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Architects: Mathew and Ghosh Architects
- Area: 165 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:Abhishek Dasgupta, Soumitro Ghosh
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Manufacturers: AutoDesk, Adobe Systems Incorporated, Decking Sheet, Flooring, Paint, Roofing, Structural steel, Trimble Navigation, Wood
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Lead Architect: Soumitro Ghosh
Text description provided by the architects. A single classroom extension to a primary school for the underprivileged of the neighbourhood of central Bangalore created an opportunity of making the room like a tree house nestled between the existing mango and jack fruit tree so that it could make a diverse space for assembly, parent teacher meetings, children’s activity and break / lunch area.
Although the initial requirement was an additional class room alone on the ground level, it was proposed to make a multifunctional space would not block the ground and open new possibilities of usage, during different times of the day.
Using a metal structure, it is made as a pavilion with perforated sheet and bamboo matts above and an insulated roof.
The school now has a focus area next to the play area, used for simple things like pick up and drop off for children, dining, play, congregation / assembly etc. The classroom above helped create something that the school was not aware of and was missing greatly.
A place that could be made by virtue of just the classroom addition integrated to the stair and main building block of the school.
The landscape strategy with the existing trees, without getting affected also created these trees as the focal points of activities around. The plinth created outside the class room, around the drinking water fountain, around the existing beautiful large trees and the edge of the play area / sand pit create a strong character with their fluid outline – visually soft and much used.
The school being an older entity had no strategy to deal with the rain water and in the process of the treatment of the ground it was integrated for its harvesting and recharge of the ground water table.
