Future-Oriented Model: "Handmade School" in Rudrapur

The METI "handmade school" project in Rudrapur is characterised by a hybrid material combination. METI stands for Modern Education and Training Institute. The idea of the forward-looking model building was conceived by Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag, and realised in close cooperation with the local community.

Architects: Anna Heringer, Eike Roswag
Location: Rudrapur, Dinajpur District, BD-5200 Dinajpur, Bangladesh

The building reflects the different properties of the materials used: while the solid mud walls on the ground floor form closed, darker and cool rooms, the light bamboo structure of the upper storey creates bright, ventilated and extroverted rooms. The typically local, threefold hybridity of this new building type – room quality, construction typology and materiality – is based on a transfer of technology, knowledge and experience from various cultural regions and climate zones in Europe and Asia.

Colourful textile hangings, bamboo cane latticework for shading creepers, as well as a greened roof are some of the additional features used to create a comfortable indoor room climate. Under the motto "Learning with Joy", the European team joined forces with members of the local community and started an important development process for an essential sociocultural infrastructure of popular community centres.

A detailed documentation in print on another model school project in Rudrapur can be found in DETAIL 12/2012 on Hybrid Forms of Construction.