The "Recomeçar" project in Niteroi is part of the Enel Community Empowerment Program. The project is currently developed in Brazil by Architecture for Humanity with the local support of Endesa –Brasil .

CONTEXT
Between April 5th and 8th, 2010, heavy rains fell near Niterói, Brazil. The rains led to landslides at the ‘Morro do Bumba’, a deactivated sanitary landfill that became a housing settlement, destroying an estimated 40 houses and causing over 200 deaths. The precipitation in those four days surpassed the monthly average and resulted in the worst natural disaster since 1964.

The Recomeçar Project is the only existing daycare at the Ititioca neighborhood, where the ‘Morro do Bumba’ is located. It started as a private initiative, but is currently a public-private cooperation. The schools activities are financed by the Department of Education of the city of Niterói. It operates as a public kindergarten. Currently, the existing building does not meet the requirements of local building codes, especially in matters of natural lighting and ventilation. For that reason, the school needs do relocate to a new building in order to be able to maintain the financial support offered by the Department of Education. In the event that the above-mentioned issues are not addressed before the end of 2013, the Department of Education will cancel their agreement with the school and stop financially supporting its activities. There are 93 children currently enrolled at the school, from ages 2 to 6. The facility is also hosts English, capoeira and alphabetization classes for adults.
PROJECT LOCATION NITEROI - BRAZIL

View Enel Community Empowerment Program in a larger map

PROJECT
This project aims to build a new school/daycare center within the requirements imposed by the board of education. The current daycare is using a building that does not belong to them but they have received a donated site where a new school will be constructed. The architectural program of the future building includes four classrooms, library, theatre, tv and activity rooms. Also it will include bathrooms, kitchen and dinning room and a playground area.

ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED

Local Partner

Sponsoring partner	Project Management

ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY
The role of Architecture for Humanity is essential throughout all the project development stages. The first step is to analyze the feasibility of the project in order to design an appropriate building that relates to the existing context and the community can take full ownership of the project. Architecture for Humanity is managing the design, construction and construction administration of the school, making sure that the project represents the community’s objectives and the project is developed within schedule and budget. The role of Architecture for Humanity also consists in post-occupancy services in order to build a quality infrastructure that will be sustainable and used by the Ititioca neighborhood children and adolescents for many years to come.

KEY DOCUMENTS
Schematic Design
Description and visualization of the project.