In this current Project we are planning a school in rural Cambodia within an existing village structure about two hours north of the capital Phnom Penh. The school for 700 children will consist of several classrooms, a mensa, an auditorium as well as medical and infrastructural buildings to be used by the village community.
In addition to these specific social conditions, the availability of building materials and resources, talent and technical skills as well as the climatic, ecological and economic conditions have to be strongly considered in the design. The question of contemporary didactical concepts and their spatial implementation is an important issue in the semester and will be supported by the International Projects in Education (IPE) department of the PH Zürich. Together with local professionals we will develop a reasonable and customized strategy how the school system and the necessary infrastructure (i.e. wastewater management) can be implemented in several phases. The client, the NGO Smiling Gecko, founded by the renowned Photographer and Artist Hannes Schmid in Switzerland and Cambodia considers and works on the realization of the project.
The Professorship of the Asst. Prof. Dirk E. Hebel offers this course together with the integrated discipline Construction. The Professorship of Architecture and Structure, Prof. Philippe Block offers the integrated discipline Structural Construction and the Professorship of Architecture and Building Systems, Prof. Arno Schlüter offers the integrated discipline Building Systems (climatic questions).