Maya Somaiya Library Sharda School, Kopergaon Building, Maharashtra Architecture Photos
Maya Somaiya Library, Kopergaon
25 Oct 2020
Maya Somaiya Library, Sharda School Building
Design: Sameep Padora & Associates
Location: Sharda School, Kopergaon, Maharashtra, India

Photos by Edmund Sumner
Maya Somaiya Library, Sharda School, by Sameep Padora & Associates
The site chosen for this small addition of a children?s library within a school in rural Maharashtra, was a sliver between existing buildings and the school boundary, a site that almost implied a linear building footprint to adjust the program for the chosen site.

Alluding to the impetus that children have towards landscape over a building we imagined the library building to be a formal extension of the ground plane. A place inside for study and a place above for play. With the limited teaching resources available in the larger vicinity we needed the inspiring spatial experience to be a magnet to attract students and hopefully other residents from the nearby settlements after school hours.
On our first visit to the site it was interesting to see Geodesic structures built by an engineer for a few of the school buildings, we were somewhat encouraged by this to pursue a project that followed from a construction intelligence. We hence parsed through several possible material configurations ranging from concrete shells to brick vaults for building this ?architectural landscape?.

At this point we were captivated by...