CHILDREN'S HOUSE

University of Karachi, Department of Visual Studies

Project idea

In the village of Baghere, where children suffer greatly from malnutrition, the Children’s House is constructed to provide treatment for severe cases of malnutrition and create an awareness on how to overcome it for the future. The concept depicts creating architecture as ‘one with nature’, that can psychologically produce a better environment for children suffering from malnutrition. The architecture revolves around elements of light and shadow, openness and closeness to create a feeling of a lively environment. The main criteria of the design were not to create a hostile environment for young children but to create an optimistic change for them. Since surrounding yourself with nature has a positive impact, the architecture is placed, facing the road on the South-West, and between the forest of mango and acacia trees on the North-East and few mango trees
present in South-West of the architecture. The mango tree acts as a natural food source, with multiple health benefits, for the children present in the space.

Project description

The architecture includes four programs. The storage space, which is a closed space built of laterite brick walls keeping the interior at a moderate temperature, for medicine and food supplies. The administration is divided into a space for managing files and a separate space for training nurses. The management space is aligned along the right of the storage. It has perforated laterite brick walls built to the rear and has thin bamboo panels in the front with an open entrance. The training space is aligned in front of storage, which is half offset to the left. The rear of training space has a perforated laterite brick wall, the front is made of thin bamboo panels, the right side has bi-folding doors that
completely open up facing the recreation space, and finally to the left, there are wooden panels that are intended to be used for presentation purposes for awareness. The storage, managing and training is separated spatially from hospitality space through an open pathway that creates a visual access towards the trees from the front elevation of the architecture. The hospitality space comprises of dormitories, with eight beds aligned to the rear wall of the space, a medical examination space
included to the left, separated from the dormitory space through a partition wall and lastly, two bathrooms and a changing room arranged towards the right of the dormitory, separated through a small pathway. The rear wall of medical examination space and dormitories, is a perforated laterite brick wall. To the front, there are bamboo panels arranged alternatively with narrow openings. This allows at-risk patients, facing the recreation space, in the dormitory to connect visually with the outside. The perforated walls present in the architecture allow filtered light to enter and lit up the spaces, along with laterite bricks keeping a cool environment during the hot climate. The bamboo panels with narrow openings create a visual access from inside to the outside, connecting the interior with the surrounding. Lastly, to the front of the architecture is an impluvium with a well in center and stones arranged to make a sitting space for mothers as well as a playing area for children during dry seasons. One of the leading factors of child malnutrition is the use of contaminated water. The water well in the impluvium, collects and filters water, making rain water harvesting possible and collecting water in the rest of the impluvium during wet seasons. The spaces are connected through double layered bamboo frame structure that also rests a half-split bamboo roof on top. The frame structure allows ample of air to enter and ventilate the spaces.

Technical information

The structure rests on a compressed clay pavement, excavated to occupy the reinforced cement concrete foundation of the structure. It is then layered with a polyethylene sheet that acts as a vapor barrier. Over the RCC foundation lies the rest of structure, made of laterite bricks bonded together through a mixture of sand and cement. Along with the brick walls, bamboo walls are built where three bamboos are tied together and arranged throughout the wall space, after leaving narrow openings. The wooden panels used in the administration space are joined together, through barbed wire, with bamboo. The complete structure holds a bamboo framed grid on top, on which a half-cut bamboo roof is placed. Lastly, in the center of the impluvium a depression is created that is layered
with sand and cement mixture. Stabilized clay bricks are arranged around the depression to build a well that would collect rainwater.