Chilean school aims to protect and inspire vulnerable people

The school provides a range of facilities designed to stimulate the cognition of its pupils, through formal and informal learning experiences

Spotted: A school for children and young people with disabilities has been commissioned by the Isabel Aninat Echazarreta Foundation, to be built on the outskirts of Santiago in Chile. 

Designed by architect Sebastián Irarrázaval, the new piece of education architecture features its creator’s signature approach of clean, geometric forms and knack for modern, minimalist spaces. 

Located in the neighbourhood of Talagante, the “Integral Stimulation Centre” offers a protective environment for vulnerable people. It also provides a range of facilities designed to stimulate the cognition of its pupils, through formal and informal learning experiences. 

“We proposed to accommodate these varied programmes in the manner of a walled citadel that would provide children with a protective environment while allowing the coexistence of not only these diverse programmatic units but also of different forms of movement through the interior: some more hierarchical and orderly, others more free and labyrinthine to encourage fortuitous encounters,” says Irarrázaval.

Composed of crisp, white, low and tall volumes, Irarrázaval’s design will cater to specific student groups and special education and mobility needs. The school includes a variety of spaces, from classrooms, laboratories and a gymnasium, to a chapel and a heated pool. 

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