Project Category
Adaptive Reuse & Restoration

Project Type
Government, CSR, Permanent

Number of People
100

Project Location
Urban

Issues
Retrofitting, Conservation, Sustainability, Details, Vernacular

Primary School # 20, built around 1960s is a well-known Government Primary School building in Rajkot.
Few prominent citizens have studied here.

The building is built with Lime and local Kalmidh ( black basalt) stone masonry with traditional queen post roof truss with art deco stylisation! This building holds architectural heritage importance for the city of Rajkot.

The damage in roof truss was due to termites, which lead to a decision of demolishing the building, declaring it unsafe for use. Rotary club of Rajkot Metro had adopted this school in the year 2008, invited our team to review the building. Preliminary visual survey and subsequent technical review brought us to the conclusion that the building is structurally safe and a small corrective intervention can be done. Structural inputs suggested that retrofitting the roof, though a bit lengthy process would save the entire building from demolition.

The roof tiles were taken down methodically.

Traditional Queen post roof truss was examined carefully to note the damages. A jacking system was put in place to take the load of the rafters as well as not to disturb the alignment of the truss.

The damaged portion of the truss (tie beam) was removed “in-situ”and replaced with a new wood member; the old and new elements now connected by a special lengthening joint and strengthened by way of a steel plate.
Termite treatment was done to the entire building.

Building was ready for use again.

The damaged portion of the truss (tie beam) was removed “in-situ”and replaced with a new wood member; the old and new elements now connected by a special lengthening joint and strengthened by way of a steel plate.
Termite treatment was done to the entire building.

Building was ready for use again.

Project Details:
Client: Rotary club of Rajkot Metro.
Address: Primary School # 20, Bhaktinagar Circle, Rajkot.
Contractor: Maru Contractors, Rajkot
Design Team: Parth Shah

AWARDS / PUBLICATION