In April 2024, the LEARNITECT project partnership travelled to Florence to jointly explore the ITT Marco Polo School. During the visit, we not only observed architectural and pedagogical solutions, but also gained insight into the life of a school community that has undergone a radical transformation over the past decade. Our experience confirmed that space shapes learning, but even more so: the community shapes the space.

A brief introduction to ITT Marco Polo

The ITT Marco Polo is one of Florence’s significant secondary schools, specialised in professional training in tourism. The institution has around 1,500 students and 150 teachers, who work together every day. The school is not only a place of professional preparation but also a centre of community life: its spaces are continuously renewed, coloured, and transformed to serve learning, meeting, and community-building alike.

Innovation in everyday life

One of the most striking characteristics of the Marco Polo School is its conscious and consistent effort to reshape its spaces in the spirit of innovation. Change here is not the result of one single large investment, but rather a sequence of small yet significant steps that began 12 years ago under the leadership of headmaster Ludovico Arte. At Marco Polo, innovation means the continuous renewal of architectural and interior design solutions, the deliberate integration of digital tools, and the support of pedagogical freedom.

Both classrooms and common areas are equipped with flexible furniture: tables and chairs can be easily moved, joined, or separated, enabling group work, project-based learning, and community discussions. The walls are decorated with street art created by local artists, offering not only aesthetic value but also developing students’ creativity and visual awareness. As one partner noted in their diary:

Already at the entrance you sense this is a different kind of school: the colours, the forms, and the flexibility of spaces send the message that learning here is an experience, not an obligation.

Innovation also includes a radical improvement in digital infrastructure. Many rooms are equipped with interactive boards and multiple projectors; the library can be turned into a cinema hall; and community spaces are furnished with modern audio-visual technology to support experiential learning. These spaces are not only technologically up-to-date, but also pedagogically progressive, shifting focus away from frontal teaching towards collaboration, exploration, and interactivity.

All this demonstrates that at Marco Polo, the learning environment is not static but a constantly changing experimental space, where both students and teachers act as co-creators of the process. As the headmaster put it:

The real change came when the school was no longer ‘mine’ but ‘ours’. The community became the engine of innovation.

This idea defines the entire atmosphere of the institution.

Community and inclusion

The most important lesson of the Florence visit is that innovation is only credible if it is grounded in community. The Marco Polo School clearly shows that transforming the built environment is effective only when it truly responds to the needs of students, teachers, and the broader community.

Inclusion here is not just a methodological concept but a lived reality. Teachers are free to choose their teaching methods, and the school leadership actively encourages experimentation. As Arte highlighted:

In Italy, teachers are often frustrated because they lack tools and freedom. In our school, everyone can experiment: if someone can contribute little, we accept it; if someone can contribute much, we give them space to flourish.

This inclusive attitude is also visible in students’ everyday lives. The open-door policy of the leadership sends a clear message: anyone can enter the headmaster’s office and freely talk about their problems or ideas. Teachers here are not only transmitters of subject knowledge but also pay attention to students’ well-being. As the headmaster stressed:

If a student does not feel well, their learning also suffers. That is why we must first look at each other as human beings.

Inclusion extends to the wider community as well. The school’s walls do not close it off from its neighbourhood: community spaces, the garden, and colourful outdoor furniture enrich the lives of both students and local residents. For the project partners, it was particularly inspiring to see how the school functions as a true community centre: it organises programmes, welcomes cooperation, and builds bridges between the local district and the world of education.

The diary entries confirm that this approach could be applied in any country. As one partner wrote:

The Marco Polo model cannot be copied one-to-one, but the attitude can: involve everyone, welcome ideas openly, and step by step turn the school into a shared project.

Inspiration for other schools

The study visit in Florence confirmed that success lies in small but continuous steps. As one study visit participant put it:

It was not single major investments that made Marco Polo special, but the many small, jointly implemented changes that together revolutionised the school’s atmosphere.

This message is universally applicable: involving the community, respecting pedagogical freedom, and creatively shaping the environment is possible everywhere.

Closing thoughts

The example of the Marco Polo School shows that lasting solutions can emerge from even the greatest challenges.

For the LEARNITECT partnership, this visit offered not only inspiration but also practical guidance: how the development of learning environments can simultaneously be an architectural, pedagogical, and community process.

Partners

• Magyar Digitális Oktatásért Egyesület (Hungary – co-ordinator)
• IAL Toscana Innovazione Apprendimento Lavoro srl. Impresa Sociale (Italy)
• Previform – Laboratório, Formação, Higiene e Segurança do Trabalho, Lda (Portugal)
• Learnitect Design Kft. (Hungary)

Project duration: 1 September 2023 – 31 August 2025

Grant amount: EUR 60,000

Grant Agreement No.: 2023-1-HU01-KA210-SCH-000152699

LEARNITECT – Az innovatív tanulási tervezés és inkluzív tanulási terek találkozása c. projekt (Hungarian)

LEARNITECT – Meeting of innovative learning design and inclusive learning spaces (ENG)

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

GA Nr.: 2023-1-HU01-KA210-SCH-000152699.

With the main partner of the project, the Hungarian Association for Hungarian Digital Education, and with partners Learnitect Design Ltd (Hungary),  Previform Lda (Portugal) IAL Toscana carries out the project activities, financed by Erasmus Plus programme.