Salient Features of the Project

Name & Location :  Art Village — Valley School
Cost of Project : Rs. 0.70 crores
Built-up area : 7645 sq. ft.

Description of Project:

The School at Bangalore is located on the outskirts of the city on a sprawling wooded campus. One of the school’s main objectives is to inculcate in its students an apprecitive and sensitive response to nature.

The Art Village integrates a building onto a verdant and virgin site, by retaining and acknowledging existing features of the site such as foliage and topography, and frarnes the vistas of its surroundings with its predominantly rectilinear form.

The Art Viilage grew cut of a rational moduie of a 6m span so that a sing.e truss design could be used throughout the building to keep costs to e minimum, given that there were no,consultants (structurai cr otherwise) fcr this project.

The sloped terrain of the site is thickly wooded with a picturesque lake to the south. The building as designed and positioned on the site ensures that the natural forces of the site the foltage, the topography, the water run-off and the vistas forrn an integral part of the overall design

The east wing houses the fine arts. The large built spaces are offset by a sequence of open spaces, which serve as dis:play or exhibition areas for the student’s works while allowing access to every pavilion of this wing.

The west wing houses the performing arts studios. Aptly, here the courts are spaces tc perform m, to socialize, to meet people and to celebrate

The large centra’ amphitheatre is the focal point of the art village. The open-air theatre aiong with both the wings pa’ys homage to the grand old banyan tree. Built in brick and stone, it bridges the two wings and is a gathering place for the school.

Materials of Construction Details:

The use of exposed granite atnd masonry and walls of table-moulded bricks and the various paving materials with their; colours of the earth embed the building into its natural context

Art is intrinsic to the architecture of this building and not mere!y an appendage. The clay  sculptures of animal headc adcrn the eaves of the pavilions’ sloping roofs in a classic fusion of art and architecture. Most noticeable is the sculpture of two children seated
high on the wall of the east entrance.

The windows and doors area all procured from old demolished buildings.
The roofs use Mangalore tiles.

Special Features:

In keeping with the spirit of art and craft, this project was executed using predominantly hand-done working drawings.
Moreover, it was executed on a tight budget drawn from funds contributed by the parents of Valley School students.
In having three graded kinds of spaces – Open courts that acted as classrooms, pavilions that are semi-open and the enclosed halls and rooms, the art village achieves richness of volumes.
The building is deliberately rectilinear so that it ‘frames’ and ‘contrasts’ with its natural organic environs thereby enhancing and emphasizing it. The building sits gently along the existing contours embedding itself into the profile of the slope thereby minimizing retention and cutting of the land.
The walls serve as a suitable canvas for the students to paint on — be it graffiti or traditional motifs.