The project is the design of a school for experiential education from kindergarten to high school. The site was a 15-acre organic farm with the existing school operating in a few makeshift facilities. The teachers and students (150 children in the age group from 3 to 18) were living on the farm in nearby buildings. The learning methodology involves a mixed age group and project-based learning on the farms.
CLIENT
Manav Chetna Vikas Kendra
CATEGORY
Educational
SUB-CATEGORY
Residential
LOCATION
Indore
PROJECT AREA
1,1000 sq.ft
LAND AREA
1 acres
Architectural Design Structural Design Sustainability Engineering – strategies for water, waste, energy Thermal Comfort through Natural Means
Additional Scope
Building as Learning Aid for experiential education
Ongoing
Ongoing
The client consisted of a group of 30 families who had quit working in high paying jobs and set up an experiment in community living on a 15 acre farm, a few kilometres away from Indore City. They invited us to design a School for their children.
This school was totally unique – the design brief did not have a single classroom! They had defined the aim of their education to be “Co-existence with Nature”. The curriculum was designed toward this objective.
E.g. Students were learning directly on the farm through various activities.
They were learning geography, soils, and climatology through their agricultural work. Physics through the operations of power tools such as repairs of tractors and helping with the construction of their new school building.
Chemistry through the Bio-gas plant and testing of the milk that came from the Goshala (They had their own Cowshed with over 100 cows of indigenous varieties).
They were producing their own organic grains, pulses, fruits, and vegetables and selling the surplus in the city. Through this, they were learning accounts, business, and mathematics. Art & music was an integral part of the school curriculum with every student regularly participating in cultural performances, writing scripts, and playing musical instruments. It was as though the Farm was one large project and all subjects were being learned and taught as interdisciplinary streams of knowledge through sub-projects on the farm.
We spent a week on the site with the students and teachers – attending classes, harvesting turmeric, learning how to milk the cows, understanding plantation cycles, realizing how seasons affect decision making, taking long walks on the farm, and driving a tractor! We were awed, to say the least. Upon a few brainstorming sessions with them, we decided that the theme of the school building had to be “Building as Learning Aid for Experiential Education”.
We understood that these children do not need a conventional building as urban schools do. What they needed was a series of spaces that would enhance and facilitate their experiential learning which was happening on the farm.
For hands-on experiments in medicinal plants and the milk testing from the farm diary
For making farm tools and carpentry tools
For books and Digital learning aids.
Language learning laboratory with acoustic facilities.
Children organize the seeds – kharif and rabi – as per annual plantation cycles.
Art, Craft & Music Studio.
For natural remedies and spa therapy
An innovative roofing technology is being used to create Spiral Brick Domes over each room. These are constructed without any supporting form-work and are as strong as flat concrete floor slabs. These will remain exposed from inside to lend a warm ambience and soft glow in each room.
This project has also been covered in Trupti’s TEDx talk “Can a Building be a Person?” in Greece under the heading “Building as a Teacher”. Please find the link here.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
-William Blake
Auroma Architecture
Auroma French Villaments,
Chinnakottakupam Forest Road,
Auroville, Pondicherry,
Tamil Nadu – 605104
