LA ESCUELA___ Announces the Results of the “Building Schools___Public Spaces” Art & Architecture Competition

Within the framework of exploring art-architecture-education relationships as a strategy to improve common living conditions, and to think up different ways of designing schools from the creative interaction with local environments, LA ESCUELA___ received more than 200 projects for “Construir Escuelas___Espacios Públicos” (Building Schools___Public Spaces). After reviewing and discussing the proposals received, LA ESCUELA___ is pleased to announce the winning project, as well as the five short-listed proposals.

The evaluation criteria were based on technical aspects of project development (materials, functionality, durability), aspects of contextual relevance (problems addressed, solutions, community involvement), formal aspects of architectural design, and the feasibility of executing the project within the timeframe and budget established in the competition guidelines.

The jury, composed of Elisa Silva (Enlace Arquitectura), Javier Vera (urban architect FAUA-UNI and lead researcher of CONURB-PUCP), Zaida Muxí (professor of the Department of Urbanism at UPC-ETSAB), Fernanda Canales (Architecture), Al Borde (Architectural Studio), Miguel Braceli (LA ESCUELA___), and Joachim Gerstmeier (Siemens Stiftung), agreed to select the following as the winning project:

CUNA: Escuela porosa de construcción de paisaje
[Porous School for Landscape Construction]
Corregimiento La Playa, Ciénaga de Mallorquín Shoreline. Barranquilla, Colombia.

"A mangrove nursery, where seedlings of this native vegetation species are to be continuously brought to their full potential in the hands of local caretakers and citizens curious to learn more about the territory."

Project code #359. Upon opening the registration form, it was learned that the team is made up by Camila Agudelo, Luis González, Antonio Celia, Manuela Quijano, Luis Ávila, Andrés Oyaga, and Rodrigo Chain. Involved institutions: La Orilla Studio - Architecture and Art Space; OAU - Oficina de Arquitectura y Urbanismo; Asoplaya - Fishermen's Association of 'La Playa' neighborhood; and Cayena - Office of Art and Culture of the Universidad del Norte.

CUNA: Escuela porosa de construcción de paisaje. Location: Corregimiento La Playa, Ciénaga de Mallorquín Shoreline. Barranquilla, Colombia.

In addition, the jury would like to acknowledge the quality and relevance of the following projects:

#053 - "Corral de Negro," for its proposal for capturing rainwater, storing it and gradually releasing it into a highly arid ecosystem, thus creating "linear oases." Location: Corral de Negro, General Belgrano Department, La Rioja Province, Argentina. Team: Ignacio Imwinkelried, Cecilia Sánchez, Francisco Mercado, Juan Coraglio, Facundo Miles, Mateo Martínez. Institutions: Instituto Bioclimático de Proyecto, Universidad Católica de Córdoba, School Nº155 "Presbítero Antonio Conrero."

#073 - "Construcciones colectivas: carpintería como lugar irradiador de articulaciones espaciales" [Collective constructions: a carpenter's shop as a radiating place of spatial articulations], for its proposal for recovering an urban space capable of producing other internal and external spaces. Location: Ocupação 9 de Julho - Movimento dos Sem Teto do Centro (MSTC) [Homeless Movement of the (City) Center], São Paulo City Central Region, Brazil. Team: Victoria, Julia Peres, Antônio Fabiano Junior, Anna Teresa Lanzuolo, Beatriz Casarini, Rafael Trigo, Carmen Silva, Kellen Santos, Patrícia Bragado. Institutions: RUÍNA Arquitetura, Mackenzie School of Architecture and Urbanism, and MSTC - Movimento dos Sem Teto do Centro.

#139 - "Sonidos del barrio" [Neighborhood Sounds], for its proposal for intervening in the urban public space through a playful-identitarian sound classroom, as a strategy to create a more child-friendly neighborhood. Location: Municipality B, Palermo Neighborhood, Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Montevideo, Uruguay. Team: Laboratorio de Urbanismo Participativo y Afectivo - LUPA: Adriana Goñi, Rosita de Lisi, Analía Duarte, Noelia Botana, Victoria Steglich, Johana Hernández, Virginia Delgado, Gabriel Giordano. Institutions: Municipality B, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism (UdelaR), Faculty of Psychology (UdelaR), Escuela Universitaria Centro de Diseño (FADU-UdelaR), Public School No. 16 - Sweden.

#227 - "La Femineta," for its proposal of a mobile educational device that allows the displacement of a fully equipped construction workshop to generate "Femingas"—collaborative community work led by and aimed at women. Location: Quito, Ecuador. Team: Taller General: Martín Real, Sofía Arcos, Noelia Vanegas, Daniela Dávila, Roberto Vega, Florencia Sobrero. Institution: Fundación InConcerto.

#287 - “Espacios entramados: arquitectura y tejido en la construcción colectiva del futuro de Malhada Grande” [Intertwining spaces: architecture and weaving for the collective construction of the future of Malhada Grande], for its proposal of a pedagogical structure based on the architecture of the loom, using local artisanal weaving techniques. Location: Malhada Grande, upper São Francisco, Bahia, Brazil. Team: Grupo Trama: Juliana Ronchesel, Guto Carvalhoneto, Juliana Sicuro, Danilo Filgueiras, Antônio Machado, Laura Landau, Plínio Calil. Institutions: Projeto Refluir, Associação Comunitária de Artesanato de Malhada Grande.

“Corral de Negro” project. Location: Corral de Negro, General Belgrano Department, La Rioja Province, Argentina.

“Construcciones colectivas: carpintería como lugar irradiador de articulaciones espaciales” project. Location: Ocupação 9 de Julho - Movimento dos Sem Teto do Centro (MSTC), São Paulo City Central Region, Brazil.

“Sonidos del barrio” project. Location: Municipality B, Palermo Neighborhood, Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Montevideo, Uruguay.

“La Femineta” project. Location: Quito, Ecuador.

“Espacios entramados: arquitectura y tejido en la construcción colectiva del futuro de Malhada Grande” project. Location: Malhada Grande, upper São Francisco, Bahia, Brazil.

We appreciate the commitment, quality, and development invested in the proposals, both from an architectural perspective and from a community management approach, for the development of educational initiatives. We are grateful for the high participation of independent projects proposing architectural solutions based on self-organization models; as well as the ample interest shown by architectural offices in developing collaborative projects and working with specific communities, addressing social realities, and proposing tangible contributions and solutions.

The "Construir Escuelas___Espacios Públicos" competition is part of the Classrooms program of LA ESCUELA___. Founded in 2021 by artist, architect, and educator Miguel Braceli and the international non-profit Siemens Stiftung, this platform seeks to approach art as education, and education as collective learning in public spaces. The platform aims to address specific places' social, political, and ecological challenges through context-based practices. Through this competition—which entails conceptualizing, designing, and constructing a public space conceived as a learning environment—La Escuela___ seeks to stimulate a reflection on education in the public realm from an architectural project perspective at the Latin American level.

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