El Porvenir Kindergarten in Bogotá, Colombia

August 04, 2010 Category: Education, Public Buildings

Designed by Giancarlo Mazzanti, El Porvenir Kindergarten is located On the outskirts of the Colombian capital of Bogotá, where unplanned settlements are in their plenty, Giancarlo Mazzanti has designed a new kindergarten for local children. Deep in the bleak and desolate landscape of breeze-block houses, the crisp and clean contours of Mazzanti’s building strike a refreshing note in a neighbourhood riddled with the effects of poverty and violence. Wrapped in a network of lightweight metal, the new school displays a ray of hopeful resilience in an otherwise gloomy neighbourhood.

Based in Bogotá, Mazzanti is part of a younger generation of idealistic yet intensely pragmatic Colombian architects who have been galvanised by the political and social initiatives of Sergio Fajardo. Now the Green Party vice-presidential candidate in this year’s Colombian elections, Fajardo is a mathematics professor and former mayor of Medellín, the famously lawless epicentre of Colombia’s drug trade. In tandem with the Grupo Compromiso Ciudadano (Citizens’ Commitment Movement) founded by Fajardo over 10 years ago, the problems of Colombia’s fractured society are being addressed through physical means, by improvements to the built environment.

To speed construction and keep costs down, Mazzanti has developed a modular classroom unit capable of being applied to most school projects. Monotony is avoided by varying how the units are arranged on site, as well as the form and character of interstitial patios, play areas and gardens.

At El Porvenir Kindergarten, five classroom units are scattered across the site apparently at random, yet they are also interconnected through a circulation spine. Classrooms are simple two-storey concrete boxes, glazed at the ends. An oval enclosure wraps around the edge of the cluster of classrooms, creating a landscaped enclave where children can play safely. Made from a lattice of angled steel poles, the enclosure is visually permeable yet physically secure.

Schools in Colombia tend to be fenced off from the public realm, but this reinterprets the conventional notion of a barrier. On its inner edge it becomes a curved colonnade, with long benches for sitting and socialising in the shade. The white-painted poles have a sculptural quality, like filaments, and the structure’s gentle but protective embrace gives the project a distinct civic presence.

The school also contains a number of public spaces, such as a multi-purpose room, a children’s club, and a kitchen and dining area. These are contained in two blocks set outside the curved enclosure to preserve the intimacy and security of the inner classrooms. In this way the school becomes a more ingrained part of the community, giving impetus to its wider mission of social renewal.

El Porvenir Kindergarten Design by Giancarlo Mazzanti