Leading architecture magazine selected Tibetan solar school built by Hungarians

According to hvg.hu, Tanpo Solar School was eligible for the nomination for the Building of the Year Awards. The voting took place on the ArchDaily platform between January 24 and 31. The magazine selected the new wings of Central European University in Budapest, as well. Unfortunately, none of the two buildings could get to the next round.

Following the footsteps of Hungarian explorer, Kőrösi Csoma

In fact, the Csoma’s Room Foundation was founded 10 years ago on an entirely voluntary basis. The organisation appeared in the news last time in 2010 when they renovated the monastery fortress of Zangla. They  built the monastery in the 16-17^th century and

Hungarian volunteers did all the restoration works.

They restored not only the monastery but also some stupas in the neighbourhood. Interestingly, the monastery was the place where worldwide-known Hungarian explorer, Orientalist, linguist and author of the first Tibetan-English dictionary, founder of Tibetology, Sándor Kőrösi Csoma heat the Tibetan language between 1823 and 1824.

In fact, the foundation started to build a school there in 2012 because there was no heating in the former classrooms. Clearly, this made teaching impossible during winter since

the school is 3,800 meters above sea level in the mountains.

Fine Hungarian architecture in the Himalayas

Interestingly, it is the Sun that provides heating for the new school built by the Hungarian foundation. Besides, they built it exclusively of local materials. Of course, this architectural achievement took easily wind in the neighbourhood. Therefore, Tanpo, a small village in the Valley of the Zanskar River entrusted the foundation to build another school for them.

The community collected stone, earth, and straw and in spite of the extreme weather conditions the foundation completed the school building in only two months. Since

the building functions as a greenhouse too,

the school does not depend on fossil fuel. Moreover, designers taught local people how to maintain or even rebuild the structure, if necessary.

ArchDaily magazine put on the list of eligible buildings the new wings of CEU University in Budapest, as well. However, none of the two buildings was able to get into the next round. All in all, Hungarians can be proud of their innovative architects and brilliant ideas.

featured image: csomasroom.org

Source: hvg.hu, csomasroom.org