Heartfulness International School in Hyderabad was not just envisioned as a place of education, but as a living, breathing ecosystem where children can grow alongside nature. The design, entrusted to Pentaspace Design Studio, rests on one central philosophy: to create a forest within the campus.
Heartfulness International School Creates a Living Forest Within Its Hyderabad Campus | Pentaspace Design Studio
To realise this vision, the design employs exposed concrete and glass, celebrating raw, honest materials rather than concealing them. For this phase of the international school – catering to pre-primary children aged 5 to 8 –concrete walls were chosen for their durability and ease of maintenance, making them both pragmatic and enduring. The result is an architecture that is simple, authentic, and deeply sustainable.
From the outside, the international school appears modern and transparent, its glass façade softened by dense greenery and vertical plantations growing along cables. Over time, this evolving “green curtain” has matured into a lush living envelope that shades, cools, and purifies the environment, while drawing students into closer contact with nature.
At the heart of the international school lies a spacious central courtyard, connecting classrooms on either side. This open-air hub allows fluid transitions between indoors and outdoors, enabling activities like yoga, active farming, and free play to integrate seamlessly with academics. Wide side corridors double as interactive breakout zones, ensuring that every square metre is purposeful and alive with potential.
The architecture resists bright colours and overt ornamentation, offering instead a calm, neutral canvas where children’s artwork and creativity animate the space. Completed in exposed white concrete, the walls now carry student-made murals and drawings, making the environment dynamic and ever-evolving.
Sustainability is deeply embedded in the school’s DNA. The entire campus runs on solar energy, generating more than its own consumption and operating as a net-zero building. Passive strategies such as cross-ventilation, deep overhangs, thermal massing of concrete, and shaded immediate context reduce dependence on mechanical cooling. Vertical gardens and ground plantations further enhance biodiversity, regulate temperature, and instil in students an everyday awareness of ecological responsibility.
What emerges is more than a school. It is a living ecosystem – a built forest that fosters creativity, resilience, and balance. It shows that educational spaces can be nurturing without being prescriptive, and sustainable without being didactic. Here, architecture is not a backdrop, but a teacher in itself.
Fact File
Designed by: Pentaspace Design Studio
Project Type: Educational Architecture Design
Project Name: Heartfulness International School
Location: Hyderabad
Year Built: March 2025
Principle Designer: Gaurav Sanghavi, Pragya Sanghavi & Harsh Pote
Design Team: Tejaswini Patil
Photograph Courtesy: Heartfulness Media Team
Firm’s Website Link: Pentaspace Design Studio
Firm’s Instagram Link: Pentaspace Design Studio
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