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Himalayan Institute of Alternatives

The SECMOL alternative institute in Ladakh was founded to provide education to students who had failed in the traditional school system. The fully solar-powered campus focuses on rebuilding students' confidence by teaching practical skills like organic farming, building eco-friendly structures, and minimizing fossil fuel usage. Nearly 70 students live and study residential programs that last one to three years. The campus also hosts environmental workshops and summer camps. After completing their studies, students pursue further education or start their own businesses, applying the skills they learned. The sustainable architecture of SECMOL's buildings maximizes solar gain in winter through designs like south-facing windows covered with insulating plastic sheets.

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529 views2 pages

Himalayan Institute of Alternatives

The SECMOL alternative institute in Ladakh was founded to provide education to students who had failed in the traditional school system. The fully solar-powered campus focuses on rebuilding students' confidence by teaching practical skills like organic farming, building eco-friendly structures, and minimizing fossil fuel usage. Nearly 70 students live and study residential programs that last one to three years. The campus also hosts environmental workshops and summer camps. After completing their studies, students pursue further education or start their own businesses, applying the skills they learned. The sustainable architecture of SECMOL's buildings maximizes solar gain in winter through designs like south-facing windows covered with insulating plastic sheets.

Uploaded by

Mathews
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Himalayan Institute of Alternatives, Ladakh – Architect Sonam Wangchuk

SECMOL alternative institute was founded for those students


who failed in the school system.
This is a fully solar provided school campus that rebuilds and
re-launches the dropped out
students. Emphasizing on learning skills such as producing
organic food, building ecological
houses, minimizing fossil fuel, and managing school campus
themselves, their confidence is
rebuilt. Nearly 70 students live and learn in residential courses
of one to three years. Also many
short eco-awareness. Summer camps of two weeks each are organized for batches of roughly
80 students. Vocational skill oriented courses are also run for batches of 10 to 15 students. After
the courses, students Shri back to mainstream system and do higher studies. Some become
progressive farmers or entrepreneurs and start their own business. While others join the
government or work for other employees in the private sector. Major revenue of SECMOL
comes from Donations, volunteer fees, travel programs of students groups or youth camps,
Earth building and solar design courses and students fees.

The spaces in the SECMOL Campus

Hostel Gathering Interaction Space The Assembly Hall

Outdoor Classrooms The Solar Stove or Water Heater The Teachers’ Quarters
Cook’s Quarter

Sustainable Architecture
Showcasing the so-called earth and sun architecture, as
it is called, Konchok Norgay, the teacher in-charge at
the SECMOL School, listed the most important feature
of the concept — the south face of a building needs to
be all windows, as it gets maximum sunrise to sunset
exposure in winters.
The SECMOL School’s main building’s south side has
a huge thick plastic sheet attached to these windows at
an angle. This stops strong chilly winds but allows sunlight and heat in winters. This sheet is rolled up in
summer to let in fresh air and to avoid overheating.
The top of the building has glass openings to keep the insides of the building well
illuminated during the day and also trap heat in winters. Essentially, it is the double-
layered, south-facing windows (plastic sheet and glass or both glass) of the main
building and also that of the students’ hostel. The other sidewalls are made of thick mud
with insulation in between.

The door was made by


the students

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