Fundacion Pies Descalzos
Barranquilla, Colombia
Barefoot Foundation (Pies Descalzos Foundation) is a Colombian charity founded by pop artist Shakira in 1997,[1] with the aim of helping poor and impoverished children. The Pies Descalzos mission statement is “The Barefoot Foundation works to ensure that every Colombian child can exercise their right to a quality education. Our model targets displaced and vulnerable communities by addressing their unique needs.”.
This design is for the creation of a school to serve the community of La Playa in the north of Barranquilla. The school is for grades 0-12 and will house over 1700 students, in two sessions of 850 students each. Working closely with la Fundacion Pies Descalzos, the sponsor of the project, to understand their mission for the school we have designed a project that will be a true center for the community around which the people of La Playa can unify and raise the quality of life. As we began to approach the challenge of the design, we set forth a series of principles that we developed through a study of the site and its conditions.
To create a truly civic and public school, by maximizing the public social space and to organize it in such a way that it truly benefits the students at the school and the people of La Playa.
To mitigate the effects of the environmental conditions, while celebrating the opportunities for the experience of an extraordinary nature.
To elevate, both conceptually and physically, the component of the program, which is most strongly associated with learning, the Library.
To maximize views to the Caribbean Sea over the low topography between the site and the sea.
With these principles established the design truly evolved naturally and organically. The result is the creation of an original idea for a school and community center which is, at the same time, functional, social, environmental, economic, educational, and symbolic of the genuinely lofty goals of the Pies Descalzos Foundation, that of the elevation of the youth community of La Playa, Barranquilla through education.
