Generate Resilience \ জন্মা সহনশীলতা
Majuli, India \ মাজুলী, ভাৰত
2018
Client: Government of Assam, Office of District Magistrate, Majuli
Collaborators/ Team: The Mishing Indigenous People,
Priyanka Thakur, Vicky Achnani, ACS Achyut Baruah
Location: Majuli, India
Status: Built/ Occupied
Publication: Architecture in Development
Tags: disaster resilient structure, craft systems, rapid prototyping
How does a school withstand heavy earthquakes and floods?
Through an extensive workshop on environmental resilience, we built a full-scale architectural prototype which responds in real time to floods every year, bank soil erosion and high intensity earthquakes, all in the river-island of Majuli.
Leveraging bamboo and timber as indigenous bioresources, it operates as a government school most of the year, but doubles up as a community shelter during inundation. Imparting a sense of familiarity for around 30 children, the school becomes a spatial variation on their traditionally stilted Mishing homes.
Refining this local typology, cantilevered balconies branch out on all four sides to become decks for boats to lodge up against, whenever it floods. This transforms the whole space into a node of retreat for villagers with houses on lower ground. In drier seasons, the mushrooming substructure serves as both - a jungle gym for its children and a shaded underbelly for its adults to congregate and practice their crafts together.
As climate change intensifies around the world, there is an obvious trend of marginalised people being more prone to its adverse effects. Geographies which see such natural disasters pan out cyclically over historic timeframes, often develop situated modes of indigenous resilience. With rare exceptions, most academic discourses tend to flatten these sensibilities to formulae that can either be intellectualised, appropriated or scoffed at. Learning instead from their collective intelligence, we formulated a design pedagogy for seamless interplay between the lived experiences of workshop participants (both professionals and college students), the Mishing village and its artisans.
Responding with a perishable material palette to the destructive forces of relentless floods, moisture and earthquakes, the school doesn't resist decay. Rather, it becomes a living framework open to incremental repair and upgrade - as and how its community see fit.
