BOXCHOOL: Modular container school for isolated area

The Boxchool – a modular container school for the children in developing areas – is a smart and sustainable educational environment providing advanced IT technology operated by solar power.

Article  |  Fall 2015

The Boxchool is a modular container school designed for children in developing areas. It uses subsidiary modular parts that are easy to assemble, even in remote locations. Providing advanced IT technology operated by solar power, the Boxchool provides a smart and sustainable educational environment. Recognized for its excellence, this work has received the “Red Dot: Best of the Best”, which is one of the most famous and honorable design awards in the world.

Even today, not all children are able to go to school and receive an education. Out of many reasons for this issue, including low accessibility and high cost, Prof. Sangmin Bae and his team (ID+IM Design Laboratory) targeted the problems of developing areas not having enough schools or teaching supplies. Children in rural regions often walk very long distances to get to school, and many of these schools are poorly equipped.

To solve this problem, the research team utilized recycled shipping containers. Architecture using recycled shipping containers receives a great deal of interest in design and architectural field, especially for building temporary/quickly-assembled architecture in areas of need, such as developing countries. Such structures are considered to be a smart alternative to traditional buildings due to the numerous advantages of shipping containers: they are strong, cheap, and portable. However, shipping containers are not suitable for classrooms without additional construction work in order to make them robust to environmental conditions. Their bended-metal appearance and elongated shape are not very conducive to a children’s educational environment. Thus, the design team tried to solve these problems by attaching modularized subsidiary materials to the interior/exterior of the containers in order to create a sustainable classroom environment for students around the world.

A shipping container is a standard module in the transportation industry. One unit of Boxchool is a recycled standard shipping container loaded with subsidiary parts. These subsidiary parts consist of interior and exterior components (frame module, panels, solar panel, gutter, pipe, tank, window, furniture). All of the components except the shipping containers are changeable. A twist locking system is used to attach subsidiary modular parts to the corner casting of the container. Each Boxchool container carries all the subsidiary modular parts inside the container. The outer frames are delivered piece by piece and are assembled at the designated area. The wall panels are sectionalized and attached to the frame. This modular system lowers production cost and gives the freedom to build various configurations for the Boxchool.

Boxchool is operated by an independent energy system that can provide a sustainable educational environment anywhere in the world. Fourteen solar panels on the roof can generate approximately 4760kWh per day. This is enough power to run one laptop, one projector, eight LED lights and ten tablet PCs altogether for six hours.

Boxchool also provides clean water for children. When it is raining, the rain water is collected through the slope of the roof, and the impurities are filtered by a gutter filter and a pipe filter. Then, the water flows through the tanks, where smaller impurities are removed by precipitation.

Inside of the Boxchool, fresh air is always provided because hot and humid air flows out through the attic vent, doors, and windows.

Because Boxchool itself and its subsidiary parts are modular, it can have various configurations depending on how these modular parts are assembled. Two units of Boxchool containers can be transformed into one large fully-equipped classroom for at least 24 children. Three units can make a playground for children. Six units can build a big library.

Award link
http://en.red-dot.org/

Credit
Design by ID+IM Design Laboratory
(Prof.Sangmin Bae, Jieun Shim, Boram Won, Seobin Oh, Soojeong Kook, Jiyoung Seok)

Manufactured by SK Telecom Co.,Ltd

Website
http://idim.kaist.ac.kr