Community School, Budni, Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

This thesis is about creating a bold image of a community-driven design of learning spaces made manifest in a culture and climate specific school. It is about perceiving Architecture as slow, sensual, transcendental and regional. In keeping with the above, the idea is to tap the rural potential and traditional knowledge systems to educate about their original means of occupation. The school is deemed as a rural learning centre that proposes redefining of conventional education and infrastructure, by creating an incentive to work, participate and learn. It is a centre for community participation, interaction and learning. The thesis aims at a comprehensive design projecting a structure that the community can look up to- as an anchor institution. Sustainability, as a concept, evolves in meaning with context, and behaves differently in a scarce situation more so if the setting is rural and the user group of modest income and background - „current decisions should not impair the prospects for maintaining future standards‟. A study of three pre-dominant tribes dwelling in Sehore district in Madhya Pradesh, namely Gond, Bhil and Korku has been undertaken. These tribes are not only indigenous to Sehore but various parts of M.P.; moreover some of them also thrive in parts of the country. The hindi synonym of „Tribal‟ is identified by words such as „Anusuchit‟, „Adivasi‟, Adimjati‟ and „Vanvasi‟. These terms correspond to such meanings as „Aborginals‟, „Forest dwellers‟ and „Originals‟. Central India holds 55% of country‟s tribal population of which the state of M.P. is a major stakeholder. The aforementioned tribes dwell in the foothills of Vindhyachal Range, specifically in the Satpura region along the banks of Narmada River. Beliefs, traditions and rituals tie the tribal communities together. Their routines and seemingly pragmatic objects are paraphernalia rich with value and symbolism. The tribal knowledge is an indigenous system and an inventory of layers of socio-cultural learning and ways. The study is focused on the traditional/indigenous knowledge possessed by these tribes in the fields of culture, spatial organisation and architecture