International primary schools case study

INTERNATIONAL
PRIMARY SCHOOL
DESIGN
Case Study

Submitted By- Sumaiya Islam (152081002)
Tazrima Parvin Tonima (152081001)
Course Title- Design Studio 4
Course Code- ARCH241
Submitted To- Ar. Mehreen Hossain
Lecturer, architecture Department

What Is Primary School?
A primary school (British English) or elementary school
(American English) is a school in which children receive
primary or elementary education from the age of about five to
twelve, coming after preschool and before secondary school .
In most parts of the world, primary education is the first stage
of compulsory education, and is normally available without
charge.

Functions Of A Primary School
• Administrations - Principle’s Room , Office Rooms ,Teacher’s Rooms
, Cash reception , Information Room , IT Room, Service Room ,
Doctor’s Chamber , Parent’s waiting room , Parent’s meeting room ,
Exam Control Room , Controlling Zone , Conference Room , Vice
principle Room
• Education - Class Rooms , Library , Common Room , Computer lab ,
washroom , dress changing room/locker room
• Recreation- Assembly hall , Canteen , Hall room , Prayer room , Play
Ground , car/bus parking , Auditorium

Basic Information
• Architects MASS Design Group
• Location Kigali, Rwanda
• Architect in Charge MASS Design Group
• Design Team Michael Murphy, Alan Ricks, Sierra Bainbridge, Ebberly
Strathairn, Branden Collins, Andrew Brose, Marika Shioiri-Clark, Ryan
Leidner, Eric Mutabazi
• Area 900.0 sqm
• Project Year 2010

Basic Information
• Requirements give poor children best educational environment &
facility within minimum cost.
• Landscape Design Sierra Bainbridge
• Teaching Method Typical Education System Of Rwanda
• Number of Students 300
• Number of Class rooms 9
• For villagers & students of age range 5-12 years
• Awards Shortlisted for AGA KHAN award

History Of Comission
• In 2007, UK charity A Partner In Education (APIE), as part of its
mission to boost education in Africa, committed to building a new
school campus in the Kigali neighborhood of Kabeza to replace
dilapidated existing facilities.
• MASS(a non-profit architectural firm) was brought onboard to select
the new site, design the new educational facility, as well as assist in
building the organizational structure to support the educational
programs for the Kabeza neighborhood.

Locational Characteristics
• The school is situated at KIGALI, the
capital of RWANDA.
• Like many parts of the Rwandan
territory, it is composed of several
hills linked together by the road
network.
• Though very important, the rural side
of the city is not physically very
different from the rest of the town.
• The Umubano School is completely
integrated into this context and fits in
well with the overall brick-housing
image that one sees in the popular
areas of Kigali.

Climate
• Located 1°58’S and 30°07’E, Kigali is almost on the equator.
• The altitude of the city (1,400 m average) defines a particular climate.
• The city is green and rainfalls are significant all through the year.
• The temperature averages between 18°C and 20°C, maximum being
around 27°C and minimum under 10°C.
• Two rainy seasons exist (short and long).
• Rainfall is steady and not heavy during the long rainy season while
there are thunderstorms and heavy rains for short periods during the
short rainy season.

Concept
The Schools seven
buildings house nine
classrooms and a library
on a sloping site. Unique
settings for education
have been created to
occur within a mix of
interior rooms, exterior
teaching areas - some of
which are covered by
sloping roofs - and
terraced play spaces for
children.

Site & Site Access
• The Umubano School is located in an area
called Kabeza close to the main road to the
airport.
• The precise location is the former village of
Nyarurembo, which has become an integrated
neighborhood of the city of Kigali.
• The school is built on a hillside. The slope is
pretty steep (more than 45° in some places so
the architects had to find a solution to cope with
the difficult topography.
• Access is very difficult because of the steep
slope of the hill of Kabeza. The school can be
accessed by cars, “moto-taxis” and foot.

Surroundings
• The neighborhood is composed of individual houses located on
single pieces of land of different sizes, most of them over 300
square meters.
• These houses have an individual design but all of them relate to
architectural references close to cottages and housing that can
be found in the Western world.
• A small bridge has been built that allows direct connection
between this area and the school
• There is no sewerage system in the neighborhood.

Impact Of The Project On The Site
• The project had a very important impact and completely changed the
image of the neighborhood.
• The government supported the idea and serviced the site with
electricity and water provision.
• The street system was greatly improved, as was the general drainage
system.
• The opportunity for good quality education at a low cost attracted new
settlers, who themselves improved the quality of the houses.

Building Description
• The school is composed of seven buildings with nine classrooms, an
administrative block and a library that is designed to accommodate a computer
centre, for a total area of 900 square meters.
• The computer centre will be functional only when the school can buy or is
offered computers. For the moment that place is used as a storage room.
• The massing is designed over five platforms that solve the steep slope issues.
Each platform is dedicated to a specific group of children or to a specific
activity.
• This made it possible to retain the slope and thus continue to merge into the
general image of the neighborhood.
• Sewerage is not provided in the area. The latrine blocks have “individual”
sewerage systems.

Design Features(Response to physical
constraints)
• The outdoor space for need to adapt the
school to the topography of the site led to
the definition of platforms, each of them
designed to accommodate two or three
classrooms, with a specific platform for the
administration and the library.
• These platforms are linked by a walkway
that communicates smoothly with the
different “levels” of the project.
• In addition, these platforms constitute both
separate “courtyards” and play areas (to
reduce the risk occurring from mixing
children of different ages in the same area)
and extra tuition.

Design Features(Response To User Requirements)
• The separation of the different platforms is the first of a series of answers to
the needs of the users.
• The particular form of pedagogy implies the possibility to organize classroom
space freely, breaking the dichotomy between the space of the teacher (in
front) and the space of the children.
• The children sit at groups of three to four tables, which creates a very friendly
atmosphere.
• Nursery and first-year classrooms are close to the administration block, while
fifth–sixth-year classrooms are located further down the hill.
• Bathrooms are located in two blocks (one at the top of the hill and one at the
bottom).

Design Features
• Each building constitutes one block under a 10-degree sloped roof.
• Each building is on a platform perpendicular to the general slope of the site.
• As the long sides of the buildings are perpendicular to the slope, they always fit in to
the general landscape,
• The fact that the shape of the hill has been used to organize the platforms makes it
difficult to ensure direct cross ventilation through the rooms, as the back walls (north-
east) stand against the hill.
• Therefore a corrugated plastic clerestory was designed in a double-pitched roof to
help ventilation through the classrooms.
• This clerestory creates a very individual form for all the buildings.

Design Features
• Lively designs have been created
through varied placing of bricks on
some area of the facades.
• Often creating holes through the walls,
these enriched brick areas break the
linearity of the front facades of the
buildings, while creating an interesting
pattern of shadows in the afternoon.
• Traditional motifs have not been used
in the building and specific decoration
is absent, apart from very discreet
colors on the outside structure of each
block.

Design Features
• The doors have been
specifically designed using
the skills of Rwandan
thatchers.
• Not only do they produce a
very nice effect, they also
ensure some ventilation.
• The skills of the thatchers
were also employed on the
ceiling design

Design features
• The use of limestone blocks for the
outside retaining, or terracing, walls
completes the unique “feel” of the
buildings and of the landscaping.
• The platforms, while solving the
problems of water flow, also provide
very good overall spatial organization.
• The use of local bricks allows the
project to be completely integrated into
the site, while the stone retaining walls
have become an easy identification
marker for the school.

Zoning & Circulation
Classrooms
Administration building
Latrine
Circulation through stairs
And terrace platforms
Circulation through stairs
And ramps

Class rooms
• The classrooms are a very simple rectangular shape (almost
square), allowing different organizations of the classes.
• In particular, they help to avoid the dualistic “teacher vs students”
arrangement of usual classroom furniture.

Class rooms
Class arrangement
Of class 1-6
Nursery classes
Class arrangement

Library
A specific platform is
dedicated to the
administration and the
library, which has been
designed to
accommodate
a computer center.

Playground
• The organization of classrooms
on different platforms gives
each age group a special space
clearly identified for outdoor
activities, which helps prevent
accidents that may occur when
mixed-age students play
together.
• The open terraces also works
as playfield for each class
students.

Landscape
• The landscaping is an essential part of this project. Outdoor space is used by the
children during breaks and every now and then by the professors during their classes.
• The organization of the space as “stages” allows the outdoor space to be used a bit
like an amphitheater.
• The walkways allow a continuity of the space that could otherwise be very dispersive.
From a visual point of view, the light structure of the buildings, the use of ordinary
materials and the greens of the space help create a continuity of the outside space
with a central “flow” of nature that makes the landscaping a very important part of the
project.
• The vegetation on the slopes helps stabilize the hillside and prevents serious
mudslides after rainfalls.
• Organizing the area into platforms also cleverly diminishes the quantity and speed of
water directly flowing down the slope

CONSTRUCTION & MATERIAL
Structural members
• A breast wall is set at the top of the site for
general stabilization. As for all foundation
walls, this structure is drained. Retaining
structures and foundations are made of
stone and cement.
• The vertical structure is a combination of
concrete poles and beams (against the
slope, which form part of the retaining
structure), steel structures (for the outdoor
overhangs of roofs) and structural walls. The
roof structure is made of single steel tubes,
and the roof itself is made of corrugated
metal sheets.

CONSTRUCTION & MATERIAL
Infill materials
• The infill walls also play a
structural role. They are
made of stabilized-earth
bricks.
• Doors are made of metal
frames with thatching infills.
• Reed ceilings are installed in
every room.
• Most of the walls are not
plastered and are similar to
the majority of unplastered
walls in Rwanda.

Lighting
. Lights used to penetrate through the
brick hollows and also make
interesting effect at afternoon. Also
penetrate through the ceiling and
window
Ventilation
Though the ventilation was tough due to the
hill against north-east wall of the building and
slope of the site. So direct cross ventilation
can not be provided

Challenges & evolve
• The main challenge
was the sloppy hill
.This was achieved
through designing a
series of platforms
defining space for
both the classrooms
and the “courtyards”
and open terraces for
every age category
of children.

Climatic Performance
• Though it was difficult to ensure cross
ventilation because of the slope and
the fact that the walls “against” the
slope were used as retaining
structures, the difference of height
between the top of the two pitches that
constitute the roof allow upper
ventilation. That gap is protected by a
corrugated plastic clerestory, which
adds to the quality of the light inside.
Thatched doors increase the
ventilation of the classrooms, as do
the “holes” in the walls created by the
areas of brick patterning.

Response To Treatment Of Water And Rainfall
Kigali suffers heavy rainfalls.
Therefore the site design was planned to limit erosion of the hill since
the different platforms will slow the flow of rainwater.
The walkways were another response to this problem as they create a
less sloppy way down the hill.

Programs
• Classroom
• Open classroom
• Administration
• Play area
• Toilets
• Library

Conclusion
The school is mainly built as a low cost school so that they
can reduce the illiteracy. Creative uses of exterior teaches
space and interior space is visible in the design. Local
materials and natural ventilation is also there to balance the
design.

Basic Information
• Architects - Biome Environmental Solutions
• Location - Sarjapur Rd, Byraveshwara Industrial
Estate, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560091, India
• Design Team - Chitra Vishwanath, Anurag Tamhankar,
Sharath Nayak, Soujanya Krishnaprasad, Prasenjit
Shukla, Lekha Samant, Shibani Choudhary
• Area - 985.0 square meter
• Project Year - 2016
• Site Area - 1955 square meter

Basic Information
• Requirements - Utmost freedom in order to value
the infinite resources of their hands, eyes, and ears
and of forms, materials, sounds, and colors
• Teaching Method - Diverse mentorship
• Number of Class rooms - 4
• For - Children of age range 5-10 years

Main Theme
“ The permanence of a building may no longer be a
prerequisite in its design.……it is necessary to allow
material recovery and recycling, or reconstruct the
same building elsewhere – anything but create debris
that will occupy landfills.”

Concept
It is well known that children in their formative years are responsive to
their everyday surroundings, experiences, and routines. Borrowing
from this, The Reggio Emilia Approach focuses on the centrality of
the hundred languages of children wherein they require utmost
freedom in order to value the infinite resources of their hands, eyes,
and ears and of forms, materials, sounds, and colors. Designed by
Bangalore's Biome Environmental Solutions, this pre-school is an
example of a sustainable building whose design submits to the
enhancement of a sensorial, exploratory learning experience.

Land information
Situated on a leased land in close proximity to a warehouse and a
construction activity site, the building aspires to create an architectural
experience that mutes all external noise, focalizing attention internally.
Owing to the visible conditions and the invisible experiential constraints
around the site, the architects lead the design in this direction. The
essence of this project lies in its transposability.

Site access
It sits compactly on a 1955 square meter site that is accessible from
the northeast. The building is conceived as one large volume of 985
square meters with its plinth extending into outdoor play areas on the
northern, southern and north-eastern sides. A light galvanized metal
roof sloping from the south to north shelters the entire school. On
entering the building, the individual spaces eloquently dissociate from
the whole. With an unassuming permeable external and an
understated interior, the architects have tactfully managed to unite the
inside to the outside.

BACKGROUND STORY
The school sits in a neighborhood with constant construction
activity and a godown is in its immediate vicinity. Creating a
learning space for a young age group on such a site required
that the school be an enclosed and protective space. The site
factor played a key role in the design, along with the Reggio-
Emilia education approach itself, on which the school is based.

Bubble Diagram
Piazza
entry
Reception
Play
area
Toilets C.S.C
studio
Classrooms
cafe
Outdoor
seating
Outdoor
play area
Play
area
E.O
pantry
Play
area
Car
parking entry

Layout Details
The layout is composed of classrooms, a studio/atelier and a
childhood stimulation center around a central piazza that
allows for transition between these spaces. Each classroom
additionally comprises of a mini-atelier for smaller group
activities. The varied internal spaces of learning are awash
with daylight that filters through a generously sky-lit roof.

Design features
• Drawing analogy from the traditional gurukul setting, eight structural
columns similar to a branching tree support the sloping roof.
• As a result, the roof is at a perceivable scale giving those under it the
opportunity to interact not only with each other but also with the
architecture. The offices are tucked away on a southwest mezzanine.
The four corners enclose secondary spaces including a café to the
southeast and basic utilitarian services to the northwest.

Overlooking from the mezzanine

Design Features
• No building is an end in itself- it frames, relates, separates and unites,
facilitates and prohibits. When viewed from the outside, the school
resembles an art workshop/studio space. The external envelope is a
composition of fixed panels of perforated metal sheet, reflective glass
and pinewood. A continuous band of perforations wraps the building
below the standard sill height facilitating a visual connect with the
outside world, while ensuring safety of the children. In addition,
operable louvers and sliding windows are suitably positioned to enable
adequate daylight and airflow

Design Features
• The building consists of four
classrooms, a studio and a
childhood stimulation centre
around a central piazza, with filter
spaces allowing transition
between the rooms and the
piazza.

Design Features
• The toilet is designed with
consideration to the young
age group, cubicles scaled
appropriately for children
as well as their need to be
supervised.
• Open drains in the wash
area and urinal walls are
incorporated for ease of
use and maintenance.

Design Features
• This project explores innate
construction techniques including
a local chappadi granite stone
slab foundation, tactile flooring
with paver blocks and CSEB’s
made of soil from different sites,
a false ceiling from bamboo mats
and a bolted steel support
structure. Together, they sustain
a continuum in space perception
from the outside to inside.

Design Features
• The motility in the perceived
space is heightened by the
curvilinear shape of the
classrooms enclosed with
paper-tube ‘walls’ of
appropriately varying
heights.

Design Features
• This tree form, while being a
structural element, allows the
roof to be perceived from a
height that children can relate
to. It is also a reinterpretation of
learning under a tree, a
common sight in rural parts of
the country.

Design Features
• Throughout the scheme, the
architects have retained the
fundamentals of sustainable
building practice ensuring
that rainwater is harvested
from the entire roof area and
solid waste from the school is
disposed off in twin leach pits
which are effective in
returning nutrients to the soil.

When one speaks of sustainability as a
phenomenon (a state or process that is made
known through the senses rather than by intuition
or reasoning ) that is part of an architectural
language, often we forget that architecture is
itself composed as much of the intangible as it is
of the tangible.

Construction & Material
‘ In the Atelier, it is in the use of natural materials that the building
possesses an innate ability to eventually become expressive of
its purpose ’

• The external fabricated façade is
a tack-welded mild steel frame
with panels of perforated metal
sheet, pinewood, reflective glass,
operable louvers and sliding
windows, planned with regard to
light and ventilation.
• CSEBs made of soil from different
sites in the locality create pleasing
patterns which harmonize with the
floor colors.

• GI sheet is used in consideration
to the roof slope, with a false
ceiling of bamboo mat plywood for
thermal and sound insulation,
which further imparts a sense of
warmth. Preference of a hand-
crafted material such as bamboo
mat over the conventional plywood
allows a valuable skill to be
preserved.

• Paper tube details

A subdued earthen interior palette permits the gaze of the eye to
penetrate its surface convincing one of the veracity of its
materials..
Inside a classroom
Overlooking central piazza

Teaching Method
• Rooted in a cognitive learning
approach, the school engages
children under a diverse
mentorship – a place realized
for parents, teachers and
volunteers to contribute to the
process of education; a place
where the resulting nourishing
environment encourages a
child’s mind to explore
endlessly.

Programs
• Reception
• Piazza
• Childhood stimulation center
• Play area
• Toilets
• Pantry
• Studio
• Executive office
• Classroom
• Cafeteria
• Outdoor play area
• Play area
• Tree deck
• Car parking

Conclusion
• The architects have approached educational design with a balanced
understanding of the physical and metaphysical elements of the site
and the end-user respectively. To quote Juhani Pallasmaa, we feel
pleasure and protection only when the body discovers its resonance in
space. The architecture of The Atelier partakes in one of such sublime
delights of ergonomic proportions that engage the senses. It embraces
the fluidity of the internal spaces and yet, is mindful of the simple
geometry that it is enclosed within.

Tongjiang Recycled
Brick School
CASE STUDY

Basic Information
• Architects Joshua Bolchover - John Lin
• Location Jiangxi, China
• Project team Christiane Lange; Jess Lumley; Mariane Quadros de Souza; Anna Wan
• Project managerMaggie Ma
• Area 1096.0 sqm
• Project Year 2012
• Students 450
• Classrooms 11
• For Villagers
• Building 3storey

Story Of Commission
• Tongjiang Primary School is located in Jianxi Province, south-east
China. The charity World Vision commissioned Joshua Bolchover and
John Lin at The University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Architecture, to
design a new school building at no additional cost to a typical school
building found in China. These buildings are generic two story
buildings with open balconies constructed from reinforced concrete
and brick infill.

Background Story
• World Vision asked them to challenge the design of a typical school building in China -
generic two story buildings with open balconies -without incurring major additional costs. As
part of their initial research they organized a workshop with the local school children and
asked them to draw their ideal school building. Surprisingly the majority of the students
drew buildings that resembled these generic school buildings. This demonstrated that these
children simply have not witnessed other possibilities for school design and that their
cultural imagination for other possibilities is limited by knowledge, education and what they
see in their everyday environment. This is not a critique, more a realization that in order to
offer any alternative and not be faced with resistance of the unknown, each project has to
engage with cultural and knowledge exchange and not just the production of the building
itself. With these factors the project aimed to work within these constraints to produce a
building that responded to the site context and could create unique spatial experiences for
learning and social interaction and in turn could demonstrate that school buildings do not all
have to look the same.

Requirements
• The requirements was to expand an existing school from 220 children
to 450 through the creation of a new building with 11 classrooms to
provide a learning hub for a network of rural villages that currently do
not have access to education.
• The challenge for architects John Lin and Joshua Bolchover, was to
devise a new building that would stimulate learning and social
interaction within the limited formal, material and budgetary parameters
of a generic Chinese school.

Goal
• aim was to work within these
constraints to produce a
building that responded to the
site context and could create
unique spatial experiences for
learning and social interaction.

Location
• Tongjiang Primary School is located in Jianxi Province, south-east
China

Climate
• Jiangxi Province is just north of the Tropic of Cancer.
• It is classed as a typical northern subtropical monsoon climatic region.
• The average temperature for a year is 18 °C (64 °F), in January the average temperature is 6 °C
(44 °F), and that in July is 29 °C (84 °F).
• Generally speaking, Jiangxi Province has a rainy period starting from April; May and June are the
months with the most rainfall; and the rain period is over in July.
• Then the whole province has a period of hot and sunny weather.
• In October, the temperature begins to drop, and a coat is needed from then on.
• In spring, the weather is changeable; it is sometimes warm and sometimes cold. There is plenty of
rain till midsummer.
• From midsummer to early autumn, it is sunny, hot and dry most of the time. In winter, the weather
is raw with rare rain.

Design Scheme
• The intention is to
make use of these
waste materials in
the construction of
the new school
through re-
deploying this
material in
innovative ways.
Concept
• A key concept
is to allow the
school to open
up for
community use
and
participation.

Site & Entry
• The site is at a crossroads between the
main road and a road that leads to the
village.
• Strategically the building is positioned
along the road’s edge to create an open
public space between the new building
and the existing school.
• The site had a small building on it that
required demolition to make way for the
new school building.
• The entrance is between the two
building
Road
Entry

Site Plan
Existing
Teacher’s
office
Existing
school
Classroom
Open
classroom
Media room
&
library
Entry

Design
• This external skin protects the internal classrooms
from excessive solar gain yet allows for natural
ventilation through the teaching spaces.
• The wall and roof form a thickened edge to the
street façade allowing the more protected façade to
the courtyard to be opened up comprising concrete
fins and vertical glazing.
• The fins vary in size for different functions: thin
strips for solar protection and wider C-sections that
contain bookshelves within the classrooms.

Design
• The natural topography of the site is
manipulated to create a series of outdoor
steps that stretch from the main entrance
across the building and through to the
courtyard beyond.
• This creates a protected open air meeting
room that is directly accessible from the
street.
• The level change advantageously produces a
large assembly hall at ground level that also
functions as a community learning space or
library.

Design
• The building acts as a buffer - a thickened edge - that frames the
open space of the playground.
• The naturally sloped site was terraced into two levels with a
height difference of around 2 metres.
• At the entry to the building a stair leads up to the first floor which
stretches across the site’s entire edge.
• Roof-lights puncture this space providing direct light that
animates the corridor and classroom spaces throughout the day.

Roof
• The roof is formed from
recycled brick waste and
rubble that thickens the roof
to provide additional thermal
mass cooling the building in
summer and retaining heat
during the winter.
• The rubble acts as a
substrate for natural
greening from wind-blown
plants, mosses and lichens.
• The roof steps down to join
the wall which gradually
becomes more open through
perforations in the brick
patterning.

Construction
• The intention is to make use of these waste materials in the construction of the new school
through re-deploying this material in innovative ways.
• The roof is formed from recycled brick waste and rubble that thickens the roof to provide
additional thermal mass cooling the building in summer and retaining heat during the winter.
• The rubble acts as a substrate for natural greening from wind-blown plants, mosses and
lichens.
• The roof steps down to join the wall which gradually becomes more open through perforations
in the brick patterning.
• This external skin protects the internal classrooms from excessive solar gain yet allows for
natural ventilation through the teaching spaces.
• The wall and roof form a thickened edge to the street façade allowing the more protected
façade to the courtyard to be opened up comprising concrete fins and vertical glazing.
• The fins vary in size for different functions: thin strips for solar protection and wider C-sections
that contain bookshelves within the classrooms

Material
Waste Materials
like-
• Recycled
brick waste
• Rubble
• Glass

Programs
• Administration
• Classrooms
• Play area
• Open classroom
• Toilets
• Library
• Media room

Conclusion
• Through an emphasis on the potential of waste material, simple
environmental strategies and the creation of a diversity of
learning spaces, both indoor and outdoor, the school is robust
and adaptable enough to withstand the potential transformation in
the surrounding context.

International primary schools case study

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