In Search of Shadow, in Search of Wind
Telling the projects for new school buildings located in countries that are often defined as the opposite of a civilized world, can lead to the misunderstanding of the charitable tale, of the dive into an economically poor reality and, therefore, culturally backward, so as to require the help of that far civilized world.
The only way to be free of such theories, when one describes these works in an architectural magazine, is by talking about the only feature that makes architectures interesting - the space that they enclose- and, as such, putting them on the same level of architectural production, not as poor relatives, but as examples fully deserving of criticism.
The theme of the projects presented seems to be a search for two materials, impalpable yet extraordinarily strong: shadow and wind. Starting with the words of Joseph Conrad, who combines brightness with shade, and the frames of Victor Sjostrom, which give us the violent image of a rushing wind, the analyzed projects describe the appropriation of these materials, which are capable of instilling important spatial qualities to the architecture.
The doubts expressed by Cardinal Altamirano, that “the west“ can only bring destruction to the New World, as seen in the film The Mission (1986), might be put to rest by Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack, a melody supported by a gentle breeze, flashes of light through the branches of a dark forest, on the edge of the shadow line described by Conrad, on the balance, unstable but fertile, of the places designed for the learning of little men. Written by Diego Terna
