SANDIPANI SCHOOL – PRE-PRIMARY BLOCK PROJECT in Hazari Pahad, Nagpur aims at an important task of making the school building education friendly keeping interactive design as the brief. The site is an 80 m long school building with four floors, housing ground and first floor for the pre-primary kids and second and third floor for the higher secondary school. The biggest challenge was to deal with the scale of the user group and hence the thrust of the project lied in the study of ergonomics and a lot of survey with the teachers of the school thus underlying the principle of sensitivity. Incorporation of arches in the atrium as an architectural element was one of the most important decisions as a part of the anthropometrical analysis that lead to the harmony in architectural proportionality with regards to the user group (3-5 years’ age group) and hence making it experientially pleasing! The colorful scheme not only played an important role in creating a positive and energetic environment for the kids to nurture but also homogenized the 80 m long building and hence making it user friendly. Lots of interactive furniture, wall arts and spaces have been designed that make learning more fun. In terms of utility, the proportions have been carefully drawn, wash basins and storage shelves for tiffin bags have been incorporated in every classroom design and planning and circulation has been carefully ascertained. With the color pop ups, arched atrium, wooden name plates, art works, mosaic drinking water counters, striped colorful ceiling in activity areas, interactive sliding furniture, customized restrooms, ramped paths, and so many other finer details, this school is indeed a school with a difference!
