The judges of RIBA Prize probably did not imagine that, to take a look one of the projects in their final shortlist, they would have had to go as far as to the edge of the Amazon Rainforest, in northern Brazil, a few hundred kilometers north of Brasilia.
And yet, right here in this remote part of the world with such an extreme climate condition, they saw the greatest ambition of architecture materialize: becoming a tool for social change.
The Children Village is a building complex designed to accommodate over 500 children between 13 and 18 years during the school week. Each of them gets there via long and difficult routes, and along streets often made impracticable by the weather, the heavy rains and an average temperature above 40 Celsius degrees.
But once they get there, they’ll find is a "home away from home" where they can study and be together, sleep in comfortable rooms and share recreational spaces. Acknowledging of the value of education as a driving force for the human and professional growth of young people, the Bradesco Foundation, which commissioned the project, has accompanied and assisted over 100,000 children in their path of education since 1956, bringing schools and accommodation to the most remote areas of Brazil.