The Indian education system started with Gurukuls and functioned based on the system of Tapovans. Tapovans are places where students lived with their teachers to learn skills, knowledge, books, wisdom, and how to live, true to the concept of an education community based on shared learning and experiences. In english we can say these as residential schools. DC School of Archirecture and Design, the best residential architure college in Kerala is working in the model of a Tapovan.
These forms of education were based on discipline and practice, and the students’ connection with nature and the universe helped shape them into significant human beings. This is the historical framework for the DC School of Architecture and Design at Vagamon, Kerala. This is a fully fledged residential architecture school in a peaceful valley, surrounded by lovely green mountains.
This natural surrounding creates a peaceful and concentration creating environment, akin to a Tapovan “Forest of Learning & A Tiger of Austerity”. In this environment, students not only learn academically, they also learn they experience life and nurtured community spirit through peer learning and experiences. Peaceful discipline allows students to develop in productive creative and personal ways. School consciously not only educates students architecturally but also aims to build students’ mindset and relationship with nature, theirs and the communities, and fosters their own learning, true to the aims of a Tapovan.
