Eight main volumes with sloped roofs in different directions are proposed, containing the classrooms, spatially articulated by a circulation ring/corridor, with enough transparency to visually incorporate and provide a special continuity between the interior and the central courtyard, where the open amphitheatre is located. Apart from these volumes with identical dimensioning, there is another with larger proportions containing the indoor gymnasium. In each of these volumes’ facades there are large glass windows, allowing the classrooms to be lit by natural lighting. The windows are placed in different strategic areas in order to maintain the privacy needed for a
classroom.

The project underlines the idea of a space with special qualities, that allows not only the learning through classes, but also that improves people’s experiences, mobility and their connection with school itself. Thus, we developed a concept of Open School, exploring the school more like a body rather than a building itself: the school it is not finished; it is in constant evolution and has to be used by children, teachers, parents… in order to achieve its potential and purpose.

At the same time, the Open concept also refers to the will of creating a building clearly connected to the city. Having that in mind, the shape of the proposal, made through cuts and subtractions, reflects the forms of the city. In addition to that, the two entrances allow the user to have different interactions and perceptions: as the student grows older and changes from preschool to primary school, so does his perception of the building, as if it was not the same.

The LOOP Housing Complex is a project whose spaces are transformed into a concept, a new way of being and living, where the city is connected to the landscape, the house joins the vineyards, the residents to the visitors, where the interior expands to the outside, considering that the living is not only restricted to the private space of the house but also extends to collective life.

Regardless of the needs of occupation of this “LOOP” of housing and of the inner courtyard, which will be further specified, the intervention is understood as a whole, where the public and leisure space is the protagonist that, in spite of this, does not cease to be in agreement with the other parts. The galleries, besides being elements of circulation and access to the dwellings, running through the building and connecting all levels, are presented as one of the keys to the intervention, complementing the circulation and access spaces with places of passage, gardens and paths with visual amplitude and spatial attractiveness to create spaces for the conviviality of the residents.

The creation of the CERCI School was for the purpose of education, reintegration and professional training for people with disabilities. The approximate total area of 7,000 sq.m is divided into four sectors:

• preschool/infants and Special School
• education and rehabilitation for high levels of disability
• training in professional skills for reintegration into schools and offices (tailoring, loksmithing, carpentry, model-making and bookbinding)
• secure employment for disabled people with professional skills of a high standard (locksmithing, tapestry, floristy).

The initial project began as a study, but the persistance of the many people who supported the building, and the need for it, succeeded in turning it into a live project.

The developed solution, its template, the number of floors and the area of the footprint of the different volumes grew with increasing needs, each time re-articulating the programme. The final design provided the chance for phased construction tailored towards a slow release of funding, creating autonomous spaces that garanteed greater flexibility of use during construction.

The solution is based on the construction of a linear floor with a distribution corridor running its length, from where the various sectors of the programme are distributed. The corridor runs north/south in accordance with the topography of the land.

It is at a level that eliminates the need for stairways and establishes contact with two surrounding roads.

1. Accessibility
The design of the routes in the outdoor space, which is strongly characterized by the topography, enables barrier-free crossing of the area from the northern part of the complex at Fellenbergstrasse to the southern part at Langgrüstraf3e. This circulation also enables joyful moments along the various rooms, which often switch between more public and spacious zones to more intimate and hidden ones. Entrances, general access areas and commercial uses as well as apartments and their sanitary rooms are dimensioned and designed barrier-free or can be adapted to the requirements of the situation.

2. Building development
The building complex is developing in the area in a way that tries to respect and complement the remarkable but calm city figure. The integration of the new proposal is based on the careful placement of the two buildings facing the penalties that border the property, the Fellenberg and Langgrüstraf3e.

These two buildings have the same character and follow the direction of their neighboring buildings, carefully adjusting their height. Both are significantly lower compared to the rest of the complex, so that the penalty images remain unaffected.

However, the proposal not only tries to blend in with its surroundings, but also to create its own strong identity, which becomes more evident in the core of the property, where a green carpet stretches across the two punishments. Here are two buildings with different shapes and a more prominent height, which allow the creation of a more pluralistic interior space. This results in a large number of apartment types and with different levels of sunlight.

On the ground floor, the green carpet is activated with entrances, common rooms and public programs such as the kindergarten or the social rooms.

3. Materialization
The composition of the four buildings is on a generous entrance level, which is emphasized by a particularly generous floor height and a change of material in the lower part is underlined. This level is interrupted by the interplay of the house entrances, large-format windows for commercial use and smaller windows for communal use. The rear-ventilated wooden facade that characterizes the entire complex develops from there. This block of wood is interrupted on each level by a self-supporting concrete balcony, which protrudes from the main structure and at the same time marks the change of level and provides the balcony areas. The balcony areas play a crucial role in the overall expression of the building. The densification with metal masts and the slight inclination of the facade creates a filigree appearance that refines the urban expression and gives each individual outdoor area a special and unique quality.

4. Economy
The urban settlement with four partially deep, compact buildings of simple geometry is the basis for an economic project. The conventional supporting structure in combination with prefabricated façade elements, a balanced proportion of glass in the façade and the use of common structures enable an economical one
Realization. The consistent use of suitable, durable and robust materials, constructions and surfaces leads to economical operating and maintenance costs. The project parameters HNF/GF, AN, AN, Ao/GF are in a good range.

5. Building technology & energy

A balanced proportion of glass in the facades and the compactness of the building due to deep and few structures form the basis for an energy-optimized overall system. The building technology concept is based on a building-by-building system for HLS in the basement, which is directly connected to vertical riser zones. PV systems and thermal solar collectors can be combined with green flat roofs. The heat is generated via the district heating network according to availability. All in all, the prerequisites for achieving the Minergie-P-Eco target values ​​are good.

O colégio desenvolve-se segundo um mote de escola no parque, de simbiose com a natureza e organiza-se segundo vários blocos com espaços exteriores interstícios, tornando clara a separação por ciclos e funções. Organizado em três pisos, distribui-se segundo quatro volumes transversais, conectados a um volume longitudinal.

Os dois volumes a Sul, próximos do átrio, destinam-se ao segundo ciclo; os dois a Norte ao terceiro ciclo; por fim, no rés-do-chão do volume Este organizam-se as zonas de refeitório, cozinha, secretaria, salas de docentes, enquanto no piso superior estão localizadas as salas de aula do secundário. O Piso -1 é tratado como o piso de uso geral, com salas de aula especializadas – laboratórios, salas de desenho e oficinas – auditório e, por fim, a livraria e biblioteca.

A entrada é feita através do ponto de ligação entre os volumes Sul e Este. A partir deste espaço, todas as funções são organizadas ao longo de um importante eixo longitudinal, marcado pelo volume Este, onde se organizam todas as zonas comuns e a partir do qual é feita a distribuição para os diferentes ciclos. Um segundo eixo longitudinal liga os volumes transversais, através de um corredor envidraçado.

An interplay of volumes based on the repetition and grouping of a module was the theme behind this project. Owing to the demands of the programme and the constraints of the terrain, we arranged these modules around a central courtyard. The result was an irregular, dynamic and complex body, which created multiple and varied areas for play, reflection and learning.

The central courtyard presents itself as an empty space, a unifying element and a catalyst for experiences. In the words of Lao Tzu, it is the empty space that makes the wheel turn. Here it is the joint that connects and makes the body, apparently fragmented and comprising seemingly random volumes, unified. The glass has a double function: it enables the interior to turn outwards, extending its boundaries, while at the same time it marks and reveals the interplay and contrast of volumes that characterise this building.

Similarly, the interior reveals the same contrast of shapes and volumes, of areas for circulation and rest on the winding paths around the courtyard, which provides protection and brings the indoors out. Inside the colourful and bright classrooms the irregular roofs of the volumes that shape them are recreated, making these spaces distinctive, unique and distinguished, just as the children who attend this school.

Constructing on top of the already built is a challenge that is always presented to the architect and increasingly the new architecture. Rehabilitation, recovery and restoration of buildings or heritage are nowadays a fundamental field of work for the development of our profession. 

Architecture is always built on something that already exists; on a past, a territory, on a piece of land or a pre-existing building and never on a void or a shallow board. This school centre is an example of this. It is built on the basis of an existing school which has recovered and remained in its essence and only new modules, new accesses and different materials have been added. 

The Paredes School Centre arose from the need to restore and rehabilitate a school built on a prefabricated degraded structure which no longer had the quality and comfort to carry out its activity.

From the understanding of the recovery and expansion needs, it was proposed the addition of three new volumes capable of responding to the spatial and programmatic needs required and above all to be able to unify the entire volume without losing the existing pavilion matrix and which we seek to explore as a concept, image or identity for this new building. A volumetric composition based on a process of adding pure and juxtaposed volumes, with distinct identities and forms, associated to a subtle articulation of covers as and voids, accompanied by work on the creation of different exterior spaces and the composition of new covering materials, are the elements that characterise the intervention.

The aim is to create a school with its own personality and identity, using the existing elements, drawing a dynamic and stimulating silhouette to the whole set that wants to be renewed, updated and only for this reason different.

The Mouriz School is located on an industrial plot. It has a small façade overlooking the street, but reaches maximum expression lengthwise as a result of the constraints of the land. 

From this markedly orthogonal building, there is a zigzagging line that constructs and defines its entire façade. This creates an outward three-dimensionality and a quasi cinematographic language made from wood, whose design stems from the tradition of the place.

It is a building that marks the land, that stands out and contaminates its surroundings with its own identity carved out in the landscape. Its strong visual expression is linked to the movement and silhouette of its façade, and the way the windows are etched into it as if it were a musical score. A melodic line that gains substance and, through apparent repetition, earns its own identity. In contrast, its extremities are hollow and can be seen as two large eyeglasses gazing over the landscape, projecting the inside outwards and thus removing its physical barriers.

A school as a route, open to many encounters.