A Tsunami School

Tsunami School

Nakulugamuwa primary; Hambanthota. 

Though this school did not get directly affected by the Tsunami, many students were and the UNOPS decided to rebuild. The site is very small and was packed with school buildings. Children did not have a play ground or any free space.

One of the delights of childhood is the playtime and it is essential in personality development and making one wholesome. Therefore one of the main design considerations was freeing space as a play area. This was achieved by stacking up the requirement and limiting the built area to the rear of the site, even though not architecturally interesting.  A place where the kids could run about freely, when their own homes were lost and new surrounds alien.

Due to the stacking up the building mass was big and it was  broken down by playing with different forms together and that they are related to a child’s proportions. Corridors, staircases and lobbies become hangout spaces with openings made at the eye level of the kid; Little spy holes to bring out drama! Two existing big trees were retained , and the building encapsulated them.

and their shadows are captured on the white walls; a silent ever changing canvas. 

In the harsh sunlight of Hambanthota the pure white form against the blue sky is calm and regal like the stupa they are familiar with; A place of a serenity and beckoning.  

Madumali Sumanadasa

April 2009