GREEN DIGNITY.

An educational centre on Brazil's Atlantic forest coast will nurture some of the country's lost children.

Renowned Brazilian Modernist, Ruy Ohtake is building for some of Brazil's forgotten children. Using local materials and crafts, he has designed an educational centre for the orphans and children of destitute families of Ubatuba to the north of Sao Paulo, on the spectacular Atlantic forest coast. The centre's name, The Child and the Sea, conveys the narrative delight with which he has invested its component parts. Structures use basic materials like brick, concrete, grasses and bamboo, combined into forms to catch and nurture childish imagination.

Administered by a charity, the centre will teach children indigenous crafts like weaving, joinery, fishing and gardening, encourage self expression through theatre and dance, and provide them with basic literary skills.

The plan has an open space with a small arena at the heart. To the north is a medical station, nursery and daycare centre; to the south, a curve of thatched pavilions with workshops, theatre, offices and classrooms. On the east, a path leads to a restaurant and vegetable garden. On the west, another path takes you to The Fishing Boy Pavilion, for exhibitions, parties and meetings. Partly completed and 6m wide, 23 m long and from 2.4 to 5m high, it is fish-shaped in long section with a concrete base and propped concrete arch framing a brick vault. On each side, bamboo walls in ochres and yellows, made by local artisans, allow air to circulate under the solid sheltering roof and let chinks and stripes of light criss-cross the polished concrete floor. Two round plates of blue glass inset with fibre optics provide a touch of nocturnal magic. Ohtake hopes 'this scheme will encourage today's destitute children to become citizens of tomorrow, with dignity'.