Can a campus Teach? Yes, We believe a campus can be the very lap of learning
if it is conceived and developed just as mother nature; if it offers constraints to children which make them think, do, learn, and live differently.
The Architectural Design of the campus is based on these three guiding principles:
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Design to build less
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Design to install and use less resources (like electricity, water, fixtures, furniture, etc)
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Design to cost less (to us and to environment) – so use cost effective, sustainable, environment-friendly, local materials, which lead to less maintenance
The implementation of the above itself is learning a process for all of us. A simple constraint “each building self-constraints different material” brings a lot of learning opportunities for us and brings challenges for us to grow more.
Bamboo was chosen as the material for our next structure after we explored earth bags and sun dried mud blocks. Bamboo was new, the structure of the dome was new – both together brings joy in our life. We are learning about Bamboo. Some Bamboos we bought were not good enough, some we treated were not sufficient enough. The structure of Dome with various Hexagons was not as perfect as it looked in our models as Bamboos were not as straight as our models. All together it brought opportunity for loads of mistakes and hence loads of exploration.
Jatre on Dome was to understand the challenges ofthe structure and the care the community needs to take. We looked around for the Termites, Wood borers and possible places of corrections in the structure. The entire exercise brought our understanding on usages of Dome and self constraints (not strong enough for hanging). We became more aware of what we have in our surroundings before we start consuming it.