[ Giancarlo Mazzanti ] Gerardo Molina School

Architect: Giancarlo Mazzanti
Location: Bogota, Colombia
Collaborators: Andrés Sarmiento, Juan Manuel Gil, Gina Amado, María Constanza Saade, Carlos Melo, Alberto Aranda, Ana María González, Jorge Gómez, Manuel Mendoza, Edgar Mazo
Project Year: 2004
Construction Year: 2008
Photographs: Sergio Gómez, Veronica Restrepo

 

 

 

THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CITY AND ITS IMMEDIATE BORDERS

More than an isolated school, the aim is to develop an URBAN PROJECT that ENCOURAGES NEW SECTORIAL CENTRALITIES WITH THE EQUIPMENTS that are already being used by the school such as the library, the auditorium, the cafeteria, the support rooms for neighborhood activities.

As the Project will be winding and turning it will be opening to the city, leaving space for small squares and exterior parks for public usage, leaving behind the bars and walls that stereotyped education institutions as closed spaces.

The conformation of small squares and green spaces with trees direct on the surrounding streets, accompanied by the auction modules, will redefine direct accesses. The borders of the institution produce the closings; the school will not have bars or walls.

THE SCHOOL AS A SYSTEM OF REPEATING PIECES

The Project is raised as a modular system which is capable of adapting itself to the most diverse situations, whether they are topographical, urban or the result of a program. It is based on a regulated series of procedures and ordered actions (PROTOCOLS) and on the construction of a CHAIN GROUPING system skilled for intertwining and acting depending on the place, the amount of sunlight, the topography and the events (ADAPTIVE SYSTEM).

a) ADAPTIVE SYSTEM: The construction of the model is based on the combination of rotated models. The latter is a unique piece system capable of developing a more complex and adaptive organized structure than the sum of the parts. The grouping system is raised as a CHAIN construction in which each module is related with the ones beside it and element chains are produced whilst configuring ships that generate, at the same time, spaces in which unexpected and surprising diagonals and vacuums are produced, enriching the school tour and usage. The grouping system also allows the conformation of courts, streets, subsectors, gardens and tree isolations in the exterior space.

b) PROTOCOL: The model develops a normative offer which seeks to establish a few rules of operation directed to achieving two objectives. The first one (SPACIAL- classrooms) tries to promote the SPATIAL IDEAL RELATIONS between the parts and the place, views, privacy, sunlight, communication, etc.

THE MODULES - THE SPACE - APPLICATIONS - PEDAGOGIC ENVIRONMENT

The model raises the application of the following modules:

CLASSROOMS

Module 1a from the grouping of three classrooms - for application in the first floor.
Module 1b from special classrooms and teacher rooms - for application in the second floor.

CONNECTORS

Straight and flat connector module 2a - enables circulation in straight line.
130 degrees connector module 2b - enables changes in the direction of circulation.
30 degree connector module 2c - enables strong turns. Plain and inclined terrain.

AUCTION MODULES

The elements in the program that enable the appropriation of school services with the surrounding community - they define the entrance and the direct relation with the street. These are structures that because of their size and function are considered atypical.

The entire building has a pedagogic function, apart from the classrooms, the model seeks to potentiate the appearance of interstitial spaces or covered vacuums between the classrooms which expand or contract to define spaces as the prolongation of the classrooms, places for thought, for union, for friendship. Each and every one of the courts and places between the classroom module defines itself with an educative, sensorial and dynamic theme.

The assembly - the tours - the exterior spaces
When assembled, the module system produces a sequence of touring spaces and events of diverse nature which have spaces that are proper of the education community. They generate spaces in which surprising and unexpected diagonals and vacuums enrich the tour and usage of the school.
THE MODEL SEEKS TO VALUE THE ENTIRE SCHOLAR SPACE AS A PLACE FOR EDUCATIONAL TRAINING. This presupposes the search of creating pedagogic ENVIRONMENTS (thematic) instead of architectures.

Zonal equipments - Management strategy
The project raises the possibility of using the communal facilities as libraries and multi-use classrooms, allowing their external use without obstructing the functioning and security of the school. Due to its location, the external and appropriate access is permitted by the community during non scholar hours. The main objective is to give the space a social function in which the collective good is the priority and thus, to open the school for the entire community.

THE MATERIALS - FLEXIBILITY - CONSTRUCTUIVE SYSTEM

The objective is to use the materials in order to offer a smooth image with the help of Swatch watches and Twingo automotives, which allows the approximation of the pupils. Floors on vinyl in roll of different colors and figures. Sheets of crystal in san douche with resin of color in the interior, (laminated glass) to mark and to give color to the pedagogic zones. The structure is combined metallurgy and structural masonry.