Liceo Franco Costarricense, an award-winning project by ICESA, stands as a testament to innovative architectural solutions in Costa Rica’s educational sector. With a commitment to sustainability, this project involved the ingenious reuse of existing buildings, connected by a lightweight, unifying design. The design brings a fresh, modern aesthetic while preserving the site’s history. The school layout emphasizes the importance of socializing spaces outside the classrooms, fostering interaction and community building. Its bioclimatic design responds to Costa Rica’s unique climate conditions, enhancing comfort while minimizing environmental impact.

Today schools require not only to transmit knowledge or to develop habits or intellectual abilities, but also to develop all the integral potentialities of each person. The learning is not carried out only in the classroom; the student needs to assimilate the information that has learned and to fit this to its own perspective and to the time that faces to the community (the school) reaching therefore the success of the transmission. The “Liceo Franco Costarricense” School convoked us with the main purpose of solving this necessity to them, the informal learning outside the classroom. They wanted to have spaces that contributed with the encounter, the getting together, the reflection and the recreation. They wanted the spaces to identify the students with its institution. We had to take advantage of an existing infrastructure with little architectonic value and serious structural problems.
Location: Concepcion de Tres Rios, Cartago, Costa Rica
Area: 10000m2
Status: Built