The Divya Shanthi Christian Association and Trust have proposed a renovation project situated in a low-income neighborhood of Bangalore. This building, an extension of their school and children’s home campus, is designed to blend a complex program into a welcoming and comfortable living environment. It also aims to serve as a cohesive community landmark, radiating positivity and hope.
The building supports multiple functions that complement the existing campus and the wider community. It houses dormitories and reading areas for senior girls, teacher training centers, primary healthcare clinics, community libraries, science labs, cafeterias, and other educational facilities. Due to limited space in this dense urban setting, the design stacks these programs vertically across several levels.
The plan carefully addresses essential requirements such as strict security and privacy for the girls’ residential areas while ensuring connectivity to community back alleys and existing school buildings and grounds.
The architectural design reinterprets the traditional “corridor” concept—an intermediate zone serving multiple purposes such as a climate buffer, activity corridor, and social space—adapting it to a modern multi-level urban structure. Concrete slab structures and open floor plans provide maximum flexibility, allowing each floor to accommodate varying room layouts that can evolve over time.
The building features a double-layered facade: the exterior is composed of curved steel louvers, while the interior includes operable glass panels and opaque walls. The louvered glass provides shading and encloses activity corridors and informal social spaces, simultaneously ensuring security and privacy.
The interior glass protects the project areas from weather and offers sound insulation when required, while allowing ample diffused sunlight and cross ventilation to penetrate deep into the building.
Inside, the building simulates a micro urban environment, featuring “indoor streets” that connect different color-coded project blocks. Furniture lines the edges of these streets, inviting social interaction and daily life. The interior atmosphere is defined by vivid colors, transparency, and reflective surfaces, creating a striking contrast against the raw concrete structure.
From the outside, the building presents a mysterious appearance. The vibrant internal colors are subtly visible through the interplay of shadows, reflections, and transparency filtered by the steel louvers, echoing the bold color palette of the surrounding community houses.
The building maintains strong connections with the local community across multiple levels. The children’s home offers a safe and nurturing environment for kids without family support.
Residents attend Divya Shanthi School, which also serves children from the neighborhood. The facility provides substantial housing for girls, including a transitional home that supports young women in gaining independence as they prepare to enter the wider world.
Fully equipped dining facilities serve lunch to all students and residents of the children’s home.
Additional community-focused facilities include special needs education programs and teacher training centers. The library primarily supports the school but is also accessible to the local community.
At street level, the primary healthcare center offers free, high-quality medical services to the underprivileged, including doctor consultations, daycare, diagnostic laboratories, and pharmacy services.
Project Drawings
△ Model Diagram
△ Model Diagram
△ Base Schematic Diagram
△ First Floor Plan
△ Second Floor Plan
△ Third Floor Plan
△ Fourth Floor Plan
△ Elevation Drawing
△ Section Diagram
△ Partial Sectional View
△ Analysis Chart
Project Information
Architect: Flying Elephant Studio
Area: 50,000 ft²
Year: 2019
Photographer: Manoj Sudhakaran
Design Team: Rajesh Renganathan, Type Chacko, Matilde Chitolina, Aneesh Nandi, Kiran Chandra
Architectural Design: Flying Elephant Studio
Structural Design: Manjunath and Co
MEP: HMN Consultants
PMC Consultant: Gleeds
Contractor: GINA Engineering
Location: Bengaluru, India
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