The Dutch Pani Foundation commissioned SchilderScholte architects to design an educational building in the north Bengal town of Rajarhat. The architects couple embraced this pro bono assignment coming from ideological motives and knowledge sharing. The building serves as a community centre for folks from the region, aged from toddlers to elder people.

The project, designed by  SchilderScholte architecten, is realization of a regional vocational school, consisting of classrooms, a workshop with a shop, a collective toilets with courtyard and water pump for the local residents. The entire project is only realized with local builders and materials, lots of crafts, as well as no electricity. Everything under one large corrugated iron roof supported by a bamboo frame.

Description of the project by SchilderScholte architecten

During the design process attention was mainly focused on locally available materials and weather conditions. The starting point was to realize a building using materials and skills from within a 15 miles radius around the site. Bamboo, hand-shaped brick, Mango wood, reused steel, local mortar and wafer-thin recycled corrugated panels are the main materials used in the building.

The drive was to encourage locals to become aware on the basic principles of sustainability and durable building concepts. In effect close to zero electricity or fossil fuels were used during construction and other necessities required for erecting this building. Thus realizing an environmentally friendly building that contributes to the community in a significant way. The plan (79×105 ft) is East-West oriented and consists of two volumes under a large bamboo roof construction.

The classrooms and lavatories are positioned on the South side and on the North side we find the workshop with store. Two sight lines traverse the building in all four directions. The lifting of the roof high above the volumes has achieved a considerable reduction of heat build up within the spaces. Further cooling is provided by cross ventilation, surrounding vegetation and the nearby pond. With the completion of this striking design the architects have proved that conventional local resources and materials can be used to build successful environmentally friendly unconventional architecture.

Lay Out

The composition of volumes housed under one big U-shaped roof creates interspaces that are open for public use. There is no architectural loss. On the ground floor there is a covered plaza with adjacent collective lavatories. At first level, on top of the workshop, there is a freely accessible assembly floor for public meetings. This part of the building is connected by a footbridge coming from the classrooms.

Pani Community Center in Bangladesh, by SchilderScholte architecten.

Bamboo Rules

Although bamboo is seen as an inferior material in the region, the architects have chosen to make the whole roof construction out of it.  Even the walls and French doors of the workshop are cladded with it! Thus being a reference to the bamboo bicycle frames that are made here. The final assembly of the bikes take place at the backside under the roof. The front of the workshop faces the main road and houses the bicycle shop.

Pani Community Center in Bangladesh, by SchilderScholte architecten.

Sustainable Features

From a bioclimatic point of view the orientation of the building allows to emphasize the natural cross ventilation, which prevents costs with electric fans.  The roof of the building is suspended to both sides (East and West) providing shade, protecting the biggest openings against rain and collecting rainwater into the courtyard. The concept is to combine and optimize local techniques with local materials. For this the strategy is to participate in the evolution and modernization of the local construction processes without a rupture in the ‘’know how’’ of the population.

In the North of Bangladesh buildings are almost all constructed with bricks in combination with corrugated panels, so we propose also the use of bricks but in an optimized and locally unknow brickwork bond that doesn’t require whole-brick walls for stability, minimizing the costs and maintaining the main advantage, the use of local materials and craftsmanship. U-shaped brick columns support the South facade of the building, thus creating a row of small vertical windows. Ultimately, this can be understood as a single stone wall, a great saving on construction costs, time and labor.

The dimensions are chosen with great care, in such a way that direct sunlight into the classrooms is minimized still providing in optimal daylight illumination. Also the use of nearby ponds for natural draft to cool the classrooms was taken into account in the design. The techniques use for this project are also very easy to learn and diffused by the main contractor, which will contribute to the local construction modernization. This application of local bricks is less expensive and reduces the use of construction wood by combining bamboo with thin concrete floors. This minimizes the shortage of wood in Bangladesh as well future maintenance costs.

Pani Community Center in Bangladesh, by SchilderScholte architecten.

By Nature

Some biomimicry elements are put on the test here! The brick-built volumes are all plastered and partly painted. The interior walls are coloured in light blue, a hue that flies shun. The splay of the classroom windows are painted yellow, a hue that specific insects dislike. Yellow has been opted as the dominant color. It refers to the flowers of the mustard plant, a crop that colors large parts of the country from December to January. Grey and black are the other shades, which in turn refer to the color of the Bengal earth before and after rainfall.

CREDITS. DATA SHEET.-

Architects.- SchilderScholte architects.
Design Team.- Gerrit Schilder, Hill Scholte.
Structural Engineer.- Dick van Gemerden. PT structural, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Client.- Pani Foundation.
Main Contractor.- MEI, Rajarhat, Bangladesh.
Dates.- design 2012, completed 2014.
Area.- 910.0 sqm
Building Costs.- €44,000, (excl. VAT).

Read more
Read less

More information

Hill Scholte is interior architect + spacial designer and owner | founding partner of SchilderScholte architects. She studied interior architecture at the Willem de Kooning Academy, University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam. With her final project ‘New Kid in Town’ she won the prestigieus Holland Design Award. Hill has given internationaly lectures, for instance in Johannesburg and New Delhi, with regard to this redevelopment project of a former industral hall into a primary school based on the concept ‘the New Learning’. The prize winning B-tower project, designed together with Gerrit Schilder, was on exhibition at the Architectural Biennale of Venice 2012 and has been publiced worldwide. In January 2014 she gives in addition to the workshop Awasteness in Rajkot (India) an inspiring lecture regarding biomimicry principles.

Hill acted as curator of the Graduation Exhibition Master Retail 2011 of the Piet Zwart institute, was jury member of the China Design Awards and was present as a honourable guest at the Guangzhou Design Week in 2011 en 2012.

Currently she is a study coach at the bachelor Spacial Design of the Willem de Kooning Academy, University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Read more

Gerrit Schilder JNR is architect, interior architect & furniture designer. He is owner | founding partner of SchilderScholte architects which has its roots in ZooM Architects. Between 1993 and 1998 he severally worked for Neutelings Riedijk and Mecanoo architects. From 2008 to 2010 he was working with Metropolis architects in Rotterdam.

In 1993 he graduates at the Constantijn Huygens Academy. With these final projects he wins two important prizes that same year, the BNI prijs and the Dutch Furniture Prize. In 2002 he got his Master degree in Architecture at the Academy of Architecture & Urban Design in Rotterdam.

From 2003 to 2009 he was President of the Dutch Association of Interior Architects, BNI and as such he was closely involved in the preparation and effectuation of the amendment to the Architects Title Act in 2010. From 2008 to 2011 he was Secretary General of the European Council of Interior Architects where he was partly responsible for the creation of The European Charter of Interior Architecture Training.

Through the years Gerrit has given lectures and workshops on interior architecture and design methodology at universities, institutes and symposiums throughout the world, form Estonia to Australia from Iran to Japan.

Next to this he is a dedicated part-time teacher. In 1997 he started teaching at the same Academy he ones studied interior architecture. Followed by the Technical University Delft and the Academy of Architecture & Urban Design in Rotterdam. From 2003 to 2006 he was Head of Department, Faculty of Interior Architecture at the Willem de Kooning Academy, University of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam. Till 2013 he was a senior lecturer at the AKV | St Joost, Avans University of Applied Sciences in Breda. The first half of 2011 he was a guest lecturer at Greenside Design Center in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Read more
Published on: February 28, 2015
Cite: "Pani Community Center in Bangladesh, by SchilderScholte architecten" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/pani-community-center-bangladesh-schilderscholte-architecten> ISSN 1139-6415
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...
Loading content ...