“If childhood is a journey, let us see to it that the child does not travel by night.”
Aldo van Eyck
Childhood is a period full of meanings in the construction of a memory bank in every individual. It creates emotional relationships with places, people and ideas that will form the emotional imaginary of the child that will be permanently present throughout life in a kind of nostalgic memory.
The proposal seeks to fulfil one basic idea: to make possible that the child's individual 'journey' in his/her imaginary might be done in freedom, ensuring safety to adults responsible for their education and monitoring.
In urban terms this Middle School building is the transition element of many realities. It establishes links between the non-urbanized ground and the agricultural and forestry protected areas, while enabling the development of a new public infrastructure, the Urban Park, which should be understood as part of a larger park that follows the riverside along the surrounding areas.
The Middle School presents itself as a trapezoidal volume, designed according to the physical limits of the building’s sit, from which flourishes an internal playground, recreating the classical idea of the Agorae as a confluence and meeting space.