Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG

Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior PhotographyNepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior Photography, Windows, ArchNepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior Photography, Windows, BrickNepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior Photography, WindowsNepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - More Images+ 17

Shankharapur, Nepal
  • Collaborators: Patrizia Children Foundation
  • City: Shankharapur
  • Country: Nepal
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Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior Photography
Courtesy of supertecture gUG

Text description provided by the architects. After Nepal‘s century quake in 2015 we have been invited to come up with a design for the school extension in the Himalaya mountain village „Dhoksan“. The school was in need of four additional rooms: three classrooms and a multifunctional library.

Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior Photography, Windows, Facade
Courtesy of supertecture gUG

In order to display some of Nepal‘s unlimited possibilities for reused, recycled, regenerative and circular construction technologies we decided to build every room as an individual house - every „classhouse“ from different innovative and underestimated materials: free donated „earthquake“ bricks, earth+bamboo+straw, "earthquake“-rocks + rocky slades , 700 old „earthquake“windows.

Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior Photography, Windows
Courtesy of supertecture gUG
Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior Photography, Windows
Courtesy of supertecture gUG

In Nepal‘s first brick-crowdfunding we convinced hundreds of households to donate some of the bricks from their earthquake-ruins. Finally we collected more than 14.000 bricks of 50 different types. For every individual type of brick we have designed a unique bonding. Even the roof consists of two different tiled pitches.

Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Interior Photography, Brick, Beam
Courtesy of supertecture gUG
Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Interior Photography, Brick, Arch
Courtesy of supertecture gUG

The second classroom is made of rammed local earth. Since the people of Dhoksan have not been very confident of using this free material we decided to build our house from five different layers with mixtures ranging from very simple to rather sophisticated earth aggregates: First we mixed earth with a little bit of cement, later with straw, needles and even cow shit. The building‘s roof is made of locally treated bamboo and it is covered with straw. Both: treatment of bamboo and straw had to be reinvented in „our“ village.

Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Image 21 of 22
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Site Plan

Some years ago almost every traditional building in our village's neighborhood was built from rocks covered with rocky slades. After many houses collapsed during the latest earthquake no one is rebuilding these traditional houses anymore. Reinforced concrete skeleton structures are replacing traditional architecture and former grace of cities and landscapes. By using all those collapsed rocks again and by inventing round rock windows we tried to make rockhouses "en vogue" again. All rocky materials in our classroom have their origin in former local rock buildings.

Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior Photography, Windows, Brick, Facade
Courtesy of supertecture gUG

Nepal's latest earthquake destroyed more than 800.000 buildings. Many of the incorporated windows have later been dumped in stocks for old windows and wood. We managed to collect around 700 old windows and to refurbish them. They became both: facades and roof of our multifunctional window house. It features a library, a multipurpose room in the upper floor and a convenient students slide towards their homes.

Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG - Exterior Photography
Courtesy of supertecture gUG

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Project location

Address:Kattike Dandagon Marg, Shankharapur 44812, Nepal

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Nepal School Extension, Shiladevi Primary School Dhoksan / supertecture gUG" 21 Sep 2022. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/989311/nepal-school-extension-shiladevi-primary-school-dhoksan-supertecture-gug> ISSN 0719-8884

Courtesy of supertecture gUG

震后小学扩建 Shiladevi / supertecture gUG

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