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Architects
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Location
Campinas, Campinas - State of São Paulo, Brazil -
Architects in Charge
Fernando de Mello Franco, Marta Moreira e Milton Braga -
Area
3000.0 sqm -
Project Year
2003 -
Photographs
Text description provided by the architects. The project for this primary school is part of a group of four pilot projects developed by the FDE - Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da Educação (Educational Development Foundation) to define a standard school format and experiment with the application of a prefabricated structural system.
The school was built in a housing complex currently being constructed in Campinas by the São Paulo State Government. The lot is located in an area reserved for the construction of public facilities. It faces onto a square that completes the set of public spaces planned for the estate.
The way the school was sited opened the student and staff entrances onto the square and accommodated an open patio on the opposite, north-facing side of the plot.
The project defined the indoor multisports court as the spatial centre of the programme, thus creating a large and festive school. The ground floor is composed around the sports court, which helps preserve the continuity of the site. As such, the upper floors and circulation and living spaces were also organized around this void, therefore establishing an interconnection among the spaces.
The prefabricated structural system with reinforced and prestressed concrete elements was defined as a rectangular system of beams and pillars “welded” in-situ. This welding gives the structure a monolithic deportment, and using concrete block masonry for the siding, a depredation-resistant technique that requires minimal maintenance. Departing from this welding, we planned for large continuous panels of painted sheathing for the masonry and structure, which contrary to the rhythm of the modular elements of the prefabricated construction, confers unity upon the conjunct.
