27rural

ivan hernandez

a horticulture educational area is created that links the classroom to the kitchen. The construction itself is approached in three stages. The first are the hard elements of construction – the concrete frames of the walls, a concrete platform for the service area, and loose concrete blocks that function as furniture. The second stage consists of the attached programs built out of more ephemeral materials, such as the classrooms with their wooden framework and plastic skin or the bathrooms made out of the leftover wood from the casting of the hard structures. The third stage is infill material that completes the areas between the walls, using loose brick, gravel, vegetation or any other material accessible in the area. Certain necessary infrastructure would be built in those in-between areas. In the first model, a water container out of plastic bottles was built as part of the courses offered in the school. Our idea, our anticipation, our reality, is that, most likely, the government would stop supporting this particular educational program in search of a new program that would seem more fresh for capturing new votes, so that this school, like most schools in the country, would start to deteriorate, perhaps be abandoned.

What would happen to its structure? We hope, that by building a hard and a soft architecture, it could gain another life. The soft, ephemeral materials could be reused within the community or transported to another project. The hard, solid materials could become sculptural objects left in the middle of the landscape; we want them to become potential ruins. We anticipate that the landscape will take over, covering them with moss, with vegetation. We hope the community itself uses the concrete blocks, platforms and frames as support for un-programmed activities such as dances, meetings, or perhaps just points for sightseeing. We hope that by losing its establish school program, these bone like structures become empty architecture, an architecture that awaits inhabitation by those that live near by. Perhaps, in the worst scenario, we wish for these ruins to become landmarks in the landscape, frames that enhance people passing by to take a moment and observe a rural landscape that is quickly disappearing. Perhaps, these ruins become time and space capsules. –

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The project was developed by ludens + R arquitectos.

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