Steel is gaining ground as a building material in Brazil as more and more architect’s explore the design freedom it affords. São Paulo firm Núcleo Arquitetura chose steel for a new public school that was to be built on a difficult site. The school can be defined as a white, compact volume, mostly closed to the outside, open only to natural light and access to the public. The restrictions imposed by the terrain, which included a very small site with a steep-slope, called for a compact scheme with the whole programme organized vertically.

The two lower floors contain 18 classrooms, and the top two, the administration, and lastly, a gymnasium with high ceilings, mezzanine, and living space. The design team used a light industrial building system of steel profiles for the structure of the building. For the Foundation for the Development of Education, a department of Education of Sao Paulo, the metal structure is used to demonstrate a design and construction experiment, using it as a reference for the construction of new schools in the State of Sao Paulo.

Accesses start from three different ground levels and connect the school with the volume of the city through two bridges and a staircase. The internal spaces are organized around two large community spaces. The first is in the front of the school, a 29 x18 meter area, vertically joining the upper two floors and providing a sense of freedom and relaxation from school. The second area is 29 x 2 m, vertically positioned through the two floors below and marks the articulation of the classrooms in the form of a vertical gallery. The upper courtyard is flanked by two galleries, longitudinal vertical spaces with an east orientation, capturing the morning light through sky lights. However, the void below is oriented to take advantage of the natural light that comes from their ends, where the staircases are located.

At the top of the volume, steel is exposted, internally, to give the idea of a shed. Metal parts make up the living environments and light steel panels cover the facades. In the lower floors, the structure reveals the pace of construction abroad. The school is located in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Guarulhos, where simple, self-constructed structures prevail, and consequently it appears as a strong and imposing figure. This simple language of an industrial shed dialogues with the surroundings, but also values it. School “Jardim Angelica” was built where another school already existed, and therefore the construction site had to be very streamlined and cause the least interference. The use of steel allowed for a clean construction site and fast implementation with the project delivered in just over a year. Because it is a steel building system, the project did not seek a rigid standardization of components, so that the structure could be as light as possible. Each profile has been designed to meet exactly the demands to which it would be subject, hence the wide range of parts. The effort of the office to match projects and prepare construction details was rewarded with a great economy of material, especially the amount of steel used.