The original school is a hand built educational village, nestled amongst the jungle and rice fields of Ubud, Bali. It was started to spread the sustainable, altruistic message of its founders about the importance of children getting their hands dirty, and learning by doing.
Homeschool to Greenschool
STORY BY
Belinda Aucott
Photography by
Tomasso Riva - Images
Bali Green School emerged as an idea in 2006, when two life-long entrepreneurs John and Cynthia Hardy, decided to leave behind their successful jewellery business to start a local school in Bali. After years of home-schooling their children, the husband and wife team decided they wanted their daughters to attend a school they truly believed in.
“We try to live every aspect of our lives here as environmentally sustainable as possible. We try to inspire students with a sense of different possibilities with how we live in the world and how we interact with the planet.”John Hardy, Green School Founder
“Our goal is that when students go off into the world and begin to make decisions, their experience at Green School will affect a consideration that their impact on the planet plays a role in their choices. ”John Hardy
At Bali Green School the local vernacular finds a new relationship to the jungle setting when fused with contemporary design techniques.
“Green School is a place of pioneers, local and global. And it's a kind of microcosm of the globalised world. The kids are from 25 countries. When I see them together, I know that they're working out how to live in the future.”John Hardy
“Green School is a model we built for the world. It’s a model we built for Bali. And you just have to follow these simple, simple rules: be local, let the environment lead and think about how your grandchildren might build.”
Since its inception classrooms have looked quite different for the young students. Set in a tropical village this purpose-driven school has amazing buildings to inspire and delight. It seeks to foster a new generation of young change-makers by bringing in experts to teach different disciplines and providing an environment conducive to connecting with the surrounding nature and ecosystems. Green School firstly encourages students to start small by thinking locally; secondly to reacquaint themselves with the environment and finally, to ritualistically rebuild and heal their symbiotic relationship to it. That is why bamboo is so prevalent here and plays such a major part in the built environment.
To start the process of creating a place of learning, Green School used design to foster open air classrooms and communal spaces that truly make learning fun. They did this in collaboration with master craftsmen, architects, permaculturists, academics and philosophers. Since then it has become a beacon for education.
Sal Gordon, Green School Bali’s Head of says Learning and Teaching, believes it’s a model of learning that kids respond well to. “No one wants to sit in a box. No one wants to think in a box,” says Sal. To create the structure they called on Balinese practice PT bamboo pure, to work out the technical design aspects of the entirely bamboo structure.“Follow the span of this incredible roofline. The arc of the bamboo. The flow and the interconnectedness, the beauty of the bamboo. Incredible bamboo structures like this are a work of art,” he says.
Three main staircases serve three floors with multi-functional areas and varying levels of privacy to accommodate the various activities. Outside the school’s main structure there are several recreational fields, several rice fields for practical learning, gardens, pond with fish and naturally composting toilets.
The design utilises the bountiful natural supply of Asian wood to profit from its beneficial structural, decorative and recreational uses. Bamboo here is used as flooring, seating, tables, fitting and fixtures.
From the very start, Green School’s founders John and Cynthia – firmly believed a new education paradigm was needed to teach children the ability to adapt.
Green School International is now a global education network, committed to making the world sustainable. It has outposts in South Africa, New Zealand, and Mexico. Although not all schools are currently operational during the pandemic, the open air nature of the classrooms has been a considerable benefit, in planning their re-opening for 2021.
“Follow the span of this incredible roofline. The arc of the bamboo. The flow and the interconnectedness, the beauty of the bamboo. Incredible bamboo structures like this are a work of art.”Sal Gordon, Green School Bali’s Head of says Learning and Teaching
Now its latest arc shaped building designed by Elora Hardy and her team at Ibuku & Atelier One is being recognised globally for its innovative and sustainable approach.
“The Arc operates like the ribs of a mammal's chest, stabilized by tensile membranes analogous to tendons and muscles between ribs. Biologically, these highly tensile microscopic tendons transfer forces from bone to bone. In The Arc, bamboo splits transfer forces from arch to arch.” ”Jörg Stamm The Arc at Green School - Design Conceptor, Atelier One
Outside the school’s main structure there are several recreational fields, several rice fields for practical learning, gardens, pond with fish and naturally composting toilets.
The ‘heart of green school’ is anchored around three lineally located nodes from which all other programmatical elements radiate in a spiralling form.
The ‘heart of green school’ is anchored around three lineally located nodes from which all other programmatical elements radiate in a spiralling form. At each of these important anchor point, interwoven bamboo columns span the full height of the structure ending in a wooden ring which frame a skylight with ornate mullions. A helical thatch roof stems from each main vertical support corkscrewing to allow light to reach every space, with deep overhangs to protect the open-air interior. Three main staircases serve three floors with multi-functional areas and varying levels of privacy to accommodate the various activities. Outside the school’s main structure there are several recreational fields, several rice fields for practical learning, gardens, pond with fish and naturally composting toilets. International and regional artists who visit often times organise activities in which the structure and spaces are decorated, and in a sense designed, by the students; a harp was even installed on several of the wood columns converting them into musical instruments for anyone to play, making the entire construct an integrative experience directly resonating with its educational principles.
The Together Project admires Green School Bali and is proud of how integrated the school is with local culture. It is truly a living template which can be adopted and recreated anywhere around the globe.
http://ibuku.com/
Drone shot by Sasha de Laage. A helical thatch roof stems from each main vertical support corkscrewing to allow light to reach every space, with deep overhangs to protect the open-air interior.