Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
General view of the building during the dry season, Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Children playing on the terrace, Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Child running along the outdoor corridor, Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Children attending class, Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Raft structure made using upcycled steel barrels, Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Site plan, Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Saif Ul Haque Sthapati
Rising sea levels, due mostly to global warming, hang over the heads of millions of Bangladeshis, whose country may lose more than 10% of its land by 2050. Saif ul Haque designed the Arcadia Education Project as an amphibious school that can function year-round, despite recurring tidal floods, thus providing access to education with minimal environmental impact.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa
Each module is tied to four large poles (one at every angle) made from “Borak” bamboo. They are buried two meters deep into the ground and keep the structure from drifting during the monsoon season. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Educational posters are hung on the classroom walls. The use of bamboo allows light and air to penetrate the building, while keeping the heat out. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
The building is mainly made of bamboo, which is a traditional and very popular construction material in Bangladesh. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
The architect segmented the building into amphibious modules, which can operate during both dry periods and floods. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
The building is operational during both dry and monsoon seasons. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
The aesthetic aspect of the building is shaped by the traditional construction method of the woven bamboo wall that creates decorative patterns. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
View of the access ramp. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Little boy running up the ramp. The children have a lot of space to run and play. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
The school has three classrooms that can accommodate up to 30 students. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Children playing in the courtyard. They can run and bounce a little on the flexible bamboo floor. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Before every monsoon, the school undergoes some maintenance work to prepare it for the oncoming rush of water. After every monsoon, repairs are made so the school can properly and safely accommodate the children again. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
The site of the Arcadia Education Project,in South Kanarchor, Bangladesh, is a 486 square meter patch of land under a bridge. In the dry season, it is located 50 meters from a large river. During the monsoon season, the land is flooded under almost three meters of water.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
During the dry season, children can play in the fields around the school. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
The building consists of a linear structure divided into 8 independent rectangular volumes. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
The school is built on a patch of land near a large river that overflows during the monsoon season. The site is flooded almost five months a year. Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Sandro di Carlo Darsa (photographer)
Ground floor plan, Arcadia Education Project, South Kanarchor, Bangladesh.
Saif Ul Haque
Arcadia Education Project
Award Cycle: 2017-2019 Cycle
Status: Award Recipient
Country of origin: Bangladesh
Location: South Kanarchor, Bangladesh
Client: Maleka Welfare Trust, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Architect: Saif Ul Haque Sthapati, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Design: 2012-2014
Size: 486 m²
Completed: 2016
After four decades of teaching in United Kingdom, Razia Alam returned to her home country of Bangladesh where she established a school for underprivileged children, using her pension funds.
When the lease on the existing premises of this school expired, its founder sought out a site on which to build. The budget restricted her choice to areas not well suited for development. Wanting the school to be near water, she purchased a riverside plot which, it turned out, is submerged in up to 3m of monsoon water for a third of the year.
Rather than disrupting the ecosystem to create a stabilised mound for building on, or erecting a structure on stilts that would have been too high in the dry season, her chosen architect – a lifelong acquaintance – devised the solution of an amphibious structure, anchored to the site, that could sit on the ground or float on the water, depending on the seasonal conditions.
The building footprint was levelled using retaining walls of sandbags with sand, earth and local brick infill, and used tyres fixed atop for cushioning. Bamboo posts sunk 2m into the ground serve as anchoring points for the school’s various independent but interconnected rectangular structures: three multipurpose spaces used mainly as classrooms; office; open-topped platform; toilet/bathroom structure; septic tank and water tank structures; and a single corridor offering access to all spaces. Built of three types of bamboo, they are kept afloat by substructures of used 30-gallon steel drums within bamboo frames.
Chosen for its lightness and durability, the bamboo was purchased in neighbouring villages and drifted along the river to the site. That used for the substructure, anchoring posts and roof was chemically treated to remove any material that could rot. All other elements were waterproofed by applying liquid made from boiled local gaab fruit – a traditional Bangladeshi method. Most of the joints use a rope-tie technique rather than steel wire which would corrode. The classrooms’ bow-arched bamboo roofs, allowing the spaces to remain column-free, required some prototyping to perfect. Aside from a few battery-powered drills, only hand tools were used for the construction.