Project
Hands of Thought, elementary school project
Category
Best Project of Public Building or Facility
About the project
The proposal aims to act as a manifesto investing in the people and community to learn and grow, where the people act as the architects themselves. The design aims to enhance a construction technique already familiar to the locals, taking it a notch above by creating a hybrid between a known technique with a new. For this, various elements such as Eco-cooler clay blocks, recycled plastic bottle walls filled with mud, wattle partitions, bamboo roof structural system have been deliberated, to give new uses to materials that have always been there.
The design of the school evolved from various parameters including cost, climate, resource availability, experimenting with recycled, local materials and hands-on construction.
The idea is to create guidelines of building systems, that can be interpreted and applied to build their own houses, rather than mere replication of modularity. Hence, a grid-line of columns with a combination of infill walls connecting the dots are used.
Location
Senegal
Project design year
2020
Applicants and authors of the project
Saurabh Bhayaje, Suyash Sawant, Ahanta Ganti.
Ar. Saurabh Bhayaje: «Graduated in 2018 from LS Raheja School of Architecture, currently i am based in Mumbai working at a multi-disciplinary office that specialises in cinema Architecture and Schools. For me architecture is a simple narrative that includes sensual aspects of our experiences. It holds the potential to build a connection between ones’ soul and the energy around, yet unexplored.I strongly believe and try to implement the word by Tadao Ando “The way people live can be directed little by architecture.»
Ar. Suyash Sawant: «I graduated in 2015 and completed my Masters in Advanced Architecture from IaaC, Barcelona, 2020. I think architecture builds this intrinsic connection between “TIME, SPACE AND PEOPLE”, and good architecture to me is the one that balances all these three parameters.»
Ar. Ahanta Ganti, graduated in 2015 from Mumbai university and currently working in SJK architects based in Mumbai: «My interest lies in sustainable and urban design. Architectural journalism also fascinates me.»