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The Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School is distinctive because its architecture makes one material, one shape and one social purpose work together. In Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, Diana Kellogg Architects formed the completed school as an oval of hand-cut local sandstone. The ellipse recalls regional forts and symbols of female strength, while its courtyard, shade structures, airflow, water systems and solar canopy respond to the Thar Desert. The result is not simply a school designed to withstand heat: it is a building intended to connect girls’ education, local craft and women’s economic opportunity.
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A completed school shaped by place and purpose
Diana Kellogg Architects designed the Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School for the nonprofit CITTA Foundation. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) identifies CITTA/Michael Daube as the owner and places the project in Rajasthan, India. The school stands near Kanoi in the Jaisalmer area, within the Thar Desert.
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Its design begins with a practical question: how can a school remain usable in an intensely hot, arid climate while looking and feeling native to its setting? Kellogg’s answer was to use the region’s abundant sandstone, shape the building around a protected courtyard and layer passive environmental measures into the form rather than treating equipment as an afterthought.
Why the oval form matters
A geometry related to Jaisalmer’s architecture
The school is oval or elliptical in plan. Diana Kellogg Architects says the curving forms reflect the shapes of local forts. The AIA likewise describes the ellipse as evoking a regional fort while blending into the arid landscape. Instead of copying a historic facade, the project abstracts a recognizable local idea—fortified massing organized around an interior court—into a contemporary school.
The central courtyard is paved and enclosed by the oval building, according to Architectural Record’s April 30, 2021 report. In a desert setting, that void is as important as the stone around it. It creates a shaded communal heart, gives classrooms and circulation a shared orientation, and allows the building envelope to mediate sun and wind before they reach occupied rooms.
A form associated with women’s strength
The oval also carries a symbolic reading. Kellogg told Architectural Digest India in a December 17, 2020 profile, “I saw the oval as a symbol for womanhood across many cultures.” That interpretation gives the geometry a social dimension without requiring literal imagery. The school’s identity is carried by its plan, proportion and enclosure as much as by signs or decoration.
The AIA says the ellipse provides shade in the courtyard and permits a canopy to cover it during the hottest months. The courtyard therefore operates simultaneously as an architectural reference, a gathering space and a climate-control device.
Why local sandstone is more than a finish
Material drawn from the immediate region
The building uses locally sourced Jaisalmer sandstone, hand-cut or hand-carved by regional craftspeople. Architectural Record reports that many of those craftspeople were students’ fathers. That detail links the construction process to the families the school is intended to serve: local knowledge was not merely represented in the finished building; it helped produce it.
Project architect Diana Kellogg explained the material choice to Kara Mavros of Architectural Record: “Stone was so abundant and the craftsmen so skilled, it was really the only option.” The quotation describes both an environmental and an economic decision. Using a plentiful regional material reduced dependence on imported products, while skilled local labor allowed the school to express the precision and texture associated with Jaisalmer stonework.
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Architectural Digest India reports that the school uses local Jaisalmer sandstone except at transom windows, where darker Jodhpur stone was selected for greater strength and support. This contrast should be understood as a detail reported by that profile, not as a general rule for every opening or sandstone building in the region. The darker stone gives selected areas a visual and structural distinction while keeping the main envelope tied to Jaisalmer’s geology and craft tradition.
Craft as part of the educational message
Hand-carved stone makes the construction legible. Students encounter a building whose surfaces record the work of nearby artisans rather than a sealed industrial product. That choice supports the project’s wider objective: education is paired with respect for local capabilities, and the campus becomes an example of how regional skills can participate in contemporary institutions.
How the school responds to desert heat
The AIA profile says local temperatures can peak near 120 degrees. The profile does not identify a measurement period or meteorological dataset, so the figure is best treated as the AIA’s description of the climate challenge rather than a current statistical record.
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Shade and courtyard protection
The oval encloses a courtyard that can be shaded by a canopy during the hottest months. This reduces direct solar exposure in the school’s principal shared space and creates a more comfortable outdoor area for movement, gathering and play. The canopy is not an isolated roof accessory: it works with the courtyard geometry, the building’s orientation and the thick stone enclosure.
Orientation and airflow
Architectural Record reports that the building was oriented to filter sunlight and maximize airflow. Filtering sunlight limits the amount of heat entering occupied spaces, while the continuous courtyard relationship helps air move through the plan. These are passive measures: they depend on orientation, openings, shade and mass rather than on a complex mechanical system.
Solar energy for basic operations
A rooftop solar canopy supplies power for interior lighting and fans, according to Architectural Record. The AIA adds that the canopy’s metal framework doubles as play equipment. That dual use is important in a nonprofit project with an intentionally economical design: the structure provides energy generation, shade and a place for children to play instead of serving only one technical function.
Water harvesting and reuse
The school incorporates ancient regional water-harvesting techniques to maximize rainwater, the AIA reports. It also uses gray-water recycling. In a desert school, water strategy is inseparable from educational continuity; reducing demand and recovering usable water can make daily operation less dependent on irregular supplies. The sources describe the systems’ presence and intent, but do not provide storage capacity, annual yield or measured savings.
A low-cost approach that keeps the design visible
Kellogg told Architectural Record that “Since the building was built for a non-profit to support girls’ education, every effort was made toward economic design.” The completed project demonstrates what that principle looks like in practice: local stone instead of a costly imported cladding, passive cooling before mechanical conditioning, a solar canopy that also functions as play equipment, and a courtyard that performs social and climatic work at once.
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Economic design does not mean eliminating architectural ambition. The oval plan, carefully worked sandstone and integrated canopy give the school a strong civic presence while directing resources toward classrooms and the educational mission. Its visual character comes from decisions that also solve practical problems.
Education and the school’s social setting
The AIA says the school serves nearly 400 young women in a region where female literacy is 36 percent. That literacy figure is attributed to the AIA profile; the profile does not provide a year or named underlying dataset, so it should not be presented as a current independently verified statistic.
Earlier accounts describe the intended age range and opening plans. Architectural Digest India’s December 2020 profile said the school was intended for girls from kindergarten through class 10 and was set to open early the following year. Architectural Record’s April 2021 report said it would serve more than 400 girls and was meant to open in July amid pandemic restrictions. Those statements document plans at the time of publication, not current enrollment or a confirmed opening date.
The building’s social purpose is therefore broader than providing classroom area. It gives girls a permanent educational setting while making local families, craftspeople and women’s economic participation part of the campus story. The architecture communicates that girls’ education belongs within the region’s cultural and material landscape, not outside it.
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The GYAAN Center: what belongs to the larger plan
The Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School is described as the first building in the GYAAN Center. Diana Kellogg Architects presents the center as a three-part complex:
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- Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School: the completed educational building.
- Medha: a planned space for performances, art exhibitions, a library or museum functions.
- Women’s Cooperative: a place for embroidery, weaving and a marketplace.
The firm says local artisans will teach mothers and other women weaving and embroidery techniques from the Jaisalmer region. The stated goals are cultural preservation and women’s economic independence, extending the school’s impact beyond enrolled students.
The reviewed AIA and architect profiles describe Medha and the Women’s Cooperative in future-oriented terms. They establish the intended program, but not the current construction or completion status of those two buildings. It is accurate to describe the school as completed and the other GYAAN Center components as planned or described elements whose present status is not established by these sources.
How to evaluate the project’s sustainability claims
The school’s environmental strategy is best understood as a coordinated set of modest interventions rather than a single technological feature. Its principal moves are:
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems- Use the local material: hand-cut Jaisalmer sandstone connects construction to nearby supply and craft skills.
- Shape a protected center: the oval encloses a courtyard that can be shaded and used as a communal space.
- Control sun and air: orientation filters sunlight and supports airflow through the building.
- Recover water: rainwater harvesting and gray-water recycling address scarcity through collection and reuse.
- Generate useful power: a rooftop solar canopy runs lighting and fans while also providing play equipment.
These sources do not provide comparative energy simulations, post-occupancy measurements or a ranking against other desert schools. The evidence supports describing the systems and their intended functions, not claiming that the school is demonstrably more efficient than every comparable building.
Recognition and documented milestones
The project has received recognition from several architectural outlets, with each label tied to its own source:
| Recognition or description | Source and date | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 Architecture Award recipient | American Institute of Architects profile, February 27, 2023 | The AIA lists the project among its 2023 Architecture Award recipients. |
| AD100 award-winning school | Architectural Digest India profile, December 17, 2020 | The article uses this award label in its title. |
| Building of the Year feature | Diana Kellogg Architects project-page description of its December 2020 coverage | The firm says Architectural Digest India announced the project as Building of the Year. |
These recognitions should not be merged into one award. The AIA honor, the AD100 description and the Building of the Year announcement are separate claims associated with separate source descriptions.
What makes the design special
The Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School is special because its formal language, construction method and mission reinforce one another. The oval is simultaneously a reference to local forts, a symbol Kellogg associates with womanhood and a way to organize shade around a courtyard. Jaisalmer sandstone is simultaneously a regional resource, a surface shaped by local craftspeople and a practical choice for a nonprofit project. The solar canopy is simultaneously an energy system, a shade device and play equipment. Rainwater harvesting and gray-water recycling answer desert scarcity, while the planned GYAAN Center connects schooling to performances, collections, weaving, embroidery and a marketplace.
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That integration is the project’s most important lesson. Rather than importing a generic school model into Rajasthan, the design uses local stone, local skills, regional climate knowledge and a clearly stated educational purpose to make the building belong to its place.
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