Nils Ewen

SHREE SHIHLA DEVI KINDERGARTEN

DHOKSAN, NEPAL

As part of my bachelor‘s thesis, I developed the master plan for a kindergarten in the northern mountain region of Kathmandu in Nepal together with my bachelor‘s partner, the non-profit organization Supertecture and the chair of Jacob van Rijs at TU Berlin. We developed the building concepts and detailed planning for one of the ensembles classrooms. A school subject introduced at the neighboring school was included in the process of designing, construction and building to involve the students. together with the local community we were on site for the entire development and major parts of the construction period.

The Shree Shila Devi Primary School is located on the crest of a mountain range about an hour away from the capital Kathmandu. The landscape is characterized by agricultural use and occasional hotel complexes. What is special here is the way in which the fields are cultivated in adaption to the topography. Following the course of the slopes, rows of fields 2-3 meters deep are dug out, which change their shape after each monsoon season.

The location of the school extension by the kindergarten extends to the north, adjacent to the sports field. On a slope of 18 degrees, a kindergarten area is created on the conceptual basis of dealing with the local topography and the critical use of wood, a material in Nepal that is in danger of disappearing as constructional matter.