Leicho architettura's aluminium-clad school in Sinnai, Sardinia

In Sinnai, a town in Sardinia, Leicho architettura has replaced an outdated school on Via Caravaggio with a building meant to work as a civic landmark as much as a place to learn. The idea is a deliberate contrast: a compact, instantly recognisable outer volume that gives way to a loose, porous interior.

The outside is wrapped in micro-perforated corrugated aluminium panels, curving round the corners so the edges read softly against the street. The textured metal changes with the light through the day, and a deep, carved entrance draws you in from the public plaza.

Inside, the heart of the two-storey building is what the architects call the agorà, a double-height hall with built-in stepped seating that faces a music room behind a movable wall, a nod to the parts of a Greek theatre. It can serve as auditorium, media library or meeting space. Around it, classrooms and labs vary in shape, wall curvature and window placement, so no two feel alike, while wide corridors, seating niches and green courtyards double as informal places to study.

The project reached designboom as a submission from the architects themselves. It is a working school rather than somewhere to visit, but a thoughtful read for anyone interested in how schools can be designed.

Our summary of a story from designboom, published 18 October 2026. Read the original

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