A School in India

Due to poverty & lack of schools, many children in India become victim to child labor. Children of Pai-palli need to walk to another village, 6 km away to attend school. The proposed site is next to the village square so that it can serve for public activities. The school is designed around the existing trees using materials & the manpower available locally.

The objective of the present thesis is to design a school for the village of Pai-palli in south India. It aims at providing the villagers with a building which can also be used for public activities. It aims to involve local community in building it with the locally available materials. Mudbricks are proposed for masonry. The proposed site of the school is next to the village square, where many old trees exist. The design has envisioned the school around the trees to benefit from the cool area their shadows create. Classrooms are positioned at the back of the synthesis, away from the village tumult for children to study undisturbed. Every classroom is designed to stand out in form, to be recognised by the kids as their very own. To keep classroom interiors cool, a double-roofed structure is proposed in a way that the sloping roof casts its shadow on a horizontal one to prevent the heat entering the interior. Also, openings on the ceiling allow air ventilation to move out the trapped heat. These openings contribute to infiltration of natural light. Sliding lesson panels on walls act as teaching aids. Cozy small yards in the intermediate spaces between the classrooms are designed for the children to develop a sense of belonging to the place, while larger courtyards provide grounds for sports and games. The building structures are designed low in height for the children to feel more at ease with them. Considering that most of the kids walk barefooted, shaded passageways are designed for them to walk on cooler surfaces in the hot season. These passageways are designed at a certain height from the ground so as to allow tree roots to develop freely around the building. Finally, as for rainwater collection, this is made possible with the clear water from the falling rain to run off through the gutters on the sloping roofs into a trough under the passageways and collected into a tank, before being filtered and pumped into the piped faucets for drinking and washing purposes.