NUDES designs the forest school in india with a rooftop cycle track and 'live' skin

as part of a competition to design a new school in pune, india, NUDES reveals its winning entry, titled the ‘forest’. as the name suggests, the first prize scheme explores the relationship between nature and education and is based on five main principles of ‘grow’, ‘learn’, ‘reuse’, ‘plant’ and ‘play’. the resulting project aims to bring a vibrant, green building into the heart of a dense urban environment, which has seen major development in the past decade. 

the ‘forest’ is built on the foundations of ‘grow’, ‘learn’, ‘reuse’, ‘plant’ and ‘play’

all images courtesy of NUDES

NUDES has designed the mass of the building as two ‘green’ cylindrical volumes that are connected by a rooftop ‘infinity’ cycle track. each cylindrical volume represents a stage of phased construction with planned programmatic activities. the entire built-up construction of the school is approximately 125,000 ft2 and houses learning environments from early childhood education to 12th grade. the curved elevations are defined by a series of uniform protrusions and the lush vegetation that occupies them. this element of the project is intended to form a ‘live skin’ that will improve air quality and overall student health.

the ‘live skin’ aims to improve air quality and student health

the round form of the plan also harnesses the idea of facilitating student centric interaction and learning. on the ground level, a central atrium draws in light and provides a social, gathering space, in addition to cross ventilation across classroom corridors. designed for a site of approximately 2.5 acres, the school building occupies the front end of the rectangular linear plot to create an open space for play and sport towards the rear.

the space occupied by the footprint on the ground has been compensated by the infinity loop on the rooftop

the space occupied by the footprint on the ground is reflected by the ‘8’ loop on the rooftop. the ‘loop’ is imagined as a bicycle track for a city starved of pedestrian walkways and cycling tracks. in addition, the loop can also be used for non-programmatic activities, workshops, student exhibitions, student led markets and recreation.

the ‘loop’ can also be used for non-programmatic activities, workshops, student exhibitions, student led markets and recreation

a central cylindrical courtyard draws in light and enables cross ventilation across single loaded classroom corridors

the ‘loop’ has been designed as a bicycle track for a city starved for pedestrian walkways and bicycling tracks

the green skin can be serviced by peripheral railed service tracks that are accessible from landing and mid landing levels

the classroom layouts can be adapted as per pedagogical requirements

the partial basement houses amenities including an all weather swimming pool

the sky-lit tennis court is sited in the partial basement

concept diagram illustrating ‘plant’ & ‘play’ strategies

plans

sections

project info:

project name: ‘forest’

typology: school

location: pune, maharashtra, india

architect: NUDES

project team: nuru karim (founder & design principal NUDES), aditya jain, salai vv, jenish merchant, supriya dubey, gaurav dhole, a aravind