Recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007.
This village school adapts the traditional materials of earth and bamboo to make them more durable. In terms of the earth construction, the most important technical advances were introducing a damp-proof course, adding a brick foundation and mixing straw into the loam. The potential of bamboo construction is demonstrated by the ceiling (a layering of bamboo sticks, bamboo boards and earth) and the first-floor walls and roof (a frame construction consisting of beams - four layers of joined bamboo sticks - and vertical and diagonal poles). The project was hand-built by local craftsmen, pupils and teachers working in collaboration with European volunteers.
On Sustaining Beauty - Local Solutions for Global Challenges
The Aga Khan Public Lecture. (Presented by the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University.)
This video documents a presentation by Anna Heringer who spent one year in Bangladesh learning about development, and since then, has been involved in development work. She realized the "Handmade-School" in partnership with Eike Roswag and together with a team of craftsmen from Bangladesh and Europe in 2005/06. She continued her work in Bangladesh by implementing her ideas of sustainable architecture in rural housing projects. An important focus of her work is the training of young architects in various lectures and hands-on workshops.