Colombian firm Espacio Colectivo has won first place in the design competition for the Jaime Rentería "Cuna de Campeones" Early Childhood Development Center (CDI) in Cali. This is the first CDI in Colombia to integrate sports into its pedagogical programming.
"This project is an opportunity to showcase education as a constructive act," states the winning team regarding the CDI, whose program will focus on physical activity to contribute to psychosocial development, while also integrating values and life skills, prioritizing the promotion of holistic development, collaborative work, and creativity.
Official Description: Comuna 20 in Cali is a context marked by high levels of vulnerability, deep social deficits, and non-mitigatable natural risks. Yet, where the absence of the state manifests as a lack of public space, green areas, and service, health, and educational infrastructure, a welcoming, resilient, and brave community has emerged. Rich in culture, this community has been part of Santiago de Cali's collective memory for over 110 years.
The Cuna de Campeones CDI has the opportunity to present education as a constructive act. The project must highlight the urban dimension of education, the collective value of the educational system, and educational action as the most effective tool for building citizenship.
By offering access and retention in public early childhood education for the most vulnerable children of the Siloé neighborhood, and by providing them with protection and safety through an active, experiential space, the project champions the right to a friendlier, more just, and safer city. It is a city that educates through environmental and democratic values, teaching children to be active citizens who recognize the society they belong to and value their natural environment.
The Cuna de Campeones CDI has the opportunity to present education as a constructive act. The project must highlight the urban dimension of education, the collective value of the educational system, and educational action as the most effective tool for building citizenship.
By offering access and retention in public early childhood education for the most vulnerable children of Siloé, and by providing them with protection and safety through an active, experiential space, the project champions the right to a friendlier, more just, and safer city. It is a city that educates through environmental and democratic values, teaching children to be active citizens who recognize the society they belong to and value their natural environment.
The CDI project is an urban action: its educational function is not isolated, either spatially or pedagogically, from the public. The design of its learning environments must be understood as an urban project that teaches through social interaction. Building a space for experience, discovery, and transformative action makes this educational facility an architectural intervention that reinforces the public, priority, and continuous character of the building.
Design Strategies
Adapting to the site: reducing the complexity of the surroundings by simplifying the intervention, adapting to the topography, defining the site's programming, and enhancing the new spaces.
Integrating with the city: integrating the building with the city's urban and natural systems, creating a public space that gives meaning to the collective and introduces nature to the area.
Recognizing the community: bringing the building closer to the people and connecting it with the neighborhood's identity.
Shaping the enclosure: shaping the site and giving symbolic value to the spatial void resulting from the design responses to the environmental conditions.
Activating the urban ground floor: the building's ground floor has the potential to facilitate planned, orderly public gatherings.
Architectural Approach
The threshold: the project emphasizes a sense of hospitality. Creating high-quality meeting spaces that are open to the city and encourage interaction is a strategy to overcome distrust and bridge social divisions.
The building projects an intermediate space in a horizontal relationship with the Siloé Cemetery Park. This direct dialogue recognizes the environmental value of this urban void within a context lacking opportunities for significant public spaces. It is an opportunity to connect the CDI's public space with the Cañaveralejo River corridor.
The nest: the play area projects a vertical relationship with the sky. It is a space to observe the Farallones peaks, the hills of Siloé, and the treetops. This space amplifies experiences, promotes mutual visibility and visual dialogue, and frames the childhood development center as a metaphorical nest that protects and shelters children while stimulating creativity. This void is more than a building; it is a place within a place, where the community is uplifted through education.
Architects
Location
ColombiaArchitects in Charge
Carlos Betancourt, Aldo HurtadoDesign Team
Javier Bolívar Solarte, Ángela Andrade M., Vanessa Toro Castaño, Josman Rojas Montes, Jessica Rojas Benavides, Julián Danilo Londoño, Emmanuel Viveros, Miguel Ángel Canaval, Juan Pablo González, Laura Urueña Serna, Sofía Zuluaga Ocampo, María Fernanda Soler, María Paula Martínez, Germán Rosero Ocaña, Jhonatan Alberto Cruz, Paola Daniela BolañosStudents
Edier Andrés Segura, Felipe Bessolo, Omar VelásquezAward
Primer LugarConveners
Alcaldía de Santiago de Cali, Secretaría de Educación, Sociedad Colombiana de Arquitectos (SCA)Project Year
2018Photographs
Espacio Colectivo Arquitectos
Conoce el segundo lugar del diseño de Centro de Desarrollo Infantil Jaime Rentería en Cali, Colombia
El equipo integrado por las oficinas Taller Piloto Arquitectos, ECS Arquitectos, AC Arquitectos y TAHO Taller Horizontal se han adjudicado el segundo lugar en el concurso de diseño del Centro de Desarrollo Infantil (CDI) Cuna de Campeones Jaime Rentería en Cali, el primero en Colombia que incluirá en su apuesta pedagógica el deporte.
