Text description provided by the architects. An architecture friendly with children, respectful of the human scale and of the city. While contemporary, it remembers the forms and groupings of the architecture of southern Chile, which is sustainable, and able to look around and through the buildings across the site generate the meeting spaces needed for education.
1 The Place and The Views
The Site has a Panoramic View Over The Three Areas Of The Territory.
1.1. To The East, Lake Panguipulli.
1.2. To The North, The City, Towards The Foundation Square Of The City.
1.3. Towards the West, The Fields.
The School Picks This Condition Of Place, From Inside Each Room And From The Proposed Courtyards.
2. References for the Proposed Architecture
2.1. Southern Volumes
Simple, directional. Expressions of southern volumes are expressed in barns, houses and southern villas, with a constant presence on tours of the landscape of the area. They mark a simple volume, protecting their occupants from wind and rain, with a definite scale, a concentrated character and are usually linear, giving architecture a clear reference to be reinterpreted by a contemporary regional architecture.
The volume of the school aims to be clear, "austere and rational", to differentiate a cycle from another, shortening perspectives and creating various centers of attention in the natural and architectural landscape.
2.2. The school reinterprets the groupings of southern architecture
One of the main features of the type of clusters of architecture in southern Chile, in small towns and rural areas, is the random and loose manner of their layout in the landscape, sometimes taking a particular orientation to the sun, other times protecting from the sun.
The project intends to dignify this way of settling in the territory, reflecting this situation.
The building is conceived as a whole, however a number of buildings of one or two floors are articulated with each other, creating on one hand their own individuality (becoming an access building, a classrooms building, a meeting place or sports area, etc.) and responding appropriately to the best views, orientations to the sun and protection from the wind. In addition to the above, their layout on the ground achieves a continuous path (protected from rain and wind)
2.3. Protected Places: the Colonnades
Colonnades are a reiterative architectural solution in the traditional architecture of port cities, and provide generously the presence of the landscape, the cloudy sky and the gray sunny daylight. These resources have always been expressions of a sustainable architecture, as these colonnade spaces provide thermal control to the inhabitable areas. In this school they were used to provide students with an area of "warm and welcoming" life. Each program has its own enclosed courtyard, with the intention of acting as a bioclimatic element with windows to the north, to absorb heat and light in winter, and to make up a cool place in summer by means of natural ventilation.
2.4. Volumes y Human Scale
The position of the cycles building on the ground elevation allows us, on one hand, to propose two floors without a loss of scale in the school life and for the courtyards of each cycle.
This solution distributes the volumes built in relation to the terrain and slopes, allows a connection from the inside to the second level of classrooms, access ramps, which in turn define the territories of each cycle.
2.5. Verticality of Fenestration
The vertical fenestration and facade panes are intended to give a rhythm to the promenade and the views, remembering the orderly and vertical organization of the facades of the southern villas, in addition to collecting the views of the place (city, lake, clouds and sky)
3. Terrain, Site and Zoning
The site is located in the southern part of the city of panguipulli. It is constituted by two clearly defined areas:
- The original area of the ernesto pinto school located at the "bottom" of the foundation area with a strong presence towards the city.
The new building next to the programs that need more urban presence (entrance hall, administration and library), strengthen the image of tradition and identity that this site offers to the community.
Moreover, the pre-kindergarten building is also located close to the parents entrance and both are away from the noisy areas of the school.
The other part of the site, located at the "top", offers a sort of natural stands, which enhances the contemplation of the countryside, the city and the lake, this gives the name to the city and the school to the east.
To the east, it is as if the site had an ancestor from ancient cultures, the Mapuche. On the high ground are the school programs, this is the area for student activities from 1st to 8th grade, including noisy and leisure activities.
The main access to the school will be on alessandri street, displaying the identity that the school has consolidated over time. This access will also serve the community that wants to use the library facilities without entering the school's areas.
A second service access will serve for mass events and for external people to use the sports facilities (gym, sport fields) or the dining area.
We propose a continuous volume that traverses the site. The building envelopes the three proposed courtyards and especially the main courtyard, that opens onto the lake, accepting and sizing the esplanade, bringing it to the human scale. The volume connects the upper with the lower part, joining the various moments of the school, keeping these different functional areas with their own identity. This architecture made of "parts", are joined by a "continuum", a promenade that accompanies the academic community together with the landscape.
4. Constructive System and Materials
On the first floor, the buildings are made of concrete in order to give solidity to the construction. These are simple systems to build and don't have major drawbacks to their construction in areas far from urban centers. The upper level and roofs are built on a metal structure clad in painted, aluminum zinc steel panels.
4.1 Color
The aluminum zinc steel panels will be painted yellow and aluminum gray offering a variety to the project, in order to provide a welcoming place for students.
The buildings of the classroom and more permanent areas will be intervened with colors on a palette of a defined hue.
The project will then give the variety and stimulation necessary for the age of the students.
Sustainable architecture:
In order to ensure compact volumes with a suitable scale for this primary school, we propose three buildings that generate their own educational environment (pre-basic, basic and primary school) in order to optimize energy savings in a volumetric unit.
Incorporating colonnades to the north also contributes to efficiency, along with construction details that address facade ventilation and shading during summer.
All systems described below complement these architectural strategies.
Natural Lighting:
Refers to the controlled admission of natural light. An energy efficient school with a high environmental quality must use abundant natural light, particularly in classrooms where it has the greatest benefits. This aspect must be balanced to avoid an excessive heat loss or gain, and minimize glare or reflection.
It is shown that a good Natural Lighting Improves The Performance Of The Students.
High Performance Electric Lighting Systems:
Students and teachers work in a high quality visual environment while saving energy. The lighting system uses high efficiency artificial light bulbs and/or fluorescent lights, individually optimizes the amount of luminaires in each room and office, incorporates safeguards to ensure optimum performance and successfully integrates natural with electric lighting.
High Efficiency Thermal Envelope:
The walls, floors, ceilings, roofs and windows of the school are planned on a combination of energy efficiency and practical economics. This is to optimize the levels of heat transfer and sound, transparency, solar radiation, thermal aspects, air leaks, and proper colors for luminaires.
They must meet all aspects in the Chilean thermal regulations of 2007 for housing in conjunction with the additional requirements specified in regulations for school in the region.
Energy Simulation:
The design seeks to reduce energy costs in the short and long term as much as possible, while maintaining a high quality learning environment. There are tools for analyzing energy use that are used to predict the impact of various alternatives and thus select the best combination of quality and energy efficiency.
The consultant who will perform building energy simulations will be an expert in energy-efficient buildings. For the simulations we shall use climate data from the city (degree days, solar radiation for each facade, wind, precipitation, etc.) using mathematical models approved by the European community and/or models used in the calculation program for the thermal performance certification for buildings in Chile.
High Efficiency HVAC Systems:
The school uses high efficiency HVAC equipment, properly sized for the estimated demand, and with controls to optimize performance. To make the best decision at this stage we study the global annual cost (investment + operation + maintenance) of different technological options.
Passive Systems:
The school maximizes the use of solar energy, orienting the rooms in order to maximize solar gain in winter and minimize solar gain in summer, considering passive strategies in architectural design to avoid direct solar radiation particularly in classrooms.
The shape and geometry of the school seeks to minimize the thermal exterior envelope / heatable surface ratio to reduce the construction cost and achieve high energy efficiency.
The window surfaces are optimized in each facade to ensure an adequate level of natural lighting creating a balance between natural lighting, solar gains and losses in winter and prevent overheating in summer.
