The Porto Santo primary school, planned by architect Raúl Chorão Ramalho (1914-2002), was built in the 1960s. Its architectural profile has made it a historical landmark and it has recently been considered a heritage site of public interest. The building is the result of an in-depth study of the island by the architect, aligning the language and values of modern architecture with the materials, construction methods and features of the local vernacular architecture.

Since March 14, we can get to know this place through the exhibition Escola do Porto Santo: uma obra de Raúl Chorão Ramalho, curated by Madalena Vidigal and Diogo Amaro, at Centro de Arquitectura/Garagem Sul of Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon.

The school operated between 1968 and 2018. This research project, which led to an exhibition, began in 2019, when the school was given over to Porta 33. A meeting was organised to discuss what would happen to the school, where the curator Madalena Vidigal was present. From this moment on, she started an investigation about the school building, given its historical importance and author.

At the end of 2020, it was possible to commence small remodelling works, at which point Madalena Vigidal invited the architect Diogo Amaro to develop with her the investigation and reflection she had started in an attempt to intervene in the building. This exhibition is the result of that reflection and was first shown at the school in Porto Santo in 2021.

Faced with the opportunity to take the exhibition to Lisbon, it was necessary to rethink it. Accordingly, the curators decided to divide it into three parts: Environment, Matter and Architecture, from a territorial scale to the domestic scale of the inhabited space.

On the large historical map at the exhibition’s entrance, we can read the island’s territory, which is quite arid and dry due to the scarcity of rain practically all year round, and many river courses eventually dying out. The mostly flat topography also leaves it heavily exposed to sea winds. The building copes with the harsh climatic conditions of the place, contributing to settle the population in this hostile environment.

The hand-drawn solar studies attached to the large map illustrate the architect’s attempt to “hold” the building to the territory, choosing the best orientation for the façades and the necessary shading systems for the building’s efficient thermal behaviour. The canopies and sunshades on the façades most exposed to the sun’s rays complete these studies. On the other hand, the courtyards located in front of each of the classrooms attempt to contain the winds to which the building is exposed, creating outdoor places to stay protected from the weather, extending the interior to the exterior. All interior and exterior spaces are sized, designed and articulated to meet the most favourable standards of comfort for the users’ well-being.

Although the school was initially planned for a different location from where it is today, “the village centre”, its modular design remained virtually unchanged, proving the flexibility and adaptability of the architectural strategy.

The challenges of making a building on an island, a place where there are great operational and resource constraints, had to be faced. These have definitely influenced the island architecture, particularly with regard to construction materials and techniques. The Porto Santo school, being a modern building, uses concrete as its construction foundation and adopts a modern language without ignoring the island’s materials and resources.

Duarte Belo’s five photographs result from the artist’s residency at the school and register several materials on the island used in the building – the sand, which serves as an inert in the constitution of the concrete, creating its own colour, also present in the school’s outdoor pavement; the lime, one of Porto Santo’s few, major industries, used in the finishing of the concrete block walls; the basalt, visible in the “calçada Madeirense” pavements; the trachyte, a light grey porous volcanic rock, known as White stone of Porto Santo, used in the jambs and resistant elements of the building; the bentonite, clay, normally used to construct roofs, known locally as “coberturas de salão”, was the material initially chosen by Raúl Chorão Ramalho for the school’s roofs.

This work took up the challenge of becoming a school, with considerable typological and constructive experimentation, drawing on the context of the international architecture of the time and the island reality. “Escola da Vila proves how architecture can be innovative and yet celebrate the cultural values of a place. This balance is necessary and difficult to preserve at a time when the global scale of our daily lives is causing us to lose the values that define us, owing to the homogenisation and pauperisation of architecture in the cities and landscapes in which we live”, we read in the exhibition leaflet.

The Porto Santo school, by Raúl Chorão Ramalho, is now part of the memory and identity of the Porto Santo community, having for many years been the island’s only primary school. Francisco Janes’ video, conceived for the exhibition, closes the exhibition, recording the ambience of the school’s spaces, intercalated with the ambience of the island of Porto Santo, allowing an experience of the building and its surroundings from a distance.

For those who cannot travel to the island to visit, Centro de Arquitectura/Garagem Sul do Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon, until September 10, 2023, allows you to get to know the areas of this school in the exhibition Escola do Porto Santo: uma obra de Raúl Chorão Ramalho, curated by Madalena Vidigal and Diogo Amaro.