The school is dedicated to a baby girl who passed away too early. Adele falls into the perinatal deaths category, a condition that is not widely talked about and unfortunately involves many more families than we can imagine. Architecture allows us to spread the message of the importance of maintaining the knowledge of building with sustainability-conscious and local methods, but we would like to be able to sensitize as many people as possible on child-related issues as well, by talking about and spreading the project.

El Jardin de Adele complex will be approximately 500 sqm and it will be divided into multiple buildings reflecting the main functions of a kindergarten: education, psychomotricity, nutrition and administration. All buildings will face a common inner courtyard protected by a canopy; in the middle, a large tree will act as a magnet for the whole school system and invite sharing and sociability. 
Teaching activities will be organized by zones: there will be space for playing, drawing, learning. Each classroom will also have a private portion of courtyard with outdoor games and small vegetable gardens.

The project has been designed with the country's architectural traditions and the use of materials that are as km zero as possible. The external walls are made of earth bricks, using a local construction technique known as “Adobes” that draws its origins from the pre-hispanic building tradition.

First and foremost, the project aims to meet a need of Encañada community to have a welcoming and safe kindergarten, which is consistent with the constructive standards of the country and is suitable and free of charge for a large number of children from the village and the surrounding area. We would like to emphasize the importance that the pre-school has for children, it supports the cognitive, physical, social and emotional development of the child by creating the "foundations" of the educational and instructional process. 

Another aspect that we considered of considerable importance is nutrition. The school canteen will be able to guarantee children regular access to adequate meals.

Another important aspect is the impact generated by the architectural and constructive processes of the school. We wanted to use mainly local materials and traditional craftsmanship. The use of adobes is often considered a 'poor' type of construction; by using it for an important structure such as the school, we wanted to show to the local community the importance of their cultural heritage and enhance their architectural tradition. In addition, during construction we organized several participatory construction weeks, during which the citizens worked together and could feel themselves players of the project. 

Finally, the project has an economic impact within the community thanks to the intervention of local labour, both for the construction and for the supply of materials such as adobes, wooden fixtures and interior furniture.

The municipality of Encañada includes about 120 caserios, small villages located on the heights of the region. Here everything is more difficult because of the lack of essential goods: water, food, health, education. In this area in 2002 a mission managed by Italian volunteers of the association "Qua la mano" was born. Since then there has been a very close relationship between volunteers and the inhabitants of Encañada. Today there are a hundred people who work side by side with the many missionaries who live there.

The school construction is going on thanks to the help of the group of mission workers but not only! In fact, even the inhabitants of the whole community have offered to work for free. This school will really be theirs! The mission has launched a cooperative of artisans, artists and carpenters: they are creating all the fixtures that will complete the school (interior doors and windows).
The architectural project is by lu·di·ca architetti, a team of friends: four architects and one pediatrician, located between Faenza, Turin and Paris. Lucilla and Caterina, two architects of the team, have already spent a period in Peru to work together with the community and supervise the construction site more closely.
Nowadays this building site is managed by Lorenzo, project supervisor that, with the local workers, follows step by step all the phases of the construction.
When the school will be ready and finished, an Italian volunteer educator will take care of the internal management with a dozen people among teachers, teaching assistants and managers of the school canteen.

scuoladiadele.com