REUSE PROPOSAL: A new sustainable campus for

La Escuela de Amigos de Monteverde

ORIANE DALEY

Background

- Founded in 1950s by Quakers settling in Monteverde, Costa Rica

- Campus provides Classrooms, Meeting Hall, Multi-Purpose room, and Library for community

- Progressive, integrated, flexible curriculum with Montessori, or child-to-child, learning approach

- Small, multi-age classrooms (includes pre-school through 12th grade)

Philosophy

- Place of community development and personal growth

- Teachers and students grow together

Needs

- New classroom space

- Better use and integration of community and school spaces

- More storage space

- Universal access

La Escuela de Amigos de Monteverde

 

A Comprehensive Plan

This proposal aims to con-solidates classroom space and join community spaces that strenghthen, not weaken, each other. For instance, ceremo-nies like weddings that occurr in the meeting hall are directly adjacent to the younger chil-dren’s classes. The idea is to keep the campus connected but fully functional. Essentially, developing a new flow between the spaces by redifing the entire programmatic layout.

Sustainable Approach

Low construction costs are pos-sible by getting the most out of the spaces already provided on campus. Any new construction is to be cost-effect and sustain-able through the reuse of mate-rial: tiles, wood; and incorpora-tion of living roofs.

Initial studies

Various studies, including adjacency diagrams, were developed to analyze the relationships between the various programs on site. These served to better evaluate the existing conditions.

NEW USE OF SPACECLASS COMMUNITY STORAGE OFFICE SECURITY COMPUTER

Staging

An important aspect of the project is the staging of relocation during times of renovation and construction. Because the campus is used by the students and rest of community year-round, careful consideration for al-lowing it to fully function was crucial.

The current Kindergarten classroom does not provide adequate storage, work, and play space. The children need separate spaces for wet and dry activities, a place to keep their belongings, and form the Montessori circle as a class.

The Kinder building for reconstruction is structurally damaged because of its position at bottom of hill, with a rotting foundation and sunken floor. The building also gets runoff from multiple overlapping roofs at points of intersection with other campus buildings. A more efficient roof-ing and foundation system is needed for a building in its place.

NEW KINDER SPACE

before

Renovation:

- Set up new Kinder classroom in existing multipurpose- Close up wind tunnel by expanding new kinder-Build new bathroom additions-Move all tile to “wet” side of room with plumbing; install wood for dry side-Double door entrance from courtyard used as primary entrance-Double doors from hallway can now be closed off and wall space used-Relocate Kinder class

Advantages:

-Enough storage space already built in-Separate spaces for wet and dry activities-Doors to playground allow separate circulation for kids at different times when needed; doors also can be used as emergency exits-Previously 62 square meters, now 74 m2

after

The multipurpose room is for community use, usually used with the meeting hall.

The office space is cramped into one corner of the building, with the space behind it used for classes.

With the function of the multipurpose room to be provided in the construction of a new community space elsewhere on campus, the multipurpose room can be replaced with a new kindergarten room. The office space is extended and classroom space relocated.

Renovation:

Take down wall on second floor between old com-puter lab and old office space for new classroom space

Take down wall on ground level between office and old primary Spanish space to extend office

The current office is divided among the first and second floors of the central building on campus. Its efficient ground floor office could be maximized if expanded from the corner all the way through to the back of the building. The cramped, inaccessible second level office can now be moved down into the new office and swaped with the current spanish classroom. This will consolidate office and classroom spaces.

NEW OFFICE SPACE

Advantages:

New office is now 55 m2, compared to the split office space before, which was 18 m2, and 20 m2

Second floor in central building is now used for all classroom space

New office is now 55 m2, compared to the split office space before, which was 18 m2, and 20 m2

Second floor in central building is now used for all classroom space

before after

2nd Level

Ground Level

NEW COMMUNITY SPACE

Advantages:

-Rotating existing shop allows enough space for new meeting room to be built without tearing anything down

-Allows enough space for meeting hall to extend into existing shop building for kitchenette or other extra-use space

-Kitchen from old multipurpose is now not needed there, and can be relocated to new kitchenette for meeting room

-Previous meeting room was 93 m2 alone, and 156 m2 when used with the multipurpose (the previous multipur-pose being 63 m2

-The new meeting room alone, not including kitchenette, totals 166 m2, which is larger than the previous combined 156 m2

-The kitchenette adds 30 m2 to the 166, which makes a total of 196 m2

-This building is provided with enough storage space from existing shop building (adjacent to new kitchenette) that the space can be used as both a new meeting hall and multipurpose

-New stage is roughly 40 m2

Construct new Meeting Hall:

-Deconstruct old kinder space, (save good wood for future use)

-Lift, rotate, and relocate adjacent building to allow more space for new building

-Build addition onto existing shop roof to control rain - keeps the water away from point of connection between the two buildings and drains it to outer edges

-Build new meeting room and vestibule

-Vestibule connects meeting room building with 2-story central building on site

-Living roof with small plant garden on both vestibule and meeting room roofs

before after

before after

-Meeting room building’s ceiling is taller than vestibule, allowing light to come into clerestory windows

-Living roof controls noise from rain and flooding or damage to foundation

With a new spot on campus for community gatherings, the current meeting hall can be renovated to create two new classroom spaces.

This building on campus is sandwiched between other classrooms in adjacent build-ings and could bridge the two ends with the proposed resue.

NEW CLASSROOM SPACERenovation: - Build partition in current Meeting Hall for two new classroom spaces (using good wood from previous kinder deconstruction) - Level the floor in new classroom on right of partition (to stage levelAdvantages: - Existing classes in need of relocation during other renovations now have alternative space with more square footage - With the emphasis on child-to-child learning, this consolidation of classrooms serves the school’s mission appropriately.

before after

NEW COMPUTER LAB

NEW GUARD APARTMENTRenovation:

- Current classroom can now be relocated into one of new classroom spaces provided in previous Meeting Hall building- Efficiency bathroom and kitchen can be built into the space to create apartment (use of recycled tiles from previous deconstruction)

before

after

Relocate Computer Lab

NEW COMPUTER LAB

NEW GUARD APARTMENTAdvantages:

- Security guard now has private space that is 38 m2- Better location by campus entrance on ground level- Adjacent to various storage space and new computer lab

The current computer lab is an awkward shape to accomodate the computer desk space needed for student and teacher use.

The campuss security guard currently has a des-ignated area with a mat-tress on the second floor to stay when needed.

Ideally, the school would like a comfortable accomo-dation for a guard in order to keep someone on the job at all times.

Advantages:

- New location for computer lab is secure being adjacent to guard - More effcient lab space with equal square footage as previously used

ACCESSIBLE CAMPUS

Part of making the campus fully functional is making it fully accessible. Although most of campus buildngs are single-story, the steep site conditions resulted in a complicated stepping system of many overlapping steps.

These stairs can be transformed into a universally accessible ramp system. By starting further down the campus, the transition up-hill is more gradual and brings the official entry way to campus closer to the road and parking for easier way-finding. Buildings on campus now also have stronger, immediate connections. The paths on campus are now safer for everyone during the rainy season, and particularly for younger children at play.

Monteverde Friend’s School

http://www.mfschool.org/

Sustainable Futures

http://sustainablefutures.org/

REUSE PROPOSAL

SUSTAINABLE FUTURES PROGRAM

Monteverde, Costa Rica

Summer 2009