Nestled into a tight, irregular site on the campus of a public primary and secondary school in the town of Kopargaon in rural India, an undulating form invites students and teachers in—and onto—a new library designed by Mumbai-based architecture practice sP+a.
The Maya Somaiya Library, a 6,000-square-foot masonry structure that replaces a makeshift facility in one of the school’s classroom buildings, provides an enticing new space for study, collaboration, and play. “We wanted people to be attracted to this place,” says Sameep Padora, who founded sP+a in 2006, “so that kids didn’t just look at the library as a container for books, but as something that they can engage with physically.” The firm had previous experience with the client, a philanthropic organization called Somaiya Vidyavihar, that runs schools in the region. “Somaiya Vidyavihar aspires to create an architecture of sensitivity,” says Padora, in tune with the “capacity to inspire young minds.”
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