We have partnered with a school in a barrio of Santo Domingo in Ecuador named Julio Jaramillo Laurido to design a "classroom" for the Open Architecture Challenge.
Ecuador is one of 18 megadiverse countries in the world according to Conservation International. The country is home to 25,000 known species of plants (compared to 17,000 species in North America) and 10% of all tree species on Earth as well as housing over 24 tropical life zones. Much of the fauna and flora is under siege by human intervention and seriously endangered. Ecuador is currently facing deforestation, soil erosion, desertification and water pollution. According to the Natura Foundation, an environmental NGO, approximately 50 percent of Ecuador is suffering from various degrees of soil erosion, and deforestation is close to 50 percent in the lowlands and highlands. Thousands of acres of forest disappear daily, despite laws that prohibit the cutting down of trees and exportation of wood. It has been calculated that deforestation amounts to 680,000 acres per year. If this rate continues, not a single forest will remain in less than 40 years. Preservation of the biological diversity can be achieved by educating these communities as well as through sustainable development.
Our school partner, Julio Jaramillo Laurido is located in Santo Domingo, a city that is growing exponentially. Fifty years ago the population was 10,000. Today it is now 500,000. As the city boundaries continue to expand, the fragile surrounding ecosystem is increasingly devastated. A region that once was rich in health and biodiversity is now home to a population with inadequate drinking water and poor sanitation. The school’s director, Lupe Alvarado strongly desires that her school be a refuge of hope in the poverty stricken neighborhoods. She agrees that is is important that the children of Santo Domingo learn to valuable their natural resources before it is too late.
The school compound is used by both a primary school (from 7:30am to 12:30pm and the High School meets from 1:30pm to 5:30pm. Although there are 320 primary students and roughly 160 High School students, there are unfortunately only 11 teachers. As you can imagine, the classrooms are over-crowded. The school compound is completely devoid of any plant life, and after rains, pools of stagnant water attract mosquitoes. The closest medical clinic reports that nearly 70% of its patients are children (these children). The families in this particular barrio, although poor, have been known to be very active with the school, raising what money they can to hire extra teachers, and even volunteering physical labor, keeping the site clean and freshly painted when possible.
Our team’s design approach has been to develop a scheme for an “outdoor” classroom. Our goals are several, including reconnecting the children to Ecuador’s richest asset, its vegetation. The outdoor classroom space itself acts as an instrument of learning. Students have the opportunity during the day to experience the open air rather than the stagnant indoor air of their typical classrooms. Students experience the collection and filtration of rainwater and the shade and food provided by native fruit trees. Each of the six classrooms have access to individual raised beds for “hands on” experimentation with local fruits and vegetables.
The design is a modest one, able to be constructed by community volunteers and the students themselves. The materials are minimal local (non-endangered) wood species from a nearby mill, concrete (as it is commonly used), and corrugated sheet metal and canvas for our roof structures. The budget is modest as well, roughly $5,000 US making it much more realistic through donations. Although this design has been sited specifically for this school, the concept of easily constructible outdoor learning spaces is one that all the schools in Santo Domingo desperately need.
Location
- Affordable/Cost-effective
- Architecture for Humanity
- classroom
- Competition
- Competition - Entrant
- Education
- Education
- Education Facility - Primary School
- Education Facility - Secondary School
- Materials - Local/Indigenous
- Materials - Reused/Recycled
- Non-Profit/ Community-based
- Open Architecture Challenge
- Orient Global
- Participatory Design
- school
- Student Work
- Architecture for Humanity Lexington
- Ecuador
- Ecuador
- Santo Domingo
- schools
- shoulder to shoulder
Comments
Ecuador is one of 18 megadiverse countries in the world according to Conservation International. The country is home to 25,000 known species of plants (compared to 17,000 species in North America) and 10% of all tree species on Earth as well as housing over 24 tropical life zones. Much of the fauna and flora is under siege by human intervention and seriously endangered. Ecuador is currently facing deforestation, soil erosion, desertification and water pollution. According to the Natura Foundation, an environmental NGO, approximately 50 percent of Ecuador is suffering from various degrees of soil erosion, and deforestation is close to 50 percent in the lowlands and highlands. Thousands of acres of forest disappear daily, despite laws that prohibit the cutting down of trees and exportation of wood. It has been calculated that deforestation amounts to 680,000 acres per year. If this rate continues, not a single forest will remain in less than 40 years. Preservation of the biological diversity can be achieved by educating these communities as well as through sustainable development.
Our school partner, Julio Jaramillo Laurido is located in Santo Domingo, a city that is growing exponentially. Fifty years ago the population was 10,000. Today it is now 500,000. As the city boundaries continue to expand, the fragile surrounding ecosystem is increasingly devastated. A region that once was rich in health and biodiversity is now home to a population with inadequate drinking water and poor sanitation. The school’s director, Lupe Alvarado strongly desires that her school be a refuge of hope in the poverty stricken neighborhoods. She agrees that is is important that the children of Santo Domingo learn to valuable their natural resources before it is too late.
The school compound is used by both a primary school (from 7:30am to 12:30pm and the High School meets from 1:30pm to 5:30pm. Although there are 320 primary students and roughly 160 High School students, there are unfortunately only 11 teachers. As you can imagine, the classrooms are over-crowded. The school compound is completely devoid of any plant life, and after rains, pools of stagnant water attract mosquitoes. The closest medical clinic reports that nearly 70% of its patients are children (these children). The families in this particular barrio, although poor, have been known to be very active with the school, raising what money they can to hire extra teachers, and even volunteering physical labor, keeping the site clean and freshly painted when possible.
Our team’s design approach has been to develop a scheme for an “outdoor” classroom. Our goals are several, including reconnecting the children to Ecuador’s richest asset, its vegetation. The outdoor classroom space itself acts as an instrument of learning. Students have the opportunity during the day to experience the open air rather than the stagnant indoor air of their typical classrooms. Students experience the collection and filtration of rainwater and the shade and food provided by native fruit trees. Each of the six classrooms have access to individual raised beds for “hands on” experimentation with local fruits and vegetables.
The design is a modest one, able to be constructed by community volunteers and the students themselves. The materials are minimal local (non-endangered) wood species from a nearby mill, concrete (as it is commonly used), and corrugated sheet metal and canvas for our roof structures. The budget is modest as well, roughly $5,000 US making it much more realistic through donations. Although this design has been sited specifically for this school, the concept of easily constructible outdoor learning spaces is one that all the schools in Santo Domingo desperately need.
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I really like that this project is utilizing an open-air environment, and the minimal amount of hard construction will likely completely transform the bleak existing hardscape yard into a re-connection to environment. Integrating storm-water retention into the simple shelter is a very visual way of starting the discussion with these young students about capturing what resources you have, saving them and using them for a greater good. Literally and metaphorically this is a life-transforming gesture.