Architects: Madhav Raman, Vaibhav Dimri
Firm: Anagram Architects
Category: Teachers housing
Location: The Doon School, Dehradun
Built up area: 45,000 sqft approx
Estimated project cost: 1643631 USD
Final project cost:1613746 USD
Structure Engineer: Arohi Consultants
Electrical Consultants: Squaretech Engineers
Plumbing & Fire Fighting: DSR Engineers
Contractor: KK Sethi
The 82-year old private boarding Doon School in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), is located on a lush 70-acre campus, which was once a botanical garden. Over the years, the school has undertaken architectural and infrastructural development of its campus. Multiple academic, extracurricular, dormitory and residential structures, built in distinct vocabularies, ranging from the colonial to the modern and the post-Modern, dot the campus. Two large playfields offer wide vistas of the architecture set in a verdant landscape.
Dehradun has a composite sub-tropical climate with a particularly wet monsoon. While the tree cover on the campus helps alleviate the summer heat, solar thermal gain through the roof is a concern. The monsoon rains are torrential, driven by a strong southeasterly wind.
"The project plan and layout conform to the existing material palette of the campus while accentuating elemental articulations. It attempts to reduce the scale of the development by staggering volumes and create spacious, well-lit interiors."
Ar. Madhav Raman
With a view to enhancing the family accommodation for the faculty, 18 residences of about 223 sqm each were designed on two separate sites. Organised as staggered rows running east-southeast to west-northwest, the units are arranged to maintain existing sightlines of the campus. The teachers often open their homes to their students and so the shift in their residential typology, from standalone villas with private gardens, to walk-up apartments and shared greens, helps make them more accessible territorially.
Further, the simple formal articulation and crisp elemental expression is intended to make the residences less imposing. The gabled volumes of the units are staggered to break up the contiguity of the facades and to accommodate existing trees close to the footprint. A shared service attic under the pitched roofs is provided to the housing to reduce heat gain to the upper floor residences and the water tanks are further raised as turrets to create hydraulic head. The corners are pulled out into shaded balconies to act as sit-outs to the bedrooms and similarly the living room extends onto a recessed verandah sit-out.
"The Teachers' Housing project at the Doon School is an attempt to encourage a more extroverted, convivial residential lifestyle for the faculty while maintaining existing sightlines and conserving land and vegetation."
Ar. Vaibhav Dimri
Brick masonry is extensively used and the design refers to this through the use of red terracotta tiles on the facades and lighter yellow terracotta in the recesses. The "portal" frames expressing the sit-outs and fenestrations are clad in light sandstone.
