It is the continuous, the vast, and a thin imaginary line in the background that harbor the experience of Brazilians living in the central region of the country. It is this amplitude, along with the beauty of its inhabitants, that moves us. However, how can architecture make itself relevant in a place marked by rural and indigenous memories, techniques, aesthetics and rhythms? The project which houses 540 children who study at Canuanã boarding school, aims towards transformation, cultural recovery, encouragement of local constructive techniques, native knowledge and beauty, together with the construction of a notion of self and belonging, necessary for the children’s development.

A thin, white metallic roof supported by a lightweight wooden structure following a regular grid of 5,90m by 5,90m covers the villages and common spaces. Beyond protection from sun and rain, the roof and grid set create an intermediary space between exterior and interior, functioning as a large terrace that marks the vast horizon and frames the landscape. The use of glued laminated eucalyptus wood in the structural elements has the advantage of versatility and sustainable characteristics of pre-fabricated elements, in response to the need for accelerating construction speed and minimizing hassle in the school’s functioning.

It became clear that there was great potential in the local building techniques that used local soil in the form of adobe brick walls. This rough organic material, which performed extremely well climatically and represented connection between people and place, was chosen as the proposal’s constructive and aesthetic north.