MPH Block R+D Studio

R+D Studio designed a school building in Noida, India, featuring varied functions made possible by a series of volumes stacked up to create a delicate balance with childlike playfulness.

R+D studio was asked to design a multifunctional building for Delhi Public School on Noida Expressway. It houses a swimming pool, a 400-seater auditorium, multipurpose halls, squash courts, a cafeteria and a library, nestled within the courtyard of the academic school block.

The varied functions are brought together through varied volumes stacked up to create a delicate balance with childlike frivolity. The building is designed in a way that is dichotomous to the more formal arrangements of the neighbouring classrooms. The plaza surrounding the MPH acts as an extension of this frivolity and pulls the children out to experience the amphitheatre; children’s play areas and the play grounds.

From the play areas the children can proceed towards the auditorium, cafeteria, or the swimming pool, through their individual access points, or move to the multipurpose rooms and squash courts upstairs.

From the exterior, this space can be accessed through a ceremonial ramp near the auditorium, or the steps leading to the cafeteria and the swimming pool. It is surrounded by greenery stripped across steps – which serve as an amphitheatre for outdoor projections of the events proceeding inside.

Colour is that binding element in the building that ties one block to another, as it seemingly seeps into the space through the furniture, floor, and even the structure. It serves as the playful intervention that brings the space alive, much like a child filling in bright reds and oranges into a blank outline.