To rehabilitate some of the children orphaned as a result of the Bhopal gas tragedy, the SOS Children’s Villages of India (a national voluntary organisation) established this village on the outskirts of the city of Bhopal.
On a site measuring 10 acres, the village provides accommodation for 160 Children in 16 family houses with associated facilities for education and healthcare, as well as staff residences and a community house having offices, a village shop, and guest rooms.
The family houses are arranged in clusters of four unites around vegetable gardens connected by foot-paths to front gardens arranged along the periphery of a playing field. This formed the first phase of construction which also included the kindergarten, the community house and the health centre.
The second phase is separated from the first by a plantation of hardwood trees and contains a preparatory school, a temple, a residence for 20 older children (called the Youth House) and a workshop. The second phase construction is in progress.
The materials and construction technology is chosen to be climatically responsive and for ease of maintenance. Foundations and plinths are in local stone masonry walls are of brick masonry rendered with plaster, and roofs are of clay tiles supported on a framework of reinforced concrete edge beams with hardwood rafters and softwood planking.
The second phase roofs were modified to replace the timber rafters and planking by rectangular section steel tubes and mild steel angels to support the clay tiles. The flooring for all buildings is of polished stone, while the footpaths are of hand cut local stone.