Code: (08.w.ODG)

 

Title: Odgen Kindergarten

 

/// Authors: JARD

/// Year: 2008

/// Prmtrs: Diagram Static  Immanence       Months  0.00 €  Commons         Otherness       Ad hoc  Public  Pedagogy

 

A lot of toys are based on coiling, doing spirals or, simply, crumpling. Moreover, the quintessential space for playing is the hallway, at least, in Spanish cities where public space is narrowing… So, what could be more ludic than a folded hallway for a kindergarten? The idea was to set up the corridor and then, the needs will plug in it; the infrastructure was ready for new programs.

 

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The project tries to take advantage of the current plans of the Public Building Commission of the City of Chicago of replacing the present building for a new one for housing 900 students, actually the double of its size. The plot is situated three blocks west from Michigan Avenue, in the Near North Side community of the city, one of the largest and most varied areas of the metropolis where some of the most expensive streets of the city coexist with some of the most problematic neighborhoods of Chicago.

 

The program corresponds to a regular 900-students Chicago public school from pre-kindergarten to 8th grade as provided by the Public Building Commission. In an area so densely populated like the Near North Side, the performance of the use of space is a critical issue. It will be the main reason for enlarging the original program of the building for becoming it much more flexible, open and versatile.

 

The program is organized in a very simple way by distributing along an only line. This way, we would get a 2,400 feet-long building, like the distance from La Salle Boulevard to Michigan Avenue. As the space available is limited, the whole strip is coiled-up around this plot keeping and shaping at the same time a central atrium. At this point, the infrastructure of the building is formed, and the program –the proposed one or any other different one– will be plugged around this coil formed by the ram.       

 

So, the project should be read from inside, where the empty core is, to outside. All the large performances and meeting of the community will be hold within this central space, while all the unexpected happens. This central space stands over the partially carved ground floor, permeable in the different direction and where all the large programs and the more public ones are located. All this ground floor can work actually like a huge meeting and activities center for the community, increasing the performance of the building.

 

Light and natural ventilation is provided to the whole building by using the inner atrium and translucent materials in all partitions between atrium, enclosed spaces and street.

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