Col·legi Montserrat

Col·legi Montserrat is widely regarded as one of Barcelona’s premier Catholic schools, known for an educational approach built on Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences alongside project-based, cooperative, and student-directed learning. Education Design International provided master planning and design services, beginning with this 2018 renovation: a 5,400-square-foot Early Childhood Learning Center for children aged three to five.

The redesign removes rigid corridors and fixed rooms, replacing them with a single fluid, undulating pathway that weaves through three interconnected community play zones. Each zone takes its character from a Barcelona landscape: the ocean and beach, the Montserrat mountains, and the forest. Movement through the space becomes its own form of exploration, while adaptable furniture and child-scaled thresholds keep doors, materials, and sightlines within a young child’s reach.

Within this landscape, children find settings for building, climbing, and quiet retreat: a construction zone with oversized wooden planks, an indoor climbing wall, a sculptural tree-form with discovery portholes, and reading nooks where a child can slip away from the group to follow an interest. Throughout, the design follows what young children actually do: reaching, choosing, building, climbing, and resting.