The school building embodies many of the guiding principles behind METI (Modern Education and Training Institute) teaching, an initiative of the Bangladeshi sustainable development NGO Dipshikha. Learning with joy, team-based education, and utilisation of nature are all elements of this Montessori-like school.

Hands-on connection was central to the architects’ vision. They wanted technical improvements to become part of local knowledge for application in future development. Locally available expertise, skills and materials are all a part of the school’s sustainability goals, while the architectural idiom and design departs remarkably from the regional typologies and construction techniques; resulting in a colurful, if confusing, collision of architectural styles, idioms and meanings drawn from the world over.

The project was hand-built by local craftsmen, pupils and teachers working in collaboration with European volunteers, however, at the center of the project are the students themselves, many of these child-laberours helped form the thick walls that keep their classrooms cool and hung the shutters that allow natural daylight and ventilation. The structure, like the program within, serves as a wonderful example for a sustainable future.

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