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The academy is used for meetings between the region' tribes.

The Tejgadh Tribal Academy from Vadodara-based architect Karan Grover acts as historical record and meeting place for tribal communities. Deepali Nandwani describes the details.

Green buildings and sustainable design are not mere buzzwords for architect Karan Grover. Winner of the Platinum Certification from the US Green Building Council for the CII building at Hyderabad, he has been experimenting with green technologies and design concepts for years. “I use a lot of local materials like brick and stone in my work,” he maintains.

“I try and use India’s architectural heritage wherever possible. For instance, in Indian architecture, courtyards play an important role to keep a building cool. Most old homes are inward-looking, revolving around a courtyard with corridors fringing it.”

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The Tribal Academy in Tejgadh, a largely tribal belt 100 km from Vadodara, Gujarat, is a sterling example of Grover’s attempts to use Indian architectural concepts in modern buildings. While phase 2 was completed in November 2007, this is an ongoing project.

The academy is run by the Bhasa Research Centre founded by former professor of English Literature, G N Devy. Worried about the fading tribal culture, he set up the centre to document the language, dress and customs of tribes across India and to fight for their rights.

The centre also runs medical clinics and schools in tribal villages over large isolated tracts of land in rural India. Explains Devy: “This academy had to be a home away from home for the tribal folk, because it was also meant to be a meeting ground for them. They come here for conclaves, to discuss issues related to health, education and land rights.”

The building itself is constructed over a 1.5 acre (15,000 square feet) area. It’s an unpretentious structure that blends with the largely single-storey structures in the district. You don’t even notice the exposed brick building until you are at the gate.

What’s visible on the outside is the façade covered with a complex web of jaalis. In fact, jaalis have been used extensively across the entire building façade. “When air passes through small openings, it expands and cools,” Grover points out. “This is the why in several old buildings, especially in states like Rajasthan which are very hot, jaalis were an important architectural feature.”

Sunlight streams in through these jaalis, lighting up the dark corridors and creating amazing patterns on the opposite walls. 

Once you step into the cooler confines of the tribal academy, you don’t feel the searing heat that Gujarat experiences in summer. Within, the structure has a few walls separating spaces. There are just about four or five rooms with wooden doors – one of them being the library, which has a 20-foot-high ceiling.