how Froebel’s educational theories translated in spatial organization and design principles will be highlighted and systematised., aiming a comprehensive reading of the architectural side of this ‘legacy’, while making it available in our present time.

At the end, this presentation highlights how the same brief instructions – based on Froebel’s conceptions of the kindergarten space regarding “large windows, sunlight and air renovation” – resulted in two very different interpretations and designs of kindergartens in Lisbon and Porto. Even if both had as common ground an h-shape plan, the solution by José Luiz Monteiro in Lisbon pushes the limits of experimentation by a wooden structure with a single floorplan and large tilting windows opened towards the outdoors, as shown in the handmade perspective published in ‘Froebel - Revista de Instrucção Primaria’. Whereas the one by José de Macedo Araujo Junior in Porto consists of a massive construction building with two floorplans and a traditional façade punctuated by a rhythm of smaller windows. Both case studies in Porto and in Lisbon, as different as they were, would be the beginning of Froebel’s legacy in Portugal, and as well as in a cross-Atlantic export to South America, and North America, where Froebel’s theories would reach similar institutions. By revisiting these different episodes, it is expected to highlight how Froebel’s theories were translated in clear architectural briefs, ultimately retaining broader and specific guidelines potentially relevant for current and future learning spaces, where ‘kinder’ and ‘garten’ might eventually reconnect in a fruitful manner.

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