丨巴西圣保罗丨Sem Muros Arquitetura Integrada

Architects:Sem Muros Arquitetura Integrada

Area:175m²

Year:2024

Photographs:Paula Monroy, Emilio Echevarría

Lead Architects:Ana Beatriz Giovani, Flavia Burcatovsky

Category:Schools

Project Coordination:TAGMA

Project Team:Sem Muros

Technical Team:Santiago, Nacho, Ana Paula, Agustina, Nina, Juan Manuel, Fermin, Sebastian, Roberto, Martín, Alberto, Félix, Yubiza, Octavio Zuccolo

Client:TAGMA

Realization:Fundação Leo e Norma Werthein, Sky Brasil Arquitetas

Technical Site Coordination:Juan Bachi; León Olivera; Nicolás Ungaro; Ezequiel Ithurrart; Martín Espósito; Gisela Oyanguren; Victor Sotorilli; Juango Garcia, Caro Gojiman, Ana Kondakjian

Collaborator:A Cidade Precisa de Você

Support:Pedreira Embu, Polimix concreto, Mizu cimentos, Saint Gobain Brasil, Viapol, Plug Solar Energia, Irajá tintas, Positiv.A

Structural Design:Amera - Projetos Estruturais em Madeira

Foundation Design:Manes Arquitetura e Engenharia

Sanitation:Sapiência Ambiental

Design And Consultancy Taipa De Pilão:Rodrigo Rocha / Goya

City:Taboão

Country:Brazil

Text description provided by the architects. This project is part of the "A Sustainable School" program by the NGO Tagma, integrating the network of public and sustainable educational buildings in various countries across Latin America. Through an open call and several visits, the chosen school in Brazil was the Municipal Rural School Nossa Senhora da Conceição, a public elementary school in Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo. Occupying a building from the 1950s, it had only two classrooms, bathrooms whose sewage was directed to the nearby stream, and makeshift offices for administration and teachers in small spaces, all while surrounded by a large grassy area and beautiful landscape.

The renovation and extension project was designed based on a participatory process involving students, staff, and families, through specific dynamics for each group, starting from a central question: what do you envision for this school?

As a result of the systematization of these activities, the project program was established, guided by three pillars: low environmental impact; construction in a theoretical-practical format; and a construction timeline of 45 days. Thus, by extending the covered area of the school, a classroom with wood frame closure is created for the first grade, along with more covered patio space for use on rainy and very sunny days; the area where the administration office was located (below the water tank) is repurposed for two bathrooms (one accessible and another for staff), with their gray waters (sink and shower) directed to a circle of banana trees, and their black waters (toilets), combined with those from existing bathrooms and the kitchen, directed to an ecological treatment station; and, adjacent to this space, also in wood frame, are created the teachers' and directors' offices, covered by a green roof.

The multipurpose room, a highly desired space by children for music, dance, computer, and reading classes, is a dodecahedron, generating a free internal space. Each radial of this polygon contains a structural wall made of rammed earth - compacted soil - which supports the wooden truss roof, composed of small-section pieces that are easy to handle. The twelve trusses converge into a central ring with a zenith opening, reinforcing the playful character of the space.

The closure between the rammed earth walls is the furniture of the space itself, optimizing the shape of the construction and acting as a recreational element where windows also serve as doors, and benches are positioned both inside and outside, connecting to the landscape.

This project involved builders, the school community, public authorities, children, architects, students, among others, within a process that took an interdisciplinary and collective approach, where participatory design extends and gains substance during the construction with solutions created from the resources available on-site. We have furniture built from leftover wood from the construction; the wood frame filled with dry straw from the neighboring farm, among other examples that can only emerge during the construction process), which add strength and meaning to the space, creating an architecture that responds to the real needs of the people and the place.

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