Jiroft Primary School Competition

Story

Jiroft primary school is located on 3800 sqm of land in a village close to the city of Jiroft in Kerman province in Iran. Jiroft, a 5000 years old city, is famous for its history and strong cultural heritage. Aratta is one of the oldest east archeological civilizations which came from Jiroft. After years, unfortunately, this area with all its historical and cultural background has not developed enough and today Jiroft counts as one of the country’s deprived areas. Constructing new schools and improving educational methods are the first needs of each community.
Jiroft primary school comprises six separate classrooms, administrative offices, a library, and a multipurpose room which are distributed around a central playground on a single level. The design of the building is based on a modular approach to both the masonry units and the structure of the roof canopies. From one side all Classrooms look out through the playground and from the opposite side open to a small green backyard with fruit trees. Freestanding canopy made from palm leaves supported by tree shape columns reminding of Jiroft palm trees. From these columns, rainwater will be collected for irrigation purposes. Under the canopy between the classroom’s volume, there are two gathering spaces where children can rest or play in the shade. On both sides of the site, there are two cave-like spaces for the kids to sit, rest or play.
The city of Jiroft is famous in the world for its rugs and carpet for many years and it is our new generation’s responsibility to revive this historical tradition. In our design, the multipurpose room has decorated with colorful woven threads on the wall which are weaving shuttles hanging from the ceiling. For centuries people used rugs to decorate the houses where they live their everyday life in. Therefore we used this familiar pattern and moved it from floor to ceiling to give the room a permanent Persian spirit. This room can be used by the community for gathering purposes after school hours and on weekends. One of the oldest scripts in the world belongs to the civilization in jiroft. One of these scripts was painted on the school playground for children to play and also remind them of the valuable history of their city.
The new design incorporates local materials and sustainable features that respond to both local climate and economic conditions. Large woven mat roof canopies which are floating on top of the ceilings of the building let the air flow between these two layers and keep the roof naturally ventilated. Load-bearing exterior walls are constructed of locally made rammed earth. For bringing life to the Classrooms, window frames protruded from facades and were painted in bright colors.