Disha Foundation School

Narratives

Architect Narrative

Gently-sloped ramps circum-ambulate around the central court, and the building rises in comfortable stages with places for pause and rest along the way. The activity spaces on each floor are separated from these ramps by corridors, which act as buffer space. The corridors have display boards on the outer walls of class rooms, which are formed on the back of cabinets of the class room, thus cutting off the noise from the central space, completely.
All workrooms have glare-free natural light from a window system designed for even distribution of day-light, thus eliminating the need of artificial lighting during day. The air-cooling system is integrated with structural system. The workspaces are air-cooled through vertical ducts coming down from rooftop coolers. The building envelope is designed to keep the interiors cool in summers, warm in winters and well-ventilated during the monsoon season.
Particular care is taken for fire-safety, considering the difficulties of movement for the physically challenged. There are numerous fire escape routes and exits from the building. Additionally, the terrace spaces provide fire-safe zones on each floor.
The building seeks to contribute its share of environmental stimuli that the young minds at the school would enjoy. The play of light, colour, texture to touch and feel and fragrance are integrated into the building fabric. And most importantly, a strong presence is given to trees, creepers, flowering plants, which have been planted this year — to reflect the cycle of seasons and to invite butterflies, birds and squirrels to make their homes at the centre.
The School is for mentally challenged children of age 5-16 years. It was founded by a charitable organisation. The school was operating from a rented house till recently. As a charity, they were offered, by the Development Authority, a rather restricted urban site to develop the school building.
The design for the school was guided primarily by the needs of the special child, his access, safety and comfort. As an institution of learning and training, the building design provides a lively environment for two important needs — a sense of community under the shelter of a roof, and a sense of independence and flexibility for the use of individual activity spaces.
The entrance forecourt has been designed as a play garden and an outdoor gathering space, with the curved façade of the building acting as a backdrop to the stage. All ground floor rooms have outdoor extensions under the shade of trees, and the rooms on the upper floors and the library have access to terraces, shaded with pergola.
On entering the building, children arrive into an all-weather Center Court, which is used for playing and exercising. This court becomes the integral part of all activities by connecting all floors visually and involving people on upper floors in the activity on the ground floor.

Educator Narrative

The school is very well designed keeping in mind the ease of the disabled child. The building is very interactive with the central atrium linked to all corridors and ramps with places to stand and sit in between to observe the activities all around. It is my favourite place to sit and observe the activities of children from one of the rest benches. Children also seem to love the space as they want to spend most time in the atrium, spill-over spaces and terraces.
The ramps provide for the main circulation and are placed at such a location that everybody uses them, not just students in wheelchair. Thus reinforcing the policy of ‘inclusion’, and there could not have been a better way to convey that we are all one. The pergola shaded terraces in the centre of the building with creepers on top of them connect the building to nature and add a character. The amount of natural light is so good that most of the times we don’t even realise when the power goes off. In most of the areas we hardly need any artificial lights. The building has an ambiance that impresses everyone. We have not had a single visitor including students, professionals, people from the community, V.I.P.s, government officials, etc, who has left without praising the excellent design, ambiance and sensitivity of the architect. The building has been declared by the government as a demonstration model to study the ease of access, and the government is also constructing buildings at various other places on the guidelines of the school.