Polana High School (former Dona Ana Portugal Lyceum)

Maputo [Lourenço Marques], Maputo, Mozambique

Equipment and Infrastructures

Polana High School (former Dona Ana Portugal  Lyceum) in Maputo, corresponds to a work designed and built in the final years of colonial regime designed by João José Tinoco (1924-1983) and José Forjaz (1936-) profiting from the typological maturity of Fernando Mesquita program (1916-1990's) obtaining in this work a clearly brutalist architectural expression.

It is located in Polana neighborhood between Kuame Nkrumah Avenue on the West, Kim Il Sung Avenue at the Northwest, Armando Tivane Avenue on the Southeast and Geração 8 de Março Street. Placed following the rigorous North -South axis orientation and not the geometry of the plot boundaries, the access is done by Louis Pasteur Street.

Based on typological models developed by Fernando Mesquita school program during the decades of 50 and 60, the Polana High School of is organized according to a pavilion structure that enables the distribution and functional hierarchy of the program, where the horizontal circulation is oriented on the North-South axis, defined by covered galleries.

The pavilions are displayed two by two on an orthogonal relation with the circulation gallery: the first two, single-storey, are intended for administrative support services, and the four central blocks for the classrooms. At the of the gallery are located in the leisure facilities, the refectory and a small auditorium, and also support services such as the laboratory, library and medical center, served by a secondary gallery. These recreational areas are arranged diagonally to each other, a gesture that defines the entry into each of them. His most hermetic and opaque character is interrupted by the skylights indirect lighting system, common element in the works of João José Tinoco also used in watches factory "A Reguladora" (1970).

The gallery is developed on two floors connecting the blocks of classrooms. The horizontal circulation is organized from the large central gallery that is divided in the galleries of access to each classrooms floor, and the peripheral north gallery linking the support areas. The vertical circulations are defined by staircases.

The classroom blocks consist of three floors, with the rooms oriented to the south, and the northern distribution gallery. The construction is executed in exposed concrete and through modular precast concrete, which includes the use of vertical brise soleil to protect the classrooms, and the use of "beta" frames.

The playgrounds are placed between the pavilions and the covered gallery.

The monotony repetition of the pavilions is broken by the formal covers design, either in circulation spaces either in classrooms blocks, in the auditorium, and cafeteria.

Polana High School is still active even though situations with apparent degradation can be seen, in particular as regards the conservation of structure and reinforced concrete elements, and consolidation of the outer spaces which were never completed.

Original by Vincenzo Riso.

(FCT: PTDC/AUR-AQI/103229/2008)

Adaptation by Ana Tostões and Daniela Arnaut.