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Architects: pk_iNCEPTiON
- Area: 108 m²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Pranit Bora
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Lead Architect: Pooja Khairnar
Text description provided by the architects. An NGO, Round Table, is envisioned to provide study rooms for the students of Kochargaon Village. According to their survey, the village sorely lacked facilities for reading and learning, which has adversely affected the literacy rate. The chosen site was an old collapsed Aanganwadi that still had an undisturbed, stable plinth. That became our plot. It is located in the vicinity of the village's main temple complex. The temple has a large covered pavilion (at road level) in front, for all the religious and public events of the community.
Our site, one meter below road level, is visually and spatially connected to this pavilion and the street. The initial plan focused on constructing two study rooms, one designated for males and the other for females. However, discussions with the NGO and multiple site visits revealed a deeper need to inculcate the importance of education in the community itself. This unspoken directive urged us to design a space that invites and engages all age groups, fostering a love for learning while providing a versatile environment for diverse uses. Thus, we envisioned a library, a reading area, essential study rooms, and a multipurpose space for various educational activities.
The core concept evolved into three covered spaces: two study areas and a book stacking space, concentric to a central court and participatory to all other areas. All these were placed on the existing plinth, and a fourth pavilion was added at the front to create a semi-covered entrance and arrival space for the library. A series of steps guide visitors from the road to a lower level, transformed into an informal gathering space at the entrance. The first pavilion, featuring a generous opening with a load-bearing arch, extends a warm welcome. This covered verandah, intended for newspaper and magazine racks, invites the elderly to read and relax freely.
From this verandah, one enters the central courtyard, which leads to the book stacking area at the front and two reading rooms on either side. These rooms, oriented perpendicular to the temple complex, ensure tranquillity for the students, shielded from public activity noise. They open solely into the courtyard, providing a versatile space as needed. Strategically facing the temple, the book stacking area beckons villagers with visible, colorful book covers from the street and temple pavilion. To enhance visibility, the stacking area remains open towards the courtyard, with two large sliding shutters. These shutters not only reveal the bookshelf but also transform into writable blackboards when closed. This duality allows the courtyard to morph into an outdoor classroom for children, a workshop space for youth, and a night school for the village women, fostering a vibrant educational ecosystem.
The design features high-pitched roofs for the study rooms, oriented east-west. This orientation ensures the escape of hot air, seamless cross-ventilation, diffused lighting, and captivating views of the sky and surrounding trees. Being an NGO project, our design needed to be multifunctional, low-maintenance, and cost-effective. This presided over our choice of material and construction method. The entire structure is load-bearing with expansive arched openings.
The pitched roof was made using corrugated metal sheets and the floor finish was done using locally available stone. Keeping all the prerequisites in mind, we aspired to create a spatial experience that offers tranquility for reading, inclusivity for learning, playfulness for children, and secure book stacking within an open design ethos. These aspirations were realized through the spatial organization of pavilions around a central court, with openings meticulously crafted to optimize light, ventilation, and participatory engagement.
