Rajkumari Ratnavati Girl’s School: Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls’ School is built entirely of Jaisalmer sandstone hand-carved by local artisans.
Rajkumari Ratnavati Girl’s School
Rajkumari Ratnavati Girl’s School: Today we will tell you about such a school in India, which is situated in the middle of the hot desert, but this school has been designed in such a way that cool air comes here without any AC, which entices the children to study here.
Actually, we are talking about Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School, which is an architectural marvel. The school has been designed by architect Diana Kellogg and commissioned by CITTA. CITTA is a non-profit organization that supports development in some of the most economically challenged, geographically remote or marginalized communities in the world.
Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School is located in the mystical Thar Desert region of Jaisalmer in the Indian state of Rajasthan. More than 400 girl students from Kindergarten to class 10th, living below the poverty line, study here. Please tell that in the village where this school is situated, the female literacy rate is barely around 32%. This school will be the first in a complex of three buildings known as GYAAN Centre, which also includes The Medha. It also houses a performance and art exhibition space along with a library and museum. Apart from this, there is also a women’s cooperative, where local artisan mothers are also learning the techniques of weaving and embroidery.
The Knowledge Center will empower and educate women, helping them establish economic independence for themselves and their families and their communities. Since the GYAAN Center is designed by a woman for women, architect Kellogg looked to symbols of the feminine in various cultures when designing it, specifically the symbol of power and the three oval wall structures to represent femininity and the power of infinity.
Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls’ School is built entirely of Jaisalmer sandstone, hand-carved by local artisans. It was important to Kellogg to involve the community in a building built for the community. Using local materials to build the infrastructure helped reduce carbon emissions, and Kellogg opted to build a solar panel canopy on the roof as a cooling system, where temperatures approach 120 degrees. But both the canopy and the mesh keep the heat out and the elliptical shape of the structure also helps bring about the sustainability aspect, creating a cooling panel of airflow.
The Knowledge Center is equipped with a number of tools to empower young women to further their education and independence as well as raise awareness about issues faced by women in India globally.
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