Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School | |
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Address | |
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Kanoi village , | |
Information | |
Type | Private |
Enrollment | 400 (April 2020) |
Website | www |
Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School is a girls school in the rural thar desert of Jaisalmer in indian state of Rajasthan. The school is unique in that the architects designed it in the shape of an oval that can withstand temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius. [1] The school can accommodate 400 girls from kindergarten to tenth grade. The school is aimed to provide education and training in traditional skill sets such as artistry, weaving, embroidery for women. Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School is designed by a New York based company Diana Kellogg Architects. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] It is on the boundary of Desert National Park, and Sam lies close by in the west which is the location of sand dune safaris and resorts.
Buried in multiple layers of sandstones and limestones of geological Habur Formation, isolated teeth of five lamniform genera of large predatory sharks with serrated teeth were found here that lived during the early Cretaceous period — Cretalamna, Dwardius, Leptostyrax, Squalicorax, and Eostriatolamia, among these “Dwardius and Eostriatolamia may possibly be among the globally oldest, with the fossils being an astonishing 115-million-year old”. [8] Habur Formation, which spread around Harbur village, is well known for the stones containing fossils. [9]
The school is named after "Ratnavati," the Jaisalmer princess. She was the daughter of Maharawal Ratan Singh. [10]
Sabyasachi Mukherjee designed the school uniform doing Ajrak, a local printing technique similar to printing. [6] [11]
Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School is located in the rural region surrounding Jaisalmer, near the hamlet of Kanoi. Its architecture is unique and distinctive, featuring an oval-shaped building amidst the desert landscape. [12] The elliptical-shaped structure, angled towards the prevailing winds, is designed to effectively circulate cool air and symbolizes femininity, aligning with the project's ethos. Jaisalmer stonemasons built the school out of precut golden sandstone. Kellogg, the designer and architect of the school, refers to it as "a big, tight hug." [13] Oval geometry of the school symbolizes the strength of women. [14]
Kellogg employed traditional methods in the design of the structure, one of which was the application of lime plaster on the interior walls. Lime plaster is a natural, porous material that has a cooling effect. Additionally, she incorporated a jali wall into the design, which is a sandstone grid that promotes acceleration of wind through the Venturi effect. [13] The school is made of local yellow sandstone that was handcrafted by local artisans. The building is designed in a way that it does not require the use of air conditioning. [15] [1]
The school is one of three buildings in the complex known as the "Gyaan Centre."
The royal family of Jaisalmer and Manvendra Singh Shekhawat donated the land for the school. [20] [19] Diana kellogg architects, in collaboration with CITTA, which is a registered nonprofit organization in New York, have made a significant contribution to the building of the school. [2] [21]
Rajasthan is a state in northwestern India. It covers 342,239 square kilometres (132,139 sq mi) or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern side, where it comprises most of the wide and inhospitable Thar Desert and shares a border with the Pakistani provinces of Punjab to the northwest and Sindh to the west, along the Sutlej-Indus River valley. It is bordered by five other Indian states: Punjab to the north; Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to the northeast; Madhya Pradesh to the southeast; and Gujarat to the southwest. Its geographical location is 23°.3' to 30°.12' North latitude and 69°.30' to 78°.17' East longitude, with the Tropic of Cancer passing through its southernmost tip.
The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi) in India and Pakistan. It is the world's 18th-largest desert, and the world's 9th-largest hot subtropical desert.
Pokhran is a town and a municipality located 112 km east of Jaisalmer city in the Jaisalmer district of the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is situated in the Thar Desert region. Surrounded by rocks, sand and five salt ranges, the word "Pokaran" (पोकरण) means "place surrounded by five salt-ranges" in Rajasthani. The site for India's first and second underground nuclear weapon test is near Pokhran.
Jaisalmer, nicknamed "The Golden city", is a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, located 575 kilometres (357 mi) west of the state capital Jaipur. It is the administrative headquarters of Jaisalmer District. Before Indian independence, the town served as the capital of the Jaisalmer State, ruled by the Bhati Rajputs. Jaisalmer stands on a ridge of yellowish sandstone and is crowned by the ancient Jaisalmer Fort. This fort contains a royal palace and several ornate Jain temples. Many of the houses and temples of both the fort and of the town below are built of finely sculptured yellow sandstone. The town lies in the heart of the Thar Desert and has a population, including the residents of the fort, of about 78,000. Jaisalmer ranked 9th on Booking.com's Top 10 The Most Welcoming cities in the world. It is the only Indian city on the list.
A haveli is a traditional townhouse, mansion, manor house, in the Indian subcontinent, usually one with historical and architectural significance, and located in a town or city. The word haveli is derived from Arabic hawali, meaning "partition" or "private space", popularised under the Mughal Empire, and was devoid of any architectural affiliations. Later, the word haveli came to be used as a generic term for various styles of regional mansions, manor houses, townhouse found in the Indian subcontinent.
Barmer District is a district in Rajasthan state of India. It is located in the western part of Rajasthan state forming a part of the Thar Desert. Barmer is the third largest district by area in Rajasthan and fifth largest district in India, occupying an area of 28,387 km2. Being in the western part of the state, it includes a part of the Thar Desert. Jaisalmer is to the north of this district while Jalore is in its south. Pali and Jodhpur form its eastern border and it shares a border with Pakistan in the west. Partially being a desert, this district has a large variation in temperature. The temperature in summer can rise up to 51 °C and falls near to 0 °C in winter. Luni is the longest river in Barmer district. After travelling a length of almost 500 km, it passes through Jalore and merges in the marshy land of Runn of Kutch. District headquarters is in the town of Barmer. The other major towns in the district are: Balotra, Guda Malani, Baytoo, Siwana, and Chohatan. Recently, a large onshore oil field has been discovered and made functional in Barmer district. Barmer is also famous for pomegranate.
Jaisalmer district is the largest district in the Indian state of Rajasthan, and the third largest district in India. Located in Marwar, the city of Jaisalmer is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is around 289 km (180 mi) from the city of Jodhpur, and around 559 km (347 mi) from Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. As of the 2011 population census, it is the least populous district out of all 33 districts in Rajasthan.
Jaisalmer Fort is situated in the city of Jaisalmer, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is one of the very few "living forts" in the world, as nearly one fourth of the old city's population still resides within the fort. For the better part of its 860-year history, the fort was the city of Jaisalmer. The first settlements outside the fort walls, to accommodate the growing population of Jaisalmer, are said to have come up in the 17th century.
Phalodi is a city in Phalodi district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is the headquarters for Phalodi district. Phalodi is also called the "salt city" due to the salt industry in Rin. Phalodi is in the buffer zone of Thar Desert and often subject to extreme temperature conditions due to its arid climate. The highest temperature in the history of Phalodi is 51°C, which is the highest ever verified temperature in the country.
Lodrawa is a village in Jaisalmer district, Rajasthan, India. It is located 15 kilometers to the north-west of Jaisalmer. Lodrawa was the ancient capital of the Bhati Rajputs until Rawal Jaisal founded the Jaisalmer state and moved the capital to Jaisalmer in 1156 CE.
TenBerke is a New York City, based architecture and interior design firm founded and led by Deborah Berke, who concurrently serves as Dean of the Yale School of Architecture.
Toshiko Mori is a Japanese architect and the founder and principal of New York–based Toshiko Mori Architect, PLLC and Vision Arc. She is also the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In 1995, she became the first female faculty member to receive tenure at the GSD.
Kuldhara is an abandoned village in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, India. Established around the 13th century, it was once a prosperous village inhabited by Paliwal Brahmins. It was abandoned by the early 19th century for unknown reasons, possibly because of dwindling water supply, an earthquake, or as a local legend claims, because of the atrocities by the Jaisalmer State's minister Salim Singh.
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The Boha geoglyphs or Great Indian Desert geoglyph are a group of large geoglyphs made in the soil in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India. Several sites were found located around the city of Jaisalmer, marked by geometrical lines resembling geoglyphs. The lines that make up these figures are stripes etched into the ground, ranging up to 10 centimeters deep and spreading 20 to 50 cm wide. The sizes of the glyphs are so large that it is believed that its creators must not have been able to view them in its entirety. The largest of these glyphs are in the vicinity of the village of Boha near Jaiselmer. The Boha geoglyph is made of a succession of concentric and linear outlines and spans over 100,000 square metres, making it far larger than the Nazca Lines geoglyph in southern Peru, or any other known geoglyph. The geoglyphs were discovered by French researchers Carlo Oetheimer and Yohann Oetheimer, initially using Google Earth.
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Tharosaurus is an extinct genus of dicraeosaurid sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Jaisalmer Formation of India. The genus contains a single species, T. indicus, known from several vertebrae and a rib. Tharosaurus represents the earliest diplodocoid currently known and the first described from India.
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A revolution that had been quietly brewing for the last few years, Gyaan Center is a project of the Citta Foundation, spearheaded by American artist Michael Daube. A marvelous piece of architecture designed by New York-based architect Diana Kellogg and built around a stone structured palace donated by the Jaisalmer royal family, the center houses not just The Rajkumari Ratnavati School for girls but also a women's cooperative that aims to empower the women of the region through craft employment and enhance gender parity in the region. A project wholly supported by Chaitanya and Raseshwari, who even donated the land it is built on, Gyaan Center by Citta Foundation is an architectural marvel. Its oval form is meant to reflect the curvilinear shapes of the local forts and the universal symbols of female strength.