When it was first unveiled in 2007 the building for the Ørestad high school in Copenhagen prompted great interest on an international level. In 2004 the Danish studio 3XN, located in Århus and Copenhagen and led by Kim Herforth Nielsen, won the commission thanks to a project for a school seen as an active container for knowledge based on interdisciplinary research and the use of Information Technology. The institute, specializing in communication and media, provides every student with a portable computer which becomes the main working tool inside the building, covered by a wi-fi network. In keeping with the principles of studio 3XN, namely that architecture, in its response to an immediate need, should also offer indications for the future, the design team created a parallelepiped in glass and concrete, with four floors organized inside, in the form of a boomerang. Each of these bridge-floors is rotated with respect to the others, almost generating the image of the shutter of a camera, focused on the central hall. The four levels form the study zones of the school and are equipped with flexible furnishings that make it easy to create large spaces for lectures, work areas for small teams or individual study zones. On each floor a large cylinder contains an AV room and, above it, a terrace for relaxation and individual work, supplied with colored cushions. At the center of the building a helicoidal staircase clad in light oak connects all four floors: it is the fulcrum of circulation for the students, but also a place of socializing, to see and be seen. Three maxi-columns support the whole structure, along with an irregular grid of smaller columns. On each level, then, the fixed architectural elements are few in number, while all the furnishings, to different extents, can be repositioned to meet the needs of different groups. The space reflects the most advanced international trends in education, which call for dynamic spaces in close contact with everyday life, facilitating communication and interaction. The main goal, fully achieved by the project by 3XN, is to reinforced the capacities of individual students to supervise their own work, both independently and in teams. – Caption pag. 40 Elevation of the school designed by 3XN, with chromatic modulations in the system of semitransparent glass shutters; on the facing page, the interior spaces with, in the foreground, the study and relaxation area at the top of a circular room. Note the mega-version, in the floor variant, of the Tolomeo lamp designed in 1986 by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina for Artemide. The poufs designed by Finland’s Jukka Setala for Fatboy are distributed in Italy by Phorma.