movingSCHOOLS is an educational system designed for and with the children of migratory construction workers in India.   More than a school, movingSCHOOLS presents a multi-scalar approach to education capable of thriving within the rigors of the construction site, capitalizing upon borrowed resources and sites, and offering a sensible footprint given the limited useful lifetime (as the work must move with the construction workers).     

To create movingSCHOOLS, the IDC focused upon the creation of a long-term design infrastructure that would harness the momentum offered by the project’s more persistent conditions to inspire unpredictable regenerations of the work for years to come.  This created a bottom-up design process that prioritized small, concise moments of clarity over large-scale design gestures.

The initial work naturally varied widely and included a 99-rupee ($2) water filter made from a standard sweater storage bag, silver-sided tarp and four grommets, a portable earth wall, and a kid-sized, educational free space fabricated using techniques offered by the city’s many autorickshaw upholsterers.  As the work progressed, those ideas anchored upon key principles quickly proved their mettle, garnering greater attention, while those that needed additional tenacity sought out strategic unions with other proposals through either a symbiotic merger or a complete consumption.  A Darwinian approach emerged, one that would compel our team to judge the value of their work not as a static product, but as an open, evolving movement - a hybrid address of education that would allow our international partners to possess and evolve the proposed strategies in a meaningful way for years to come.

EXHIBITIONS include: “City Speculations,” University Of Michigan Detroit Center, Detroit, Michigan. (2013); “4 Square,” Studio Couture, Detroit, MI (2012); and “Publics Stimulus Packages, Act 1: Projection Mail,” multiple Sites, including the AIA Center For Architecture, Philadelphia, PA (2012 to present).

PUBLICATIONS include works by: The American Institute of Architects (2009), The Third International Symposium on Service Learning (2009), the Coalition Of Urban And Metropolitan Universities (2009) and the 14TH CIB World Building Congress: International Council For Research And Innovation In Building And Construction (2008). 

FUNDING SUPPORT: American Institute of Architects, Temple University and the International Design Clinic.

PARTNERSHIPS: The International Design Clinic, Mumbai Mobile Creches, D. Y. Patil School of Architecture and Temple University.