The Summit, is an institutional campus in Chikmagalur, Karnataka. The campus has been planned in a site of 4 acres. The Second phase that was built was the kindergarten block with a builtup area of 14,200 sqft. Perched among the valleys of Chikmagalur surrounded by rolling hills is the Stepping Stones Kindergarten School of the Summit campus which is its most recent addition. An elementary school has already been built earlier which was the first building of the campus and the kindergarten being the second building with a secondary school under construction currently.
The Program for the school consists of 6 classrooms accommodating 30 students a class, a reading space/ library which can also be a parents-teachers meeting area, a space to play for the playgroup students, a story telling space, a toddlers’ pool, restrooms and a sand play area. The program of 6 classrooms in reality is not a complicated or an intense program. Hence the challenge was how to articulate such a simple program and build spatial intrigue.
Classrooms and play spaces have been arranged around ideas of circulation and residual spaces used to accommodate function. These ideas have been brought about by shifting the axes of circulation in two levels hinged at the staircase and creating residual spaces for a running track, assembly/play spaces, waiting spaces, storytelling, reading room, a toddlers’ pool and restrooms. There was a deliberate attempt to keep the footprint low so that the scale of the space was not overwhelming to the little occupants of the school..
The kindergarten school occupies a site within the campus which is an exclusive corner.It was a design strategy which would allow us to keep the activities of the school to a secluded corner so that the young children can freely move around within the school without the danger of venturing out into the rest of the campus and in turn be left unsupervised.
