Commissioned by the Isabel Aninat Echazarreta Foundation, a charity that supports vulnerable people, including children and young people with disabilities, this new school is designed by architect Sebastián Irarrázaval. Situated on the outskirts of Santiago in Chile, the impressive new piece of education architecture features its creator's signature approach of clean, geometric forms and knack for modern, minimalist spaces.
A crisp, white, concrete composition of low and tall volumes, the Integral Stimulation Center unites a variety of spaces, including classrooms, laboratories, a gymnasium, a chapel and a heated pool. Functions are divided into clusters and designed to cater to specific student groups and special educational and mobility needs.
Located in the neighbourhood of Talagante, the new school offers a protective environment for vulnerable people. It also provides a range of facilities designed to stimulate the cognition of its pupils, through formal and informal learning experiences.
‘We proposed to accommodate these varied programmes in the manner of a walled citadel that would provide children with a protective environment, while allowing the coexistence of not only these diverse programmatic units, but also of different forms of movement through the interior: some more hierarchical and orderly, others more free and labyrinthine to encourage fortuitous encounters,’ says Irarrázaval.
The two taller buildings flag up the main entrance and the chapel, respectively, while operating as orientation points for the school’s users.
A version of this article was published in the April 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (264)
INFORMATION
-
Louis Vuitton drafts contemporary artists to use the house’s silk ‘carré’ scarf as a colourful canvasIn a tradition which dates back to the 1980s, Louis Vuitton has asked five artists to reimagine its silk carré scarf using floral motifs
-
'It’s not so much about art, it's more about the process': Tim Burton at the Design Museum'The World of Tim Burton' is now open at the Design Museum.
-
Bedside lamps for illuminated nightsThe Wallpaper* edit of the best design-focused bedside lamps and where to buy them: warm and bright autumn nights with this edit of bedside lamps for your room
-
Tour a Chilean pavilion perched on the coast: a sanctuary for sleep and star-gazingAlgarrobo-based architecture studio Whale! has designed a Chilean pavilion for rest and relaxation, overlooking a nature reserve on the Pacific coast
-
River Wing at Clare College responds to its historic Cambridge heritageUniversity of Cambridge opens its new River Wing on Clare College Old Court, uniting modern technology with historic design
-
House in the Trees offers a bird's eye view of the Chilean forestHouse in the Trees by Max Núñez and Stefano Rolla is an angular Chilean cabin in woods, touching the ground lightly
-
Chile’s Panguipulli Theatre brings purpose-built architecture to the learning experiencePanguipulli Theatre, a community-centred cultural space in Chile's Región de los Ríos, combines purpose-built architecture and learning
-
This Chilean beach house comprises a series of pavilions set beneath a wooden roofWYND Architects has completed a Chilean beach house – a multigenerational family retreat, raised up above a site overlooking the Pacific Ocean
-
UCL East Marshgate seeks to redefine the university campus of the futureUCL East Marshgate by Stanton Williams is completed and gears up to welcome its students in east London
-
St Catharine’s College social hub in Cambridge reimagined by Gort ScottGort Scott's design for St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, gives a sensitive facelift to a much loved, bustling campus
-
A modern barnhouse makes a faceted form on an exposed site in Southern ChileEstudio Diagonal’s barnhouse project, Ridge House, is a stripped back private home that uses everyday materials and simple geometry to maximise interior space
