Portuguese office blaanc borderless architecture, in collaboration with Mexican-based architects CaeiroCapurso, have been awarded a $25,000 USD funding by the international competition Gamechangers for their Project dedicated to building a Rural Sports Center in San Pedro Apóstol in Oaxaca, México for its underprivileged community. The competition was promoted and financed by Architecture for Humanity in partnership with Nike Inc. in another initiative to increase social cohesion through sports. The project is scheduled for construction in 2011.
More on the project after the break.
The promotion for the project developed by Nike, Inc. and was initiated by a campaign to encourage community organizations to empower youth through sports by proposing programs that spur social and economic development in a community. The Rural Sports Center will be built on a rural community plot in the Municipality of San Pedro Apóstol, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, located near the Primary and Elementary Schools of the village. This sports facility meets the necessities of this small community, especially for the youths, by creating a Center where several physical activities may be practiced not only by the locals but also visitors. The plan for the center incorporates team activities for the schools to use, including a soccer field, basketball court, kayaking, athletics, cycling, fishing, walking, education, agriculture and recycling; as well as pathways for hiking and walking and an existing dike used for nautical sports.
All interventions make use of sustainable practices in construction, material use, and sourcing local resources. The construction also adopts a strategy of “Learning By Building,” where the aim is to be built mainly by local inhabitants using a system of self-construction, allowing the Center to not only provide a sports facility but also education during the construction process. The center focuses on improving access to opportunities to participate in sport, the removal of physical, economic, social and gender barriers to participation in sport, improving social cohesion improving physical activity, providing innovative alternatives to play spaces for communities that lack resources in a series of interventions that positively affect the environment or reduce negative environmental impact of sports-related initiatives.
