Competition - Pre-school in Mozambique - Flor da Manhã
This is a project for a basic school for children in Xai-Xai, Mozambique (Africa), and it aims to respond to three major goals: sustainability, integration and education.
In Xai-Xai we find a specific context of an underdeveloped country, where poverty and lack of means jeopardize basic human rights, and it is therefore important to develop the critical capacity to use raw materials from its natural habitat.
The key concept for the school is the creation of a self-sustaining system, taking advantage of all resources, such as the use of vernacular materials (clay, wood, bamboo), the local workforce and also the collection of rainwater , through the roof structure of the building itself.
The starting point for the design of this school was the awareness of the importance of integrating vulnerable and disabled children, which meant that the spaces were designed in order to facilitate their circulation (both for wheelchairs and for blind children, for example), connecting all rooms through an exterior corridor protected by a roof.
All of this is allowed by its spiral design, which was created from the existing large Marula tree, providing the creation of an interactive space, as the curved surface of the classrooms allows visual contact between all children, reinforcing the feeling of community and belonging in an environment of common growth and sharing.