The Bodhidamma School is a project for a Dalit community in Chengam, a district on the outskirts of the city of Tiruvannamalai, India.   The Dalits are a social group that had been historically segregated and outcasted from the traditional cast system in India. This school will provide an English-immersion type of education to children from kinder all the way to 12 grade.

The studio was tasked with the development of a master plan for the school and with the design of the
classrooms, library, cafeteria and offices. From the beginning we were working within very specific parameters: the construction of the building would be carried over by members of the community; also, local material such as compacted earth blocks (CEB) and bamboo were already considered for the design.

The idea for the master plan considered the development as a compacted village to reinforce the aspect of community and to provide a certain control over the functions of the school. Also, by efficiently using the available land we could destined some of the area for farming, a manifested interest by members of the community.

For the design of the building, we parted fro the necessity of a standard model that could be replicated easily and economically by unskilled labor.  As a result, we developed a module of 5x5 meters formed by a concrete or steel frame with infilled walls of CEB, designed to provide specific functions such as teaching walls and for ventilation.

A full mock up was constructed as part of the studio in Austin, Texas to test alternative materials for the walls and for the construction system.