NAVE DO CONHECIMENTO
(KNOWLEDGE SHIP)

In Brazilian metropolitan areas, with much of its population living in deprived conditions, many youngsters, due to lack of life perspective, drop school and are drawn to the street life, and its violence. Although Brazil is the 5th country more connected to the Internet in the world, social inequality excludes the majority of its poor population. To reverse this scenario, the city of Rio de Janeiro began in 2012 the project Nave do Conhecimento (Knowledge Ships) in degraded areas of the city. With five initial units, the project aims to provide cutting-edge technology, entertainment and educational projects.

The Nave do Conhecimento was designed to democratize the use of the latest generation computer equipment in order to achieve social inclusion through digital inclusion. Its sustainable architectural concept reveals in its technological and poetic aesthetic the content of its program and its political / educational agenda. In addition to the formal solution, was created an object that can emotionally engage with people, and positively stimulate their degraded surroundings.

The design concept came from the image of an object floating in space, an elliptical ship reproducing the shape of the universe, hanging from the ceiling by rods. On a different plane, a glass wall limits the external and internal area of the building. Its 400m2 include a study area, digital library, classroom, workshop space, digital gallery and open cinema.

In its two years of existence, the success of the Nave do Conhecimento e can be measured by more than one million visitors, and approximately 9000 students trained in its various workshops in Information, Communication and Technology. In 2014 the ""Nave"" won the award ""Digital Society 2014"". The mission now is to build another 40 ""Nave"" buildings throughout the city. http://www.pracadoconhecimento.org.br/novo/