“The Gurukul School” in Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Architecture Dept, Auroville Building Center
By Suhasini Ayer
In October, 2004 during one of the working sessions for the Goa International School in Goa, Prakash Nair of Fielding/Nair International mentioned to me that he was invited to visit a school in Trivandrum. After meeting with Asha Panickar, who was the initiator of the idea, Prakash called me and asked if I would be willing to work on this project. Because I am interested in designing schools, especially schools that are trying to break away from the conventional system to more student-oriented learning, I agreed to go over to meet Asha and visit her school.
Asha then called and emailed me several times before I visited her school. During these weeks I realized that it was not going to be easy. Asha had almost no financial resources, but she was determined to make a difference in a medium-sized town in India, where there is one system of education for the children there.
After taking a local connection from Chennai on an international flight heading to the gulf countries, I landed in Trivandrum. (Most of the other travelers were men dressed in white going to “Mecca” and a lost looking young man going in the same direction to find a future.) There was Asha waiting for me with options of either having lunch followed by a short nap or lunch and a visit to the site. I opted for lunch and a visit to the school, which she is presently running from a rented house. (This was not one of the options, but…).
After lunch with Asha and her mother, we went to the school. If I had any doubts about the feasibility of the project, they were gone after one and one-half hours with the children. Visiting all the classes that were in session, I got a chance to talk with the children on a one-to-one basis.
 These children from kindergarten to 7th grade were articulate, knew what they needed and wanted and obviously loved how they learned. The children had a wish list for their new school project: sports facilities (foot ball field, swimming pool, tennis and a gym), art and culture (dance, music, art studios, and a pottery/carpentry and metal workshop), communications media and computers. Most of all they wanted to continue learning in a open and easy manner.
 The classes were mixed in terms of age groups, and they seemed to function seamlessly. I watched a dance class in progress where two of the older girls were leading a bunch of 4-5 year olds in a fast and intricate dance with enthusiastic participation from the little ones. It made me think of my dance classes as a child where we had to stand in line and follow the teacher who made us repeat the same movement endlessly until he thought we were ready to go on to the next level. Meanwhile, all of us would lose interest and could no longer do anything right.
Outside, in the limited space around the house that is on a steeply sloping site, children were participating in three different sports: badminton in between parked school buses; cricket between some temporary structures for extra class rooms; and foot ball on a small clearing between the driveway and fence.
Then we went to the site which is on the outskirts of the town. On approximately two acres of land, the site has a slope of one meter for every 4 meters (1:4 gradient). Terraced with rubber trees and occasional rock formations, the land would dictate the layout of the buildings by its contours and location. The classrooms would also need to follow those contours and circulation would be perpendicular to the slope. Access for vehicles coming to the site would be limited to a small side where the land slopes the least. The parking and sports fields would need to be located there.
Regards
Suhasini
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Schools—Good for Children?
