The Schools as Heritage and a Tool for Political and Cultural Integration. The Buildings of the Plan de Edificación Escolar in Buenos Aires

Abstract

The school buildings represent an important testimony to the social and cultural policies adopted in geographically and historically determined contexts. Today, these complexes constitute a broad and diversified patrimony, largely worthy of protection and enhancement. In the framework of a wider research program with Universidad de Belgrano-Buenos Aires, this chapter presents the results of a research about the 43 schools built in Buenos Aires between 1885 and 1904 as an implementation of the Plan de Edificación Escolar, showing how the school architecture can constitute a tool for the social and cultural integration, and simultaneously a decisive element to outline the face of the great Capital federal.