Protective school

It will be a building for everyone, for use as a school and for the community of Ladakh, a village in the far north of India. All rooms are arranged around the centre to strengthen the sense of community. By using double windows, the southern façade is designed to be open, maximising solar energy gain. The northern façade is built using thick clay bricks, which retain the heat inside the house and store it. The roof construction reinforces this effect and directs as much light as possible into the central space. Clay, stone and wood are the determining, locally available building materials, joined together in a composition, the design of which is equally simple and convincing. Each material is a response to the local forces of nature. The stone base protects the building against flooding, the clay bricks keep out the cold and the timber construction is earthquake-proof.