Sobrosa School / CNLL

Architects: CNLL
Location: Sobrosa, Portugal
Area: 4197.0 sqm
Project Year: 2012
Photographs: Nelson Garrido

Architecture Coordinator: Nuno Lacerda Lopes
Architecture Collaborators: CNLL I Márcia Areal, Vanessa Tavares
Specialties : DAJ
Client: Câmara Municipal de Paredes
Lot Area: 10.165 m2

From the architect. This school was designed as a playful combination of modules that can be easily adapted to the variations of the terrain and the topography of the place. It develops the concept established in the modular schools project (CEM – Centros Escolares Modulares) and revisits the original objective where the movement, variation and formal complexity of the exterior contrast with the linearity of the interior planes that structure the functional areas.

Given the shape of the terrain, its orientation, sun exposure, accesses and relationship with the urban structure, it was possible to maximise the expression of the interplay between the modules that make up the different spaces of this school. The idea of continual movement created by the paths surrounding the central courtyard seeks to characterise the image of the project and the use of this building.

Here a number of concepts of composition and organisation of space are explored and experimented with. The plane and mass are the basis for constructing volumes, verticality meets horizontality, and the senses of surprise and compression are fostered through the countless spaces that the freely associated modules create.

More than just providing an acritical sense of stability, the project for this school invites both children and adults to continually experiment and confront. This is what truly makes it a place of learning.