Pawmum Tharkla: A structure that responds to the community’s needs
The two, two-storied buildings of Pawmum Thakla are made from locally sourced materials like bamboo, wood and other natural elements
When it comes to buildings in hilly areas, the best structures are the ones that do not harm the delicate microecology of the place.
The school buildings of Pawmum Thakla – located in Lama, Bandarban – were made only from locally sourced materials. Bamboo, wood and other natural resources were used instead of brick and concrete. The only exception to this rule were the screws and bolts, but they were used only when it was absolutely necessary.
The bamboo was seasoned with chemicals. Locally, these bamboos are called baijya bash and paya bash. The structure used around one thousand pieces baijya bash, and fifteen thousand paya bash.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Segun trees and thatch were also used in the construction. Almost half of these materials were donations from community members. The main building is 25 feet tall, and includes a massive thatched roof that is 52 feet long and 25 feet wide.
Pawmum Tharkla at present consists of two, two-storied buildings. One building features five rooms, two verandas and a corridor. The classrooms are on the first floor and are ready to be used. The rooms on the ground floor, however, are yet to be finished. One of these under-construction rooms will be the teachers' room, and one of the verandas will be used as the school library.
The other building utilises a very open design, almost like an amphitheatre.
The school began its journey in 2017 from one small room on top of a hill, surrounded by four small villages. The local village leader, known as the Karbari, donated the land and came up with the name of the school. In the Mro dialect, Pawmum Tharkla means flower garden.
The story of Pawmum Tharkla, however, began from the unlikeliest places. Shahriar Parvez and Man Rong Mro, the co-founders of the school, were working on a commuter development project in Lama. Their aim was to collect some money for the project through poultry farming.
Man Rong Mro, who is also from Bandarban, looked for chickens in far-off villages. This is how he came to know of the Lama community.
There was no school anywhere near the village, and Shariar Parvez and Man Rong Mro wanted to change that. But they wanted their building to be environmentally friendly. Architect Sayon Sur, a BUET graduate and a member of the team that built The Bidyananda School in Ramu, got involved with the project.
"We wanted to infuse our technical knowledge and Mro community practices in the design," explained Sayon. "We knew we did not want to build something alien. Whatever material we used had to be something the locals were familiar with, because this school is for them."
Lama is a remote place, and access to it is not easy. Since the construction was being done on top of a hill, the project came with its own set of challenges. The initiative was also self-funded, and so the budget had to be kept in check as well. All of these challenges led Shahriar and Man Rong to use natural resources.
"The rural and ethnic minority communities in our country are not dependent on the outside world. They have a self-sufficient system where they live in harmony with nature. They have been practising this for a long time," said Sayon. And this fact greatly influenced his design.
The design had to accommodate around 100 students in the school building. It also had to host various ongoing community engagement programmes related to health and sanitation on the school ground.
"We wanted to keep space for entertainment as well. If you want to keep the entire community engaged, then you have to give them the space for recreation. We wanted to ensure that the community visits the school at least once or twice a month. So we also wanted to host cultural programmes there," Sayon
With that in mind, the design was kept as open as possible. That is why all the classrooms, teachers' rooms and the library are in one building, and the other primarily features an amphitheatre-like space. It can accommodate large crowds.
"We kept the ground floor of one building open for two reasons. First, the community engagement programmes can be organised here. And second, we believe that it is more important for the students of nursery and class one to come to school regularly, play and have fun with their friends," explained Sayon.
