Villa de los niños. Bio-climatic kindergarten in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia.

Wroclaw University of Technology, (Politechnika Wrocławska), Faculty of Architecture, Wrocław

Project idea

The main goal was to create a bioclimatic kindergarten design concept which satisfies the basic social and economic needs of the local community in one of the districts on the outskirts of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia. Thanks to simple measures, the project is supposed to respond to climatic and territorial limitations and combine the principles of modern architecture with local solutions. Project is responsed to the huge demand of the local community for pre-school facilities.

Project description

The kindergarten project proposes an open system of smaller buildings connected with each other by internal and external communication. Kindergarten reminds a village - the main street, alleys stretching out and connecting squares with dispersed houses between them. The complex of buildings includes: 10 childrens’ rooms, an administration, canteen&cooking zone and a common room with office. The main entry dividing the area into two parts: private and public. The private part consists of rooms for playing and learning and a common playground. Single classrooms are connected by toilet modules. The public part of the complex consists of larger modules and summer scene space with stairs. This place allows watching films and organizing of local performances or shows.
The kindergarten is also connected with the primary school in the neighborhood.

Technical information

The kindergarten has prefabricated skeleton construction. The modular wooden structure is filled with locally brick. A wooden truss was placed on the wooden frame of the walls. Roofs are made of trapezoidal metal sheet and equipped with solar and photovoltaic panels. The buildings were oriented to obtain the best possible natural ventilation. The protruding roof hoods minimize the access of sunlight to the interior preventing overheating.

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