2019 Open competition. Tulum. Mexico
School extension by recycled plastic
Honorable mention award
The project raises environmental awareness towards aspects of recycling, ecology, and environmental protection, as an educational resource and a channel for transmitting messages to youth and the surrounding population as well.
First, in the materiality aspect – through a basic motif of recycling, which provides an initial classification between the materials that can be burned and those are not, a sequence of spaces was designed to demonstrate this tension of contrast.
For this purpose, natural materials are used on the ground level, including floor and wooden infills in rough finishes, rockeries and local plantation- which spontaneously meets the canopy of plastic bottles. This spatial definition is created differentiation between spaces on the one hand and on the other, creates a strong denominator of a conceptual narrative.
In a climatic aspect – a compilation of bottles filled with an insulating material and gaining a double simple skin façade. Stands that protrude from the front line of the façade, use as a "light shelves" that break the direct sunlight and spread flush soft light into the interior spaces, also those shelves are using as a platform for presenting the student' artworks. The interior parabolas produce turbulence of air currents that emits heat loads in a passive configuration and contributes to the ventilation of the space. The roof of the project includes two vast opening- allows the growth of the natural trees which already planted in the plot territory. The trees canopies are protecting against direct sunlight, and on rainy days, water leaks through the skylights directly into the plantation beneath.
