School in Murteira | NOZ Arquitectura

The project consists in the refurbishment of the existing school building, built as part of the ‘Centenary Plan’ for education that extended from 1941 to 1969, and in its extension with the construction of a new adjacent building to accommodate the new program.

The new building is designed with a remarkably modern language without overwhelming the existing architecture. The extension allowed to improve the school offer to accommodate, in the same building, the first level of basic education, Kindergarten and Free Time Activities.

In the existing building the old classrooms are converted to kindergarten rooms. The original porch, now centrally located to the entire school, is used as the transition space between the existing rooms and the new building, becoming a central distribution space and for various internal activities.

The outer spaces are fully redesigned with pavement games, playground toys for different age groups, a small area for ball games, new trees for shading and a small children's farm.

Exposed brick from the Vale Gandara is applied in bands of different colours separated by steel profiles, recalling the image of a bookshelf. Two different bricks heights are used providing the brick surface with a subtle texture variation.