Architects:CAUKIN Studio

Area :130 m²

Year :2019

Photographs :Katie Edwards

Lead Architects :Harrison Marshall, David Mahon

Design Team : Harrison Marshall, David Mahon, Joshua Peasley, Harry Thorpe

Clients : The Tanbok Project, Ranwas Village

Engineering : Tom Bule

Environmental Design Consultants : Vicki Stevenson, Eshrar Latif and Julie Gwilliam.

International Participants : Aaron Chan, Greg Cockburn, Nicole Johnson, Adonai Boamah-Nyamekye, Bethany Stewart, Amanda Selormey, Alice Reynolds-Pryce, Gwyneth Chan, Jagoda Lintowska, Soni Gurung, Samuel Napleton, Danel Jansen van Rensburg, Huxley Edwards.

Environmental Design Consultants : Vicki Stevenson, Eshrar Latif and Julie Gwilliam.

City : Ranwas

Country : Vanuatu

CAUKIN Studio, a young design and build a social enterprise, has worked alongside the Ranwas Village community and international participants from around the world, to build a school classroom, library, and office space after Cyclone Pam caused devastation to the previous school buildings. After 8 weeks of construction, the finished building combines a heavy-duty cyclone-resistant timber frame, woven bamboo cladding, polycarbonate, and metal roofing sheets to create a strong, bright and well-ventilated learning environment. The library space tackles the extreme humidity through carefully considered passive design strategies, enabling the lifespan of the books to be prolonged.

In 2015 the worst natural disaster to hit Vanuatu, Cyclone Pam, left much of the country in devastation. Ranwas Primary School and its contents were destroyed leaving the children to be taught in unsuitable temporary shelters. The Tanbok Project, an NGO established in the wake of the natural disaster, identified not only the need for new classrooms but also a library space that could withstand the harsh local climate.