Page 141 - HUDCO DESIGN AWARDS 2022-23

C Context and Site
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The school is located in a small village called Agara, in
Sheopur district, Madhya Pradesh. The village houses
resettlement clusters of tribal villages that were driven
out of the forests of Kuno National Park and
rehabilitated here.
Adharshila School,Agara The surrounding villages use rudimentary stone,
quarried from the local Kuno river for walls. capped by
N thatched roofs as in indigenous cooling system to deal
with harsh summers.
It was important to the designers to create a building
that was beautifully crafted as well as not removed from
the socio-economic context of the village and its
people. It was important that people felt like they
owned the building and didn’t feel intimidated by it. For
this scale of the building, its materiality, its
construction technology all needed to resonate with
not just the users of the building but all the villagers.

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C Challenges
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C Climatic hurdles - The school is located in an arid and
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hot area in the Chambal Valley, close to the Rajasthan
Tribal Settlement in the village (Bakar) border next to the Thar desert. Dust storms and
temperatures climbing to 50 degrees C in the summer
needed to be dealt with alongwith long unrelenting
summers.
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L Logistical hurdles - The closest town for selection of
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materials was 4 hours away by road making sourcing
and procurement of materials difficult.
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F Financial Hurdles - The school received a limited grant
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over 3 financial years to execute the architecture,
interiors and furniture for the school extension bringing
the overall project budget available to approximately
75,000 euros (INR 56.5 lakhs for 6000 sq.ft =
approx. INR 940/sq.ft including architecture, interiors,
furniture, consultant fees, etc.)
Village Street View
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A ADHARSHILA SCHOOL EXTENSION VILL. AGARA, SHEOPUR, MADHYA PRADESH
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