The walls were cracked. The floor – damp and crumbling. Inside the dim classrooms of Saraswati Vidyalaya in Kelthan village, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 120 children sat hunched over their books, trying to focus as monsoon winds howled outside and the roof above them leaked. There was no proper lighting, no ventilation, and barely any space that felt safe.

Yet, every day, they came back. Why? because this was the only school they had.

Then came the floods.

In 2019, rising waters from the nearby Tansa river swept through the school, soaking classrooms and washing away books, computers, and lab equipment. Water stains marked the high tide of the disaster, a permanent reminder of what little was left behind. The classrooms were no longer safe, but the children came anyway.

It was this harsh reality that moved architects Gauri Satam and Tejesh Patil, co-founders of unTAG Architecture and Interiors, to take action. What started as a personal calling soon became a community-led mission to rebuild the school not only stronger, but smarter, greener, and deeply rooted in the culture and climate of its surroundings.

A school started out of necessity

The story of Saraswati Vidyalaya begins long before the floods. It was born out of a deep belief that every child, no matter how remote their village or modest their background, deserves access to quality education.

“In 2001, we didn’t even have a building,” shared Principal Vijay Ramesh Patil, who helped establish the school under the Devgarh Vibhag Shikshan Prasarak Trust. “We started with a single room given to us by a social worker in the village. Just one room, a handful of students, and two teachers.”

Eventually, the trust secured land near the Tansa River, and a modest structure was built to house Classes 8 to 10. But the school’s proximity to the river came at a cost. Every year, monsoons brought with them the same story: rising waters, destroyed classrooms, and equipment damaged beyond repair.

“Five to six feet of water would enter the rooms,” Patil recalls. “Parents were worried. Cracks began to appear in the walls. It became too dangerous, and we were left helpless.”

Learning Space Foundation: A ray of hope

In 2020, in desperate need of a solution, the school approached Learning Space Foundation, a prominent NGO in the locality. That connection led them to Tejesh Patil and Gauri Satam of unTAG Architecture and Interiors — both of whom had strong rural roots and a passion for socially conscious design.

“They didn’t charge us........

© The Better India