It began simply enough
We re-imagined a piece of land
It began with a few people deciding to sustain in a village — to see what happens. That question has not been answered. It is still being asked, every day, in the way the campus is built, the way the community is engaged, and the way visitors are received.
This experiment grew into Kaaya, a word that translates to ‘body’ in Sanskrit — reflecting a focus on the physical and tangible aspects of sustainable living, from the mud we build with to the food we grow.
Today, Kaaya Learning Centre is managed as a social enterprise under K-Green Life Pvt Ltd — a bridge between urban curiosity and rural wisdom, working to ensure that the development of Tilwari is both inclusive and environmentally conscious.
We built from what the land offered
The structures at Kaaya are a testament to the wisdom of mud construction. Using local soil excavated directly from the site, we have created walls that breathe, providing natural insulation against the Himalayan climate. The campus layout follows the natural contours of the land, cluster-style, encouraging communal interaction while respecting the privacy of individual huts.
The Annexe Project represents our most recent evolution — a space dedicated to deeper learning and longer stays. It integrates traditional building techniques with modern sensibilities, proving that sustainable living doesn’t mean a compromise on comfort or aesthetic. Every beam has a story of local craftsmanship embedded within it.
“We didn’t want to spend too much money, so we had to build cheaply. Instead of importing materials or outside labour, Kaaya relied on what already existed within the village — local soil, local skills, and local knowledge.” — Santosh Passi, founder, Kaaya Learning Centre
What we believe
These are not conclusions. They are what the place keeps asking.
I. On Connect — Understanding the urban-rural disconnect In a world of supermarkets, online shopping, and smartphones, the gap between where people live and where their food, their water, and their knowledge come from keeps widening. At Kaaya, we think this costs both sides something critically important. Cities lose their relationship with the land. Villages lose their sense of worth. We are trying, in a small way, to demonstrate that the exchange runs both directions — and that both sides are better for it.
II. On Value — A single transaction can ripple outward At Kaaya, we have reimagined a design that creates value as ripple effects. When a school arrives for a camp, local cooks prepare the meals, local guides lead the trails, local resource persons take the sessions. When a family buys a jar of pickle from the café, a farmer’s surplus becomes income rather than waste. The transaction doesn’t just cover costs — it moves through the neighbourhood. This is what we mean by exchange rather than charity: not generosity, but design.
III. On Creation — We built upon what we have We did not bring in architects to build Kaaya. We used the soil that was excavated, the building skills the community already had, their knowledge of different soils. We did what we call appreciative inquiry — exploring possibilities not by looking at problems first, but by appreciating what was already around us: what the community already has, what it already knows, and how we might help make it work better.
IV. On Knowing — Knowledge lives in the people who use it Our resource person for the milk journey knows what a cow eats, what it costs to keep her, what rate he receives for his milk, how purity is tested, what the government scheme offers — not because he studied it, but because his livelihood depends on it. That is a different category of knowledge from what any curriculum can provide. A great deal of what rural India knows has been called backward or outdated. We think most of it was simply adapted: to local climates, local materials, local ways of living. Sustainability does not always require innovation. Sometimes it requires attention.
V. On Learning — Nature teaches what classrooms cannot Students who come to Kaaya have usually already studied the topics we work with — food systems, ecology, climate change, rural economics. They have debated them, written papers, presented them. What they miss is field context: the experience of holding soil that is alive, of following milk from a cow they have milked themselves, of understanding a seed’s journey not as a diagram but as something the birds have tampered with. We also value unstructured time. We let children feel bored. Boredom, we have found, is where the roots of imagination lie dormant.
VI. On Living — Fostering integrated connections Sustainability is not just a practice but a way of living. In Tilwari, we are learning how to live in alignment with the rhythms of the valley — recognising that our well-being is tied to the well-being of our neighbours, our animals, and our environment. This is what makes Kaaya a living learning centre, where every day offers a new lesson in coexistence and connection.
The neighbourhood
Tilwari village sits in the Doon Valley, a landscape under real pressure. Around 65% of households in the area are classified as Below Poverty Line or Antyodaya. Farming has become increasingly unviable. Young people leave.
We believe bridging the urban-rural gap can tap into energy, creativity, and possibility on both sides. Kaaya does not pretend to have solved these problems — but we are trying, carefully and incrementally, to show a different way of being in this place. We work with local farmers on organic practices, create market access for artisans, and support culture practitioners whose expertise has largely gone unrecognised.
From the field
Neighbourhoods — How Kaaya defines its watershed, and why nine villages matter more than one campus.
Neighbours as Organic Growers — A small kitchen garden initiative, and what it’s teaching us about viable small-scale farming.
The Making of Kaaya — How a piece of land bought in 2012, with no blueprint, became what it is today.