Preschool in the Peru Amazon River Basin

The project is designed for a preschool program and draws elements from the analysis of three precedents — tobacco barns, the Ricola Storage Building by Herzog and de Meuron, and the stilt houses of Iquitos, Peru.

The object was to find solutions for the Amazon basin climate and to transform its unique qualities into moments of play. The model takes an elongated and sheared form in order to maximize cross ventilation and to organize the public and private spaces of the building. Further, it utilizes the fluctuating water levels of the Peruvian Amazon basin: When the water level is low, the stilted area beneath the preschool creates an outdoor space of play and discovery. When the water level is high, the maximum water level falls just below the school's floor level and allows children to observe the reflective qualities of water.