![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 1 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands](https://architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-16-1024x468.jpg)
In Airaa Academy, Kahn’s metaphor of the man under the tree creates rich in-between places full of light and air for chance encounters and the casual interactions that lead to real learning.
The places of pause are varied in scale and enclosure allowing multiple ways of inhabitation and exchange – from gossip to performance.
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 3 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 2](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-8-1024x655.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 5 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 4](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-6-668x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
The light influences the experience of meaning.
The Airaa Academy campus sits on a greenfield site on the city’s outskirts, adjacent to large infrastructure and erstwhile farmlands – now slowly getting consumed by the city. The plans are structured on an 8m grid, with the program organised as a society of rooms, creating in-between spaces for landscape, passage and pause. A 4m wide richly landscaped break in the plan separates the profane world of the arrival and visitors lobby from the inner sanctum of the school.
In section, the precise and relentless structure, marked by ribbed slabs and deep edge beams, is occupied by the program in ways to allow for places of congregation, prospect and through the modulation of openings and the overhead skylight as a way to get an induced draft within the central atrium of the building.
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 7 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 6](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-5-786x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 9 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 8](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-10-909x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 11 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 10](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-12-698x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
This naturally ventilated and lit space is the heart of the project.
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 13 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 12](https://i0.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-13-1024x801.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 15 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 14](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-9-790x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 17 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 16](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-15-676x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
Air, thick with sharp light and
cloaked in deep shadow
Air, pulsating with voices and
pregnant in silence
Air, hot and damp, cool and light,
filled with the perfume of
freshly tilled earth.
This Air now ours, filling our senses and
calling out to us to remember again, our childhood.
Carved out of this block of
concrete and compressed earth,
a space of prospect and refuge,
of pause and passage,
of chance encounters and
that ideal of Kahn’s institutions –
a place for the exchange of realizations.
This street made of earth and filled with air,
robust and yet fluid,
ordered and yet diffuse,
for one child and a community,
this street is the heart of Airaa.
Common Ground & Free Space
Earth & Air.
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 19 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 18](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-14-795x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 21 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 20](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/AIRAA-7-1024x699.jpg?ssl=1)
Drawings and Diagrams
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 23 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 22](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Q-251x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 25 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 24](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/airaa_4-621x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 27 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 26](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/section-A-897x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 29 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 28](https://i0.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/section-B-897x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 31 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 30](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/all-1-724x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 33 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 32](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/gf1-1024x472.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 35 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 34](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ff1-1024x339.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 37 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 36](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/4-1-1024x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 39 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 38](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/3-2-1024x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 41 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 40](https://i0.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/2-2-1024x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 43 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 42](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/1-2-1024x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 45 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 44](https://i0.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/view2-1024x854.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 47 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 46](https://i0.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/all-468x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 49 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 48](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/b1-1024x545.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 51 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 50](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/axo-327x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 53 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 52](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/axo_1-329x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 55 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 54](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/view1-1024x926.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 57 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 56](https://i2.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/sf1-1024x339.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 59 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 58](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/lgf1-1024x709.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 61 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 60](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/airaa_2-794x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 63 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 62](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/airaa_3-777x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 65 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 64](https://i0.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/airaa_1-776x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 67 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 66](https://i1.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/section-Cs-897x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
![Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 69 Airaa Academy, Bangalore, by Hunderdhands 68](https://i0.wp.com/architecture.live/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/section-C-897x1024.jpg?ssl=1)
Project Details
Client: Mrs Amitha Prashanth
Associate Architect: Arka Banerjee
Landscape Architect: 3 Fold Design
Contractor: Pioneer Construction
Photography: Suryan÷Dang