ARX

This project involves the renovation and extension of the existing School, located on the outskirts of Caneças, in a territory marked by strong discontinuities. We found a run-down complex made up of six square pavilions, set at different levels and poorly matched to one another, which conveyed the idea of a fragmented school.

The proposal is structured around a dual interpretation of the concept of learning: formal learning and informal learning. These two types translate, in the building, into two different architectures that engage in dialogue with each other. Thus, the rigidity inherent to the existing pavilions, occupied by classrooms within a structure typical of genuine "learning machines", contrasts with the "informality" of the new part, which is shaped to connect the previously segregated pavilions and floors, fostering "informal learning" through the collective spaces.

Considering that in a school every space is a learning space, that each has its own importance and that all of them matter, the organisation and articulation between spaces are intended to be fluid, with a high degree of physical and visual permeability, encouraging spontaneous and creative appropriation and sparking the desire to learn through space. It is, after all, interpersonal relationships and human activity that underpin all knowledge.

From a tectonic point of view, the aim is to find solutions that give the building a sense of material unity and endow the space with an elementary and abstract character: a neutral base that allows it to be spontaneously appropriated by the students.