Abstract

The school buildings designed since the middle of the 30’ in different Latin American countries show the formal, space, technological innovations and educational models that were developed in these countries, which, transversally, from the 60s to the 80s, developed massive education policies as a response to a highly demanding society. These innovations in architectural models were initially influenced by the European and North American architects of the Modern Movement as benchmarks and later promoted by international organizations such as the UIA, UNESCO, and CONESCAL, which jointly influenced architectural models, pedagogical foundations, the promulgation of new regulations and the productive processes of school constructions. In this context, the school buildings performed in Chile by the Sociedad Constructora de Establecimientos Educacionales (Construction Society of Educational Institutions) (SCEE), an entity that from 1937 was the main one in charge of designing, managing, building, furnishing and preserving public schools throughout the country. Its work lasted 50 years, until 1987 when, under the military dictatorship, the Society was dissolved, handing over the administration of school facilities to each municipality. From that time onwards a deterioration process began, due to a lack of resources for the maintenance and updating the school facilities. However, most of them remain standing and functioning today. The architectural design proposal of the Sociedad Constructora’s projects moves from the designs of “singular projects” to “type projects”. During the first 20 years, the designs are inspired by the formal principles of hygienism and functionalism of the Modern Movement as part of State policy of institutional modernization. At the beginning of the 60’ big projects, with urban impact and built with traditional systems begin to be abandoned. The aim is to optimize the costs and execution times of the projects, reducing to a minimum the architectural and specialty design stage by applying the same model in different contexts (mainly rural) so that modifications were minimal. The high social demand for school spaces, such as the destruction of successive earthquakes, causing crises in the system, led in the decade of the 70’, to deepen the design of constructive rationalization with “typified models”. The new proposal was based on projects designed with modular systems, using pre-manufactured and standardized elements, thus allowing national coverage of the school education system. During this period, cost optimization is achieved through the reduction of construction elements and materials. The research deals with the analysis of formal, constructive and preservation proposals, comparing works from the two main periods. Based on which it is concluded that the first projects seek to provide basic conditions of health, comfort, and safety to promote population education, under a selective and traditional model in the classrooms design. The technical innovations are related to the incorporation of habitability standards, resistance, and structural calculation, in addition to quality controls on site. The implementation of innovative educational models in the space design of the schools is incipiently applied from the last stage, prevailing in the projects the technological aspects of cost economy for a massive and efficient design with the resources.