A school that is set amidst nature in the environs of Bannerghatta National Park is making a compelling case for nature front design.

The architect team of Saurabh Gupta and Akanksha Gupta, Partners at Vijay Gupta Architects had the conversation and the first site visit with the Euro School Foundation in 2010. The foundation wished to build another school in Bangalore, in the immediate context of the lush Bannerghatta National Park.

“Our design attempts to do this through strategies where learning happens in, from and with nature. Hence, the outdoor spaces are a fundamental part of the school’s architecture. Further underscoring this idea, there is a gardening patch next to the school’s cafeteria where students can understand where the food they consume comes from by helping to take care of the garden’s plants.”

The design and spatial layout of the school have actively inspired its curriculum, which incorporates time for outdoor activities in the students’ daily schedule. The design thus aids the creation of an educational model where the built morphology liberates children from the confines of closed spaces, encouraging exploration and interaction with their surroundings. By doing this, it fosters an innate respect for their natural habitat. The current NEP (National Education Policy)which also emphasizes the need to inculcate sustainable values through the school’s education system, was something we had already been thinking about for the last 13 years.

Read the full story that first appeared in Architectural Digest here: