Description

The architects describe their work as ‘an intervention approach’, which emphasises the extent to which the new school is expected to provide dramatic possibilities for local children. Located on the sprawling periphery of São Paolo city, the area is characterised by low cost self-build houses with few building regulations applied. As a result, it is a shanty town in all but name. There are no local parks or public open spaces in this low rise high-density environment. It is a degraded and depressing place to grow up in.

The FDE (Foundation for the Development of Education, the governmental organisation responsible) has promoted the development of a group of projects which are innovative educationally in recognition of the problems children and their families face. There is a secondary agenda which is the use of prefabricated structural systems anticipating the need for the mass production of numerous new schools over the next 25 years. The government recognises that education is the only long term solution to the huge social and economic problems of its urbanised poor.

The form of the building is reminiscent of a large factory or warehouse building rather than a school. It looms over its surroundings like a medieval cathedral dominating its low scale context. Whereas even the most urban schools usually feel slightly detached from their immediate surroundings, set back from the street and surrounded by high fences and playing fields, the Jardim Ataliba is so close it almost assaults its neighbourhood with its powerful ‘in your face’ architecture. This is partly a function of the confined site which has very little space to fit such a large building let alone provide outside play spaces, but it is also an attempt to create a strong and positive image of education to local people. However, where are the playground and external areas for physical recreation? The answer to the question is that they are contained around and under the building.

Rather than the building having a self-contained envelope with walls which define inside and outside, here the building bridges over the entire play area, creating a covered yet semi-porous space, a playground at the base of the building itself. A system of huge steel box beams creates a wide span structure which forms a vast open space. It is available in the evenings for games, indeed, it is shown on the plan as a marked out multi-function games pitch which can also be utilised for many different school events ranging from whole school assemblies to concerts and theatrical performances by the community. It is a most unusual space being robust and vandal resistant, yet at the same time, colourful and stylish with two huge abstract murals by Brazilian artist Speto.

A dining space and toilets are located on the upper mezzanine level, whilst 15 back-to-back classrooms and an office are on the top floor. At a time when the value of education is undermined by an intrusive global media presence, this project sets a precedent. It is a three-storey ocean liner of a building, dominating the surrounding streets, straddling three layers of undulating terrain, and evening it out with dramatic full- length galleries on both sides of the classroom block; as such it states unequivocally the importance of education.

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Originally published in: Mark Dudek, Schools and Kindergartens: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2015.