a School

museum of art | health club | school | coffee shop | landscape

a School

Receive children in reverence, Educate them in love and Let them go forth in freedom

- Rudolf Steiner

This project required developing a prototype design for a chain of twenty-two schools to be built over a 5-year period in various parts of Andhra Pradesh. The plan of the building was a L-shaped profile to allow good cross-ventilation and to create an open space that was well-shaded during the school hours.

The Kindergarten play area or the Outdoor learning environment was designed with much thought, and attention to detail :

there was a wall of shapes, a wall of numbers and a wall of alphabets
pathways to create different tactile experiences
small curving walls to generate an illusion of privacy which little children enjoy
a little amphitheatre built with natural stone

The Planning & design of the schools each with its own site conditions and yet reflecting a common teaching philosophy meant incorporating efficient circulation paths, utilising the long verandahs as sun-barriers and orienting them accordingly, creating an entrance to the building that allowed the landscape to flow in at the corner - a feature that carried through to all the schools.

A School Infrastructure Maintenance Manual was developed that the local management team of each school would refer to. This explained the technical details of the building services provided during the initial construction stages and included the signage designs for the school campus.