Children’s Home Design

October 24, 2012

Site

The site for the New Children’s Home project is situated about 7km from the Kathmandu metropolitan city. The rural land provides more open space, cleaner air, and a more natural environment for the children to grow up. The lot for the New Children’s Home project is 7000 sq ft, while there is another lot for a future Vocational Training Centre across the road that is 4000 sq ft.

Program

The 7000 sq ft New Children’s Home can accommodate up to 40 boys and 40 girls, plus their home parents and live-in staff. The ground floor is the common space for all the children, which consists of a large dining hall and an activity room. The staff also has access to the kitchen and office. On the upper floors, the building is divided into two separate gender-specific dormitories, which include study rooms and dressing rooms. On the rooftop, there is additional space for the children to organize activities for larger groups.

Architecture

Situated in an earthquake zone, we especially incorporated a number of seismic resistant strategies into the structural design. The building form is based on an efficient grid of columns and reinforced concrete structural walls at the perimeter and around the two staircases at opposite ends. We also incorporated many simple yet effective green building strategies for reduction in non-renewable energy consumption. For example, the windows are located and sized to facilitate cross ventilations and day lighting into interior spaces where most activities are expected to occur. On the rooftop, we will be installing photovoltaic and solar heating panels to generate electricity and heated water to compensate for the chronic energy shortage provided by the city power plants.