The assignment to design the ‘Ideal School’ for Dolakha was given by CEPP, an educational NGO of Nepal. Nepal, a country he- avily struck by the earthquakes of 2015, still suffers from harsh conditions, especially in areas like Dolakha. A lot of people there still live in their temporary, quickly built steel houses.
The current primary school of Dolakha owns 3 of these temporary, corrugated steel buildings and one solid brick/concrete building. I decided to use fragments of the existing school, rather than getting rid of everything. As I remove all the temporary school buildings on site and upgrade the solid one, I re-use the remaining corrugated steel plates. They are implemented as opening shutters and as a roofing material of the new buildings.
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A big topic was to deal with Nepalese traditions. After meeting some inhabitants of Dolakha and other people of Nepal, I skipped the idea to design a school that would look traditional in the end. For them the look and appearance of a school is one of the most important factors. Striving for progress, the Nepalese people want a modern way of living which is linked to the Western image of modern architecture, without losing their own traditions. A cross-pollination between both their own traditions and the Western traditions has to take place, in a way that it can become a part of their own. A reinforced concrete framework filled with cyclopean concrete was chosen to materialise my design. This construcion method, filling concrete frames with a kind of masonry, is already widely used to reconstruct the houses of Dolakha by the local people themselves after the earthquakes of 2015. They stressed their trust in concrete, after seeing several concrete buildings being the only ones still standing.
Convincing them of the material choice, and the correct technical use of it, is no longer necessary. They learn how to work with reinforced concrete every day by doing, making and trying. The cyclopean concrete can be linked to their traditional stone masonry, as a reincarnation of their own tradition.
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In my Ideal School design for Dolakha, Nepal, I worked with the idea of building a concrete wall, which would function as the backbone of the school. The wall became the main focus of the design, around which the edifices and spaces are raised in order to be able to profit the functions it provides. In the end I designed a wall that shows as one gesture but that supplies both a visible and a physical protection, as well as several other functions that charge senses and basic needs nowadays: water, heat and an awareness of time. The introduced elements signify a continuation of their tradition. They are present in people’s houses and signify more than just primary needs. They arrange life outside and inside, as for example the fireplace is often the centre of a house. By introducing these almost mythical elements such as water, fire, earth, air, time... I tried to respect their vernacular architecture, not by making a literal translation. It is an important aspect in the design not to build an ordinary wall, but one who implies a reflection of most needs in life.
I kept the benefitting spaces as simple as possible, but uplifted them from the monolithic wall by the use of colour. By doing all of this I tried to make the school area something of aesthetic interest, with both links to familiar factors and new perspectives, which hopefully would be preserved by all. Eventually the wall shows how simple, affordable solutions as water captation/filtration and a ‘chimneyed fire’ can help obtain a healthier environment, which could be taken home and applied by the local people themselves, as the school can make a difference. The design is a gift to be used by the whole community, as a design for all, offering them a space dedicated to be used any time of the year to cook, to gather, to learn, etc., which means a great deal to all of them. In the end, this forms my perspective on an Ideal School.
Many of the choices made, to implement certain aspects in the design, are a result from local research and research in publications and on the World Wide Web. One of the main arguments are the death rates in Nepal and Dolakha, as an example of approximately 18.000 deaths each year due to household air pollution, from which 7.500 children.
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To check the earthquake-resistance of the school design, I contacted Rudi Roijakkers, Senior Seismic Consultant in projects of ABT Belgium. The school, which is situated in the Himalayan foreland, is built on a slope excavation of the mountain. Behind the existing buildings the mountain rises abruptly. I chose to incorporate this slope, by building the wall against it, to enlarge the school site. As the wall has a height of approximately 7.5m, building it against the hillside, the height of impact is restricted to the upper part of the wall. The lower part uses the technique of reinforced earth, which anchors it deep into the soil. The upper part is connected, on the other side of the wall, to a row of concrete buildings on the hill, which gives the wall a façade function. Making as less changes as possible in the use of materials ensures that all parts resonate at the same frequency, as in this story a continuation of the concrete was beneficial. Design wise a certain symmetry is taken into account, especially for the top part of the wall. This to make sure there are no weak points, as it functions as a coherent entirety. A proper placement of materials, openings and extrusions resulted in an improved condition of the wall. This made the wall an earthquake-proof frame for the whole school area.
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An aspect that I wanted to bring back to Dolakha was the aspect of colour. This choice was made after being on site and realising that after the earthquake, temporary tin sheds were built, like weedage that had to be torn away and replaced by descent ones. I couldn’t imagine that they felt a 100 percent at home in these houses, as they sometimes referred to the coloured façades that were there before the shake, this large variety which made the area a joyful place. I reintroduce colours, which previously already brought life into the image of the village. As the school is a landmark, colour will make the school something conspicuously present. It would also make an interesting contrast with the roughness and wildness of the concrete wall.
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In the end, all of this, and much more, forms my perspective on an Ideal School for Dolakha, Nepal.