Institución Educativa Madre Laura
Year
2019 – 2022
Location
San Andrés, Putumayo, Colombia
Context
Rural
Size
5 classrooms
Service
Design, Fundraising
Partners
Fundación Catalina Muñoz
Sustainability
Local workers + training
Local materials
Seismic safety
Institución Educativa Rural Intercultural Madre Laura
The public school “IERI Madre Laura” is located in the south of Colombia in the Santiago district of Putumayo. Children of the local indigenous Inga population are cared for and supported here. They make up 80% of the student body.
Context
Regional inequalities are a significant problem in Colombia due to the lack of technical and social infrastructure in many rural areas. The students of San Andrés are especially concerned by this problem as they additionally struggle with the structural public neglect of indigenous populations.
At the same time, they are currently facing an acute existential challenge: the previous two-story main building of their school, which also separated the school grounds from the local street, had to be evacuated and demolished in February 2019 for safety reasons. The foundations were built without taking into account the loads of the upper floor which was added later and neglected the building’s structural design. In February 2019, 70% of the school had to be evacuated and demolished for safety reasons. A large gap was left on the site which has not yet been filled.
Therefore, the students of San Andrés currently have no central school building in which to take classes. They have to be taught in various rooms that are not intended for school classes, such as rooms in neighboring houses, in the parish church, in the local police station, and in storage rooms. Of the total 280 students, only 67 can still use the three remaining school buildings.
Solution
One of the primary goals of the local community and our organization is to provide safe access to education for the students of San Andrés. In order to create opportunities for young people, the functionality of the educational infrastructure is essential.
Together with the Catalina Muñoz Foundation, we have therefore designed the planning for a new single-story school building. The aim of this project is to improve the learning infrastructure of the institution, to promote the motivation of the students and to be able to guarantee the safety of all users. Currently, 5 classrooms are being built with sufficient capacity for all students. Each classroom can accommodate 20-25 students. Thus, 125 students will directly benefit from the construction.
Construction process
The Catalina Muñoz Foundation has been active in Colombia and especially in the Putumayo region for 14 years. The foundation focuses on working closely with local communities to best identify and meet their needs and desires. The common elaboration of strategies allows the foundation to be active in areas that are particularly vulnerable.
The Catalina Muñoz Foundation has already built 59 housing modules for particularly vulnerable families in San Andrés. To complete this housing project, they contacted We-Building e.V. through one of our Colombian volunteers to ask us for architectural and financial help.
Together we developed a master plan for 5 classrooms that each provide space for 25 students. The plan is to fill the gap left by the demolition of the earlier school building with a one-story building.
The new building establishes the relationship to the three existing buildings on the sides. In the new entrance, the wall surface of the building projects diagonally onto the street and lends itself to future design measures.
As in previous projects, we base our design on local conditions and try to complement local construction methods with new approaches. However, special attention is paid to stable foundation construction and safe execution of the load-bearing structural elements.
The construction of the school began in Spring 2021 and was completed in April of 2022.