Modules and patterns of association in educational architecture. 21 Atlántico Kindergartens by El Equipo Mazzanti
10/06/2020.
[Atlantico] Colombia
metalocus, VALERIA OZUNA
metalocus, VALERIA OZUNA
Descripción del proyecto por El Equipo Mazzanti
21 Atlantico Kindergartens is a proposal for the design of twenty-one projects in different urban and semiurban places. The architecture looks forward to becoming a prototype of coverage of educational needs, social change, inclusion, and urban revitalization. The project pretends to promote better life quality conditions for the children, their families, and neighbors. We propose public space uses that will turn to be for the community meeting, a reference point for the town, and pride for the inhabitants.
Sustainability concept
The educational architecture should be designed like an organism able to change and adapt to new ways of teaching as well as the relationships between students, their families, and the community. The challenge as architects in a context like Colombia is to develop projects that can generate social inclusion. The problem lies not only in designing and constructing buildings in deteriorated areas but to activate new forms of use, ownership, and pride in the communities.
More than a closed and finished architecture we proposed open and adaptive systems. They are composed of association modules and patterns, capable of adapting to diverse situations; topographic, urban, social, or programmatic. The construction strategy is based in the same system and it is applied according to the conditions of each of the twenty-one kindergartens. This methodology implies the fastest construction, cost, and time reductions, it also guarantees that they will be finished. For this reason, the program of this project is not usually the one that is used in the traditional Children Development Institutions.
The access to the kindergartens has covered plazas that promote contact with nature and social integration. The place where the 21 Atlantico Kindergartens are constructed suffers from constant floods so the design of the modules its not only for bioclimatic reasons but for the safety of the children that will attend. The constructions are stable and not temporary as most of the constructions on these grounds.
The materials used in the construction are simple to manage and have low costs. They were chosen too because they don't need continuous maintenance, it is easy to clean and repair them as they have a low budget in keeping the centers. The use of water is less and the products for cleaning too.
The image of the building refers to the geography of the region, rather than an object. We intend to develop an architectural landscape building that is related to geography and topography, where it is inserted. We find rules of organization to develop projects that promote a "new natural contract by reformulating the relationship between figure and background, an approach in search of alternatives capable of promoting that “new natural contract in tune with a landscape and a natural order.
Giancarlo Mazzanti (1963, Barranquill, Colombia) is the director of El Equipo de Mazzanti. He studied Architecture at University of Javeriana in Bogotá, 1987, with PhD in History and Theory in Architecture and Industrial Design, 1991, at University of Florence, Italy.
He has been professor at University of Javeriana, Andes and Tadeo Lozano in Bogotá. He has participated as speaker at University of Princeton, Pratt, Yale, Berkeley, Venize, Monterrey, Buenos Aires, Católica del Perú among others.
He has been awarded as winner of the XX Bienal Colombiana de Arquitectura in the public spaces category in 2006, in the Bienal Iberoamericana in the Best Architecture Building category in 2008 and in the Bienal Panamericana de Arquitectura in the architecture design category in 2008.