Case of Study: Moving School

Moving school

Architects: Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa

Location: Southeast Asia

Thinking about flat packed buildings this project is a great and succeed idea, which consist in the same thought the Fry team is following to design a flexible structure. These schools are located in the borders of Thailand and Burma, in the southeast Asia. They result of a competition for non-profit charity Building Trust to give immigrant and refugee communities in those areas a kind of self-assembly educational facility.

The main proposal is to offer them the possibility to dismantle the structure and reassemble it over and over again on other sites, in a way it becomes adaptable to any place, due to the problem with land rights they face. Moreover, it should practice not only the function of educational space, but also symbolize the community space.

The structure in itself shows to be quite simple. Bennetta and LaRossa choose to use prefabricated steel frame and local crafted bamboo panels, making the cost of construction lower, since they did not need to spend so much money transporting the bamboo. The bamboo panels allow sun light to go inside the building, providing  natural illumination. The roof compound of two roofs, where a gap between the first and the second receives natural ventilation.

The Building Trust is a international body that basically aims to give people’s welfare promoting quality and creative design works to solve problems. In this context, they have developed projects in many countries, such as Cambodia, Honduras, Brazil, Bangladesh and England.

As our design proposal lays emphasis on the need of using flat packed buildings it is too important to know more how it works and for who it is used for. This structure system offers flexibility, practicality, adaptability, functionality and reversibity all together!

References:

Dezeen, 2013. Moving school by Amadeo Bennetta and Dan LaRossa for Building Trust. [Online] Available at: <http://www.dezeen.com/2013/10/30/flat-pack-moving-school-by-amadeo-bennetta-and-dan-larossa-building-trust/> [ Accessed 11 November 2014].  

Building Trust, 2010.  Moving Schools, Mae Sot, Thai-Burmese border. [Online] Available at: <http://www.buildingtrustinternational.org/project200.html> [Accessed 11 November 2014].