The concept of happiness has, for centuries, been a central theme in philosophy and psychology, yet it evades a universal definition. From antiquity to enlightenment, various philosophers have linked happiness to learning and relationships. While Buddhism emphasises happiness through mental discipline and collective well-being, Socrates and Aristotle tie it to virtue, moral character and education. In ancient China, Confucius connected happiness to social bonds and the joy of learning. Enlightenment thinker John Locke introduced the idea of the "pursuit of happiness," which influenced Swiss reformer Johann Pestalozzi's holistic approach to education. Drawing from these diverse perspectives, UNESCO's report, Happy Schools! A Framework for Learner Well-being in the Asia Pacific defines happiness as a positive emotional state crucial for a learner's well-being.

In 2022, a response to the Transforming Education Summit, UNESCO's global Happy Schools Initiative called for a transformative reform in education, advocating for a paradigm shift that places happiness at the centre of education, policy and practice. The Happy Schools Framework outlines 22 criteria organised into three main categories: People, Process, and Place. While criteria under the former two delineate holistic policies and practices to this end, suggestions under Place provide tangible measures to create a warm and friendly learning environment. These include removing walls around classrooms, replacing school bells with music to create an open and welcoming atmosphere, use of creative, colourful interiors and meaningful visual displays, to enhance the overall ambience, establishing a school garden and using outdoor spaces for learning and play as a means to connect students with nature, enriching their educational experience.

Recognised as a Happy School by UNESCO’s Bangkok-based Happy School Project, the Vidyashilp Academy in Bengaluru, India, located on a 17-acre site, sits at an elevation of 915 m above sea level in the suburb of Yelahanka in the northern part of the city. The elevation of the site, coupled with the vastly underdeveloped areas in the suburb, lends a lusciously green site for the school. Intending to foster student interaction and collaboration through shared learning and playing activities integrated with nature, the master plan evolves as a cluster of blocks organised around a central green axis. Designed by Indian architects Sonali and Manit Rastogi of Morphogenesis, the master plan leverages the moderate climate in Bengaluru, with the retention of 700 existing trees on site and develops around a north-south oriented site to optimise natural light and ventilation. At both ends, the green spine culminates as double-height volumes, which act as portals to the entrance grounds on the north and the children’s playground on the south.  

Four classroom blocks—primary school, middle school and two secondary schools—in addition to an auditorium block and the Art and Lab block envelop a series of courtyards and outdoor classroom spaces, which are not only an extension to the indoor classrooms, but also serve as spaces for the students to congregate and play. To the south, the sports areas, including a sports block, football field, basketball court, volleyball court and skating rink are segregated from the more “serious” blocks on campus. However, this segregation exists only on paper (when one reads the plan). The transition between work and play is seamlessly negotiated through what can be considered in-between classrooms—these green spaces are not merely courtyards for respite—it is their occupation to enhance the learning experience.

The building blocks of the inside-out educational building gain their identity from the elevations of the outward-facing walls. Distinguished by a geometric design expressed as jaalis, the walls are simply screens at places, enabling natural ventilation, while also filtering the amount of light entering the interiors. As the architects told STIR, “The use of jaalis as design elements serves two purposes for us: it responds to the local context and imparts a unique global identity to our project. The jaalis are specifically designed to exhibit a playful character across the façade, using a combination of varying modules. The screen modulations vary between 45-50 per cent and 20-25 per cent openings, effectively controlling and dispersing daylight according to the space requirements. Drawing from the city’s rich heritage, the jaalis are designed with a geometric pixelated aesthetic.”

The east and west façades of each block are flanked by imposing grey walls finished in a concrete texture. Extending up beyond the height of the building, these fin walls not only aid in demarcating the respective blocks but are also expressive of the mass they conceal. Inversely, the north and south façades are painted a neutral white. Sadly, the inward-facing walls, overlooking the courtyards are reminiscent of the indeterminate elevations often associated with institutional architecture in India. They are interspersed with what can only be considered mundane fenestrations, featuring glazed windows covered by metal grilles. 

Internally, the classroom blocks have a standardised layout, the width of the block divided into three sections with classrooms occupying the peripheral strip and a corridor running east-west along the length of the building separating the classrooms. Light wells on either side of the corridor illuminate the charmingly cheerful corridors, as well as the classrooms, which are provided with windows on the north and the south.

At this stage, one is left wondering how to convey the joy experienced while exploring the campus—maybe a change in tone is required; I switch therefore to the first-person narrative form. A building is best explored when its users occupy the space in question and I had the pleasure to see this school in action. Happiness is manifested in the laughter of students as they chatter under vast trees, in the vivid splashes of colours which guide them to their respective blocks, in the serendipitous interactions with branches of trees lying around and in the pure joy of happy feet chasing each other, inevitably engaging with the courtyard architecture meandering its way between the building blocks, without fear of admonition (in the middle of the school day).

I discovered that students have a favourite spot - the courtyard outside the cafeteria with “shaded benches around a large tree” (a plinth for our esoteric readers). Here is a place that is not just a hang-out spot for the students but also serves as a space for delinquent adolescents to escape to cheekily.

Given that the day was unusually hot for Bengaluru, I found myself wondering how the students cope with extreme temperatures. To my surprise (and embarrassment), I was told quite matter-of-factly, that the interiors are always ventilated because of the “holes” (jaali for us architects working in air-conditioned offices) that adorn the walls. I couldn’t help but smile as I came across sections of student-grown vegetable patches labelled batch-wise (A, B, C, D,..), allotting a sense of ownership to the little hands that nurture them.

I conclude with one more instance of retrospection—flocks of students scuttling to a figure of authority (as the Executive Director of Administration, Major Kunal Kuttappa walked me through the campus) for a little pat on the head, is perhaps the perfect synthesis of Place and People offering a visual definition of happiness.

Project Details

Name: Vidyashilp Academy
Location: Bengaluru, India
Typology: Institution
Client: Vidyashilp/ Ms. Reeba, GM- Designs
Architect: Morphogenesis
Design Team: Stuti Jasoria, Karthikeyan D, Barani P Karthik, Apoorva TR
Year of Completion: 2023