Post-School Nepal by Lin Seminck

POST SCHOOL NEPAL Building proces of the Kalidevi School, Chhap, Makwanpur

Post-School Nepal Wild Studies Academic Design Office On Continuity and Identity, KU Leuven Back, I., Bouchez, H., Callebaut, T., Vanslembrouck, K. First Edition ÂŠ 2019

This project is made possible thanks to the support of Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen, BIKAS VZW, KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture, Campus Ghent, Belgium. The students of the International Master of Architecture and Master of Interior Architecture program, class of 2017, 2018 and 2019. In collaboration with CEPP Centre for Educational Policies and Practices Teeka Bhattarai & Michael Rai Contributors Wart Thys & Lin Seminck Ir. Bhawani Shandar Upadhyaya

www.wild-studies.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

Foreword by Wild Studies CONTEXT

An Ideal School?

Inspired by traditions

Schooling in isolated villages

From Ideal School to Post School

Post earthquake building boom

Wild studies, Academic Design Office ‘On Continuity and Identity’

PROCESS 21

Designing and building the Post-School, a timeline

Phase 1 | Research, mapping and building a playground in Pipalmadi

Phase 2 | The joy of making, learning and teaching workshop and colloquium

Phase 3 | Master thesis ‘The Post-School’

Phase 4 | Design proposal for the first Post-School prototype to be built

Phase 5 | Research, mapping and building a playground in Kalidevi school, Chhap

Phase 6 | Looking into the power of traditional crafts and preparatory work on the building site

Phase 7 | Building with compressed earth blocks in Chhap

Phase 8 | When the building process comes to an unforseen stop and architectural students contribute in their own way to the existing

Phase 9 | Learning from craft and hands-on interventions, in different villages in the Raigaun area

Phase 10 | An oil press for CEPP and the villagers of Chhap

A timeline of the building proces

Future Scenarioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s by Drs. Tom Callebaut

FOREWORD Building a Post-School in Nepal and involving almost 100 students over four years has been an immense challenge and has only been possible through the dedication and commitment of many. In particular Teeka Bhattarai, Michael Rai and the entire team of CEPP, KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture, Bikas and the volunteering work of Wart Thys and Lin Seminck. The foundational pedagogic work of Carine Verleye & Paul Beké, the province of Oost-Vlaanderen, the Tribhuvan university, Department of Engineering and Architecture, the architectural studio Abari, our local engineer Bhawani Shankar Upadhyaya and Lut De Jaegher from Arteveldehogeschool. This provisional report aims to give an insight into the complexity of the project, through a chronological proceeding of the different research and design methodologies. It has never been our objective to come up with a fast, earthquake resistant public, village school, rather the opposite. The Post-School is a research by design project: looking into the local identity of a village and the often ethnic minorities, —embracing traditional ways as a continuity for a sustainable knowledge transfer, —addressing durability and engagement as essential in earthquake resistant designs, —creating a connecting & learning space in villages under stress. This report is mainly addressing educators and administrators of education in Nepal and researchers and architects who wish to look into building new types of schools from a sustainable, engaging and geneous perspective.

CONTEXT This project should be understood as an ongoing process, because at the one hand we work and strat from a university environment, and thus an education and research perspevtive and at the other hand we do not believe in fast and temporary solutions. The focus is learning through doing, with an aim to bring people closer together and understanding our complex globalising world in transition, from an intercultural perspective. As architects we hope to create a space for a community, where joy, learning, making and dreams for a better future go hand in hand.

AN IDEAL SCHOOL? This project found its roots in a volunteering summer workshop by two students of the Faculty of Architecture, KU Leuven who had the dream to build a new type of schools in close collaboration with CEPP. Teeka Bhattarai and his team of CEPP had already been working in the field of public schools in rural Nepal, for more than twenty years. It is their aim to bring a higher quality of schooling in urban areas where financial resources are minimum and children have no other option than attending the public schools (opposed to private run schools, who because of private funding are considered of higher quality). The numbers of drop-outs in these rural public ‘An Ideal School?’ 2015

schools are high and it is the aim of CEPP to mend this by working together with teachers and parents, proposing new teaching

booklet by

methods and looking into other sources of discomfort.

Wart Thys, Lin Seminck, Carine Verleye & CEPP

With the devastating earthquake came the urgent question to rebuild 8000 schools in Nepal. Temporary school buildings

read online: issuu.com/linseminck/docs/idealschool

were erected next to the temporary houses by organisations such as UNICEF and large Chinese corporations. All of them are architecturally based on ‘modern’ types of concrete schoolblocks, rooted on educational ideas stemming from colonial times. The temporary schools, as well as the concrete ‘modern’ boxes built around the country do not only provide a minimum comfort (in the summer they are too hot, in the winter too cold), they neither stimulate new ways of learning, which could activate the students so drop-outs would diminish. Just graduated as architects Wart Thys and Lin Seminck started after the earthquake looking for partners in realising their dream of an ideal school for the villages they had worked and lived in Nepal. In close collaboration with CEPP and pedagoge Carine Verleye of the Arteveldehogeschool they established the first stepping stone of this project.

INSPIRED BY TRADITIONS Shortly after the earthquake ing. ar. Ignaas Back and arch. Klaas Vanslembrouck were invited by CEPP to visit some villages in need of a new school. The authenticity of the rural areas, and the traditional building methods with a typical ecological approach appealed Back & Van Slembrouck. Together with i.Arch Tom Callebout en dr. Hilde Bouchez they run the international architecture and interior architecture master ‘On identity and continuity’ of KU Leuven, which researches traditional and contemporary building methods as a means towards a sustainable and generous contemporary architecture. Almost simultaneously historian and anthropologist Hilde Bouchez visited a school in Peru which solemn aim is to transmit traditional knowledge to the village children of the Andes. The initiators of the Winaypac school witnessed how globalisation and especially modern consumption models are devastating for the wellbeing and the future of small village communities. The modern lifestyle, advertised by governments and moreover by big consumption companies are a threat to the continuity of an ancient culture, with all its local and universal wisdom. Therefore the school wishes to bridge this ‘modern gap’ by teaching the knowledge of the grandparents to the grandchildren as a way to guarantee the safeguarding of the Inca identity. During these two field trips and first encounters the seeds for a much larger project were planted.

SCHOOLING IN ISOLATED VILLAGES The Nepali school system exists out of a range of private schools, for which parents pay a substantial amount of money, and the free government run public schools. From the 1970â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s onwards it was the government policy to build schools all over the country, so students had to walk maximum 30 minutes from home to school. This means that Nepal is covered with public schools, that unfortunately work very poorly. Teachers are underpaid and the schoolbuidlings are mostly in a very bad state. Teachers working in public schools are often the least motivated due to a bad salary, which means they have to do an extra job to maintain themselves. Plus they are often located in remote areas, far away from their own families and thus living in regions with other ethnic groups than their own and not able to speak the local language. This leads to absenteeism of the teachers, demotivation and in cases to excessive alcohol use. It is precisely these problems CEPP wants to tackle with their teach the teacher program and other initiatives. After a first field-trip with a group of 20 students, to three different villages, we understood that next to the existing problems of bad 10

buildings and unmotivated teachers, there was another underlying symptom of the large dropout numbers. Parents and families could often not talk to the teachers, because of the language barrier, plus the school is considered a governmental institution, and thus for many impoverished families another symbol of power, which doesn’t care about the local communities and their existing problems. Most families in the village understand that sending a child to school, is a way to achieve higher economic chances for the future generation, but in reality there is such a mistrust towards the school, the government and its teachers that many families in the end let their children go to school whenever they want, as a sort of entertainment, rather than a profound education. We also understood that some teachers and school committees wanted a new school, for the sake of having a new building, more as a sort of status symbol, than as a community center, which could generate change. The first design of our Post-School, for example was initially for the village of Nuwakot. During the course of our student-workshop government officials came measuring the site and six months later a new ‘earthquake proof’, concrete building was erected, in the known ‘modern’ style, meaning a concrete box, looking like a stable and lacking all qualities a contemporary school demands. It became clear that our ideal school had to become more than a school, also a sort of community centre, driven and appropriated by the local families in collaboration with CEPP and the teachers.

FROM IDEAL SCHOOL TO POST SCHOOL Nepal is a country in development, and as in most other ‘developing countries’ good education is considered a key-element in the process of economic growth based progression. Unfortunately this progression is often sought in the greatest possible resemblance to Design sketch of the first

the industrialized North.

‘post-school’ prototype. This has caused Nepali schools to become places where children Academic Design Office ‘On continuity and identity’, KU Leuven, march 2017.

are raised to be ‘citizens of the world’ (or rather of the consumerist North) that are as little traditional and local as possible, and this evolution is reflected in both the school architecture (cubistic concrete blocks) and the curriculum and pedagogy (with great focus on the English language). While education used to be organized informally and in the everyday and domestic context, today children are raised in institutions that risk to alienate them from their cultural background. Since the school as an institution was introduced during colonial times, and is still today a form of complicity to the exploiting system, we renamed the original ‘Ideal School’ project to ‘Post-School’, referring to the movement of Post-Colonialism. This should be understood as a new building typology, which creates space for a re-establishing of the often lost thread with the ancestral knowledge and practises. In this sense the school adds to the process of decolonisation of knowledge and re-evaluating the often more sustainable traditional knowledge. The gap between the ‘home’ and the ‘school’ environment was further widened when the Nepali government took the initiative in the seventies to organize public education on a National level (with

the doubtful objective of producing students loyal to the regime), and thereby has cut the school loose from the community. A discontinuity emerged in the transferring of traditional knowledge, crafts and (vernacular) building techniques, since all these belong to the domestic environment to which the school wants to be the antipode. This project aims at designing a learning environment that combines the local with the globalized â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;modernâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and the traditional with the contemporary on both an architectural and a pedagogical (= the local school curriculum and extracurricular activities such as community interactions) level. 13

POST EARTHQUAKE BUILDING BOOM Since we started this project, the Raigaun region has seen a kind of post-earthquake building boom. A road is under construction from the border of India to Kathmandu, opening up this remote territory for new business opportunities. Old villages are cut in two, homes that once tranquil overlooked the river are now sitting on the pavement of a busy road. However, understandable, many inhabitants see the new roads as a means to economic gain and thus better living conditions. In addition to this development program, the government hands out grands to those families who want to invest in an earthquake proof home. These very simple cubist homes of brick and concrete lack all sense of beauty and harmony, so typical for the vernacular architecture of this region. Living conditions in these homes are very bad, and although many families build them because of the financial aid, they decide to keep on living in their traditional mud houses, which are not only much more beautiful, but also better isolated in the winter and better cooled in the summer. From the eagerness of the locals to embrace this wave of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;modernisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; we understood that the form of the post-school had to represent a contemporary and global style, but in a language that matches the traditional elegance. 14

WILD STUDIES, ACADEMIC DESIGN OFFICE ‘ON CONTINUITY AND IDENTITY’ Wild Studies is a collaboration between Hilde Bouchez, Ignaas Back, Tom Callebaut and Klaas Vanslembroeck More info: wild-studies.org

In the course of this project we started the research group ‘On continuity and Identity’ at the Faculty of Architecture of KU Leuven and initiated the design office ‘Wild Studies’ with sparring partners in Nepal, Congo, Greenland and Peru. With our research and design we aim to safeguard and reactivate ancestral knowledge and wisdom as a generator of meaning in a globalised, but superdiverse world. Creating physical spaces in remote rural areas momentarily under stress is our core activity. As architects we are essentially dealing with material culture and feel the need to activate and invigorate the often intangible and ineffable elements of local traditions, rather than collecting, inventorying and exhibiting buildings, styles and objects in an aim to safeguard the memory of traditional and sustainable ways. We therefore believe that it is precisely the continuity of a living tradition that identifies people and creates a sense of belonging. For all our projects we start from a particular set of qualities:

GENEROUS Generous through an approach that is process-based and inclusive, dynamically anticipating to a fast-changing context, with as a main aim to connect people, place, space and time.

WILD Wild as in untamed, and still holding space for a transmission of the ancient, the ancestral and the traditional knowledge, habits, rituals, arts, â&#x20AC;Ś rooted in a specific context and necessity, and therefore alive and authentic.

SUSTAINABLE Sustainable in a vernacular way, by translating globally available knowledge to locally available resources and skills in order to achieve low-impact, low-tech and climate-adaptive buildings.

ENGAGING Engaging by including elements that demand full community participation and maintenance, thus evoking social engagement, involvement, and most important local appropriation.

PROCESS Although the need for new built schools is high in Nepal, we decided to invest in a gradual and thus slow process. We witnessed how organizations, such as UNESCO deliver concrete blocks with no identity, no atmosphere and no comfort, reinforcing the colonial way of education which leads to more drop-outs. The Post-School has been designed in close collaboration with CEPP and after several field trips, analyzing the rural lifestyle in different areas in Nepal. For over three years master students have worked on the project through workshops and actual designs, and nine interns have over the past three years stayed for six weeks in the villages we worked with. The design of the school is a synergy of the enthusiasm and efforts of many.

The new building is rather small and opens up to four different ways of teaching and exchanging knowledge, through multiple purpose classes such as a stage, a kitchen, a storytelling space and an agriculture, or seed class. The actual building is the responsibility of the villagers. Together with our students (KU Leuven 2017-2018) we built the foundations on which now the local craftsmen continue the process. This is a complicated method, which asks for a lot of communication through simple sketches and building advice. However, in this way, the villagers appropriate the school, which hopefully will lead to a smaller gap between teachers and parents, between education and the everyday.

2014

Preliminary Research Trip - Wart Thys & Lin Seminck Raigon Area, Nepal

2015 feb

An ideal school? research and inspirational booklet by CEPP, Wart Thys, Carine Verleye & Lin Seminck

2015

Earthquake in Nepal

2016

Wild Studies Preliminary Research Trip AOB: On Continuity and Identity KU Leuven & Wild Studies

2016

Student Internship KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture Mapping + playground Hariharpur, Sindhuli

2017

Student workshop & colloquium - University of Kathmandu Determining parameters for a new school typology. Incorporating local people in the design process. Nuwakot, Dolakha, Sindhuli

2017

Wild Studies Design Proposal for the first Post-School prototype

2017

Architecture Student Internship Mapping + playground Kalidevi Primary School, Chhap

2018

Student workshop & colloquium - University of Kathmandu Preparatory work on the building site of the first prototype. Kalidevi Primary School, Chhap

2018

Volunteer work - ar. Wart Thys Building coordination with villagers Kalidevi Primary School, Chhap

2018

Architecture Student Internship Mapping + ‘Teach the Teacher’ Kalidevi Primary School, Chhap

2019

Student workshop Building the arena at Kalidevi Primary School, Chhap Visit different new schools and determining problems

2019

Volunteer work - Jens De Crop & Lin Seminck Building an Oil Press for the villagers of Chhap Co-participatory project for the ‘seed class’

2019

Wild Studies Expo ‘On Continuity and Identity’ Design & Building the Post-School for Kalidevi Primary School in Chhap

april

DESIGNING AND BUILDING THE POST-SCHOOL A TIMELINE

april

feb

summer

february

spring

summer

february

april

summer

february

april

june

KA R

LI NA

POKHARA

Lumbini

Chitwan National Park

Annapurna Conservation Area Manaslu Conservation Area

Langtang National Park

Mount Everest

Nuwakot Dolakha

KATHMANDU

Hetauda

Chhap Pipalmadi Raigaun

PHASE 1 | RESEARCH, MAPPING AND BUILDING A PLAYGROUND IN PIPALMADI During six weeks in the summer of 2016 three students from the Faculty of Architecture, KU Leuven did a VLIR-UOS internship in the Hariharpur Valley School in Pipalmadi (Ghante). Starting from the knowledge that an architect can only obtain a maximum result from a minimum effort and budget if there is a profound understanding of the local context, the students focussed August - September 2016

from an anthropological perspective on architectural observations,

Architecture Internship in

gaining overall knowledge about the vernacular building methods

Pipalmadi, Hariharpur Valley

and an understanding of the rural â&#x20AC;&#x153;urbanityâ&#x20AC;?, meaning the spatial organization and dependence of the village society on a larger scale.

Desislava Iroslav Petkova, Eleni

Secondly they used the method of participant observation. This

Tsiamparta & Stien Poncelet

technique,-often used for studies in anthropology or sociology-, allows the observer to participate in the ongoing activities and to record observations. Often, the researcher actually takes temporarily the role of those he wants to understand better. In this case, the students, who wanted to improve the conditions in which teachers have to teach, became teachers themselves. Towards the end of their internship our students proposed small alterations on the school terrain, which resulted in the building of a playground, in collaboration with CEPP, the teachers, the parents and the children. By doing so they contributed to the re-anchoring of the school into the village. To strengthen the internship, CEPP decided to involve two local students of Environmental Studies, of the University of Kathmandu - Seema Shrestha and Rinjin Lama, in the process. One of the main starting points for their collaborative interventions was the amount, local variety and availability of local and recyclable materials. The students also mapped an extensive research about the village, daily

life and the local public school which can be read in their report. A small excerpt: Re-Use

For the playground platforms, wood from the facade of one of the old school buildings were reused, as well as wood from the forest, partially collected by some of the older students. The whole community participated in collecting materials. The parents and students gathered natural ropes, old tires from motorbikes and cars, bamboo, straw sand and plastic bottles. There was plenty of sand, mud, clay and stones around the school compound to use. There is lots of plastic waste, wrappers and packaging to be found all over the villages in Nepal, due to the absence of trash bins and a larger organised collecting system. After gathering all of the plastic waste, the architecture students invited the local women to teach them how to create bowls by using their local braiding technique with the waste. This resulted in braided large containers which function as trash bins for the school. Along with proper education about waste, this encourages the students to throw their leftovers in the trash bins and reduces pollution of their land. Sitting platform

The first design was a much needed sitting area around a central tree in the school yard. The platform hugs the tree and wraps around at various heights to accommodate the different age groups of the 25

children. Immediately after completion the lower grade students started using the raised platforms and space beneath as part of their games. The platform is also used to watch sports competitions. It is so successful that it will need expansion in the future. Playground

The location of the playground was decided by the architecture students in accordance with the school and CEPP members. Everyone decided the playground should be visible from outside and presented as the “jewel” of the school. The most dominant part of the playground is a climbing structure which ends in a wide multiperson slide. The shape and positioning of the playing elements are designed in a way that the students are encouraged to go all-around the structure and go through the different “challenges”. The multislide allows the children to compete with their friends and avoid injuries by their trying to fit more than one person on a regular slide. Since timber can be very valuable and expensive, the students decided to collect and reuse plastic bottles, which creates a big waste problem in Nepal and all over the world. The oldest students helped to collect plastic bottles and filled them with mud, creating a strong perimeter for the sandbox. The involvement of the students in recycling materials helped them understand how easy a material, that is otherwise thrown away in nature, can be used in a practical way. Swings were installed by using a timber frame in combination with handmade ropes and tires as seats. The playground included a ‘balance’, which became a favorite amongst the students. After observation the balance became so overcrowded that they built a longer one to accommodate more children. The playground aims to integrate fun into the learning experience of the students and decrease drop-out rates.

Interior design for Class III

The classroom for the third grade is located on the first floor of the concrete building. The architecture students designed and created small interventions that makes daily life in the classroom easier and more playful and colorful. They created a place to store the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s slippers before entering the classroom. They painted subject matter onto the wall together with the students, built a bookshelf for the classrooms together with local carpenters, and introduced a bamboo wall that covers the bland concrete walls. These are also used as a coat hook. The students in the third grade did not have any desks, so they designed, built and painted low desks that the children could use while sitting on the ground. When the newly built playground was visited, six months later, by Belgian volunteers it turned out to have become a great success. Not only was it appropriated by the local teachers and children who had added beautiful colors to it, but it has also helped decrease the number of dropouts. Moreover when we visited the primary school in the Sindhulli region, during our fieldtrip in february 2019, identical playground furniture was built on the school grounds, and extensively used by the children, even after school hours. The projects and interventions that have initiated, do function as a model for other schools, and slowly add to a changing schooling system and climate.

PHASE 2 | THE JOY OF MAKING, LEARNING AND TEACHING WORKSHOP AND COLLOQUIUM February 2017 nineteen students from the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture travelled to Nepal for the ‘Joy of making, learning and teaching’ workshop, a collaboration between KU Leuven University in Belgium (Faculty of Architecture), Centre for Educational Policies and Practices (CEPP), Tribhuvan University (Institute of Engineering, Faculty of Architecture) and the Government of Nepal (Ministry & February 2017

Department of Education).

KU Leuven architecture and interior architecture workshop and fieldwork in Dolakha, Nuwakot and Sindhuli. Colloquium with Tribhuvan University Institute of Engineering & Faculty of Architecture

During the opening colloquium at the Tribhuvan university, different lectures were given by different stakeholders, mapping different views in this complex matter. For example: • Dilip Shrestha, the chief engineer of the Programme Unit of the Department of Education present several cases of model schools proposed by Chinese investors and different aid-organisations. Most models focus on fast, earthquake resistant, concrete

building methods, with no particular care for new education models, nor determining factors to uplift the comfort and atmosphere in the classrooms, neither did they have a sustainable approach. â&#x20AC;˘ Historian Prof. Sudarshan Tiwari of the Tribhuvan university illustrated several traditional building styles and techniques typical for the areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s we were working on. His argumentation for these building methods as not only identity forming, but also highly sustainable from an ecological perspective, as from the point of view of local economies was refreshing. â&#x20AC;˘ The local architect, Nripal Adhikari, from the internationally highly acclaimed architectural office Abari showed case studies from his own practice with local materials as mud and bamboo. All propositions are earthquake resistant, ecological and sustainable for the local economy. For the closure students were asked to present to the same stakeholders their research and preliminary designs for the village schools they had been visiting. In between both events, students were spread over three different locations: Dolakha, Nuwakot and Sindhuli where they did fieldwork, mapping and research for seven days. The ambition was twofold: to determine the right parameters for a new Nepali school typology and to try out a method to incorporate the local people in the design-process for the village school. 29

Determining the parameters for a new school typology The fieldwork during the workshop included many interesting formal and informal talks with children, parents, teachers and crafts people from the village and the village school. They discussed with both the students and teachers the possible underlying reasons for the high drop-outs, they tried to determine the often opposing desires and needs for a different kind of schooling and the community services that could be incorporated. They discussed extensively the existing fear of earthquakes and the traditional and contemporary building solutions for this recurring problem. They looked into the tension between global dreams and local realities. This resulted in a complex insight in the current functioning of the village school, its qualities and problems way beyond the solely brought forward problem of earthquakes. Back in Kathmandu, during the closure colloquium at the Tribhuvan University, many more interesting discussions took place with members of the Institute of Engineering staff, the Ministry of Education and the Nepali architects of Abari, resulting in nine essential parameters:.

1. To combine the traditional & domestic with the globalized & institutional

2. To anchor the school back into the community (e.g. by introducing community services) 3. To stimulate the local economy (to make the school buildable with local materials and by local knowledge) 4. To give the school an appearance that responds to the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desire for a village landmark 5. To make the design climate-responsive 6. To make the design earthquake-resistant on both a technical and an intuitive level 7. To incorporate local crafts (and by doing so to contribute particularly to the empowerment of Nepali women and to the local character of the school) 8. To make a design that allows to be expanded and appropriated 9. To make the design inviting

for pupils who experience a pleasant and creative environment instead of the dominant know-all-by-hart method for (grand)parents who experience a sense of belonging and for teachers who are invited to teach in a less formal, less stressful way 31

Incorporating local people in the design process We strongly believe that the users of a school should not be given the ownership of the school building only after its completion, but should be in charge from the very beginning of the project. Therefore it is the ambition of the Post-School project to invite local teachers, parents and children to participate in the design process. Prior to the workshop, the students from the Faculty of Architecture did research on existing and inspiring school designs that are built in developing countries all over the world. These references were published in the report ‘Preparatory research on sustainable schooldesign’. Ten designs were then selected and turned into scale models that could fit to travel with the students. These models were done in the least abstract and most narrative way so that they would appeal to locals who are not familiar with architecture models. On the three workshop-locations, the students set up an exposition of their models. During this ‘co-design event’ all villagers were invited to come and rank the different models to their personal likings and to argument their preferences. This event was a great source of inspiration for the students’ master thesis projects to come.

KU Leuven Department of Architecture students with scale models of the selected projects: Meti Handmade School by A.Heringer & E. Roswag Bangladesh, 2007 Floating in the Sky School by Kikuma Watanabe Thailand, 2013 SRA POU Vocational School by Rudanko + Kakunen Cambodia, 2011 Fuji Kindergarten by Tezuka Architects Japan, 2011 Milan Primary School by Rural Urban Frame Work China, 2012 Floating School by NLE Architects Nigeria, 2013 Suoi Re Village Community by 1+1>2 Architects Vietnam, 2010 Maria Grazia Cutuli School by 2A+P/A, G. Bombaci, M. Constanzo, IaN + C. Baglivo, L. Galofaro, S. Manna, MaO - M.Ciuffini, K. Di Tardo, A. Lacovoni, L. La Torre, M. Cutulli Afganistan, 2010-2011 33

PHASE 3 | MASTER THESIS ‘THE IDEAL SCHOOL’ Subsequent to the field trip, the assignment for the master students to rethink the Nepali school and to design a new typology based on their findings lead to interesting proposals of which elements were taken along the final outcome of the Post-School. While the architecture students focussed on the adaptation of traditional Nepali building techniques to contemporary standards, the students in interior architecture took the users and different educational models as a starting point. At the end of June, both groups presented their work for a jury of experts including mr. Teeka Bhattarai from CEPP. The following projects are included: • ‘Concretising the Wall’ by Sam Pladet • ‘The Cult of Cultivation’ by Jolien Van Der Eecken • ‘The joy of the wall’ by Ege Baki • ‘Learning through space’ by Stien Poncelet

CONCRETISING THE WALL In my Ideal School design for Dolakha, I worked with the idea of building a concrete wall, which would function as the backbone of the school. The wall became the main focus of the design, around which the edifices and spaces are raised in order to be able to profit the functions it provides. In the end I designed a wall that shows as one gesture but supplies both a visible and a physical protection, as well as several other functions that charge senses and basic needs nowadays: water, fire and an awareness of time. Sam Pladet KU Leuven Master Thesis Dep. of Architecture June 2017

The introduced elements signify a continuation of their tradition. They are present in peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s houses and signify more than just primary needs. They arrange life outside and inside, as for example the fireplace is ofthen the centre of a house. By introducing these almost mythical elements such as water, fire, earth, air, time, ... I respect their vernacular architecture, not by making a literal translation, and in the mean time I see it as an important aspect in the design not to build an ordinary wall but one who implies a reflection of most needs in life. I kept the benefitting spaces as simple as possible, but uplifted them from the monolithic wall by the use of color. By doing all this I tried to make the school area something of aestetic interest, with both links to familiar factors and new perspectives, which hopefully would be preserved by all. Eventually the wall shows how simple, affordable solutions as water captation and filtration and a chimneyed fire can help obtain a healthier environment, which could be taken home and applied by the local people themselves, as the school can make a difference. The design is a gift to be used by the whole community, as a design for all, offering them a space dedicated to be used any time of the year to cook, to gather, to learn, etc... which means a great deal to all of them. In the end, this forms my perspective on an Ideal School.

THE CULT OF CULTIVATION Jolien Van Der Eecken KU Leuven Master Thesis Dep. of Architecture June 2017

The aim of this project is to build a new school for a village in Nuwakot, because their school collapsed after the earthquake in 2015. The availability of building materials on site is low and bringing new building materials to the site would take a lot of manpower. This triggered my interest in their agricultural fields where they grown everything they need in their daily life. They are self-sufficient for their food production, so why not becoming self-sufficient in building materials? Instead of spending a lot of money to materials from abroad, they can invest in their community economy. Using local cultivated materials means that a lot of the money spent on the building would go back to the community, and enforces their income and creates a short chain economy. The required amount of building materials is high means which means the two villages around the school, nachandanda and anpchaur will need to work together and that the involvement of farmers, constructors and families will be high. The high involvement is important almost necessary so the people of the villages can relate themselves to the building and know the school is build by their own power, instead of a school that is brought in by an unkown foreign organisation with the best intention. The contribution of the villagers to build will lead eventually to a knowledge transfer. The school building can become a build example showing new techniques to construct, improve the finishing of floors and walls, or set an example of a better cooking stove. My aim for this school project is that inside the school the children can be teached in a pleasant way but that the building itself can set an example where the community can learn from and incorpated the new techniques to their own houses.

How the whole village can contribute and benefit

The aim to build a new school is extended with the idea of a place where children can be teached and where parents see an example with new constructions techniques which they can help them to (re) build their own houses. The school building itself is a representation in their community and has a good position to bring the two villages closer to eachother. Therefore the school is equipped with a covered community space with a cooking stove. This cooking stove will allow the school to organise meetings with parents, invite new children to the school, organise a school celebration etc. The possibility to cook or to boil tea which will bring people together and makes the school more than only a school and can be used for community meetings in general. The representation of the building is something else than what they are used to. Nevertheless the material use makes it a local cultivated building where they can relate to, and at the same time respond on their will to have a solid concrete building which they appreciate a lot. The hempcrete walls offer a similar look to concrete. 39

The classes donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a convential shape which will activate more informal ways of teaching and will change the way classes of giving and enlarge the interaction between teachers and children. Classes can be organised inside but also outside with the covered outdoor spaces where teaching, playing or group activities can take place. In that way different types of classrooms are offered to broaden the perspective of teaching. The classrooms form a three-classroom cluster and a two-classroom cluster so each grade can have his own classroom. The clustering of classrooms has the advantage that one teacher can control more than one classroom from the same viewpoint, the supervision classroom.

THE JOY OF THE WALL The main goal for the new school in Dolakha is to create a joyful environment for children, villagers, and teachers to come to school with a positive attitude. These spaces are created within the playful dealing of the Wand and the Mauer, which is a reinterpretation of the research on Nepali architecture. The wall, including the plinth, is the continuous element in the whole design. It can be part of an interior classroom, but also creating exterior spaces or even part of the garden. In combination of a more flexible secondary element, the Wand, several spatial qualities are created. The fluent connection and the transition between inside and outside creates a very open and flexible space and allows a lot of freedom for the user. The new school garden and a meal once day cooked by the children out of the own harvest will trigger more children to come regularly Ege Baki

to school. The three classrooms in the existing building are used as

KU Leuven Master Thesis

separated classrooms, which allow creating a more free space in the

Dep. of Architecture

new building, also to be used by the community. The classes need to

June 2017

rotate between the garden, the kitchen, the new open building, and the existing rooms. The shape of the wall is based on the topography of the site and the different uses of the wall on both sides. The four visible and continuous horizontal concrete bands are a bit wider than the rammed earth and create spaces to be used as kitchen or shelves in some areas of the building. The water system becomes part of the plinth and works as a gutter especially during the heavy monsoon season. In the basin, the water is collected to always have fresh water to drink, to water the plants, to wash the children and to be used for the kitchen and toilets. The wooden structure carries the insulated steel roof with a decent roof overhang to protect the

wall and create covered outdoor spaces. To give the school building a more modern view the facade is made out of steel frames, which are placed in front of the wooden pillars. Three different elements create specific needs for the interior: fixed steel elements to be used for bracing, window stripes for light and huge sliding doors with a bamboo filling to open up the building. The biogas toilets on the north side of the building produce the gas for cooking the food. The existing brick building will be partly changed to improve its properties like thermal problems, daylight, and acoustical issues. The building has been built recently and is in a good condition and the embodied energy can be kept. The east and south facade will be open up to catch more sunlight during the day. a similar facade with the three different elements creates a visual connection between the existing and the new building. The wall in the garden is used to create a better climate for the plants by blocking the cold wind coming from the mountains.

LEARNING THROUGH SPACE In the summer of 2016 I did detailed observations and interventions during one month in Hariharpur Secundary School in Pipalmadi (Sindhuli, Nepal). And in the winter of 2017 I went back to Nepal to do some observations during one week in Kalidevi Primary School in Lamidada (Dolakha, Nepal). Every time, I was surprised that in the Nepali (public) schools the playful character of the students is not stimulated. Moreover, there is a lack of interaction between the teacher and the students during classes. This ‘Learning through space’-project focuses on the design of a learning environment that appeals discovery and stimulates interactions. This approach corresponds (almost) perfectly to the view of the Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger: he believes that a school is not only a place to learn mathematics and languages. The children Stien Poncelet

should be challenged and they should learn through the space. So

KU Leuven Master Thesis

the design of this ideal Nepali school is strongly based on his view

Dep. of Architecture

that a school should be an environment with spatial means.

June 2017

Hertzberger’s design of the Montessorischool in Delft is analysed and translated into the design of the site at Kalidevi Primary School in Lamidada (Dolakha). Three keywords played an important role in the organization of the school: ‘levels of concentration’, ‘Nepali clusters’ and ‘creating interaction’. The focus is on the design of one cluster that consists of an outdoor classroom, two inside classrooms and connected cocoons. Different elements of Hertzberger’s view are applied in the design, such as: a seating pit, flexibel boxes, interaction by openings, etc. Thanks to this space elements, interaction will be stimulated and the children will go through a learning process unconsciously. 44

The main goal of this project is to inspire the Nepali people, specially the local people in the villages, since they are the principals and the contractors of the schools. The simple and practical manual supports the Nepali people to integrate the view of Hertzberger into their classrooms. The most important elements are emphasized and presented in a flexible way. The Nepali people can use it as an inspiration booklet and adapt these ideas to their local needs.

PHASE 4 | DESIGN PROPOSAL FOR THE FIRST ‘POST-SCHOOL’ PROTOTYPE TO BE BUILT June 2017 Post-School prototype design

At the end of the Academic year 2016-2017 a proposal for the first prototype of a new school typology was presented, based on all the research and input that was gathered during this year by both the

by the Wild Studies Team (Klaas Vanslembrouck, Ignaas

students and the professors of the Faculty of Architecture of the KU Leuven University in Belgium.

Back, Drs. Tom Callebaut, Dr. Hilde Bouchez) and volunteer Wart Thys

By this time, the name of the project had shifted from ‘ideal school’ to ‘post-school’ and the location for this first prototype had changed from Nuwakot to Kalidevi.

Position The proposed design can either be a small school on itself or an addition to an existing school site. In both scenarios, the design functions as a connection between the village and the school. The four classrooms (three interior and one exterior) each double function as a community space. The overall shape of the design is therefore inspired by the traditional Nepali pati, or the pavilion where people meet in public space. When added to a bigger school site, the design offers spaces where teachers and other villagers are invited to teach courses such as traditional crafts, agriculture, storytelling, â&#x20AC;Ś in a less formal way than in the existing classrooms. When used as a school on itself, the two most basic classrooms will also allow a more formal teaching of e.g. English and maths. The design is positioned at the entrance of the school terrain, so that it literally forms the connection between the school and the village and that it is inviting for the villagers to enter. At the same time, this position allows for a clear zoning of the school terrain into a part that is accessible for people from the village and a part that remains exclusively for the teachers and their pupils.

Footprint Most Nepali schools have a linear floor plan, which means that all classrooms are positioned next to each other and all face the same direction. Usually this is the direction of the playground. This means that each class has the same orientation and that the rooms which require the highest level of concentration (the classrooms) are directly connected to the most dynamic area in the school (the playground) in a physical, visual and acoustic way. The proposed design has a square floor plan, with a cross-shaped core that creates a variety of classrooms. Some receive direct sunlight while others have a more intimate atmosphere with the sun only entering through a high rooflight. Some face the village directly, and are therefore very dynamic and inviting for e.g. the grandparents to tell stories within their oral tradition to the children, while others point the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gaze away from the school and into nature so that they are triggered to learn about medicinal plants and agricultural techniques. The cross-shaped wall that forms the core of the design also avoids that noise from one classroom would disturb another. 50

This is another rather basic classroom that again contains certain features that invite teachers to discuss

This is at the one hand a rather basic classroom in its form and position, but also hosts a chimney with

less formal, but important subjects within traditional

a small kitchen. The room faces the village directly,

agriculture, as gmo’s and pressure from companies as

and invites women to gather and share ancestral

Monsanto is a growing reality in the area. We leave the possibility open to grow a vegetable garden near

knowledge through crafts, songs, storytelling, plant knowledge,... with their (grand-)children. The room also

the school, since the lack of food is a known reason for

leaves the possibility to cook lunch for the children, as

dropouts. This agricultural classroom faces this garden

for those living far away, not being able to have a small

or the fields that surrounds the school and contains

lunch is an important reason for children to abstain

a big cabinet for agricultural tools, seeds, medicinal

from school, especially in the afternoon.

plants, jars, … The agricultural room

The storytelling room This is the most secluded and intimate space in the design. It has no visual connection to the surroundings and it only receives sunlight through a rooflight. It is reached by climbing the seating platforms and passing

The ‘woman’s room’

The theatre The seating platforms serve as an open-air classroom where the teacher can discuss a certain topic with the pupils in an informal setting, or where they can learn to sing and dance. The theatre opens the design

through a vestibule where one can take off the shoes.

up towards the village and is directly connected to

A big carpet on the floor invites people to sit on the

the public footpath. It is therefore the most public

ground as they are used to do in their homes. This

and dynamic place in the design that can be used as

room can function as a small library for the village, and

a sheltered resting place for passers-by or for village

is used for storytelling, reading, religious rituals,...

festivities (theatre, dance, music, ..) and other meetings.

Construction The proposed design aims at demonstrating

the earthquake, but fear is intuitive and even if

that the traditional/vernacular and the modern/

structural engineers would assure the safety of

contemporary should not be considered

a traditional technique this would not take away

conflicting options, but that a combination of both

this distrust.

can result in a contemporary design that is still anchored in the Nepali tradition.

A building in which people will send their children to school carefree should not only be

It only makes sense for people to want to move

safe on paper, but also have a solid and strong

on and be modern, but it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make sense to

appearance.

forget oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own roots or to ignore all the wisdom that is in vernacular building techniques and that

The proposed design builds on four visible

has allowed people for ages to construct climate-

supports that are made with a contemporary

adaptive buildings with locally available resources.

technique in which the Nepali people greatly trust: Reinforced concrete. Not only do these add to

A possible approach for this hybrid design is to

the strong appearance of the building, but in case

start from a traditional technique and to try and

of an earthquake these four heavy supports will

adapt it to modern needs or desires. The damage

actually attract the energy from the earthquake

after the 2015 earthquake was so devastating

and spread its force equally towards the edges of

however that it created a great distrust towards

the building which will keep it stable.

the traditional building techniques among Nepali

people. It is hard to prove which structures turned

In order not to disturb this equal spreading of

out to be the least or the most resistant during

force in case of an earthquake (which would cause

torsion and thus collapsing of the building) all the other walls are kept light and are therefore made from wood, woven bamboo and loam. They are partly opaque in between the classrooms or around the storytelling room and partly semi-transparent and flexible toward the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s environment. A wooden grid with diagonal bracings is put over these concrete supports to keep them from collapsing in case of a horizontal force. This wooden grid is covered with planks and mud to avoid noise from one classroom to move to the other. The ceiling of the storytelling room is left open in order to allow light from the rooflight to enter. Finally a light canopy made out of steel trusses is put on top of this â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;earthquake-resistant boxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and rests on an ellipse-shaped row of columns. Together with the wooden grid, this canopy creates a double roof structure through which natural ventilation can occur to cool down the classrooms in summer and which will keep the noise from the monsoon rain on the roof from disturbing the children and their teachers. All around the building, the overhanging canopy creates places in between the inside and the outside of the school where people can sit sheltered from the sun and the rain. For this same reason, the whole building is lifted on a plinth that, -together with the columns-, resembles the traditional Nepali pati.

PHASE 5 | RESEARCH, MAPPING AND BUILDING A PLAYGROUND IN KALIDEVI SCHOOL, CHHAP Excerpt from their report:

Before being the “Post-School” project, the title of our development cooperation program was “The ideal school”. What an ambition. No wonder, it has been invented by dreamers. Along with it, other August - September 2017

wordings were used, like “On continuity and identity”, or “The future

Architecture Internship in

rural school”. The same dreamers were apparently also intellectuals.

Kalidevi School, Chhap

As naïve that this title can be, we have to admit that it conveys something fresh, something bold, something obviously new

Wietse Vervenne & Juan Thibaut de Maisières

and young. The three of us went to Nepal with that naïve but enthusiastic title in mind, and surprisingly, we encountered other people who seemed to share the same dream. It wasn’t anymore

in collaboration with Laura Vandermijnsbrugge

that out-of-context idealistic thought from European thinkers: it was suddenly a local vision developed and spread by young and old intellectuals of Kathmandu... That’s how we met CEPP (Centre for Educational Policies and Practices) Behind this title lies one main ambition: research and design, design and research, on alternative education systems and environments in developing regions. Nepal has suffered great deals of political changes, governance problems, and natural disasters during the past decades. This went along with growing mistrusts from the citizens towards their government in many fields of public life, including educational practices. To rebuild this link between the communities and their schools is an essential step in the developing country. This will only be possible by adjusting the school environments to the new ideal, and that’s the reason of the partnership between CEPP and KU Leuven, and by extension, our presence on site.

Our mission was simple. Analyse and intervene in

this report ‘on continuity and identity’ doesn’t

the village to understand its features, its qualities

intend to be exhaustive, and even less to be

and its challenges in order to prepare the ground

technic. During our stay in Kalidevi, we didn’t

for the construction of an extension of the school.

miss any opportunity to draw, to pay attention,

Aware of the new design, we decided to include it

and to remember what we were seeing, hearing,

in our report, to support or have a critical look at it.

and feeling. This report is the compilation of our thoughts and drawings. It conveys the critical look

Six weeks of immersion in a remote village could

of three European students armed with different

be considered as almost anecdotal. Indeed,

backgrounds in architecture, engineering, travel,

how much could we learn, touch, hear, see,

and social interactions. It can never be a technical

smell in six weeks time, without speaking the

reference point, but hopes to be a human centred

local language... We had no time to choose the

collection of information, feelings and thoughts.

information we wanted, no time to plan any research, no time to receive the full consideration

May it serve the future architects, engineers,

and credit from all the villagers. Yet, we had the

interior designers, who wish to act in the context

time to be receptive, we had the time to watch,

we are referring to, who wish to know more about

and we had enough time to be at service for the

the diverse, warm and welcoming civilisation of a

wellbeing of the village.Considering that factor,

surprising country: Nepal. 55

Landmarks and Paths in Chhap

Even though the settlement seems disorganised and spontaneously built up, it is clear that a logic lies behind. We wouldn’t say that planning had been made, but a strong sense of distance and proximity ruled the setting of the constructions. Generally, households settle down “next” to their other family members, within the sub-caste system (cfr. Community, and the strong sense of being part of it). A dense network of paths is connecting them to each other. Since a few months now, the landscape is shaped by new elements: roads. Playing with the contours, they mark strong lines in the settlement. The main road hugs the border of the village, but a secondary road, derived from the first, passes by the school and goes down to the stream. Both transform the mental representation of the village since they connect points in a hierarchical way. Without any centre, the village has many gathering points. We realised that every house is a gathering point, and what we call the “public space” is a vague notion since social interaction happens everywhere. Nevertheless, some buildings are more gathering places than others: here and there, small groceries to buy snacks and candies or drink the rice alcohol. These shops are also the places for gambling at night and playing cards. As the shops are literally inside The waterfall is a landmark announcing almost the end of the village on its upper part.

domestic houses the function of the housekeeper is to rule the boutique. Some gambling happens all night long. It brings money to the household, but strongly affects the life of the family. In the upper village, there are two groceries (1)(2). The school is another landmark as it is the biggest closed building in the village and the only “public” one with the church. The villagers sometimes gather in the building, specially for elections or for school committees. Even though the church is open to everyone, it seems that non-Christian don’t go there often.

shop

Kalidevi Primary School cemetary shop

church

carpenter

heritage site

waterfall

The school as a landmark

The school is situated on a very strategic promontory. For now the building doesn’t use this geographical position as a social status. The dull white cement building looks sad and poorly crafted. When the children refer to their school, there is no point to say proudly The Post-School has an

“look, this is where I go to school!”. This is part of the challenge

appearance that responds

for the education system in Nepal. Schools should be landmarks,

to the people’s desire for a

places of reference in the village. The inhabitants should be proud

village landmark.

of it, so it would reinforce their link between schooling and village life. Therefore, the post-school project has a very strong, proud and

The Post-School unifies the

open architectural language.

traditional and domestic, with the globalized and institutional.

Local Knowledge

During our stay, we observed the natural, vernacular building The Post-School anchors the school back into the community.

methods. This knowledge is collective and could be shortly described as: “they know how to build”. Therefore, any external input in building technology can appear very irrelevant if this local knowledge isn’t taken into account.

The Post-School stimulates the local economy.

The Post-School project is strongly rooted in the reality of a Nepali village and designed to go hand in hand with the ancient building

The Post-School is

methods. The construction logic is very simple: a crossed masonry

climate responsive and

wall reinforced in its extremities by cast concrete, woodwork to

earthquake-resistant.

surround this wall and define the classrooms, and wooden poles in a circular shape to support a bamboo roof. All these elements

The Post-School

are well-known for the villagers. As the construction of the new

incorporates local

playground showed us, the school can count on the parents for

craft(wo)menship.

construction work which offers a lot of advantages: no money should be invested in manpower, besides a skilled carpenter; all the villagers will be involved in the construction process and will participate in this common project; the collective knowledge is in action, which ensures the construction to be relatively well crafted; at last, the construction site itself becomes a place where intangible heritage is conveyed from a generation to another. We keep some reserve concerning the craft of the roof since we haven’t seen any quality bamboo construction in the village. However, the material remains an abundant resource which would be foolish not to use. 59

The agriculture room

The agriculture room answers partly a big question whispered in the fields when villagers harvest or sow together. “How can we be certain that these GM crops are good for our farmland? Where are these coming from? Wouldn’t it be safe to keep using local seeds as well, and store a good stock of it?” As most of the children work with their parents in the field, we can discuss the need for a special classroom just for that purpose. The knowledge is essentially manual and naturally conveyed from one generation to another. But the idea behind the agriculture room is more than teaching the children how to grow crops. It is a space for discussion about improvement of techniques, and quality of production. Children could grow their own vegetables and learn biology, as parents could have meetings in the evening about the next harvest rotation. Such a room becomes therefore very adaptable. Furthermore, the teachers and the parents’ committee already have the intention to improve the new playground (cfr. Kaman Singh park) with vegetation and crops such as pineapples and mango trees.The agriculture room could become the “garden shed” of the vegetable garden. The GM crops question raised the idea of collecting local seeds among the villagers, and store them. The new school could be an appropriate place for that purpose. Identity and continuity is also about the conservation of a rich genetic heritage of which the children could be the guardians. What a symbol, what a status for the school. 60

The storytelling room

“On continuity and identity” is a wording alluding to individual and collective references among diversity. In terms of diversity, Nepal is the best case-study, and the issue of finding one’s place (already discussed in the chapter “Community, and the strong sense of being part of it”) can’t be more adapted to that context. Yet, the Tamang maintain a strong bound to their ethnic group and refer themselves to that rooted point. A feature of that collective core foundation is its language, only conveyed by oral means including storytelling, songs, and poems. But where does this cultural transfer happen? Never at school. Entirely because the national languages (English and Nepali) are the only ones allowed in the public education, and because Tamang language doesn’t have any writing. However, stories exist to be shared. They relate to the past, to the ancestors, to the history of the community... and what is more important for a growing child than being able to relate to his own past and the one of his communities. We attended a funeral where something memorable happened. One of the sons took a drum and started to hit softly the tensed skin. The sound amplified slowly, and when it was at its maximum, the man started to sing. He was improvising. We couldn’t understand his words, but the chant was powerful and its intensity struck us. He sang for half an hour, and then opened his eyes which had remained closed with the whole melody. He gave the drum to his brother, and another chant started. We learned after that these men were telling the story of their deceased father. The design of the post-school includes a “storytelling room”. Thought as a cosy and warm environment, the space could be the place where a kid’s grandmother comes to tell the stories referring to their own mythology; where a teacher could tell how was the king was looked upon before the revolution; where the eldest villagers would narrate the life of the first Tamangs coming from Tibet... The storytelling room is an intimate space that suggest the intimacy of a house. We associate easily that room to the one where we heard these chants. 61

The theatre, part of the village

The Post-School project has the ambition to be a real reference point in the village, where people gather, where decisions are taken, where the community can have meetings when classes are over. To fulfil this social function, the choices of the orientation and the implantation of the new construction regarding the road, the existing school building, and the households around, are very strategic. Positioned in the middle of the plot, at the border of the road is a strong decision that makes sense to us. The will to have the “theatre” at the entrance of the school terrain reaffirms the ambition of the Post-School project to open up the institution to the villagers and to establish a durable relationship between them. The theatre opens its arms in a welcoming movement, this is the place where the passerby will sit in the shadow, and is therefore directly accessible from the footpath. This is also the place where open air classes can happen, or where talks and official ceremonies will take place. On the last day of our stay in the village, we had the last meeting with the teachers, Shaïl from CEPP, and the parent’s committee. After some time in the warm and hardly ventilated teacher’s room, Shaïl proposed to continue the meeting and the official farewell ceremony on the storytelling platform in the freshly finished Kaman Singh park. What a relief. The air outside was warm, but enjoyable in the shadow of the trees. At that moment, we knew that the school was lacking a space for gatherings, outside the building but covered from the rain and the sun. Both the teachers and the parents confirmed our thoughts. I wouldn’t say that the theatre is primordial in the design... it is just necessary. 62

Mother’s heritage room

The “women’s room” is at first glance strangely named. We won’t contradict the fact that most of the handcraft and the cooking work is made by women, but why would we accentuate this segregation? Why would we keep the responsibility of conveying the intangible knowledge to the women? We’d love to say that the Tamang society is matriarchal because women do the most! They have power by their act of making, cooking, ruling the house. Women take care of the money, they don’t gamble it because they know its power and its preciosity, they know its value, they know how much you can buy with it. To our point of view, women do have power... but they don’t have recognition for it. Therefore, we changed the wording “contribute to the empowerment of Nepali women” by “contribute to the blooming of Nepali women”. And the “women’s room” can play that role. The women’s room is a space to transmit knowledge and craft techniques, but also a meeting spot. It is striking to see how women take care of their household... Let’s imagine how they could take care of the village if they had the space for it! In the previous school building that collapsed, there was in the early years a kitchen. We know today that one reason children don’t come to school is because they don’t receive any food there. For those who live far, they spend the entire day without eating. If there is a kitchen in the school, there could be meals prepared for them. A rotation system is possible where each mother would come once a month at school to help in the kitchen with the kids. The agriculture room could even be the storage of vegetables and grains, and a garden could be the first resource for this kitchen. In conclusion, this space would be a great asset for the school. Acting as a sustaining facility to attract the children at school, it becomes a meeting place for women in the evening, and a trade of knowledge. 63

Kaman Singh Park The interns Wietse and Juan built during their stay a playground next to the school. Most public schools in rural Nepal are located on small plots, given by the community to the government (and thus the least ideal for agriculture). In Kalidevi the small plot borders a steep hill. Instead of levelling it, the interns in collaboration with the villagers and the school teachers, built a playground with wood, which enhances adventure, climbing and a large shaded sitting area. CEPP uses this interventions as an example for other schools who wish to create a levelled, concrete playground, according to the old idea of the colonial ideal schools, where studying is a primal act of discipline and mental work. The playground of Wietse and Juan proved that the joy of coming to school and the possibility of play during the schooling hours has a very positive effect on the school results of the children.

PHASE 6 | LOOKING INTO THE POWER OF TRADITIONAL CRAFTS AND PREPARATORY WORK ON THE BUILDING SITE, KALIDEVI SCHOOL, CHHAP 2018 February

A similar workshop and colloquium with the master students of KU Leuven and of the Tribhuvan University (Institute of Engineering, Faculty of Architecture) was organised, focussing on local and

Student workshop & colloquium

ecological building methods and traditions in Belgium and Nepal.

Tribuvan University/ KU Leuven

Again this opening and closure of the field trip was a helpful start

Preparatory work on the

for the KU Leuven students, and especially a widening of perception

building site of the first

for the Nepali students, as it was the first time they heard a

prototype.

positive and commending perspective on traditional crafts, from a European angle. To give the school building a boost in Kalidevi, we decided to construct on site with our students. Preceding this field trip, during the first semester we focussed on the design process starting from the Post-School and asked our students to zoom in on one particular aspect, from the perspective of a specific traditional craft, habit, ritual, meaning, ... Certain students researched and designed for example elements based on traditional weaving techniques. Others on the role of the kitchen, or the importance of washing and cleaning in a school environment. During their one week stay, with local families in the village, the students at the one hand continued research into their own project and focus, and on the other hand, they manually started constructing the foundations of the building.

HOME 2018

Home is a school where children can be themselves just as they are

June

allowed to be at home.

Romanie Aelvoet

A school that connects their family with a warm and safe learning

On continuity and Identity

environment where every child can really â&#x20AC;&#x153;come homeâ&#x20AC;? to with

Post School Nepal

pleasure. The intention is to form a school that is not aloof as it is now. The school is a central place, that connects and brings everyone together like a fireplace in Nepal often does. Home also means passing on local valuable knowledge. Bringing home knowledge of a family in the school and giving this knowledge the opportunity to grow and live. This will ensure that the entire community can learn from each other and thus allow their valuable life culture to flourish. Home as a school must therefore ensure that a large group of rich individuals, rich in sustainable local knowledge, can return to school with pleasure again and again, as a student, a parent or a grandparent. All parameters of hominess, centrality, the application of the Gardner and Freinet principles, continuity and identity form one entity in which each part can support and reinforce the other. The domestic aspect is a central benchmark to which everything can be traced back. Home is therefore a central place for the community, which allows children to flourish in a warm, homey atmosphere and thus revive the local culture into the school.

TO WALK ABOUT 2018

Five different organic buildings were created from four parameters:

June

paths, traditional agriculture, traditions and levels. Heart, Hygiene, Traditions, Market and On the move, each class has its own unique

Justine Sleurs On continuity and Identity Post School Nepal

typology and function. Since the last 50-60 years the village has been losing knowledge about its natural environment and elderly traditions. The Post-School will make Makwanpur a place for the transmission of age-old wisdom. A natural path connects the different classrooms, as the children, parents, grandparents and teachers walk about the village naturally.

traditions 70

hygiene

heart

market 71

On the move

evaporative bed that purifies

Learning while walking the

waste water. There is plenty of

The heart class is a flexible space

paths of the village. The children

seating so that children can be

that combines one classroom

can stop by local families to

taught about hygiene.

and a library. In the middle of

learn traditional crafts, such as

the two open rooms there is a

visiting the local carpenter to

Traditions

tree that makes contact with

learn how houses are made. The

These 3 classes are used

the outside and brings nature

classroom serves as a resting

for learning cooking and

inside. Openness is created by

space for local peopl. It is

agricultural traditions. On the

light bamboo woven walls.

designed with a traditional â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;petiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

top floor there is a seed room.

and a place where people can

Next to the classrooms there is

take shelter from the rain.

a smaller storytelling class. This

Heart

Market

is where the elderly can pass

The market class is located close

Hygiene

on traditions to the younger

to the new road. After school

The ecosan toilets are designed

generation. There is a medicine

hours it can be used as a market

to be an experience. You walk

man in the village that can pass

where the community can sell

through three narrow openings

on his knowledge about plants

their goods to passing traffic on

where light comes from

and medicinal uses so that this

the way to Hetauda.

above. The light shines on an

knowledge wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fade in time.

PHASE 7 | BUILDING WITH COMPRESSED EARTH BLOCKS, KALIDEVI SCHOOL, CHHAP Kalidevi, a beautiful lively place

The village where this project will come about is located in the hilly 2018

Makwanpur district, east of Hetauda. Around 100 families live in

April

Chhap, most of them Tamang people. The current school in Kalidevi consists of a building with six classrooms, a sanitary block and a

Volunteer work - ar. Wart Thys

smaller building that used to serve as a library. The school board and

Building coordination with

the parents and teachers involved are enthousiastic about their new

villagers of Chhap.

school. Currently, children in Kalidevi School can go up to Class 5, but the school has potential to be upgraded to teach up to Class 8.

text translated to english as

There are no schools in the immediate surroundings.

written by Wart Thys for BIKAS magazine

The new design will replace an old, heavily damaged school building

Edition: 2018Q2

that the villagers themselves have allready demolished. We are also investigating whether we can provide new sanitary facilities for the school in the future.

PB- PP B- 8/4341 BELGIE(N) - BELGIQUE

FOCUS OP NEPAL Tijdschrift voor ontwikkelingssamenwerking in Nepal Driemaandelijks tijdschrift van BIKAS Association v.z.w. Vol.29, n°2 – april / mei / juni 2018 Afgiftekantoor GENT-X Erkenning : P206908

Last summer (August 2017), two students from KU Leuven built a playground on their six-week summer internship on the slopes around the school area, in collaboration with the villagers. Building together was a great way to interact, get to know the village, learn

De grote verwezenlijkingen ontstaan uit de som van dagelijkse inspanningen. (Albert Schweitzer)

their way of life and get to know their expectations. In February 2018, a group of 30 students and teachers from KU Leuven faculty of architecture and various volunteers organized a workshop in Chhap. In the workshop we discussed the design for the new school and developed the details and construction planning with the villagers.

NEPAL ZIEN… EN TERUGKEREN Besneeuwde toppen, diepe afgronden, kolkende rivieren, wouden vol rododendrons… Geurende wierookstaafjes, mediterende monniken, kleurrijke hindoe tempels, wapperende gebedsvlaggetjes… Doet dit alles je hart sneller slaan, voel je de kriebels… dan is Nepal voor jou het paradijs op aarde. Een land om in rond te trekken, je horizonten te verleggen, je mentaal te herbronnen…

Nepal is ongetwijfeld één van de meest fascinerende landen ter wereld. Eeuwenlang afgezonderd van de rest van de wereld, beschermd door de Himalaya. Nu nog heeft deze natie dat raadselachtige, doordrongen van magie en mysterieuze religies. Reizigers kunnen overnachten in een adembenemend decor. Van luxetenten op een hoogte van 5 000 meter tot knap ingerichte lodges. Of proef je liever van het authentieke dorpsleven en wil

In that short week we started excavation work. It was great to see the visitors and villagers working together to cast the foundations for the new school building.

An educational proces, not just for students

Since the February workshop, we have worked hard to further implement the project. The aim is to build as much as possible with local manpower and local materials. This both in order to reduce construction costs and to support the local economy and to minimize the impact on the environment. Wart Thys (architect) visited the site again in April 2018. We made preparations to produce CSEB bricks (Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks), went trough details and plans, and made agreements. Material choices, as well as the transport of building materials to the site, are, as always, the biggest bottlenecks. The village can use wood that will be harvested from the community forest, but there is much debate about the correct amounts that can be used for the new school. Before the monsoon, serveral choices will have to be made. Once the rain starts, there will be no more transportation possible to and from the village.

PHASE 8 | WHEN THE BUILDING PROCESS COMES TO AN UNFORSEEN STOP AND ARCHITECTURAL STUDENTS CONTRIBUTE IN THEIR OWN WAY TO THE EXISTING SCHOOL 2018

Students Céline Lambrechts, Vincent Vanassche, Gedailė Nausėdaite

Summer

& Lucas Renson left for six weeks to Nepal with the idea to continue working on the interior of the newly built school. However, the

Architecture Student Internship KU Leuven, faculty of architecture

building process had stopped due to monsoon and internal problems in the village. This led to creative interventions of the students towards the disappearing crafts in the village and paining the existing classes. Likewise they mapped less obvious elements of

Céline Lambrechts, Vincent Vanassche, Gedailė Nausėdaite & Lucas Renson

the village life, -through participant observation-, such as traditional children games, local fishing techniques and understanding the many sides to growing and harvesting corn.

Mapping + ‘Teach the Teacher’

Excerpt of their report ‘Contribution with the existing’:

Kalidevi Primary School, Chhap

Rethinking the existing

Because the new school building was still under construction and in such a stadium that we couldn’t make a lot of process in it, it was necessary to focus ourselves on the already existing school building. We tried to deliver our contribution as much as possible by doing different kind of things, both for the building itself and activities or workshops intended for the children. The existing Primary School of Kalidevi is a public school with grades from one to five. This is also the amount of classrooms present in the building together with the teacher’s room. It is obvious that every classroom looks exactly the same, consisting out of dirty white concrete walls, one whiteboard against the wall and uncomfortable wooden benches. There is one classroom which differs from the others, namely the room for the first grade. Children who are in this class have an average age of five 78

years old. Instead of white walls like the other

are just written down from one until hundred,

classes, this one is filled with paintings. These

without any animation

paintings contains letters, numbers, drawings of

or playfulness.

animals, daily objects etc. These drawings and paintings are necessary because children from the

Children in the first grade do not have any

first grade do not use any books, which means

benches but they sit right on the floor. Just for

they have to learn everything the teacher writes

this reason it is important that the floor is in

or draws on the blackboard or the information

good condition, which wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the case here

they can find on the walls. Because the children

unfortunately. Some of the wooden planks were

are supposed to learn both Nepali language and

not longer well fixed to the ground, causing

English language (and have Tamang as mother

overlapping planks which were dangerous for the

tongue), it is very confusing how these paintings

children to stumble over and uncomfortable to sit

are composed with each other. Every empty

on. Our goal was to tackle these problems, and

space on the walls is filled with something, which

thus to make a more pleasant classroom for them.

makes the children not knowing where to look. The way that the alphabet and numbers are being

Before thinking about a new design for repainting

displayed is a little bit boring but also too difficult

the walls, we started to overpaint them all in

for children with the age of five. They will not

white colour. Because real paint can be quite

memorize the numbers for example because they

expensive and the transportation to the village 79

can take some time, we made use of a mixture of white cement, water and glue. This was of course more transparent than normal paint, but after a coat of four layers, we managed to get rid of the previous drawings. For the final result we wanted to achieve one interactive wall, which the teacher could use to teach the children the alphabet or counting numbers, but also as a wall that the children could use by themselves. As the base of the painting we draw a typical landscape of Nepal, consisting out of the high mountains, middle mountains and the countryside. In this way the children, who have never left their village, can make an image in their head of how the landscape of Nepal looks like. We filled up this landscape with several houses, temples, typical Nepali colored flags, animals and so on. These elements are part of an underlying game of the wall. On the left side we painted numbers from one until ten, always accompanied with one small drawing. All these drawings can be found in the big drawing, in the amount that the corresponding number shows us. For example, when we draw the number seven accompanied with the drawing of a goat, the children have to search for these seven goats which are spread over the wall. In this way the wall becomes something more than just a boring summary of letters and numbers, it becomes an interactive wall.

The joy of ‘Dali’

A lot of boys in the village made, with a lot of skillfulness their own catapult. They use them for guiding the goats, shooting birds and sometimes to scare off the wild dogs. In our last days in the village, we played ‘Hit the shoe/sandal’. A shoe or sandal was placed 10, 20 or 30 meters on a branch. The first one that hit was allowed to choose whose shoe or sandal was next. ‘Baagh and bakhra’

Goat and Lion or Bagh-Chal in Nepalese, is a strategic, two-player ‘board’ game that originates in Nepal and is played a lot in Kalidevi. The game is asymmetric in that one player controls four tigers and the other player controls up to twenty goats. The tigers ‘hunt’ the goats while the goats attempt to block the tigers’ movements. This game is also seen in Southern India with a different board, but the rules are the same.

The game is played on a 5×5 point grid. Pieces are positioned at the intersection of the lines and not inside the areas delimited by them. Directions of valid movement between these points are connected by lines. The game takes place in two phases. In the first phase the goats (small stones) are placed on the board while the tigers 81

A diagram how the Goat

(big stones), placed in the four corners, can move. In the second

and Lion game looked like

phase both the goats and the tigers are moved. For the tigers, the

when we played it on a

objective is to “capture” five goats to win. Capturing is performed

scale of 1:1. (a) The beginning of the game (b) The game after diff erent moves (c) Situation

by jumping over the goats, although capturing is not obligatory. The goats win by blocking all the tigers’ legal moves. Bagh-Chal has many similarities to the Indian game Aadu Puli Attam (goat–tiger game), though the board is different.

when lion wins by jumping (read capturing) 5 times over a goat (d) Situation when the goats win the game.

Rules playing the goats-game: At the start of the game all four tigers are and Lion or ‘Bagh-Chal’ placed on the four corners of the grid, facing game, after scratching the center. No goats are placed on the board during the initial setup. The player controlling the goats moves first, by placing a goat onto a free intersection on the board. Tigers may move along the lines from one intersection to another. Once all of the goats have been placed on the board, goats must move in the same manner as the tigers, one intersection to another. Moves alternate between players.

Tigers capture goats by jumping over them to an adjacent free position (although capturing is not obligatory in Bagh-Chal). Rules for tigers: They can move to an adjacent free position along the lines. They can capture goats during any move, and do not need to wait until all goats are placed. They can capture only one goat at a time. They can jump over a goat in any direction, as long as there is an open space for the tiger to complete its turn. A tiger cannot jump over another tiger. Rules for the goats: Goats cannot move until all goats have been positioned on the board. They must leave the board when captured. They cannot jump over tigers or other goats. The game is over when either, the tigers capture five goats, or the goats have blocked the tigers from being able to move. Sometimes the game can fall into a repetitive cycle of positions. Goats especially may use this resort to defend themselves against being captured. To avoid this situation, an additional rule has been established: when all the goats have been placed, no move may return the board to a situation that has already occurred during the game. The most fascinating thing about this game is that you can literally play it anywhere: scratch some lines on the ground, search some stones and start the game. It is from this fascination that we wanted to challenge the children even more to think creatively. Together with Michael as a translator, we had set up a 1:1 scale game as workshop. With the same simplicity as the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;board-gameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;: scratching a 1:1 board of 10mx10m with our feet and choosing volunteers as goat and tigers. The children could enjoy and challenge each other during playtime while the whole village was gathering around the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s square to watch what was happening. 83

PHASE 9 | LEARNING FROM CRAFT AND HANDSON INTERVENTIONS, IN DIFFERENT VILLAGES IN THE RAIGAUN AREA 2018 February Student workshop CEPP KU Leuven, faculty of architecture Building the arena at Kalidevi Primary School, Chhap

Visit different new schools and determining problems Kalidevi Primary School, Chhap and and Makwanpur Sindhulli region During the master course 2018-2019 we focussed on immaterial heritage, tactile knowledge & wild things through learning a craft. Students mastered on their own particular making method and applied it hands-on in an architectural context. This prepared them for the workshop in Nepal, where they were asked to come up with immediate architectural solutions for existing problems in 5 different schools, spread in the Makwanpur and Sindhuli area. Concurrent theywere asked to look into a master plan of the school compound, suggesting improvements. The results were then presented at a small colloquium with our sparring partners in Nepal: the team of CEPP and a team of local engineers and architects with whom the project is locally developed. One group of the students, -who were divided into groups of four and sent to different villages-, stayed in Chhap under supervision of Wart Thys and continued on the construction of the school, more particular, they built the outside sitting steps for the open air class and assisted in installing the trusses for the roof construction. Due to an ongoing conflict between the villagers, the continuation of building the school has been postponed since the last intervention of Wart Thys, before the monsoon season in 2018. Although the building of a new school in this engaging manner, was agreed upon with the villagers and the teachers from the start, reality showed us that the dream and enthusiasm has mostly been on our side.

The day to day living conditions of most villagers is harsh and most families have a growing number of members leaving Chhap to work at the cement factory near Hetauda. Often disrupting entire families and leaving the children alone at home. Moreover a dispute over an alleged sexual abuse has thorn the community in two groups. These sort of inner community conflicts and the lack of a financial minimum for most families to survive puts the village under a great deal of stress. Michael Rai of CEPP who is responsible for the building on site does a great deal to restabilize the village through this mutual project of which the whole community can benefit. Moreover our arrival and especially the input of the students seems to give the villagers hope and willingness to continue building on this dream, so during and after our stay the roof was finally installed. The other villages where students worked have similar living conditions and the schools are mostly in a very bad shape. On their return, all the students continued their master project focussing on social and ecological questions, some related to Nepal, some related to Belgian issues. It became very clear to us, that this sort of workshops and collaboration between Belgian students and local Nepali is a win-win for both parties. The whole process has at this point affected the western way of thinking and working, not only in our own practices, but has influenced over a hundred students who have already been involved in this project towards a more sustainable, engaging, wild and generous architecture.

PHASE 10 | AN OIL PRESS FOR CEPP AND THE VILLAGERS OF CHHAP In 2018, CEPP asked us if we could think about a way to create and build an oil press for the remote villages in Nepal. An instrument that could be used by the entire village and thus bring the village together. Most remote villagers in Nepal live from agriculture, they 2019

save their seeds year after year. In the old days and in many rural

April

parts of Nepal people would make vegetable oils by hand. This is a very strenuous and timely task. The people choose to either walk to

Volunteer work

the nearest village or buy oil from the local village shop. If we could

Jens De Crop & Lin Seminck

help them with a tool so they can press mustard oil themselves, the

Building an Oil Press for

villages can become more independent.

the villagers of Chhap Coparticipatory project for the

We researched how to make an oil press ourselves and quickly found

‘seed class’ Kalidevi Primary

‘Piteba’: a company in the Netherlands that makes oil expellers that

School, Chhap

you can use by hand. We bought two oil presses and brought them with us to Nepal. Our first try was to make hemp oil with the press, the press needs some kind of heating oil to make it work, and thus we used fuel oil which resulted in black burned oil. We searched every shop for some kind of (clean white) spirit, and with this fuel, the oil seemed to be better. Once we arrived in Chhap, we showed the villagers the oil press and everyone was excited to see what was going on. We showed them how to use the spirit to heat the pipes so that the oil could be made in a smooth manner, but efficient as the villagers of Chhap are, after one round they quickly decided to leave out the spirit. We walked with Raju, a very skillful and commited villager, to his house where his wife sifted the mustard seeds in a bamboo tray. Next, she slowroasted the seeds in a large pan over an open hearth, and with these heated mustard seeds we started making mustard oil and it went perfectly. We are so used to following the instruction manual that we don’t think of other options that make everything more simple,

more efficient, and even more sustainable. This is a perfect example of how we can learn from eachother. Now that we knew how to make the oil, we wanted to make a mobile seat so it was easier to share and use the oil press. Together with the villagers we made a design, which we handed over to the local workers who were welding the roof trusses. On their turn they perfected the design even more. The oil press is now at Rajuâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house, he is responsible for the press, but everyone in the village can use it. When the post-school is finished, the oil press will have a prominent place in the agriculture room/ seed class. We hope this will bring the children, the parents and grandparents together and that we can keep learning from eachother for years to come.

TIMELINE OF THE POST-SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION July 2017 The new building site Kalidevi School Chhap

February 2018 Finished foundations concrete, steel and bamboo

March 2018 Measuring and mapping so structural construction can start

April 2018 Making the Compressed Earth Blocks with the villagers of Chhap

April 2018 Dry and ready to use Compressed Earth Blocks

June 2018 Placement of the steel reinforcement for the shear concrete walls

June 2018 Placement of the centre column of the post-school

July 2018 Placement of the stone foundations

August 2018 Concret shear walls and centre column

MONSOON Construction Break from August 2018 until March 2019

February 2019 Building the stairs for the theatre

March 2019 Placing the steel roof trusses

April 2019 Finished steel roof trusses and support columns

May 2019 Placing roof cladding with CGI metal

June 2019 * Current state of construction

FUTURE SCENARIOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S With the school in Chapp we wanted to do much more than just build a building. We have wanted to initiate a process whereby a dynamic and enriching interaction can arise between human-formidentity. As a result, the school is not only a learning place for the students, but the intention is to grow into a learning and meeting 2019

place for the entire village. This also means that what has now been

June

built is just the start of much more. We see growth opportunities at the three levels:

Thoughts and findings written by Drs. Tom Callebaut

The community More people from the village can be involved to pass on knowledge and experience. Both new, western knowledge and traditional wisdom and stories that otherwise risk being lost. From a wider range there may also be more â&#x20AC;&#x153;studentsâ&#x20AC;? who want to learn something. The new place can be further developed into the connecting place par excellence where the village can consult for important items that concern everyone. The building The interior of the building needs to be further designed and made. this has not yet happened because that layer can happen in close collaboration with the villagers. Where we have set up a structure based on our western experiences that must be able to withstand the various weather conditions and earthquakes, further development, the second skin of the building, is the essential carrier of identity. This is best drawn from the villagers. Which transfer is important and how can it be depicted so that it can also be passed on. we certainly want to emphasize the importance of functional and ritual wealth. In addition to the new classes, there are also the existing classes that from now on can be given a second life and

can be used in addition to the new building.

can be told from three different story lines.

The toilets are also an important part of the site

The result:

and the old toilets need a complete renovation. Where are they installed, for whom and when

Time

are they accessible and offer the adapted space

Time is an important factor if a sustainable and

for both boys and girls. A good balance must also

qualitative process is to be started. Time to get to

be sought between the intimacy and security of

know each other, time to get to know the needs

the school site on the one hand and accessibility,

and also to discover the many possibilities, but

openness and hospitality on the other.

also time to grow in the process, which means there must also be time for failures.

Identity How can the new building be used for other

Exchange

forms of teaching? From now on, much more is

The most fruitful cooperation between such

possible than teaching ex-cathedra and learning

diverse cultures is from a balanced exchange,

does not only have to be serious or boring. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The

division of tasks and involvement. It is a learning

joy of learningâ&#x20AC;? was the starting point of the entire

process for everyone and that awareness and

initiative. How can the experiences and insights

balance is important for good cooperation. It is

that this process has brought with it and still bring

also important that everyone tries to understand

with it be passed on in an inspiring way to other

each other but still contributes sufficiently from

villages? Perhaps a few short YouTube videos are

their own culture and strength, only then can you

a fast and accessible medium in which the process

realize something that transcends both cultures. 95