Description:

This project was developed together with the NGO IndienHilfe Deutschland. The Indian caste system severely restricts the educational and career choices of the population. To counter this, the NGO’s partner in India, the Society of Pilar enables children of the lowest caste to receive a free education through its own institutions.

The planning of a vocational training center was developed as a freelance semester work at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and subsequently developed independently in India and Germany. Due to its modular structural system, the new design for the school campus serves as a mediator between the urban environment, the neighboring school building and the small-scale slumlike settlement. In order to adapt to the growing number of students and the stages of financing, the planning will be divided into three phases.

To enable cost-effective construction and operation, the planning will take into account the use of sustainable and regional materials. Rammed earth walls act as a thermal mass. The east-west orientation allows for better crossed ventilation in the rooms supported by a double-shell façade system made of CSEB (Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks). In summer, the inner skin remains open at night to allow the warm air to escape. In winter, the stored heat of the rammed earth walls gives the room a pleasant temperature.

The library is ventilated by wind towers. The large window fronts cannot be opened, so ventilation can be controlled through two openings on the roof of the atrium. If these are opened, the heated air escapes allowing for a vacuum effect that pulls fresh air into the space and cools it through a basin system in a passive way. The building is surrounded by a perforated shell that protects the interior from direct sunlight.

At the Auroville Earth Institute, the Unesco Chair Earthen Architecture in India, the team was trained in various production and construction methods of CSEB and Rammed Earth. For the creation of an own CSEB production line on the project site in Bhopal, the properties of the site’s soil were analyzed and a specific aggregate composition was determined.