The First Katha Room: The Shri Ram Universal School, Perambur, Chennai
The impact board at the reception of The Shri Ram Universal School is made from the material it describes.
That is the shortest way to explain the partnership. A parent walking in for the first time sees a board listing what the school’s material choices have avoided, and the board itself is BIOMEBOARD™, made from the paddy and wheat straw burnt across North India every winter.
The fit-out covers four pieces: a Katha room, modular tables, six chess tables, and the reception backdrop.
The Katha Room, in Yellow
The Katha room is an idea first built at Crimson World School in Agra. A dedicated space for storytelling and discussion, separate from the library, where students sit facing each other and argue about what a story meant rather than reading in silence.
At The Shri Ram Universal School, Perambur, Chennai it is built in yellow. The school wanted the room to read as a happy space from the doorway, not a quiet one, and colour does that faster than furniture does. Reading tables run through the room so it works for individual reading as well as group discussion.
The result is one cohesive room rather than a corner carved out of a corridor.
Tables That Become One Table
The side tables in the Katha room are modular. Used separately they serve individual readers. Pushed together they form a central coffee table for a group.
A school’s furniture needs change by the period, and most school furniture does not. These do.
Six Chess Tables
Six chess tables went in to support the school’s chess clubs.
Chess is one of the few activities a school can offer that asks nothing of a screen and holds a child’s attention for an hour. The limiting factor is almost always surfaces. Six tables means six games at once, which is the difference between a club and a queue.
The Reception Backdrop
The reception backdrop is the first thing a parent or a prospective student sees.
Schools spend considerable effort on that first impression and usually build it from veneer or laminate. Here it is built from agricultural residue, which means the first impression carries the school’s position on materials without anyone having to explain it.
Next to it sits the impact board.
The Numbers on the Wall
The board at reception lists the impact of the partnership so far:
- 8,000 kg of straw diverted from open field burning
- ₹40,000 of secondary income for rural communities
- 12 MTCO₂e of greenhouse gas emissions avoided
Putting those figures on a wall rather than in a brochure changes what they do. A parent reads them while waiting. A student walks past them every day. A visiting school leader asks about them.
The campus becomes a living classroom for environmental responsibility, which was the school’s phrase and remains the best description of what the board is for.
Why the Material Matters in a School
Conventional MDF and particleboard are bonded with urea-formaldehyde resin, which off-gasses over time. Formaldehyde is a Group 1 carcinogen on the IARC classification. Classrooms, libraries and reading rooms are exactly where children sit still for long stretches with the windows shut and the air conditioning on.
BIOMEBOARD™ uses a No-Added Formaldehyde binder. The tested 16 mm Type F sheet achieved B-s1,d0 under EN 13501-1, and BIOME reports 20% better screw withdrawal strength than the products in its comparison, which matters for furniture that will be climbed on for a decade.
There is a second reason it belongs in a school. A child sitting at a chess table can be told the surface in front of them was once a field, and that it was going to be burned. In a building designed to teach, that is a lesson the furniture delivers on its own.
FAQs
What is a Katha room in a school?
A Katha room is a dedicated storytelling and discussion space, separate from the library. A library is designed for quiet individual reading, with forward-facing furniture and acoustics that discourage conversation. A Katha room uses inward-facing seating and warmer colour so students can debate what a story meant and work through its moral content together. Biome/Build has built Katha rooms at Crimson World School in Agra and The Shri Ram Universal School in Perambur, Chennai.
Is BIOMEBOARD™ durable enough for school furniture?
Yes. BIOME reports 20% better screw withdrawal strength than the products in its comparison, which is the key measure for furniture that is assembled, loaded and climbed on. A tested 16 mm Type F sheet achieved B-s1,d0 under EN 13501-1; this result is specific to that tested construction.