The School Lumiar dos Mellos rests on a small slope nearby the Dos Mellos stream, and enjoys the landscape defined by a hill covered with compact preserved woods. The pavilion enclosing the school extends between the stream and the roadway, and creates a broad North-facing area while concurrently protecting it from the traffic noise. The program is distributed on two levels, encouraging outdoors activities by straight relations with the ground. The classroom, library and administration modules are on the upper level while the lunchroom and the WCs are on the lower level, intermediated by a veranda extending as a porch up to a small natural water pool at the stream’s borders.
The Infantile and Fundamental cycles, with two rooms each, are organized by yards establishing intermediation with the landscape. These yards are provided with a mobile covering system and may be used covered or uncovered, with learning spaces in the open air.
In order to increment the potential flexibility of the inner spaces, sliding doors allow integrating two rooms into a single large room. Such large room might be further expanded by integrating both yards and the other two rooms, providing 45 meters of continuing space extension. A multi-sports court, accessed by a small bridge, completes the facility.
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This lineal and modulated pavilion has been contemplated as a sufficiently flexible and adjustable model, to be implemented at various locations and different topographic conditions. Flexibility has been contemplated in accordance with the pedagogic plan, where the space rather suggests than defines usages. The wood-steel mixed structure rests on a concrete foundation. Closings are proposed in panels that can easily re-shape the spaces according to the specific requirements of each unit.
Architectural flexibility is incremented by incorporating new digital technologies, allowing free access to the data networks from anywhere in the school or the property. Environments exclusively intended for housing micro-computer terminals no longer exist, if internet may be accessed under a tree’s shadow at the stream’s borders. Such extremely forward change in teaching environment concept particularly results from associating wireless networks to portable computers.