Hidden in a glade among older city blocks of
central Porto, the Bom Sucesso School complex
included a large playground flanked by three
original buildings that had been previously
expanded.
Taking a project originally inaugurated in 1958
and part of the Centennial Plan for Portuguese
elementary schools, our project sought to
reinterpret this public equipment according to
the new school program and its relation to the
surrounding urban space.
Parallel to the rehabilitation of classrooms,
common areas and circulation spaces, the
addition of two new volumes aimed to address
the various moments of school life: the arrival
of parents with their children in the porch
attached to the new gymnasium, separating the
parking lot from the playground, the path to the
new kindergarten and from existing buildings,
allowing the wideness of the lot to progressively
reveal itself.
Clarifying the playground centrality and
hierarchizing the relation with the school’s
surroundings, the added buildings display
the presence of natural light through all the
interior spaces; whether it is the kindergarten’s
classrooms facing the morning light, the hallways
and activities rooms facing a patio, or the new
gymnasium widely opened to the playground
and to the framed tree tops, under southern light.
We believe that in cities we are often unconnected
with nature and with this project we strived for
children to embrace the broad and luminous
space of the school surrounded by trees, injected
with an ocher hue and a small but yet vibrant
blue square for games.