Student’s Residence, San Jose de Lourdes
The student residence of I.E. N. º 16520 Ricardo Palma is located in the rural town of San José de Lourdes, Cajamarca, northern Peru. It currently houses 115 secondary students and is the only public school residence in this rural area. Of the four existing modules, two are closed, and the other two, although declared uninhabitable, are still used as a boys’ dormitory and dining hall. The girls temporarily sleep in school classrooms under precarious conditions.
To address this, the project proposes building a new residence to benefit 425 students, 29 teachers, and 23 staff members. The land, donated by the community, has three flat platforms at different levels and offers a privileged view. The girls’ residence will be on the lower level; the dining hall, a shared space, on the middle platform; and the boys’ residence on the upper level. The three buildings adapt to the terrain and create connections with the surrounding environment.
The design includes seating gardens, productive orchards, and a modular infrastructure defined through a participatory process with students, teachers, and families. The interior dormitories, made of wood with varied ceiling heights, provide personal spaces alongside common areas for social interaction.