The University

Situated within the existing PES University campus, the university board approached us with a brief of inserting new programs, redesigning the campus and creating an ‘iconic’ identity for the campus.

The existing structures on the campus were fragmented; there was no cohesive inter-relation between the independent blocks even via the medium of landscape. The challenge for us was to introduce new programs, with minimal disruption to the existing structures. We needed to create a master-plan for the campus, creating dialogues between the existing architecture and the inserted architecture.

The idea was to create a ‘non-building’ and enable circulation to happen through the insert. The traffic permeates through the mass, and by separating the program of 5,00,000 square feet to various levels, we were able to realise a series of terraces, plazas and semi private enclosures.

The existing visual axis for the site has been realigned, there by focusing the visual connect to the landscaped centre which acts as a focal point for the architecture on the site. The classroom block acts as a visual datum, and the existing architecture manifests itself against this.                                        

‘The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.’ Albert Einstein

The library block was strategically placed perpendicular to the visual axis, thereby creating another focal point as one enters the site. The library block is elevated and seems to be hovering above the landscape, visually accessible to the outside. It marks the genesis of the existing architecture and the new architecture, lending to the iconicity of the institution.