School at Gorkha

The post earthquake rebuilding program of the Shree Sarbodaya Lower Secondary School at the remote village of Choprak in Gorkha district, Nepal, was carried out by two graduating architecture students and an architect from India.

The funding and volunteering support was given by a Kathmandu-based NGO Rescue Gorkha. Six classrooms of the school were rebuilt in a period of seven weeks with support from the local villagers and students. Built in the wake of the monsoon in the Himalayan valley, the reconstruction involved exhaustive use of local building materials like stone and bamboo. Conceived as a community driven pilot project to demonstrate bamboo architecture technology to the villagers for further rebuilding, the project saw good participation of the local people.

The 130 sqm rebuilt wing of the school has a 0,60 meter deep foundation of rubble masonry and one sill beam with bamboo reinforcement. The facade is designed in woven bamboo latticework and panelling by the students, while the lateral walls are wrapped in split bamboo with mud plaster at certain rhythm from inside. The partition walls were created in sandwich panels made out by laying insulating foam between split bamboo panels. The interiors were plastered in mud by the village women using the locally available red clay, rice husk and cow dung. The interior of the classroom present a dynamic learning environment with light filtering through the bamboo latticework and the split bamboo, giving a controlled access of views to the students at the same time providing an airy and well lit interior coming above the existing practice of dark cells as classrooms.

Shree Sarbodaya Nimn Madhyamik Bidyalaya, Choprak village, Gorkha, Nepal
Program: school
Design team: Dipon Bose, Samya Ghatak, Rishabh Sharma
Advisory team: Parag Rawool, Tanya Pahwa
Funding and volunteer support: Rescue Gorkha, Kathmandu, Nepal
Area: 130 sqm
Completion: July 2015