Naturalisation of the current/existing sports court in the playground of the “El petitmiquel” school
The project converts and naturalizes a historically occupied play area by a school sports court into a children’s playground, preserving the memory of the place by leaving the lines of games of the old court as traces of memory. A new topography of vegetation allows the garden to be recreated until the school level and create a new adapted access way. The new tree planting allows shading and biodiversity to be introduced into the playground. A staircase–stage makes the play area multifunctional.
Local
Spain
{Empty}
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): FUNDACIÓ PRIVADA COL.LEGI SANT MIQUEL DELS SANTS Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Jordi Last name of representative: Comas Mora Gender: Male Nationality: Spain If relevant, please select your other nationality: Spain Function: Architect Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: PASSATGE CAN MASTROT 1, ENT. D7 Town: VIC Postal code: 08500 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 938 89 04 67 E-mail:oficina@comas-pont.com Website:http://www.comas-pont.com
The “elpetitmiquel” school is located in a listed building called “El Seminari” built in the 1940’s and catalogued as an asset of local interest.
The Seminary is an imposing building, both for its size and its elevated position above Vic city.
Some austere and monumental spaces have housed the school for more or less 40 years. The school is located on the ground floor of the east wing of the building.
The school has two outdoor recreational spaces:
A central courtyard surrounded by classroom corridors, like a cloister. It contains the sport court. On the other hand, to the east wing we find a large earthen courtyard without shadows.
This is the reason why we propose to transform the central space of the sports field into the central space of the school. It is proposed to turn the space into an activity garden. Part of the old sports court is preserved as a multi-purpose square, leaving the playing lines as old memory traces.
Individual prefabricated benches are designed for the occasion and make up the square in shaped-worm. They also have the function of a retaining wall.
Around the perimeter, the existing pavement is crushed and used as a drainage sub-base for the new vegetation. This new topography allows the garden to be recreated until the school level and create a new adapted access path to the square that also serves as a play way to access to the new areas.
The proposed planting provides shade for the courtyard. In this way, you can see the different seasons and introduce the smells and colours inside the school.
A staircase – stage gives versatility to the courtyard and the square as a space for collective events.
Finally, about 30 trees have been planted in the large courtyard in the last 3 years. About 20 more trees are planned to be planted over the next 2 years to provide natural shadows to the play areas.
Naturalisation
Socialization
Memory
Sustainability
Biodiversity
A part of the sports court has been preserved as a multi-purpose square. The remainder of the pavement is crushed to be used as a drainage base for the new vegetation, thus avoiding the generation of construction waste. This new topography allows the garden to grow up to the level of the school and create a new adapted access path to the square.
The vegetation is autochthonous and low water consumption to provide shade for the courtyard, see the passing of the seasons and introduce colours and smells inside the school.
The new draining and porous pavements allow the vegetation to transpire and the environment to cool down, avoiding the heat island effect. At the same time, rainwater feeds and restores the groundwater table, reinforcing the ecosystem of the site.
Biodiversity that is based on stable communities is restored. Both high up in the tree canopy or at ground level with continuous vegetation. The latter with grasses and shrubs, capable of providing food and shelter for wildlife.
The key objectives of the project were to make the playground an inclusive, diverse, natural, shaded and welcoming space. Simultaneously, we can’t ignore the fact that it’s a school playground and for this reason, all used materials to had to allow intensive use and they be low maintenance without losing sensory quality.
Another objective was to enhance sustainability and increase biodiversity.
The first decision to convert the sports court into a playground allows the glazing to be restored. These were protected so that the balls couldn’t break them. The aesthetic improvement of the building was immediate.
The second decision was to preserve the memory of the place and not to create a new space out of nothing. In this way, part of the sports court is preserved and we turned this space into a central square where the play lines become new play spaces.
We enhance curved lines. They are considered more pleasant for children’s games because they accompany the movements and avoid aggressive solutions. Worm-shaped benches are created to fit the shape of the project and create a resting space.
The new paths are paved for the use of bicycles and students with reduced mobility. Two new play areas are also connected with soft paving, which at the same time introduces colour into the playground.
The landscaping of the new topography brings wellbeing to the students, shadows, smells, colours, etc. The same vegetation shows the different seasons of the year and their relation to learning. Simultaneously, the heat island effect is avoided and the play area is cooled down for a friendlier atmosphere.
The choice of materials and the attention to detail give the space quality. The aim is that the school to take ownership of the space, to make it its own and to take care of it in order to reduce its subsequent maintenance.
School is the most democratic and inclusive space there is. It enhances equal opportunities, participation and socialisation.
The design of the new playground makes it user-friendly, affordable and accessible to all types of people and functional diversities. It also proposes a universal design that excludes no one, neither by class nor by gender. The new courtyard offers open, cheerful, intimate and comfortable spaces that facilitate sociability.
The new topography allows the garden to be recreated until the school level and create a new adapted access path to the square that also serves as a play way to access to the new areas.
The rest of the playground is at the level and it offers a variety of inclusive play areas for children: For example, there are spaces with sand and others with hard and soft pavements.
The proposed plantation avoids allergy-causing species and it wants to achieve a pleasant atmosphere in the whole courtyard.
The benches follow the square with worm-shaped form and they allow the different users to rest. They also use to generate meetings with grandparents and people with reduced mobility.
From the beginning, the education community, parents and children have participated in the process by proposing a series of demands to improve the school. These demands and the subsequent dialogue have made it possible to put down on paper the objectives set for 2030.
Based on this document, the team of architects draws up a master plan for the reform of the school in which they try to respond to all the proposed objectives. This master plan is presented to the community for approval and improvement.
Before the performance, a presentation is made to inform the families about the intervention and the duration of the constructions.
The planting of the new plant species id carried out with the participation of the students as an additional educational activity. At the same time, the students are involved in the maintenance of what they themselves have planted.
Each year, the new students together with the older students are expected to care for and replace the vegetation that hasn’t survived. In this way, we manage to take ownership of the space and generate a more sustainable and natural education.
The Seminary building is one of the most emblematic buildings of the bishopric of Vic. The diocese of the bishopric covers a large part of the Catalan geography and its territory stretches from the Pyrenees to the lands of “Anoia”.
The “Fundació Sant Miquel dels Sants de Vic” is a private non-profit foundation which aims at social benefit. It’s made up of the Vic city council, the bishopric, the school director, the parents and the teachers.
All these actors have been involved in the reconversion of the “elpetitmiquel” school in a natural school and they have enhanced the participatory process to reach the H2030 targets to be implemented in the school.
At September of 2017, the “Sant Miquel” school starts the participatory process called “Quina escola volem?” Then works began on the “Horitzó 2030” objectives.
In 2018, the H2030 was developed with the participation of the entire educational community. At the same time, the school is starting to work on a master plan for interventions in educational spaces with H2030 views.
At the end of 2019 the public presentation of H2030 was made. This document should be concluded the actions and interventions to be carried out.
People and knowledge are the main issues of H2030. About these themes, different forms of learning and organisational structures are formed. Thus, the H2030 objectives are grouped with four areas of work. These areas are the following: Knowledge, Learning subjects, Learning environments and Structure. From all this comes the relevance of the new educational spaces.
Architecture must be at the service of the pedagogical strategy. In this way, the importance of educational spaces as the fruit of long community work process.
Four disciplines have been involved in the development of the project.
Architecture: The Architecture has worked with the design of the new courtyard with special attention to accessibility, the preservation of the memory of the place and the use of materials suitable for the age of its users. Also, it has generated a reflection on play spaces that should be allow for all play for a child. Other reflections taken into account are the following: shadows in summer, hard and soft pavements, nature spaces to play, adventure games or resting places. All this, with the aim of achieving more inclusive and certainly more creative leisure.
Landscaping: The landscape managers have worked with different vegetation and its interaction with its users. They choose suitable autochthonous trees with low water consumption which don’t represent any danger to their users. Also, the shrub vegetation that supports biodiversity and, at the same time, it’s resistant to the children. Finally, to avoid degradation of vegetation, they have worked together with the teachers to educate the children to respect the nature that surrounds them.
Teachers: Together with the teachers it’s proposed to carry out a pedagogical work with pupils to plant new vegetation species every March. The aim of this action is to make students aware of nature and respect for these spaces. In this way, we ensure that what the students’ plant and care is learning as well as acquiring values.
Sustainability experts: The sustainability experts have worked together with architect and landscape designer to minimise construction waste. In this case, all the waste from the demolition of the sports court was used for the base and topography for the new plant species. We can say that all the waste generated has been used. At the same time, efficient irrigation has been promoted and the laying of porous pavement to feed the water table and avoid the heat island effect has been promoted.
The innovation of the proposal is to convert a completely paved ball game area into a nature area, with draining pavements feed the existing groundwater table and encourage the biodiversity and the wide possibility of inclusive and creative games. The goal is to create a new fully accessible and life-generating play space for children from 3 to 6 years old.
This project is achieved without generating waste. All existing materials are reused to preserve the memory of the place. In addition, the whole project is carried out during the 2 months of summer holidays so that it doesn’t interfere with the school term.
Involving teachers and students in the planting has also helped to preserve the interventation and reduce maintenance, integrating it like an educational activity.
This proposal could be replicated in all school playgrounds built in the last 40 years. These courtyards have prioritised the ball games with completely paved and treeless courtyards that turn the courtyard into a heat island and a space monopolised by the ball.
All these spaces could encourage the reduction of ball games spaces. The fact of faciliting the ball games means that the space cannot be used for other games of a more intuitive or improvised nature.
The use of soft pavements and draining pavements could be promoted.
The planting of trees and plant species that favour the biodiversity of the site.
The heat island would be avoided and would result in more shaded, ventilated and pleasant spaces.
The waste generated by the paving could be converted into topographies within the courtyard that would allow for the creation of small mountains for improvised games or for the placement of slides.
The cost of these interventions is usually economically low and for this reason, is very important in terms of improving the habitability conditions, improving the hygienic and environmental conditions of the courtyards.
From the outset, work has been carried out collaboratively with the different agents involved: School, Architects, Landscapers, sustainability experts, Teachers, Parents and Students.
For this reason, the project has been prioritised as follows:
The sustainability of the proposal
The reuse of materials
A pedagogical aim
Increased biodiversity
Universal accessibility
Enhancing inclusive games
Each of these proposals is shared, assessed and approved with all stakeholders.
This methodology aims to ensure that all the actors involved take ownerships of the agreed planned solutions and they value the final result. For this reason, the plan is to improve the maintenance of the interventation and the sense of relevance of the space.
We believe that the project encompasses the following overall objectives:
Renaturation of spaces
The project rethinks the excessively paved spaces that waterproof the natural soil. This fact prevents the natural course of the water. That’s why draining pavements should be recovered to feed the natural soils. This also results in cooler spaces and avoids the heat island effect. Planting plant species shades the play areas and increases biodiversity.
Spaces for a new education
Spaces are essential to pedagogy. To revolutionise the world of education is to revolutionise its spaces. The imaginary boundary between classroom and playground is blurred, forming a new educational space. Play is fundamental to children’s growth and development, so it’s considering a very important educational tool. School playgrounds are spaces for socialisation and integration through games. Therefore, it’s a space that needs to be rethought to be as inclusive and pedagogical as possible.
Rehabilitation of existing spaces
Another overarching challenge addressed during the project is repair rather than replacement. Almost all buildings can be repaired. In Europe, the logical thing to do would be to repair because a lot of construction has been done. You cannot always start from scratch because it’s not a sustainable action. Transformation is about doing more and better with what we have. What exists is a resource that needs to be layered with complexity and endowed with new reading and functions. In short, we need to start thinking collectively about what the next generation will entail.
Post – intervention monitoring has been carried out by asking the agents involved in the participatory process about the scope of the interventation and to detect whether it meets the objectives set out in that process.
If we analyse the result of each question, the result would be the following:
1. Do you think that renovated or new spaces have facilitated new ways of learning?
73.7% consider that they have facilitated new forms of learning a lot and 23.74% quite a lot.
2. Do you consider that the renovated or new spaces are accessible, inclusive and flexible?
80.3% consider the spaces to be accessible, inclusive and flexible. The other 17.1% quite a lot.
3. Have renovated or new spaces improved to the spatial and aesthetic quality to the educational centres?
88.2% consider that the spaces have improved the spatial and aesthetic quality. The remaining 11.8% consider it quite a lot.
4. Have the architectural interventions created a friendlier environment which helps to strengthen relationships between teachers, students and families?
67.1% consider that a friendlier environment has been achieved and 30.3% consider it to be quite friendly.
5. Have the outdoor spaces been renaturalised and a more fluid relationship between interior and landscape has been achieved?
91.4% consider that the internal/external relationship has been renaturalised and improved. The remaining 8.6% considers it quite a lot.
6. Have the existing buildings been treated with respect in the changes that have taken place?
77.6% consider that the existing buildings have been treated with respect. The other 21.1% regards it with considerable respect.
7. Making the teaching spaces more permeable and expanding common spaces that encourage new dynamics could be replicable in other educational centres?
76.3% consider the proposal very replicable.
