SMVIT LIBRARY

The library within the SMVIT campus is an important node in the master plan. The library site within the SMVIT campus is an important node in the master plan. Flanked by an arterial road, the site connects the hostel buildings on one side of the road to the academic buildings housed on the other. The master plan envisions a central plaza for the entire university adjacent to the library site.

Democratic in essence, the library fosters engagement-within its own spaces and through its integration into the broader campus flow. The architectural form and urban positioning of the library is strategically active and interactive. Rather than asserting itself as a singular, iconic object, the library prioritises the democratisation of space. It centers its architectural intent on fostering relationships – between people, the campus, and nature – over formal gestures that exist in isolation from context.

The building’s form merges with the ground and emerges through a sensitive negotiation with the existing tree cover, creating a reciprocity between building and landscape. Its porosity encourages a fluid interaction, particularly through pedestrian thoroughfares that traverse the building, making it an active connector within the campus fabric. Grounded at its core yet opening outward at the edges, the library mirrors the nature of a tree – anchored in its roots, but expansive and inclusive in reach.

Despite the permanence of its concrete materiality and the boldness of its dynamic form, it deliberately subverts the traditional, imposing character of institutional architecture. Instead, it welcomes people and landscapes unequivocally and is grafted onto the site in a way that feels rooted and responsive.

Its sectional and volumetric articulation offers a range of spatial experiences-from intimate reading nooks to larger communal zones-creating variety while resisting hierarchy. This multiplicity sustains its democratic ethos, supporting an architecture that is connective, inclusive, and deeply integrated with both the landscape and the larger urban form.