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PITAGORAS PRIMARY SCHOOL PARK

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The Pitagoras Primary School Park was done in 2011. Designers from AWB-Seattle and UW faculty and students from multiple disciplines worked with more than 300 community members to design and construct a park at the Pitágoras primary school. The park’s design is a creative synthesis of community member preferences and feedback gathered during four participatory workshops. It includes an outdoor classroom, shaded areas for gathering and recreation and a learning landscape with hundreds of local, ornamental and productive plants. ‘Piedra de laja’ paths, constructed with locally available stone, local skills and local labor, connected the primary school to the school’s central courtyard. Water conserving drip irrigation and sawdust-filled planting pits address the increasingly pressing issue of water scarcity in Lima. Follow up assessments indicated that students and teachers viewed the park as an important ecological learning environment, place of gathering, access route, and beautiful setting that improved mental well-being.