The Druk White lotus School

shey, india

SUBMITTED BY Manish Negi

Ashu jain
Krati Agarwal
Vatsala Sah

Introduction:
Project Basic:

Location: Shey, Ladakh, India

Latitude/Longitude: 34 N, 77 40 E, alt. 3,700m
Building type: School
Complition : First phase in 2001, phase 2 in 2004 ,
Final phase 2014
Client: The Drukpa Trust
Architecture: Arup Associates

The Schools Background :

The Druk White Lotus School is an initiative of the Drukpa Trust, a UK

registered charity under the patronage of the Dalai Lama. It opened in 2001
and now has over 650 pupils. The schools aim is to give children from this
remote part of India a high-quality, modern education, whilst engaging with
local cultures or traditions.

Designing Element :
The Druk White Lotus School employs a range of green design strategies
appropriate to its remote high desert climate.
Passive solar heating :
The classroom buildings are oriented 30 east of true south with an
elongated east-west axis to assure early morning warm up.
There is abundant sunshine all year long in the high desert climate even during the winter when temperatures can fall to -22F [-30C].
Indirect gain Trombe walls (made of ventilated mud brick) and granite
cavity walls with double glazing provide evening heating in the
dormitories. Small wood stoves are provided for back-up heating.
All residential buildings are oriented on a true north-south axis to
maximize daily solar gains. The solar-assisted latrines have a solar wall
facing directly south for the same reason.

Superinsulation :

The roofs are constructed using local poplar rafters, willow sheathing
topped with mud and rock wool, and felt insulation.
The weather skin is of sand and aluminum sheets.

Air locks :

Air locks are provided at the entries to the classroom buildings.

these act as a buffer between the cold exterior and the warm interior in
the winter.

Daylighting :

The classrooms are designed to optimize the use of daylight.

In the wider Nursery and Kindergarten Building, light admitted by the
direct gain solar windows is balanced by top lighting provided by northand south-facing clerestories diffused by a splayed ceiling.
No electric lighting is typically used in the classrooms.

Natural ventilation :

All the rooms have well-shaded operable windows that allow natural
cross-ventilation that provides a cool, glare-free, high quality teaching
environment.

Migration :

The courtyards between the classroom buildings are subdivided into

smaller
spaces appropriate for teaching during mild sunny days.
The buildings and trees provide shade and wind protection to these
spaces.

Water use :

Its a desert, so water is precious.

Groundwater is extracted from a 105-foot
deep well and pumped by PV power to a 16,000-gallon tank located on
higher ground than the buildings it serves.
Waterless ventilated improved pit (VIP) toilets were designed to use
solar-assisted stack ventilators to help create odorless compost which is
an excellent fertilizer.

Materials :

Soil from the site was used in the roof construction and the mud bricks
for the inner wals were hand made in Shey.
The granite blocks of the exterior wall are formed and fi nished from
stone found on the site or gathered from the surrounding boulder field.

Roof construction uses local

poplar rafters and willow
sheathing.

Mud brick inner walls with granite

block facing are stable and
made of local materials.

The Latrine building with

solar
connector .

School rooms feature southeast

Facing direct gain windows that
ensure early morning warm-up in
Sheys sunny climate.
The splayed roof acts as an indirect Local Material Resources
daylight source in the classroom.
used for construction
Note lack of electric lighting fixtures.

AWARDS :

2009 BCSE Industry Awards, Winner of the Inspiring Design Award,

International category
2009 Design for Asia Award, Grand Award
2009 World Architecture News, Shortlisted, Education Category
2005 Sinclair Knight Merz Award for Achievement in development
2003 BCCB Award for International Expertise
2002 World Architecture Awards: Best Green Building; Best Education
Building; Best Asian Building