The RIMT School is located in Gobindgarh, a small industrial town in Punjab. Over the last two decades, the town has become a hub of iron ore processing, influencing a high-density development characterised by organic growth.
The design for the primary school is derived as a response to the dense urban context, breaking down a large built mass into several cuboidal units. These units are in proportion with the low-height residences that surround the site.
The design follows the site conditions and the local sun and wind patterns, resulting in a grid of horizontally rotated blocks that endeavours to integrate the outdoors with the indoors. The negative spaces between the blocks thus become courtyards and spill-over zones that create a healthy micro-environment in an otherwise difficult urban environment.
Charged Voids draws on nature, scale, and the element of play to elevate the quotidian school experience. The scale of the school blocks, an intangible aspect of the design program, aim to make the school building inviting rather than intimidating.
Aman Aggarwal - Charged Voids
Owing to the rotated arrangement of the blocks, each classroom opens directly into these interstitial spaces in all four directions, which remain cool throughout the day owing to self-shading among the blocks. Two primary entrances lead to administrative areas through a double-height entrance foyer, with the utilities and vertical circulation placed centrally to allow for easy access, including a ramp. While four classrooms are located on the ground floor and six on the first floor, the utility rooms, staff facilities and administrative areas are distributed on both. The basement acts as a multipurpose hall with storage spaces and provision for a small creche area.
The principal material used in construction is the locally available grey fly ash brick, made from the industrial waste abundantly produced by the town’s many furnaces, making it a cost-effective and environmentally responsible choice. The material also contributes to greater thermal comfort within the rooms. Though left exposed on the exterior, the walls in each of the thirteen cubes are painted on the interior in varying combinations of the three primary, three secondary and six tertiary colours.
