On Rua dos Choupos in Porto, the Escola Básica dos Correios owes its name to the fact that the space it occupies was surrounded by housing originally designed for CTT employees in the Pereiró neighbourhood in the 40s. The architectural solution adopted for the construction of the school was based on the Douro-granite typology of the Centenary Plan, and was originally made up of two symmetrical volumes with 4 classrooms each, superimposed 2 by 2 on two floors, with access to the upper floor via a central staircase. From the atrium of the stairwell, it was possible to access the covered porched playground at the back of the plot.
The plot includes this oblong volume and a vast playground area, which the project sought to interpret and rethink, particularly in the articulation of the new programme with the available areas, and in the relationship between the existing building and the new volume, which absorbs the new multipurpose and library areas.
At the same time as the careful refurbishment of the classrooms, common areas and circulation spaces, the new volume becomes autonomous, confronts and contaminates the reading of the pre-existing building, extending the perforated corrugated sheet metal skin to the school's new distribution gallery. The project provided for the creation of covered playgrounds and an interior circulation linking the two original centres of staircases and classrooms, which until now were connected only from the outside. The space between the two defines the new entrance to the school site, framing the treetops that punctuate the playground, acting as both its extension and backdrop.
In the new volume, the requirement for a short construction time, to allow the school to reopen in the new school year, encouraged the choice of an industrial logic construction system that was assembled on site, with a staircase and bolted steel structure, translucent polycarbonate panels and perforated corrugated sheeting, which allowed for a very significant gain in construction time, while also being demountable and reversible.
