Imagine Montessori School: a place where architecture and pedagogy intertwine to help children find their path, naturally

On the outskirts of Paterna, in Valencia, nestled between the urban fabric and the En Dolça ravine, a school dissolves into the landscape as if it had always belonged there. Imagine Montessori School is more than a building—it is an experience. Designed by the architecture studio Gradolí & Sanz Arquitectes, the project challenges conventional schooling by reconnecting education with nature, with the rhythms of the body and the processes of the real world.

The school is reached after crossing a small wooden bridge through a forest of pine trees. This transition is not only physical but symbolic: children leave the city behind and enter a space that invites serenity, openness and freedom. The architecture is designed to accompany the children in their daily lives, celebrating the nature that surrounds them.

The building meanders in the shape of an “S,” generating courtyards, plazas and terraces that extend the classroom outdoors. There are no visual hierarchies or dominant elements: no platforms, blackboards, or teacher’s desks. Nature is the only center. Each classroom opens to the landscape and extends toward a small amphitheatre, a fountain and a deciduous tree that marks the passage of seasons throughout the school year.

The design carefully reflects Montessori pedagogy: spaces are conceived at the children’s scale, with low arches framing entrances, secret corners inaccessible to adults, and flexible zones where students choose their place according to their curiosity. Inside, five learning areas—sensorial, practical life, language, mathematics and cultural studies—are laid out freely, without rigid partitions. At the heart of each classroom, a triple-height solar chimney brings in natural light and ventilation, establishing a visual and climatic connection throughout the building.

The materials, chosen with care and coherence, reinforce the silent lesson the school imparts: load-bearing walls of fired clay brick, timber structures and enclosures, and green roofs that insulate thermally and acoustically. There are no linings or finishes—everything is left exposed, including the visible installation systems, inviting children to understand how the building works. At Imagine, architecture does not merely contain learning—it becomes learning itself.

The outdoor spaces continue this pedagogical intent. There is no ornamental grass or artificial football fields: the terrain retains its natural unevenness, textures and vitality. There are ramps, climbing walls, shelters and slides shaped by the topography. And when it rains, the ravine comes to life again, becoming a dynamic stage for lessons in living geography.

Imagine Montessori School is, in essence, a built manifesto for another way of inhabiting, of teaching, of growing. A place where architecture and pedagogy intertwine to let children—like trees, like light, like water—find their path, naturally.

Project: Imagine Montessori School.
Architecture: Gradolí & Sanz Arquitectes.
Authors: Arturo Sanz, 
Carmel Gradolí
 y Fran López. 
Completion: 2024.
Built area: 2.922 m²
Site area: 4.556 m² 
Photography: Mariela Apollonio.
Collaborators and suppliers
Architects: J. Luis Vilar, María Navarro, Daniel López

Technical architect: Francisco Vallet
.
Traditional structure consultant: Adolfo Alonso
.
Timber structure: Albura Wood & Concept.
Metalwork: Martí Cots.

Brick vaults: Cercaa.
Exterior wood joinery: Morata.
Interior carpentry: DisbeaA showlutions.

Installations Phase I. asesor Breeam. Phase I: Zero Consulting.
Installations Phase III: GME.

Lighting: Cosmo Stil.
Green certification consultant: GBCE.

Acoustic consultant: Silens Acústica.
Landscape design Phase I: GM Paisajistas.

Visualizations: Drawfield.
Builder: Grupo Valseco.

Gradolí & Sanz Arquitectes

From their studio in Valencia, architects Carmel Gradolí Martínez and Arturo Sanz Martínez craft architecture rooted in context, history and life itself. Built on a professional ethic that values attentive observation of place and active listening to future users, Gradolí & Sanz have established themselves as a benchmark in honest, rigorous and locally grounded architecture.

Their work moves seamlessly between domestic and public spaces, rural and urban contexts, with a sensitivity that turns each project into a precise response to a specific situation. From single-family homes to cultural facilities, heritage restorations or rural schools, their architectural language blends expressive austerity with spatial richness born from the play of light, noble materials and vernacular construction techniques.

Far from grand gestures, their architecture resides in the essential: in human scale, in efficiency and comfort, in respect for what already exists, and in the quiet ambition to improve people’s daily lives. A practice that understands architecture as a common good and a tool for thoughtful, lasting transformation.

Carmel Gradolí Martínez (Valencia, 1961) holds a degree in architecture from the Technical School of Architecture in Valencia and a Master’s in “Intervention Techniques in Architectural Heritage” from the UPV. Between 1992 and 1994, he served as Heritage Inspector for the Department of Culture, Education and Science. He has developed an active teaching and research career. His work is deeply committed to the social and cultural role of architecture, with special attention to sustainability, rehabilitation and Mediterranean vernacular architecture.

Arturo Sanz Martínez (Teruel, 1963) is a graduate of the Technical School of Architecture in Valencia, with a specialization in Urbanism. He combines professional practice with teaching and public engagement. His career is marked by a deeply human approach to architectural design, with particular sensitivity to educational architecture, communal spaces and the balance between tradition and contemporaneity. He is actively involved in community initiatives in the Benimaclet neighborhood (Valencia), where he has promoted urban gardens and coordinated the participatory strategy “Benimaclet es Futur.”

Source: Gradolí & Sanz Arquitectes y Linka.

Project by Gradolí & Sanz Arquitectes