TYPOLOGY: Cultural
YEAR: 2012-2014
LOCATION: Briceño, Colombia
CLIENT: Gobernación de Antioquia
This project is part of the initiative of the Governor of Antioquia Sergio Fajardo (2012-2016), to build educational parks in the municipalities of the department of Antioquia.
This project arises from two questions as a result of the program that should include a first-level auditorium that would perform as an outdoor cinema or theater and a roof that would operate as a playground and school garden. In addition to the conditions of the lot located between walls and with a footprint on the first floor of 264.3 m2 of area:
¿How to guarantee the condition of public space given the small footprint of the first floor?
¿How to develop an educational facility that allows accessibility for all?
Taking these questions into account, we proposed a 5-story high building and a technical basement, based on a system of ramps with a 9% slope that are stacked consecutively so that there is no need for an elevator and thus reduce maintenance costs. This strategy results in an auditorium-type spatial system; very appropiate to the educational objective.
The privileged location of this space, close to the main square and as an immediate neighbor (the church, the mayor's office and the secretary of education) demanded that the building generate a connection.
For this, we proposed the projects ground floor to be like an extension of the street and of the main square, a spiral that will extend public space to the interior.
Regarding its materiality, we considered it as a porous building that responds to the climatic conditions of the municipality, avoiding the use of A/C or mechanical systems, that are hard to keep and expensive to maintain and buy for such poor and remote municipalities.
Additionally, in consideration of the remoteness of the place, the limited workforce and the need for ease of construction, and a low maintenance cost, our project, establishes a "mestizo" technique halfway between industrialized and artisanal materials: therefore, for the exterior, we selected a galvanized and painted metal sheet, perforated and painted to allow free passage of air. And for the interior plaster and textures in concrete and paint.
