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Rebuilding the Haadibadi Community library
Bengaluru City, India
image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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GC2021 finalist
Location:
Bengaluru City, India
Category:
education
Phase:
design development
Updated:
29 September 2022
Haadibadi community library strives to uplift the children from marginalised communities by providing a safe space for them to access books. It also encourages children to participate in a range of activities that will widen their horizons outside the classroom. It is located in the backyard of Bengaluru's IT hub, where urban dualism is prominent and inequalities between the affluent class and the underprivileged are starkly visible.
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Introduction
According to the 2011 census, the per capita investment in public library development in India is less than 50 paise (0.00567 Euros). There is approximately one rural library for every 11,500 people and one urban library for every 80,000 people. The vast majority of these libraries have not been updated, and their numbers are rapidly dwindling. 
As a consequence, the Haadibadi community library was set up in 2019. It aspires to provide a highly cognitive learning environment for children from disadvantaged communities, allowing them to eventually participate in and influence the development in the city. This place has become more essential in the present pandemic times when the learning gap has been exacerbated by a lack of access to technology.  In this context, the library acts as a catalyst in empowering the community and holds significant symbolic value for the marginalized.
 Over three thousand volumes are housed in the library, which is frequented by more than eighty-five children from the neighbourhood. It is more than just a place to borrow books. Experts from various fields visit and conduct workshops for children. 
The library is currently set up in the old residence of one of the community members. However, space is a huge constrain. The building is weak and the roofs leak, making the everyday operation of the library extremely difficult. There is a huge need to reconstruct this space to address the needs of the growing number of children.
play
Impact
The process of rebuilding the library provides a tremendous opportunity for community engagement in the design and construction phases using participatory design approaches. The primary users, the children, are involved in the design process through a series of "claystorming" workshops. Casurina poles, which are commonly employed in the construction of scaffolding in the region, will be used for the primary structure of the library. This necessitates unskilled labour, which the community can provide. They will feel empowered and have a sense of ownership over the place as a result of the process, which will also strengthen their identity.
Haadibadi community library has more than one hundred members so far. It has reached out to more than five hundred students through partnerships with schools. In response to the growing number of users, the new design encapsulates spaces for more possibilities. In the long run, it will act as a hub for vast learning opportunities within the neighbourhood, serving more than a hundred.

The structure is simple to construct, and all of the materials can be obtained locally. It also has a high reuse value. This library will function as a self-built prototype that may be adopted in many locations throughout the city, particularly within marginalised communities. 
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Core team
A group of friends from diverse disciplines, including education, theatre, art, social service, and corporate, who were members of the Hashmi theatre forum, developed the Haadibadi community library. 
Five people make up the core team. Ravikiran Rajendran is a co-founder of the library. He is a theatre practitioner and actor by profession. Geetha M is an educationist specialising in language pedagogy and children's literature. She is in charge of creating the content for the library's initiatives. Bhushan is a manager at Inmobi, who oversees Haadibadi's engagement in the corporate sector and other initiatives.
Vijayashanthi and Vijetha Kumar work as assistant professors and are part of the core team. Along with Divya who is a facilitator at the library who also manages promotions and the website.

Tejaswini Krishna, an architect, is leading the design process through participatory methods and community engagement. The children have been greatly involved in the design process and construction labourers from the community will be involved in the building phase.
Core team and the community

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Image gallery
Existing building

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Interior view of the existing building

image: Nitin Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Library reading session

image: Nitin Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Neighbourhood

image: Nitin Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Children from neighbourhood

image: Nitin Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Claystorming_01

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Claystorming

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Claystorming 03

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Claystorming 04

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Claystorming 05

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Claystorming 06

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Claystorming 07

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Technical drawings
Location

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Ground floor plan

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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First floor plan

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Second floor plan

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Wall section

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Exploded axonometric view

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Front elevation

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Interior view

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Interior view

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Interior view

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Interior view

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Interior view

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Phases of budget

image: Tejaswini Krishna P | © all rights reserved
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Help bring our project to life!
24 May 2022
New supporter: Manasa Achar
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27 March 2022
New supporter: Tharamaroa Troconis
A library may mean so much more to a community than a physical structure. This prompted us to consider how this concept may be expanded to a larger schema of realities. The goal was to build a project that could be financially self-sustaining in most aspects, reducing reliance on other sources of funding for its functioning.
Architecture in Development, introduced us to the founder of brAIMS, Tharamaroa Troconis, who is now our strategic partner and has been aiding us with conceptualising the library program as a financial model. 
Through our discussions with her, we defined problems, challenges and opportunities by understanding the root of the issue in the pubic education system. We are in the process of finding solutions based on a Lean Canvas model in order to effectively raise funds for this library program and its operations. Through this model, we aim to achieve financially self-sustaining library program for children in government schools.
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25 March 2022
New supporter: Shreya Kothawale
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24 March 2022
Change of site location
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the proposed location for the Haadibadi library was unavailable. The landowner was no longer able to provide us with the project location due to personal concerns. The library has been temporarily relocated and set up on one of the founder's rooftops. With the growing number of children that visit the library, the available space will soon be insufficient to allow the library to operate at full capacity. As a result, we began looking for a new site in the neighborhood.

Considering all variable aspects, we narrowed down three criteria that would lead us to our future location.
  • To begin with, collaborating with government schools was an excellent way to reach the target demographic, which was children from low-income households.
  • Second, establishing a library within a 1 to 1.5 kilometer radius of the current library was crucial, as it would be beneficial to accommodate both existing library users and new neighbourhood users.
  • Third, we needed to get the school administration on board, eager, willing, and able to communicate the intended objectives.
The Haadibadi NGO has previously run library programmes in several government schools in the neighbourhood, and based on their good rapport, we identified five potential locations within a 5-kilometer radius of the existing library. The principal and teachers of Kodichikkanahalli School expressed their enthusiasm and support for the library project on their school grounds. The school is approximately 0.8 kilometres from the existing library, making it ideal for the children of the existing library to walk or cycle there. As this site has met all the criterias, we have decided to finalize the Kodichikkanahalli school to take it forward.

The Haadibadi NGO team and the principal of Kodichikanahalli School are now in the process of obtaining the necessary permissions from the education department for the construction of the school.
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Show previous updates
14 March 2022
New supporter: Nivedita Mehrotra
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28 January 2022
New supporter: Chaal Chaal Agency
Chaal Chaal Agency is a design-research collaborative project founded by Kruti Shah and Sebastián Trujillo-Torres, working between Ahmedabad (India) and Bogotá (Colombia). We specialize in experimental infrastructures, transformative design, and transdisciplinary pedagogy, locating our area of investigation in the intersection between equality and space. Working between India and Colombia has allowed us to enquire into issues and potentialities particular to the Global South, in the prospect of triggering larger transformations through evolving micro-operations, which usually involve students, allied organizations, and proactive communities. A practice envisioned towards more self-sufficient, equitable, and cohesive cultural environments.
As partners to the Rebuilding the Haadibadi Community library, we see ourselves contributing to the development of the pitch for reinventing the library typology along with leading the design and technical assessment of the small and extra small scale.  
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28 January 2022
New supporter: CRAFT | Engineering Studio
“CRAFT is a visionary studio of structural engineering consultants who are passionate about the pursuit of art and architecture from the vantage point of the engineer.

We are an internationally diverse team that operates as a studio to allow a free flow of skills and knowledge within our office environment. We rely on multidisciplinary backgrounds that include product design, architecture, and computation to augment our practice as structural engineers. Our passion for the arts allows us as engineers to more effectively engage and communicate with architects, artists, and fabricators as clients. We understand the need to be open-minded and creative thinkers which leads to imaginative problem solving and innovative solutions. CRAFT caters to the client who challenges traditional notions of structural engineering consulting and seeks a creative and collaborative partner in the process of design and its execution. Through collaboration with NGOs and student groups, we seek to employ the skills and technologies developed by our practice in support of developments for communities in need.”
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26 January 2022
New supporter: Gunraagh Talwar
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26 January 2022
New supporter: Valentina Riverso
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26 January 2022
New supporter: Srujana Gali
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31 December 2021
New supporter: Haadibadi NGO

Haadibadi was a spectrum of abstract ideas conceptualised by a group of friends from various fields including education, theatre and art, social service and corporate who were a part of the Hashmi Theatre forum. The theatre forum became an important journey for its members to reach out to various sections of the society and comprehend their diversities; hence the name ‘Haadibadi’. Over time, with several inputs from the mentors, peer groups, well-wishers and acquaintances, Haadibadi evolved from Hashmi Theatre Forum into a distinct form of its own to establish itself as a non-profit organisation in May 2016.Keeping the idea of ‘Inclusiveness’ as the priority, they have trained over 1000 school children in theatre and have organised communication and skill development programmes. We have also collaborated with many government schools and low-fee private schools in setting up ‘open libraries’ to integrate the idea of free learning spaces.
The Haadibadi community library is part of a larger initiative to provide free access to a wide range of books for engaging the young minds in free, imaginative, and critical thinking. The library also serves as a creative space to engage children and youth through reading and interactive sessions, film screenings, story-telling sessions, and various other activities enriching their cultural and social identities

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Help bring our project to life!
Where are we now
The design and budget for the project have been finalised.  A series of claystorming sessions were conducted to teach the children about intuitive thinking, spatial design, and natural building while also allowing them to voice their ideas for this space.
However, there is a huge need to raise funds for the initiation of the construction process. The budget attempts to direct the majority of the funds back into the community by utilising locally available building materials and involving the labour force within the community. Volunteers are welcome to take part in the building process and be part of the change.
An indication of our team’s capacity:
70% expertise already found
30% materials / equipment already found
60% builders already found
Finance: € 16,585
This project focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)  of eliminating inequality and delivering quality education in order to create sustainable communities. With additional funding, we can take one step closer to creating a sustainable future for all, especially for the underserved communities.
Haadibadi is an endeavour to change the status quo of marginalised children by providing them with access to a variety of learning opportunities. It gives people a place to find their voice and become aware of their rights in the face of growing inequality. This effort will serve as a prototype self-build solution for the underprivileged to create such centres in their communities.
  • Casurina poles (Structure, door
3,425
  • Shuttering boards for wall panels and book shelves
500
  • Roofing materials (metal
700
  • Miscellaneous ( Tools, transport)
200
  • 6 Skilled labourers for 120 days
7,000
  • 4 Unskilled labourers for 120 days
3,560
  • Transportation,food and rent for project manager
1,200
Skills: Design, Financial advice, Law & Politics
Design
For structural design, expert guidance is required to save material costs by eliminating the unnecessary.

Financial advice
We would like  some guidance on how to set up a sustainable process to generate revenue for the project's execution because it currently does not have sufficient capital.

Politics and law
The Haadibadi library is built on private land owned by one of the founders. In the long run, libraries must be incorporated into urban planning. We would need advice in order to influence policymaking at the city level and modify the governmental perspective on public spaces.
Hands
It's a fantastic opportunity for students, architects, and anybody interested in building with natural materials to receive hands-on experience and skills. Volunteers will engage with community construction workers during the construction phase. This interaction will provide a tremendous chance for knowledge sharing, skills transfer, and improved motivation for the personal development of both the volunteers and community members. Volunteers will be able to see the power of community participation and be a part of making a difference.
Help bring our project to life!
Supporters
Location
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