Gaia high school - the personification of mother earth

Project idea

Project Title: Gaia high school
Location: Sholinganallur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

This project proposes a sustainably designed school in Sholinganallur, a rapidly developing urban center. The aim is to create an environment that fosters curiosity, creativity, and exploration in students, moving beyond conventional learning methods.

The school is envisioned as a space where learners actively engage with their surroundings and develop into thoughtful, responsible individuals. Its design emphasizes flexibility, openness, and interaction to support dynamic and meaningful education.

Constructed entirely with rammed earth, the building reflects a strong commitment to environmental responsibility. This choice not only reduces ecological impact but also celebrates local materials and vernacular building practices.

The project upholds a dual responsibility: to serve the users—future citizens—with a stimulating, respectful learning environment, and to honor the site by ensuring minimal harm during both construction and operation. In aligning education with sustainability, this school becomes a model of holistic development rooted in context, care, and consciousness.

Project description

The proposed school is a G+1 educational facility located in Sholinganallur, designed with a strong emphasis on sustainability, community, and experiential learning. Constructed entirely from rammed earth excavated directly from the site, the building reflects a deep respect for the land while significantly reducing the environmental impact of construction.

The spatial layout is organized around a central pathway—a semi-covered, light- and air-filled spine—that serves both as a circulation route and as the heart of creative and communal activity. This primary axis connects the two main academic blocks: one for the primary section and the other for secondary education.

The school houses 36 classrooms, accommodating students from Grade 1 to 12, with three sections per grade and a class strength of 30 students each. The classrooms are designed in a trapezoidal form, with the shorter of the two parallel walls featuring the teaching board. This subtle geometric manipulation fosters a natural focus toward the front of the room, enhancing concentration and spatial orientation.

A clustered classroom arrangement is adopted to promote a sense of community and interaction among students. At the heart of each block is a central courtyard, which serves as a source of daylight, ventilation, and informal gathering space, reinforcing the values of openness and connection to nature.

Further supporting the school’s philosophy of holistic development, generous provisions are made for sports, games, and community-building activities. The design culminates in a large amphitheatre, serving as a hub for performance, expression, and collective engagement.

Overall, the project presents a sensitive, student-centric design approach that merges sustainability, spatial innovation, and community-driven learning.

Technical information

The school is constructed entirely using rammed earth, with the raw material excavated directly from the site, minimizing environmental impact and reducing transportation-related emissions. This approach not only grounds the building in its natural context but also ensures sustainability from the outset. To support local engagement and skill development, local laborers were trained in the techniques of rammed earth construction, fostering both community participation and craftsmanship.

While traditional rammed earth walls are load-bearing, the school employs a reinforced rammed earth system for added structural integrity. Reinforcement bars are integrated vertically within the walls, enhancing stability and resistance to lateral forces. The earth mixture is stabilized with 6% cement, improving its durability and weather resistance while retaining the natural texture and thermal performance of raw earth.

Bond beams are used at critical junctions to tie the structure together and distribute loads more evenly, further improving seismic and structural stability. This hybrid approach allows the rammed earth walls to function both as expressive architectural elements and reliable structural components.

The roof system features hexagonal pitched roofs over each classroom, combining terracotta clay tiles for natural thermal insulation with a metal truss framework for strength and lightweight support. This roofing solution not only adds to the architectural character of the school but also facilitates efficient rainwater drainage and passive cooling.

The result is a building that is both aesthetically grounded in its material palette and technically robust, embodying a construction philosophy that is sustainable, locally rooted, and structurally sound.

Documentation

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