Even as the rust brown structure with its green roof elicited much excitement, the toilet vied for attention—the children call it ‘funny toilet’. It is technically known as a Urine Diversion Dehydration Toilet. “It works on the simple principle of source separation and sanitisation. Hence the urine and the faeces are both sanitised and used as a fertiliser. This sort of a toilet uses only about 1/10th the amount of water consumed by most ‘modern’ systems. Discarded plastic bottles act as vent pipes,” says Phadke.

These bottles were also put to use in the reception area, with one wall made of coloured plastic bottles with their bases cut off and arranged to look like flowers in a cement bed at the entrance of the classrooms.

The science lab of the school is located in a discarded bus of the Pune Municipal Corporation that was bought for Rs 70,000 and then given a makeover. “The classrooms took just over a month to build. They are about 500 sqft in size and cost Rs 2.25 lakh. Hence this kind of construction costs about Rs 450 per sq ft and is cheaper than most other technologies,” says Phadke.

Madhavi Kapur, founder of Aman Setu says, “By creating a learning space like this, we are living up to Gandhiji’s direction to ‘BE the change’. Not only is the structure kinder to the earth, aesthetically satisfying, cool and comfortable, it is also a dynamic learning space.”