Architects: Duch-Piza Arquitectos Location: Mexico City, Mexico Technical Architects: Oscar Menendez Vinent Partner Architect: C. Hernández Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Jaime Sicilia
Promoter: Patronat Mpal d´Escoletes de Palma Structure: F. Purroy Facilities: TIIS Collaborators: G. Riverón, E. Parareda, T. Garau Budget: 851.722,56 €
Extension of a kindergarten built in 1930, with a ”U” form plan that used to surround a courtyard. We turn this courtyard into the central hall: meeting point, works’ exhibition…, lit from above.
Former volumes hand their own form over to the new teaching block: roofs contained between end walls, that lean to pick the overhangs. The envelopes, made of big white concrete slabs, lean too, following the gentle slopes of the roof. The displacements of the different bays form the courtyards, that are the exterior extension of the classrooms.
We hollow out the part of the existing building adjacent to the dividing wall, turning it into a porch and a small garden, located at the end of the cross route through the building.