Chuquibambilla School

Chuquibambilla Native Community, Satipo, Peru · 2013
Secondary school

Chuquibambilla is a Nomatsiguenga native community located in the district of Pangoa, in the Peruvian Central Jungle. Its child population is approximately 250 children, which studied in poorly conditions. Some of them need to walk for long hours to go to school or, in some cases, didn’t attend school at all. Like an indigenous community, its inhabitants live according their traditional culture and habits. They dedicate to agriculture, hunting and fishing. The community doesn’t have electricity, running water or sewer system.

More than only a place of teaching during school hours, the school is the only building for public use in the community, which has turned it, over the years, in a place of development and exchange for the whole community. Always alive, the school transforms into a place where parents, students and teachers study and recreate.

The building is developed in four modules around a central courtyard, the epicentre of the project. Besides the requested program, namely the classrooms, the computer room, bathrooms and the student residence, it also includes a multi-purpose room (library, workshops, etc.), teacher’s and administration rooms and a number of courtyards both for didactic and recreational activities. While the school modules all have the same language, the student residence has a more playful and “house” character.

The project envisions a wide exterior program. Through a system of covered and open courtyards of various scales, several spaces are provided dedicated to a range of activities which connect the students with nature and their traditions: open air classes, art, clay and crafts workshops, agronomy, animal breeding, agriculture, etc. These spaces are connected through a shaded path which becomes an effective space for use and encounters, becoming an extension of its interior program.
The school is a building in which the boundaries between inside and outside blur in order to create a public space connected with its surroundings.

The project combines local and vernacular materials with more modern structural resistant materials, thus integrating new constructions systems with local resources.

Climatic comfort has been achieved through the use of passive systems, with special attention to sun control and natural ventilation and lighting, reducing the need of energy to a minimum. The computer room is fuelled with solar panels. Grey waters are treated and re-used for the irrigation of green areas.

The inclusion of local labour has allowed the transfer of knowledge through on site experience. The ambition is to create a greater sense of belonging amongst residents and inspire a permanent working process in its environment.

The project, due to its local and contextual specifications, has been developed through a participatory and interchange process. In this sense, the project has been realized thanks to the work of local builders and the community contributions and participation, workshops with the students and teachers, working with volunteers and local population. The direct involvement with the local community and the teachers has allowed to create a strong foundation for the project’s sustainability.
With this, we have achieved the integration and generation of trust within the native community, as well as a richer process of the architectural and construction development of the project.

Architecture
Paulo Vale Afonso, Marta Maccaglia, Ignacio Bosch, Borja Bosch

Area
985 sqm · 4000 sqm

Cost
185,000 USD

Engineering
Manuel Cardenas Aspajo

Construction
Javier Garcia Paucar, Elias Martinez Ramos, Maximo Ñhaui Centeno · Local community

Financing
Costa Foundation / Volcafe Foundation / ED&F MAN ChariCo

Cooperation
Bastian Fuelles (VSP Generaciones)

Photography
Paulo Vale Afonso, Marta Maccaglia

Awards
Selection “Escuelas del sigo XXI en América Latina y el Caribe” catalogue, 2018
2nd Award (Category C: Social Habitat and Development) in XIX Bienal Panamericana de Quito (BAQ), Ecuador, 2014
Finalist  “Oscar Niemeyer” Award of Latin-American Architecture 2016
Finalist Archdaily Building of The Year 2015 in Educational Architecture
Pre-selected in IX Bienal Iberoamericana de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Rosário, Argentina, 2014