Set within the dense urban fabric of Chennai, the Shiv Nader School campus conceives the educational campus as a porous landscape shaped by ecology, climate, and cultural memory. Rather than cleaning the site, the project is organised around one of its most defining features: the amount of existing trees. The architecture is fragmented into small, modular buildings. The plan hence draws inspiration from the local cuisine, or the local Chettinad thali, where diverse elements are unified on a single banana leaf. Similarly, the campus is made of multiple buildings brought together under sweeping roofs that respond to both climate and culture.

The Design Of The Shiv Nadar School Campus Responds To Climate & Culture | Vastushilpa Sangath

Introduction

The architects structured the low-rise school campus along a looping circulation system that threads between the existing trees identified for preservation based on age, nativity, medicinal value, and ecological relevance. This porous organisation maintains natural movement corridors for the breeze,  birds, insects, and small animals, allowing the campus to function as part of the city’s ecological reserve. They calliberated construction methodologies to minimise calibrated disturbance, with prefabricated structural elements assembled on site. Services are integrated within combined foundation and trench systems, ensuring adaptability while safeguarding tree root zones.

Climate-responsive design

Climate-responsive design strategies underpin the campus’s environmental performance. Deep overhangs, use of reclaimed wood on the outside, and natural ventilation reduce heat gain, while a series of parasol roofs reinterpret the regional verandah as a contemporary architectural device. Historically, spaces of gathering and learning – verandahs here become semi-outdoor classrooms and circulation zones that act as thermal buffers and infection-safe environments, blurring the boundary between indoors and outdoors.

Material choices

Material choices emphasize circularity and local economies. Locally sourced grey granite reduces embodied energy while drawing on regional craftsmanship. A secondary timber skin made from reclaimed decking wood sourced from dismantled ships adds insulation and texture. Solar panels integrated into the roof structure generate approximately one-third of the campus’s energy demand, while a hybrid ventilation system combines mechanical cooling with natural airflow to optimize indoor air quality.

Water Harvesting

The architects restored an existing on-site lake, absent from revenue maps but critical to local hydrology, as a reservoir and learning landscape. They harvested the roof water and surface runoff into the lake, enabling the campus to meet a majority of its domestic water needs. Developed in phases to ensure ecological and financial sustainability, the project positions architecture as an active pedagogical tool, one that reiterates the importance of porosity in our lives.

Fact File

Designed by: Vastushilpa Sangath

Project Type:  Educational Architecture Design

Project Name: Shiv Nadar School

Location: Chennai

Year Built: 2025

Built-up Area: 435432 sqft

Principal Architects: Rajeev Kathpalia

Architect: Ar. Rahul Venugopal, Ar. Drashti Bhavsar, Ar. Lipi Maun, Ar. Gunja Rupareliya

Photograph Courtesy: Edmund Sumner & Kshitij Wadhwa

Manufacturers:  Kalzip, Armstrong, Jaquar, Kajaria, Piccolo Mosaics, Somany

Lead Architects: Rajeev Kathpalia

Structure Consultant: Manjunath consultants, Manjunath & Co.

Landscape Consultant: Beyond Green

Structure consultant: V.R Shah Engineers

Landscape Consultants: RaA – Ravikumar and Associates

contractors: Larsen and Toubro

Project Lead: Ar. Rajesh Suthar

Design Director: Ar. Vijay Patel

MEPF: Jhaveri Associates

Source: Archdaily

Firm’s Website Link: Vastushilpa Sangath

Firm’s Instagram Link: Vastushilpa Sangath

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