North India’s Thar Desert welcomes an oval-shaped all-girls school by New York-based practice Diana Kellogg Architects, heavily inspired by symbols of femininity, the shapes of local forts and the surrounding natural landscape. The Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School is part of a wider project by CITTA, a non-profit that equips and supports global communities. 

Made of local Jaisalmer yellow sandstone, the structure holds ten classrooms within its walls, their doors facing an oval courtyard. Trimming the classroom walls are clerestory openings that allow ventilation and sunlight into the space. 

From the courtyard, a ramp leads up to a blue-tiled mosaic walkway that runs along the oval rooftop. The perforated wall that hides the ramp from view is a design reference to latticed Jali screens, a traditional architectural feature that protects a dwelling’s privacy.

Throughout the day, shadows creep along the courtyard in gradual motion, providing much-needed shade to the students. Kellogg also integrated sustainability features into the design, adding water harvesting systems and rooftop solar panels that also serves a double purpose as a playground. 

It’s an impressive piece of architecture, and it doesn’t stop here. The studio is slated to design another set of buildings in the vicinity, which will host an auditorium for exhibitions and performances, a museum, a library, and a space dedicated to a women’s cooperative that helps empower women from the neighboring villages through teaching embroidering and weaving techniques. 

“I wanted to make a building about space and light and community, and not about design – a structure that resonated with the soul and enforced the natural energies to nurture and heal women and girls,” Kellogg explains.  More from the studio on their Instagram. 

Photography © Vinay Panjwani for Diana Kellogg Architects