In Kuklah village, in the Himalayan district of Mandi, the original primary school was destroyed by landslides in 2023, leaving children without a safe place to learn. Commissioned by SEEDS and designed by Dhammada Collective, the reconstruction became more than a replacement building. Conceived as a prototype for resilient rural education, it adapts to local conditions, honours community knowledge and offers a replicable model for similar fragile landscapes. The aim was to build minimally yet meaningfully—using what already existed and leaving room for the school to evolve as the community changes.
The process began with dialogue. Dhammada Collective spent weeks in the village conducting workshops with teachers and leaders, and organised a drawing competition for the children to imagine their ideal school. Their sketches revealed clear desires: sunlight, safe outdoor play, and open steps for gathering. These became the design’s foundation. The architects learned that resilience was not only structural but social – a matter of creating spaces that felt open, welcoming and shared.
The resulting school contains four classrooms, two on each floor, connected by a pathway repurposed from an existing retaining wall to reduce cost and disturbance. A semi-open classroom, built due to budget limits, currently serves as a dining and multipurpose area but will later be enclosed as a fifth room. The flat ground in front doubles as a playground, used by students during school hours and by other children after class, so that the school also becomes a communal space.
Spatially, the building draws strength from simplicity. The plinth acts as an active threshold for play and gathering. Inside, walls and ceilings merge in shallow brick domes where light moves gently across curved surfaces. Built-in wall niches, or aala, provide storage and recall traditional interiors. The architecture feels at once rooted and new: a familiar form with renewed lightness and care.
Materials were salvaged from the destroyed school, bricks, stones and concrete fragments reused wherever possible. Construction combined the traditional danga wall system with brick masonry at the base and a lightweight steel frame above. These choices ensured resilience, economy and continuity. The texture of reused materials carries memory; the exposed vaults lend quiet beauty. Structure and ornament become one.
Collaboration between local masons, teachers and architects shaped every decision. Using simple augmented-reality tools, the design was visualised at full scale on site, allowing villagers to discuss proportions and openings before construction began. The process was democratic, transparent and joyful. The masons were not only builders but co-designers, adapting traditional knowledge through shared experimentation. Children watched their drawings come to life, brick by brick, deepening their connection to the building.
The school’s impact extends beyond construction. Workshops and internships taught local youth construction skills, fostering leadership and appreciation for traditional crafts. Teachers observed that students felt pride in their new school and curiosity about how it was made. The process renewed interest in vernacular building methods, proving that ancestral knowledge remains vital to contemporary resilience.
Since its completion, the Rural Primary School has become a regional reference point. Visitors from nearby villages come to study its design and learn from its participatory process. The building stands not only as a safe place for learning but also as a symbol of cooperation and recovery. Its materials speak of continuity, its open courtyards and playful plinth express confidence in the future.
In Mandi, architecture has become a shared act of learning. The Rural Primary School demonstrates that even after loss, design can generate hope and agency. Modest in scale yet rich in meaning, it turns rebuilding into a collective imagination. Its beauty lies not in spectacle but in care – in the way a wall holds memory, a plinth invites play, and a classroom opens towards the landscape. Here, architecture is not an object but a relationship: between people, place and the futures they build together.
Gallery:
Gallery (Drawings):
Project Details:
Name: Rural Primary School
Location: Mandi, Himachal Pradesh
Site Area: 576 sq. m
Status: Completed (2024)
Typology: Educational Architecture
Architects: Nipun Prabhakar, Simran Channa, Nilesh Suman.
Project Team: Nudia Aufia, Swara Chavan, Neel Mani.
Contributing Partners: SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society)
Commissioned by: SEEDS, PWC India Foundation.
Photographs: Nipun Prabhakar
