The Karaparamba GHSS, in its current state, is a revitalized model school that has set the standard for Public schools through the emphasis on freedom for students to learn and grow by providing an open distinctive educational system. The intertwining of nature into and in between the built spaces opens up the closed frames of the typical school. It encourages students to have a relationship with their environment and claim ownership. As one enters the campus, an experience of a scaled-down neighborhood or city beckons.
As architects, we are entitled to promote a positive vision of the future, with the opportunity to solve the environmental and economic design challenges of our time.
If this example of an architectural marvel can be made a case study, the inference would be the way how the design broke barriers to achieving something that speaks volumes of how architecture can express itself: the people, the context, the creativity, and most importantly, timelessness. The Karaparamba School showcases what architects can deliver with the proper support to break stereotypes of conventional thinking and to make a lasting impression. Carving out a distinctive niche, the design stands as the face of the town and a model for the schools to come.
The retained trees add life to the space and blends the built and unbuilt © Design Ashram Consultants LLP
The library block brings a light and airy feel to the design, lined with glass framed on steel © Design Ashram Consultants LLP
The primary motive of this initiative was to provide the best quality of education accessible to people from all walks of life. Quality, not just in terms of curriculum or faculty, but the whole atmosphere that shapes a learning environment. Free, open, inspiring. Not to be sorted into hierarchies of educational institutions based on their social standing and economic prowess. To provide a platform that does not set boundaries to attain and pursue education.
The primary users are students from grade 1 to 12, children who belong to the age range of 6 to 17. After the redesign, the Karaparamba School has become the much sought after school for any student in Calicut to study in. The children feel proud to be a part of the school and have been showing signs of promise in a way to give back to the society, learning from the opportunity they’ve been given. The school not just belongs to the student, but also to the community that has placed the institution as a fulcrum of any social activity in the neighborhood. From different communities to the teachers and parents of students, the school brings about a feeling of a scaled down neighborhood. The school has also been host to a multiple of conferences, seminars and live music and art shows thanks to the design that accommodates all.
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On to the Streets (2014 – ongoing), Edited by Thomas Oommen. Kozhikode: Architexturez Imprints, 2023.