The 25-acre Magic Bus campus is situated near Mumbai in the Sahyadri Hills. Magic Bus works with children and young people taking them on a journey from Childhood to Livelihood and out of poverty. By enabling children to complete secondary education, delay their age of marriage, and skilling young people to be in jobs, the organisations helps moving a generation out of the vicious cycle of poverty.

The Magic Bus Centre for Outdoor Learning and Development was built in 2006 to offer an opportunity to discover how the expansive outdoors can help people nurture and develop their personal and interpersonal skills. It seeks to educate and mentor children through outdoor “experiential” learning.

The valleys of the Sahyadri Hills supply a unique variety of diverse terrains to be experienced by the children. Rivers, woods, nature trails, camping grounds, and expansive green lawns for soccer promote the NGO’s concept of “learning by doing”.

Masterplan Phasing

The first Phase of this project comprising of children’s dormitories, a dining pavilion, volunteers accommodation and resources centre was designed by Rahul Mehrotra Associates. Magic Bus commissioned Architecture BRIO to design the campus masterplan for the second Phase of the Centre. A study of the existing conditions, the strengths and weaknesses of the centre preceded the masterplan. Hereafter the masterplan proposed strategic interventions in the campus to optimise the existing resources and introduce new program.

The masterplan proposes to extend the campus with staff accommodation, separate facilitation centers for children and corporates, a children’s village and some additions to kitchen and administrative facilities.

Magic Bus sport field

Campus Masterplan

Panorama of site

Programming plan

Challenge course

Children playing soccer on campus