Kindergarten Architecture: Space for the Imagination.

Don't believe the diffident introductory blurb stating that this book is not a 'design guide'. It offers any would-be designer of a kindergarten project information and insight of the most valuable kind - comparative international commentary on the social and political background to current provision; a historical resume of the principal figures and ideas in kindergarten philosophy and building from Rousseau to Henry Morris, taking in Pestalozzi, Robert Owen, Froebel, Montessori and Rudolf Steiner; alternative interpretations of 'meaning' in contemporary nursery design, and a discussion of the primary spatial determinants in the pre-school environment.

These four essays are followed by 21 current project studies which Dudek classifies into three types - organic/metaphorical, late modern and contextual - revealing the evolving (and competing) pedagogical ideals informing this building type and the differing architectural results. The kindergarten emerges as not just a laboratory for alternative learning theories but a metaphor for Utopia in microcosm.

It seems surprising therefore that this building type has not featured more prominently in the Modern Movement's history given its crucial engagement with social reform. Dudek's explanation is that the optional basis of pre-school education has kept development on a piecemeal level and obstructed the evolution of a systematic institutional identity. This patchwork pattern is more characteristic of Britain than elsewhere. But depressing though it may be to be confronted with yet another instance of our backwardness compared with Europe, the book's international coverage is immensely valuable. We see examples from Denmark, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany with further projects from Japan, Australia and the USA.

The book's message is clear - quality nursery provision is not only intrinsically beneficial, it also offers considerable - if ultimately incalculable - social dividends. As the subtitle suggests, 'space for the imagination' is at once a pedagogical and an architectural proposition in which collaboration between educationalists and designers should be uniquely fruitful. But achieving this to any significant degree entails not voucher systems and pre-election posturing but sustained long-term commitment.