SITE
The site was deliberately chosen in a manner that it would remain away form development, at least for the near future.
It is situated on a hillock and is surrounded by mountains, valleys and dense vegetation.
It covers an area of 45 to 50 acres and houses various activities such as a mango grove and a dairy apart from the ashram and the school with all their ancillary activities, such as gardening, laundry, kitchen, security etc.
The property was pieced together by buying land from farmers around the area. Since it was a low yield agricultural land, it was easier to be bought from the villagers.
PLANNING
The campus can be zoned into four-built spaces - the ashram, the administrator's cottage, the two dormitory blocks and the school building.
The entire project was divided into phases. The first phase involved the construction of a school building, dormitories for students and teachers and a cottage for the administrator
The entire expense of construction was borne by RSVK.
THE COTTAGE
Situated on the peak of a hillock, the administrator's residence has a bold yet humble identity. It took about a year to complete. It is built on split-levels to minimise excavation. In fact there is a small meditation chamber at the base of the house, which from one side appears to be under ground, and which has a rock outcrop of the hillock jutting into the interior space of the room. It is a small dwelling of a living room, a dining and cooking area, two bedrooms and bathrooms. The attached bathroom on the ground floor is strategically placed in such a way that from the interiors one gets the view of the greenery, without being seen from outside.
Built in exposed brickwork, the walls are made in rat-trap bond and roofed over by brick funicular shells. The window openings are semicircular arches erected using standard formwork. There has been fine attention to details. He has tried to put together various finishes into an interesting composition such as aggregate finish using jaisalmer and basalt stone chips. However, he believes that it is much easier to use a pre-finished module, where in the finish has been added onto the brick module during the process of manufacture itself.
Commenting on the rough finish of the locally manufactured bricks, he comments that since the inherent nature of clay is to warp and shrink, it is best that the edges are rounded or chamfered, or else one tries to interestingly play with the unevenness of the material, by breaking fine lines of arranging them in different patterns.
THE DORMITORIES
They were the first buildings to be constructed. The first block began construction in 1998. It is a compressive load bearing structure. Each block took about a year to complete.
The initial idea was to have 4 dorms on the ground floor with attached lockers, flanked by a first aid room and the teachers room on the front end and the toilet block on the back end of the building. The architect intended to reduce and stagger the built mass on the floors above, but was unable to do so as the needs of the client expanded as the construction progressed. The plan is thus essentially a plus shaped module, which repeats on all the three floors. There are two vertical shafts in the central court, which funnels the wind movement in the building. There is an interesting ceramic mural in the wall of this open well, which is embellished with a colourful mural done in ceramic chips and executed by the resident fine arts teacher. For the dormitory a number of 6 students per room was considered to be an ideal number. There is a provision for locker rooms so that the student can lock his belongings and thus leave the dorm free for other uses such as sports meets, group discussions etc
The second dorm is an improvement of the first in many respects, such as ventilation, light, finishing and quality control. It was built using fal-g blocks and extruded clay blocks 12”x8”x6” , instead of solid blocks.
The first building was managed by the client themselves, but once they realised the difficulties involved difficulties involved they decided to involve a contractor as a project manager for the second building.
The dorms face west and allow a wind tunnel to form due to its vertical openings and corridors. After a distance of 25' the hot wind cools off as it reaches the habitable spaces.
THE SCHOOL BUILDING
It was designed to be a fan shaped layout of three wings, with each wing having two classrooms flanking a common library and study space so that the student can leave their books and belonging there. But after the construction of two wings it was realised that the placed opened out better into its natural surroundings without the third wing. Hence, any further extension to the building may happen vertically. The structure is a composite structure with slabs resting on a grid of beams placed in an equilateral triangle arrangement at 10'-9” c/c., which in turn transfer the load onto brick piers.
The classrooms, narrower at the front and fanning out at the back, are planned to create focus on teacher due to shape. Uninterrupted light was one major factor in selecting the form of the building. The benches are placed in a manner that they do not block the task light. |
