GENERAL OBJECTIVES:-

• The social objective of this project is to develop a model curriculum

for the education of boys and girls from the ages of four to eighteen,
integrating modern academic education, traditional values and the
practical needs of this developing community.
• It aims not only to teach children 3 wisdom but also to equip them
for happy and productive lives in a fast-changing world.
• An important consideration was therefore to balance traditional
Tibetan teaching with a modern pedagogy that helps to develop self-
confidence and a variety of skills and competencies.
 EVOLUTION OF DESIGN CONCEPT

RESPONSE TO
PHYSICAL
CONSTRAINTS

RESPONSE TO LANDSCAPING
PURELY FORMAT
USER AND WATER
ASPECTS
REQUIREMENTS INFRASTRUCTURE
 Introduction
At an altitude of 3,500
meters and only accessible
for six months of the year,
the Leh Valley in Ladakh is
about as remote as it gets.

In a harsh,high altitude, desert environment

where water is scarce, sustainability had to play a

major part in plans for the school from the very

start.

created cutting-edge systems that pump water from

melted snow to the site, both for drinking water

and for irrigation. The school’s toilets don’t

require water at all, and have state of the art

passive technology to eliminate odorsand turn waste

into compost.

Ladakh has hot summers and very cold winters, so

we installed passive solar heating. Even in winter,

energy from sunlight is stored and used to heat the

school and accommodation .

The site measures 130,000 square metres (13 hectares). The ground floor area of the complex is
1,200 square metres, the total covered floor area being 1,240 square metres. The Nusery and Infant
School takes 800 square metres of this total, and the residences take 440 square metres. All buildings
are single-storey, except for the Junior School which has a partial second storey.

SITE PLAN
SECTIONS
 RESPONSE TO PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS
• For energy efficiency, the
buildings are designed to
take maximum advantage
of the sun, taking into
account the unique solar
potential of the high-
altitude environment. The
buildings in the daytime
teaching area are turned
30° from the south towards
the east to benefit from the
morning sun. All other
buildings face south, so as
to maximise solar benefit
throughout the day and
store heat for evening and
night-time use.
RESPONSE TO USER REQUIREMENTS
• Single-storey buildings are arranged like a small village or monastery in contrast to the open
desert landscape. The master plan is composed of two main parts: the daytime teaching area,
organised on a nine-square grid, and the residential spine, organised along the south-north axis.

• The roofs are designed to bring in additional daylight through clerestory windows. For enhanced
thermal performance, small windows are set in the north-facing facades to provide daylight. The
courtyards are planned as outdoor teaching areas during the summer months and may eventually
be covered with awnings made from parachute fabric, which is available locally.
• Residential spine with dining hall: A dining hall located between the school and the residences
provides a focus for the complex, hosting communal events. It has a central space, defined by
heavy timber frames, and two side aisles. One aisle provides a seating area along the
doubleglazed facade, the other defines the service area along with a linked building that houses
the kitchen. Both the kitchen and the dining area have direct access to the outside
PURELY FORMAT ASPECTS
• The plan for the educational complex is the
traditional nine-square mandala figure, surrounded
by an outer ring that is concentric with the central
circle. The outer ring will be formed by low walls,
eight stupas and newly-planted willow trees. The
underlying symbolic geometry, which is not
apparent on the ground, seems to be used more as
an organisational tool than for its 6 symbolic
meanings. When stripped of their local
connotations, the eight-spoked dharma wheel
(representing Buddhist teachings) and the nine-
square mandala (symbolising the inner and outer
worlds of the subjective and objective realms)
present universally valid configurations for design
and planning. In this project, they give formal
discipline to the plan and provide an efficient
configuration for the distribution of services.