ESCUELA TIERRA 01

Type: Thesis project

Location: Puno, Peru

Year: 2020 - 2021

Tutors:

Sofía Rodriguez Larrain

Silvia Onnis

Belen Desmaison

The Escuela Tierra (Earth School) is a proposal for higher education equipment in the rural areas of the Peruvian Altiplano, a region which suffers from a lack of educational infrastructure, but simultaneously, stands out for its vast knowledge embedded in the traditions of the indigenous people.

In response, this project seeks to enhance the local practices surrounding the sustainable use of the local resource: earth. The Escuela Tierra will serve as an alternative educational environment for the entire community by acting as a hub for local youth and artisans to work together to innovate in the fields of agriculture, adobe construction, and pottery.

The design seeks break the standards of a regular school and adapt to the uniqueness of the territory, consequently, the proposal is not one building, but a system that can spread and interconnect through its rural and urban settlements.

The Altiplano

The territorial dynamics of the Altiplano involve a constant social and economic exchange between dispersed urban and rural settlements, which is why the school is designed as multi-localized project.

To achieve this, a modular, replicable, and adaptable system is created, allowing the configuration of three satellite schools for three interconnected towns that make up one functional territory.

Pucará, José Domingo Choquehuanca and Santiago de Pupuja are the towns that share a prehispanic heritage, and are connected by a road that traverses the desert-like, grassy plains of the Altiplano, making it easier for residents to share traditions, markets, and daily activities.

Working Period

Natural Landscape

The Altiplano of Puno, Perú

TERRITORIAL DYNAMICS

Province of Azángaro

LOCAL COMMUNITIES

03 functional towns

The location of the school responds to the cultural value of the site due to its material and immaterial heritage, originated in the pre-hispanic and colonial periods.

First, the Temple Kalasaya, in the archaeological complex of Pucará, build in 200 BC by the homonymous culture, and described as the “first city of the Altiplano” by anthropologist Elías Mujica.

Second, the community of Checca Pupuja, a rural settlement in between the main towns, renowned for its pottery as national cultural heritage, and its famous piece, the Torito of Pucará, a colonial bull shape jug popularized as an art piece in the 1920s.

These, and other traditional features, influence the architectural proposal for the Earth School.

Strategy 1: Modules for a system

The project explores earth as a construction material, enhancing the local knowledge through its usage in the architecture, so that the vessel reflects the content of the school.

The “C” shape of rammed earth becomes an ideal unit to make two types of modules that contain the activities of the school. These modules can be repeated and arranged as demanded by the program.

Local References:

Earth Walls and Buttresses

Strategy 2: Patios for adaptability

The modules designed are integrated through patios that conform the school. The patio is the local element that concentrates rural daily life, as the domestic transition between natural landscape and manmade interior.

In the school, it gives a scenery to students, masters, and community to exchange and generate knowledge. Hence, in addition to its role as an educational centre, the Escuela Tierra becomes a space appropriable by the community for a range of activities and events.

The different patios respond to the needs of their use, such as planting orchards or community gatherings. Whilst, arranging them in platforms, allows the adaptability to the topography of the terrain.

Local References: Patios and Platforms

One school for a vast community

Through the strategies, three satellite schools are created to conform one Escuela Tierra.

Pucará, with its closeness to the archaeological site, has a gallery and multipurpose room for cultural events, and workshops for the three study fields. José Domingo Choquehuanca, with the largest urban development and as the point of arrival with its train station, has a student residency and workshops for agriculture and construction. Santiago de Pupuja, as the smallest town, has an intimate library, along with workshops for pottery and agriculture.

Finally, the school is welcoming and accessible to the whole community, and well equipped to serve as a catalyst for positive change within the Altiplano, as it hopefully can be replicated and adapted in other communities throughout the region.