This document summarizes a proposed public school project in the neighborhood of Perus in São Paulo, Brazil. The project involves demolishing an existing primary school and constructing a new primary and high school building with 18 classrooms. The context discusses challenges facing Brazilian public schools like large class sizes and low teacher salaries. The site is located on a slope surrounded by tall walls. Concept sketches explore breaking down walls, improving acoustics with different materials, exploiting the slope, and making the school self-sufficient. Floor plans show a vertical structure with classrooms, common areas and outdoor spaces integrated with the landscape. The roof plan includes a garden and organic rain collector.

1. A cultures coinciousness is shown through all types of expressions - the sensibility, refinement and the precision. Architecture,
art, fashion, food culture. The popular culture is the latter of it’s best attempt to self pronounce. This does not mean that popu-
lar culture is without dignity. It will always be relative to the top of the ladder. Experiencing precision, sensibility and refinement
heighten an individual’s cultural consciousness. Working towards a higher consciousness on the level of the individual is crucial
for the higher consciousness of the greater number, and the culture as a whole. In architecture this means including all the senses
in the experience of space, a sense of materiality, history, generosity, potentialities and the differentiations between spaces and
invitations to different kinds of actions or states of mind.
Universidade de São Paulo Faculdade de arquitetura e urbanismo 2009
Public school in Perus
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2. Project description
Public School in Perus
Professor: Helena Aparecida Ayoub Silva
Monitor: Roberto Selmer Júnio
Discussing the Brazilian public school through the proposal of a school
building in a neighbourhood enclosed within the city of São Paulo.
The intervention will be in the neighbourhood of Perus, where there exists
today a primary school with little opportunity of expansion. The proposal
is to deploy there a primary school (1st - 9th, day fulltime) and highschool
(night) and adolecent/adult education (night) with 18 classrooms, consid-
ering the demolition of the existing school.
(Image: the inside wall of the existing school)
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3. Context: The Brazilian school
Brazil has had to build many schools in little time and there has been developed standards for school buildings that can rapidly
provide a municipality with a new school, quite cheap. The standards inply certain meassures, and also number of rooms in
relation to the number of students. Normally these schools are built in red brick, which is a cheap and availiable material. Many
times these schools take little consideration to the surroundings and a flexibility in use, and change which is always bound to
happen.
In the Brazilian public school it is not unusual with classes of 40 students and one teacher. Space is tight, as schools often have
to receive more students than they were built for. Being a teacher in the public school is a little sought after profession as it gives
a very low salary, positions at the many private schools being much more attractive.
Since the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil in 1985 public school pedagogy is still very much affected by aged politics.
Paulo Freire (1921 - 1997), a Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy and author of Education as the
Practice of Freedom and Pedagogy of the opressed, strongly criticized a school system that is about filling up the student, as if he
is an empty shell. He promoted a school with is already a democracy, the relationship between student and teacher being that of
equals, as opposed to educating someone in a non-democratic environment for them to later exist in a democracy outside school
ground. In other words - school should be a model for society and an integrated part of it.
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4. Context: Place
Brazil: 5th most populous country in the world (191 million), and 5th largest country
by geographical area, main language portoguese, predominance Roman-Catholic,
capital Brasilia, biggest city São Paulo.
1 km
São paulo: 7th most populous metropolitan area in the world (19 million), and the
most populous city on the Southern heminphere, 1,522.986 km2, the richest city in
Brazil, humid subtropical climate. Aprox. 900 meters above sea level.
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5. Morro Doce, Perus,
30.000 people
r
ive
nr
otte
rg
Fo
Commercial and residencial
terior >>>
State in
Other
School
Protected forest
PROJECT
SITE
ty
i
aulo c
São P
<<<
Industial Residencial
area
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6. 1 2 3
MORRO DOCE
1, 2 | Commercial zone
3 | River in the city
4, 5 | Recidential
6 | Neighbourhood seen from forest
7, 8 | Stairs
9| Culture - nature
4 5 6
7 8 9

7. The Site is located on a slope, with potential access from the lower and upper side. However the site is completely closed to all sides by tall walls. The existing school
is built in the middle of the site and the classrooms embrace a small inner school yard. At the back of the site is a overbuilt basket ball court. It is closed with a metal mesh and
the children are only allowed to use it when designated. The rest of the school territory is covered by vegetation; grass and some trees. This area of the site is however out of
reach of the children which are only allowed in the classrooms and the inner school yard. From the school there is a view to a protected forest.
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8. ESCOLA GUZMÃO
10 11 12
GUZMÃO PUBLIC SCHOOL
10 | Main entrance
11 | Main stairs
12, 14 | As seen from the street
13 | The wall
15 | Wall of upper entrance
16 | Break
17 | Students
18 | Asking autorization to enter
13 14 15
16 17 18

9. Methodology diagram
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10. Identify program
Identify users
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11. Identify caracteristics/relationships
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12. Sketching the project, concepts, thoughts and ideas
Safety is an important issue in one of the densest and most crime exposed cities in the world.
A romantic gathering of trees can create a situation for criminals to lure in.
Unsafe Safe
Pu b l i c m e e t s p r i v a t e very often by some sort of wall. But by a
Normally little sacrifice a more dynamic, transparent and generous situation
can be offered.
Potentially
We must b re a k d o w n t h e w a l l ! Breaking down the walls for the school that
is a voluntary, healthy and holistic educational experience! Architecture is not
about building walls, but about defining and molding time & space.
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13. Som e p a r t o f t h e w all can be kept for pronounced manifestation of its
being torn down for what reason. The school building should however pen-
etrate it and the main enterance is a “secret” opening in the same wall. This
wall should be free for the children to paint on.
Th e a c o u s t i c s is a problem at the existing school. All
materials used are hard sound reflecting materials such as
brick and concrete.
Co n s i d e r u s e o f d ifferent materials can help the acoustic situation and they will be used
to bring identity to spaces by offering different sensory experience.
Th e p o w e r o f t h e e lements is present in the area by hard rains and a
burning sun. This is a potential that can be taken advantage of: the rain should
be gathered for school crops, the rays of the sun can give free energy, but at the
same time windows must be turned away from it. Trees can be used for shading.
The wind should be welcomed into the school during the hottest months,
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14. T h e ch icken ete is a kitchen/cantina that has a chicken house adja-
cent to provide always fresh eggs. The word comes from the Brazilian
lanchonete, which is a place where lanches, snacks, are sold.
I n th e s ch ool pr o g ra m I propose that the children in turn are
responsible for cooking the lunch for the rest of the school. Also
taking care of the chicken and the vegetables and fruits grown on the
school grounds. The holistic school should as far as possible be self
sufficient on all levels, and services should preferably be observed or
performed by the children as part of their education. When the chil-
Plan. Chichenhouse attached to dren in this way are responsible for the school they take ownership in
it and become active in developing it.
Plan. Chichenhouse deattached from kitchen
T h e s l ope sh ou l d b e e x p lo i t e d for bringing extra groseries to the
kitchen by a mecanical elevator from the upper side of the site.
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15. Sketching concepts in model
How much is 18 classrooms?

16. Going vertical. Building a landscape.
up
ld
Fo
e
c ap
ds
lan
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17. Vertical structure. Closed rooms. Inter relating external space. Work spacial qualities.
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18. 47

19. 1 2 3 4
1 5
1
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20. New situation
Reappearance of the river, green space integrated iver
dr
with sports areana for the whole neighbourhood, not are
just one school. pe
ap
Re
Commercial and residencial
terior >>>
State in
Other
school
Protected forest
PROJECT
SITE
ty
i
aulo c
São P
<<<
Integration Residencial
culture and nature,
with sport arenas,
parks.
49

21. Pink is common is red bricks like the neighbourhood. Newspaper is offices is wood or bricks. Gray is classrooms is wood from selected trees. Material investigation
and details not completed.
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22. 51

23. From South From East
From West From North

24. :500
1
Plan groundfloor related to the outdoors
Common indoors
Offices
Common outdoor with roof
Toilets

25. Plan 1st floor
Common indoors
Common outdoor with roof
Toilets
:500
1
Plan 2nd floor
Common indoors
Classrooms
Offices
Common outdoor with roof
Toilets

26. :500
1
Plan 3rd floor
Common indoors
Classrooms
Common outdoor with roof
Toilets
er
at
Rain w
Roofgarden
Organic raincollector
:500
1
Roof Plan
Glassed light openingsz
1