What do you remember most about your school? Is it classrooms or open spaces, amphitheatres where you used to spend your annual days or basketball courts/football fields/fields where you spent hours playing with your friends? In a sense, things stick with us beyond what we do in the classroom.
Rabindranath Tagore founded Santiniketan in 1901, an educational institution where students could learn in the lap of nature. In fact, in the ancient Indian Gurukul system, it was customary to teach in an open space under a tree.
Northstar School in Rajkot is an attempt to go back to our roots, where education is not limited to four walls. Mohit Patel started this school in 2016, inspired by the gurus of ancient India and wanting to replicate open learning that connects students with nature everywhere. While studying at Harvard, the 38-year-old realized that the way schools are run today is in direct conflict with the way children are taught.
Set on a sprawling 15-acre campus, the school has more outdoor spaces than indoors and places great emphasis on climate and sustainability, with integrated water management systems, energy-efficient architecture that allows nature to light and cool, and uses natural and local materials.
Out of 15 acres, educational blocks constitute only 2 acres. The remaining 13 acres have a playground, cricket ground, swimming pool, athletic track, fruit orchards and more.
Along with designing the curriculum, architecture was given equal importance, so that Mohit’s vision could be brought to life. This was done with architect Shanmugam Associates, who ensured that the school was airy, with lots of open spaces and a comfortable environment for the students.
Studying in the lap of nature
The idea for this school actually began as a class project in 2012, when Mohit was pursuing a master’s degree in education at Harvard University. The project was in the design of the school. Mohit looked at it from two perspectives, one was curriculum and the other, space design.
“What I thought about while working on the project was, how do we design the learning experience? Another important question I had was how do you fit these experiences into space design? I made this project for a school in India and not in America,” says Mohit Uttam India.
After returning to India, he started conceptualizing and thinking about how things on paper can be turned into reality. After working on the course, Mohit joined hands with the team at Shanmugam Associates, who work on space and building design.
Mohit explains that he was clear that the school was “nothing like the school we were used to seeing”. He wanted the children to spend more time outside the classroom than inside the classroom.
With this pitch in mind, the architecture firm’s principal architects Santosh Shanmugam and Raja Krishnan D began planning the school. They decided to go back to the roots and design a place where students could learn from nature.
“We started working with the vision that when you enter this school, you will feel connected to nature and open to every classroom and space. In such a large space, we first started with a small part, the classroom, and then multiplied it throughout the campus. We designed each classroom with gardens on both sides, to have good cross ventilation. As Rajkot is very hot, we included small mesh screens to cool the air or prevent dust,” Santosh said. adds
The architects have interwoven the landscape wherever possible. Welcome by
Gulmohar trees form a canopy at the entrance. There is a central courtyard inspired by the step wells of Gujarat that provides space for classes, performances, and has greenery incorporated through creepers and vines. Each class has its own private garden and open courtyard, where classes can also be conducted, a la Shantiniketan.
By placing a garden on each side, a microclimate is created in each classroom. It keeps the temperature lower than the outside environment. Classroom windows open directly onto the garden.
The courtyard steps double as a stage or space for rehearsals in events. The open corridors also come with ample seating for students to lounge and interact with teachers.
The architects have used local, indigenous materials such as Kota stone and local limestone. Their mission was clear: every space a child has should be in harmony with nature, whether it is a classroom, staff room, toilet, yard or play area. They have green, vegetated screens on the first floor outside the classrooms to give a garden feel and reduce dust.
Every window or door opens to a green space or garden. The school also has a horticulture program that teaches students the process of growing plants and animals, and aims to connect them deeply with the earth and climate. Fruit orchards provide students with hands-on experience with the environment.
A sustainable model for waste management
The school also has water, food and sewage disposal systems. All kitchen waste and food waste are recycled as compost within the campus. All water is also recycled and the school has a sewage treatment plant (STP). Rainwater is also collected and used to recharge borewells.
“The site topography slopes towards the culvert and stream. So the rain water is naturally directed towards the borewell for ground water recharge which eventually leads to the Aji river. We have done this by keeping the topsoil of the campus loamy for adequate rainwater drainage. We are also constructing rainwater harvesting and percolation tanks,” adds Mohit.
The architects add that they have designed the campus in a way that minimizes electricity usage. Raja explains that you don’t need a lot of light during the day and air conditioning is only used in summer. Their design ensures that the school is energy efficient.
“We have always felt that architecture should take care of weather by design and planning rather than any mechanical device. That way the building ages well, feels good, feels comfortable. In a traditional school, you have corridors and classrooms all around. Our classes are designed in modules, so there are no classes that touch each other. The classroom is lit from both sides and is naturally lit. “Our corridors never have to be lit because there’s so much natural light and it’s open,” says King.
Northstar has 500+ students and 80 teachers. Each class has a student population of 20-25, maximizing the space and facilities available to each student.
Mohit’s idea is to make children have fun in school. Everything else is secondary, he says. Schools don’t have exams till class 10, and students are not pressured to run the rat race of IITs, medical entrance coaching from class 8 itself. He says, school should not be seen as a means to get into a prestigious college, it should be a complete experience on its own.
“Students should be comfortable and happy in class. As long as kids are happy to be in school, everything else will follow. Learning is a byproduct of being curious, being happy, being in a good environment. That comes from the teachers, our relationships with our peers, the building, the environment; everything. With. We want students to learn, to become good human beings, to imbibe critical thinking. Schooling is an experience in itself, not something else,” says Mohit.
The mission and vision of the school is to help students ‘explore their true selves’.
Raja says that he feels like going to school because of the burden of homework and exams. “Now, I really want to go back to school and do my schooling at Northstar,” he laughs.
Edited by Padmashri Pandey