Truper’s Educational Support Center
The growth of the Truper tool manufacturing plant has increased significantly in recent years, thus its enrollment has grown and with it the necessity to increase its facilities, such as industrial dining rooms, offices, parking lots, etc. The architectural design of the plant was intended to reflect a contemporary design according to its status, thus benefiting the workers by improving their physical workplace conditions. The general plan sought architectural and space benefits where the focus of the improvement was primarily on the educational field to support the children of the workers and the community of the municipality with the creation of this educational center.
This project arises from an open and free public program in which the company allocates non-tax-deductible resources to generate a social benefit by providing educational support as a contribution to society. This company, which is dedicated to industrial production of tools and its distribution, was looking to create a building that would function as a tool for education. Therefore, it was very important for us to reflect safety, functionality and efficiency in the project.
This building has a specific educational program as it is not a traditional school, its vision was motivated by the desire to regularize and support whomever may need it and thus improve the educational level of the community. With the aim of providing a favorable assistance, avant-garde technology has been integrated to improve the performance of its academic activities. This center can be attended by people of all ages and backgrounds who can be supported to continue with subsequent studies.
The building is located on the main street of Jilotepec where clinics, schools and sports facilities are concentrated. This educational and recreational building has a linear conformation in a narrow and long geometry. The goal was for the building to participate with its surroundings without being too loud, so we maintained the relationship with the context through the classrooms by having the same height as the rest of the neighborhood. A public square is placed as an access in the side that has contact with the street; due to its linear conformation, we only gave up a percentage to boundary walls, thus offering a building that, in spite of having an extensive area, has little contact in the perimeters. In this project we chose to keep the classrooms in an internal cloister and left the main entrance and the rectory in clear view. The volume that houses the classrooms fits in and receives the adjacent mass of houses in the neighborhood.
We wanted the structural interpretation to be very clear and the load-bearing system to be noticeable. The geometries throughout the project are sharp and clean. As for the materials, we took into account the identity of the company, we used orange and ocher tones that are very close to the colors of the institution. The tectonic importance of the structural elements was emphasized, with gray tones predominating. At night, its transparency appears as an urban lamp that provides a sense of security. It has a cafeteria open to the public for its appropriation and the access portal is generated by a block of laboratories that rests on the rectory and classrooms generating a tectonic dolmen. We took into account a particular orientation to benefit the classrooms' temperature. We followed a semi-open scheme between classrooms and patios, which allowed us to have the facades of the classrooms oriented in accordance with the sunlight analysis. It was proposed that the spaces should be well illuminated by having 50% of the walls of each classroom with translucent surfaces and that they should be well ventilated, always looking for a crossed air circulation.
Finally, we believe that the architecture of the Center seeks in essence the same thing as the nature of the program, to provide a social benefit through a private tool that reflects security, transparency, order and above all efficiency as any other tool.
