FP Arquitectura

La Felicidad School

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

LA FELICIDAD SCHOOL

Fp Arquitectura

ARCHITECTS
Fp Arquitectura

LOCATION
Fontibón, Bogotá, Colombia

CATEGORY
Schools

ARCHITECTS IN CHARGE
Iván Forgioni, José Puentes

AREA
7917.0 m2

PROJECT YEAR
2018

PHOTOGRAPHY
Alejandro Arango,

MANUFACTURERS
Autodesk, Google, Ladrillera Santafé

STRUCTURAL DESIGN
Ingemac

ELECTRIC DESIGN
Coselecsa

HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING
Heco Ingeniería

ECOLOGICAL DESIGN
Verónica Henríquez

ACUSTIC DESIGN
Eduardo Maya

LANDSCAPING
Gloria Aponte

CONSULTS
Consorcio BCL

CLIENTS
Secretaria Distrital de Educación de Bogotá

ARCHITECTS IN CHARGE
Iván Forgioni, José Puentes

DESIGN TEAM
Juan José López, Juan Felipe Mejía, Laura Muñeton, Daniela Núñez

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

Text description provided by architect.

Advocated by the District Department of Education and summoned by the Colombian Society of Architects in Bogotá D.C and Cundinamarca, in 2013 a public contest was realized in order to select the best proposal of design for a school in the location of Fontibón.

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

The architecture firm FP Arquitectura won the first place in the contest with a proposal titled: A classroom a Courtyard, a School a Grand Courtyard.

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

Finally, the school was built and inaugurated at the end of 2017, and selected by Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo- BID, as one of the most innovative schools in Latin America, due to its integration with the community and the creative design applied to a contemporary educational model.

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

PRINCIPAL IDEA

In contraposition to the traditional schemes of the organisation of educational spaces, of wards of corridors with classrooms on the sides, the school La Felicidad is conceived under an ordering principle that consists of a series of courtyards which each one articulates the components of the educational spaces.

This allows bringing activities outside of the classroom and permits integration with nature.

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

THE ORGANISATION OF THE SCHOOL

The school is organised in four large zones that are located around a big central courtyard.

On the southern side, the classrooms of primary school are organised on the first level and the ones of secondary school on the second level.

On the northern side, with separate access, the preschool classrooms are located in one single level. The school canteen and auditorium are located on the western side.

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

The eastern side, as a representative volume of the whole, hosts the centre of integrated resources, the library and the administrative spaces.

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

Part of this block is elevated from the ground permitting transparency and accessibility to the main courtyard and generating a possibility of integration with the neighbourhood.

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

INPUT ON THE PEDAGOGICAL PROCESSES

Giving access to courtyards and terraces of different scales as an extension of the educational spaces permits the students to have greater contact with natural light, the vegetation and open spaces.

In addition, it gives the teachers the possibility to realize other non-typical pedagogical activities, as the cultivation of a garden or group works in the open air.

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

The courtyards of various scales (courtyard-classrooms, recess courtyards and the big main courtyard) are conceived as spaces for democratic life, permitting the encounter and recognition of the students and the teachers as a part of an academic community, and in a wider sense, as citizens.

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC VIABILITY

A structure of gateways of concrete in two levels and a reduced palette of materials was proposed:

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,

exposed brick walls, stoneware and cobble floors, windows of clear tempered glass, anodized grey aluminium, steel tubing for handrails and fences.

All resistant materials of low maintenance and low costs that do not require specialized workforce.

La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,
La Felicidad School
© Alejandro Arango,


La Felicidad School
Section 1
La Felicidad School
Section 2


La Felicidad School
Elevation 1
La Felicidad School
Elevation 2
La Felicidad School
Elevation 3


La Felicidad School
Structure of courtyard
La Felicidad School
Axonomteric view


La Felicidad School
Floor plan first level
La Felicidad School
Floor plan second level

FP Arquitectura
T +57 4 5577830 M +57 305 4371420
FP Arquitectura
Calle 40 # 65-03, Int. 203, Ed. Guacarí, Colombia