“We design our own school!”
Participated design
The role of the community, in a playful manner, is to be part of the design process from the beginning, aiming as well to trigger the interest of the youngsters to get involved and actually consider their own opinion as how their school should be.
A negotiated process, where each community is responsible for elaboring the overall composition.
The design team will take it as a concept, and optimize it for construction.
The new classroom is a modular system, composed of the primary shapes (square, circle, pentagon, hexagon). Each classroom can be assembled from different wall types, and thus become unique.
The plan
In order to achieve a dense school plan, the only rule is to group the classrooms in a ring, to generate a central core. This space will be shared by all the classrooms surrounding it, and could house a different program: the different arrangements will create some indoors and outdoors spaces where collective activities could be practiced such as ramps for skateboarding, drawing rooms, libraries, theatres etc.
Gaining conscience of your neighbor in the classroom next to, the possibility of meeting the other in a common ground, in the heart of the school, the multiplicity of environments. All these aspects are part of an education based on mutual respect, self-awareness, and tolerance.
Construction
The construction method adopted would be the load-bearing walls made out of clay bricks, produced with a interlocking (........) machine, supplied by hydraform. This method, recomended inclusive by the government, would allow for important material savings and environmental gains: the biggest cost of the construction budget goes to cement purchase, according to this technology we can save on cement.
In order to give identity to each classroom, a palete of different wall types is proposed: the openings not only bring light and ventilate the school, they are part of the education process: some are number sequences, others allow for planting seeds (becoming in time nature) or books. Partial plastering can also provide customization, and imprint things such as the world map, or the alphabet. The individual roofs for each classroom allow for better acoustic performance.
A better school?
As the model could be implemented by phases, it’s full potential can maybe be better understood when the scholl compound reaches a critical mass. But as soon as 2 classrooms are next to each other, the concept starts to take shape.
A new (and unexpected) design for each community would be the ultimate goal.
