Architecture, as an autonomous discipline, must do a radical rethinking of its theoretical status. Myrecent project and my research group have made was an opportunity to reflect on which role can stillhave today an architect who is called to respond effectively and clearly to a concrete problem: todesign a new school in a suburban area of the city of Palermo, with the aim of building not onlyspaces for learning but also a specific place like that could become a new urban centrality. Whatvalues can still be expressed through the use of clear forms, precise in their being a measure of aterritory, abstract in their being clearly recognizable to produce new spaces able to define adequateplaces for everyday life? From what principles can the thinking hand of the architect be driven, alwayslooking for an order able to respond both to the intrinsic equilibrium of the project and to the righturban and territorial scale?