We didn't really do much planning, rather, we played it by ear. Rob and Ed went to the site when they got to India in March 2007 with ideas and plans all ready made, but all ready to be throw out if they seemed unsuitable or if other methods and designs came to mind. This is just as well, because they ended up completely redesigning the school after visiting the site. We were thinking rammed earth houses, but everyone in the village uses stones with mud mortar. We were thinking cluster the huts, but on the site this seemed silly. We thought thatched roofs would be kind of cool, but it was totally impractical. We wanted a bamboo roof, but the bamboo species needed grows in Assam, a long way away thus not terribly locally repeatable. At one stage we even considered trying to make trulis, but that was a stupid idea. So redesign the school we did, using all the village techniques and all the village skills, then jazzing it up a bit to make them stronger, more durable and even a little sexier.

Over the previous year we had had a couple of architects helping us out, but neither gave us any concrete designs, and those that we did get weren't suitable for the village. So it was with some trepidation that Rob and I, with not a jot of actually building experience, set about building a school based almost entirely on our designs. What we did take from the architects is this, round rooms with octagonal roof structures, with each side 2m long. A few weeks and a few arguments later we had a design, and one we were really proud of. We designed the whole thing to be 100% self supporting. Not a bold is needed, and the structure, once locked in place is nigh on impossible to take apart again. The room span is 7 m across with no central support or A-frame structures necessary.

As far as where to put the rooms, we just wandered around the site and picked out places with the best views, or places where we thought they'd look best. The water tanks we put where we expected the most rain fall, and the upper tank at the highest point of the lump of rocks that the school is build on. Essentially the whole school is built by instinct and feeling, with science, engineering and craft used where needed to keep it strong and safe. The highly undulating nature of the site makes it almost impossible to plan the school without visiting it, which is why it didn't really work with the architects. Rob and I were no builders or building planners, but as with making a charity, if you have common sense, are willing to look at all possibilities and continually try to think of doing things in a different or better way, consulting with those that know when necessary, then things should, and did, go along well enough.