Our projects

At Sumak Kawsay we understand education as a process of accompaniment. Every child and adolescent learns differently, at their own pace and through diverse experiences.

That is why we seek a personalised education, with flexible structures that allow us to attend to different learning rhythms within a single community. The National Curriculum of the Ministry of Education is our frame of reference, but learning cannot be reduced to covering content at a single speed.

We believe there are no magic formulas in education. Our work is to observe, listen, propose achievable challenges and adapt our strategies to the real needs of our students.

Integral formation is central at Sumak Kawsay. Our workshop programme is inspired by the School of the 7 Petals, which recognises different dimensions of the person beyond the strictly academic: body, creativity, social bonds, artistic sensibility, relationship with nature, practical skills and self-knowledge.

Art, movement, sport, languages, practical life, creation and personal development are therefore part of everyday school life.

The Social Project is part of the very origin of Sumak Kawsay.

From the moment the school was born we were clear that we did not want to build a bubble inside the Sacred Valley, nor become a space accessible only to families able to cover the full cost of a private education.

Even when Sumak Kawsay was just starting out and had very few resources, we decided to open our doors to children from the community through full scholarships.

As the school grew we also came to understand the financial limits of sustaining a system based exclusively on 100 % scholarships. Without permanent external funding, we built other routes of access: half scholarships, partial scholarships and fee reductions for families who wanted to be part of Sumak Kawsay but could not cover the full tuition.

That is how we understand our Social Project: as a commitment never to close the doors of our learning community for financial reasons alone.

As Sumak Kawsay grew, so did our commitment to our surroundings.

During 2025 the school forwent roughly S/ 80,000 in scholarships, discounts and fee reductions for Sumak Kawsay students. In 2026 that effort amounts to approximately S/ 110,000.

These resources could have gone entirely towards accelerating the construction of our infrastructure. From the beginning, however, we chose to grow differently: step by step, seeking a balance between the development of the school and the opportunities we can sustain for those around us.

In 2024 we understood that, although scholarships and reductions opened the doors of Sumak Kawsay to more families, our reach was still limited.

We therefore decided to extend the Social Project towards the community and create free spaces for art, sport, socio-emotional accompaniment and educational support.

Since then the project has grown into a sustained community programme that strengthens the bond between Sumak Kawsay and the communities around us.

At Sumak Kawsay we believe that space is also part of the educational experience.

Our Architectural Project therefore does not stem only from the need to build classrooms, but from asking what kind of place we want to inhabit, how we want to feel inside it, and what relationship we want to keep with nature, culture and community.

The school has been conceived as a whole in which architecture, education and territory speak to one another.

We have currently built roughly 40 % of the total project, moving progressively towards grounds able to accompany the growth of early years, primary and secondary, without losing the identity Sumak Kawsay was born with.

At the heart of this proposal stands our Intihuatana, placed as the geometric, cultural and ritual centre of the school. More than an architectural element, it represents a point of encounter and connection with the Andean cosmovision, the territory we inhabit and the communal moments that are part of our school life.

Sumak Kawsay is still under construction. We currently have roughly 40 % of the architectural project completed, and our intention is to keep growing progressively, in line with educational needs and the real possibilities of the community.

The general plan projects grounds of approximately 6,773 m² with spaces for early years, primary and secondary, plus a library, laboratory, pedagogical innovation room, multi-purpose workshop, sports areas, vegetable garden, greenhouse and gathering spaces.

The original proposal also includes an auditorium and a dome library as central spaces, linked not only to educational work but also to the social and cultural dimension of Sumak Kawsay.

To complete the development of secondary school, the project also contemplates extending onto adjoining land.

Nature is full of structures, patterns and geometric forms. An important part of our architecture is born from that observation.

The classrooms at Sumak Kawsay are hexagonal, inspired by natural structures such as beehives, while our projected library takes the form of a hemispherical dome.

These forms were not chosen for aesthetic reasons alone. We seek to build spaces that convey harmony, that speak to the landscape, and that remind us that learning does not happen apart from its surroundings.

Architecture thus becomes an extension of our way of understanding education: flexible, connected, alive and in permanent relationship with what surrounds us.

The Architectural Project of Sumak Kawsay is based on principles of Sacred Geometry. Choosing regular forms such as the hexagon answers three dimensions that for us complement one another: aesthetic, mathematical and energetic.

From an aesthetic point of view, these forms create a sense of unity and harmony across the whole.

From a mathematical point of view, they turn the school grounds themselves into an opportunity for observation and inquiry: proportions, symmetries, polygons, measurements and geometric relationships can be part of the students’ daily experience.

And from our energetic point of view, we look for spaces that favour wellbeing and fluid circulation. To define the placement and orientation of the different areas, a Feng Shui analysis was carried out, studying the energy currents of the land. Its conclusions were incorporated into the general layout of the school.

At the geometric centre of the grounds, the Intihuatana further reinforces this search for balance between space, culture, territory and community.

From its origin, Sumak Kawsay was never conceived as a space closed off for families able to pay tuition.

The same vision that runs through our Educational and Social Projects is present in our architecture: we want the spaces we build to also serve the community.

Within our projection, therefore, lies the intention of having an auditorium or community cultural space able to host theatre, music, circus, gatherings, workshops, performances and other open activities.

Neither the library nor the future cultural spaces are imagined only for students enrolled at Sumak Kawsay, but as structures that can also support social and cultural work with the community.

We want Sumak Kawsay, in time, to be far more than a school: a meeting place where children, young people, families, artists, teachers and organisations of the Sacred Valley can learn, create and share.

Because building the school also means building community.