Architect in Charge: Alexis Rodríguez, Michel Rosado, Oliver Ortega
Team: Leslie Chávez
Photography: Lorena Darquea
TALENY is an institutional Project designed by ARO Estudio; located in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, its facilities have three levels of education Preschool, Elementary and Middle school, arranged in a plot of 5,000 m2 through four building modules.
The design is based on the educational philosophy of the institution, which seeks its students to arouse interest in innovation, creating an environment that encourages the curiosity of the educational community, through facilities that promote in each child personal development and learning life skills.
The school´s entrance is framed by two brick walls, behind them the parking lot is placed. Following the length of the same wall it opens the way to the pedestrian entrance of the school, which, in its interior receives us in the administrative area; It is in it where through a covered patio the three educational levels are distributed and the heart of the institution, the MAKER SPACE is framed.
This module houses inside the creative areas of the school, in it converges the library, the computer area and the robotics room; Arranged in a space at double height, students can interact with the three areas, thus responding to the concerns that arise at the time of innovation (research-library, programming-computing, create-robotics). The windows that give light to the space, are of different sizes and orientations, projecting diverse shades and giving dynamism to the interior.
In the west of the school we find the preschool entrance, this building is designed half a story below the natural terrain to ease the walk for toddlers. All the classrooms are planned to have a cross ventilation with windows on the corridor side (North) arranged to reduce distractions and on the orchard side (South) displaced to have a full view of the plants and a North-South orientation to reduce solar incidence.
The Preschool Gym is a double story height space that accentuates its scale proportionally to the child’s size, promoting the freedom of movement and the physical stimuli of the youngest students. And just like the Maker Space and all the classrooms, the electrical installations and the waterworks are visually exposed, designed purposefully on a pedagogical level to awaken the students interest to question the meaning and function of the built environment.
The orchard is purposefully designed between the preschool and elementary buildings so that all the classrooms in this two buildings have a view to it, achieving a natural sight to soothe the classes.
The elementary classrooms follow the same criterion of placement of windows as those of kindergarten, with cross ventilation and north-south orientation.
The music classroom in front of the Maker Space, is an area of common use to all students of the school, built in brick following the same criteria of windows as the Maker Space, playing with the shadows projected into the interior.
The school's program has three multipurpose courts, to the ends of which is the picnic area and stands; as well as a playground for the kindergarten area and individual recreation areas for elementary and middle school.