EDUCATION OUTSIDE THE BOX
Learning not only occurs in the classrooms, it is made at school.
Only in Classrooms?
Classrooms have become the ultimate educational space, because is there were most of the educational activities are done. According to timetables given by the Ministry of Education in Chile, a 66.7% of school activities are done in them, while the remaining 33.3 % are done in other places. This information leads us to a question, what happens in that time and space? Is there were the education ends or is just the beginning for a new horizon for it? We all know that these activities are mainly non academicals, but they contribute with a fundamental role in a complete education. Therefore, all the other areas in a school, where all these kind of activities are performed, are just as the classroom essential educative places for the children’s development.
CHILE
Chile it’s a country on the way to become developed with about 16000000 millions inhabitants. Besides this fact, the migration process from the country side to the city has caused a decrease in the rural population, and it is estimated that for 2020, about 87.08% will live in cities and just a 12.92% will in rural areas.
The country is divided in 15 regions, being the most important urban places located in central areas. Out of these the VIII region of Bio Bio presents an interesting duality, this is, not only being one of the three most populated and with higher development indexes cities, it also counts with a high level of rural population. This duality is accentuated in Concepcion, administrative capital of the mentioned region and it represents the second most important city in Chile.
15 kms away from the regional capital, “Aguas de Gloria” school is located. With a total of 232 students, all of who come from families who live outside the urban limits of the city, in the rural area itself.
Living in a rural area is strongly characterized by huge distances that tend to segregate people, stopping the possibility of meeting in a central point. Because of this it becomes of vital importance to understand that many times schools adopt this role and they become a place for the people around on which they can develop their community activities, creating a strong sense of identity in them.
Opportunities and conditions presented in this case are quite interesting to study, taking this as the beginning of a process that will cover a big part of the rural population in the next few years.
SCHOOL
The creation of the “Aguas de Gloria” school goes back to 1958. Just as most of the rural schools in the country, its growth has been conditioned by the needs in it. Situations such as lost of structure caused by a fire, students’ attendance variations and the difficulties to obtain incomes, have determined a non planned growth giving as a result many inadequacies. Such as the lack of a space destined to Physical Education classes and a place protected from the rain, which allows the kids to leave their classrooms on break time during winter, having in consideration that the rain can reach up to 1.100 millimeters per year. It’s worthy to highlight also the existence of a very small cafeteria for the big number of students, forcing teachers to assign turns for students to eat, causing a waste of time and a lost of concentration. As a result of all of these circumstances a straight weaken is caused in the appropriate and full development of an optimal and integral education.
PROPOSAL
The space for the 33.3% of a fundamental education.
This project gives an answer to all those non academic activities done outside the classroom and that are also a fundamental part in education and school. The answer to the problem of giving basic accommodations for the formation can be done fully. Also it will be used as a support for all those typical activities as a point of reunion for the community, giving them the opportunity of taking control of their social and cultural duty.
The proposal projects a new cafeteria and the habilitation of a covered backyard that can hold different activities. It will take place at the front of the area; it will help to define two different zones inside the school, one that will gather strictly academicals and static activities that need to be in a covered place and other to hold more public and dynamic activities.
This project completes the perimeter of the area, giving it the chance to perform many different options according to its position and relation with the surroundings. At the front area the entrance to the school is located, under more control and more defined than the already existent, and to the side an extension to the old classrooms’ hall, will be the new cafeteria with a terrace that could be used also as a stage in civic acts of the school and the community.
As the perimeter is completed a central empty area is considered which can be used for different activities such as physical education classes or the students’ games during break. Also it will give a common space for parents, which will contribute communication among them when they go to pick up their children or as an available facility for different activities in the community.
MATERIALS
For the election of materials a series of parameters were defined that will assure an optimal construction based on the hand work available in the area, economy and low environmental impact. At the same time we tried to prioritize the materials existent in this part of the country, as well as using the ones in the present structure of the school. This way the structure and the revetment are made of sawed wood, establishing its dimensions according to the already existents on the market, since the region is characterized by a strong wood industries development.
The interior pavement will be a high traffic vinyl floor, very similar to the one in the classrooms. On the exteriors, a concrete slab in all the pavement area, which will give continuity to the project, while the rest will remain with natural compacted soil. Only the path that goes through the school longitudinally, from the entrance to end in the final hall, will have a different treatment, trying to give a higher hierarchy to identify it as the structural path of the complex, using pigmented concrete and lines to improve the adherence in the circulation.
The new layers will be made of OSB slabs, attached directly to the structure on which will be a layer of felt coat to waterproof and metallic sheets as final covering diminishing the sound of the rain and protecting the whole structure form the water. Finally, in the cafeteria, an additional layer of insulator mineral wool will be added on the roof and walls, which will maintain a warm temperature to, this way, strengthen its occupation.
