In 1969, the Government of India founded Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to realize

India’s first prime minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision of an ideal university. This was to be an institution that, in his words, ‘[stood] for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for

the adventure of ideas and for the search of truth.’ The campus of JNU, therefore, was

aimed to be characterized by values that were both deeply social and spatial, realized through a form that could recall the earthly spirit of modern India. This called for a superior design vision of a modern structure impregnated with values of learning and enlightenment, wellsuited to a trailblazing and independent nation. CPKA’s design was ultimately the winner of the first national architectural competition to be held in post-independent India – selected from sixty-eight entries submitted by the nation’s top architects at the time.

Located in South Delhi and spread over an area of 1,000 acres, the campus occupies some of the northern-most reaches of the Aravalli Hills. The Ridge is home to more than 200 species of birds and animals and has very rich and interesting patterns of biodiversity. This

demanded a singular planning of the university campus that was both nature-inclusive and

capable of moulding the unique rocky terrain into a sustainable and welcoming space for

human habitation and scholarship. Other than these social and environmental values, the concept of the campus also intended to incorporate economically efficient designs within a recognizably Indian context. This was fulfilled through the productive use of space, cost-efficient materials and local methods of construction. Open, developable land in Delhi – considered to be a highly scarce commodity since the Partition – needed to be used without wastage and as judiciously as possible, maintaining a reasonable balance between man-made and natural ecologies. The campus contains an academic core with six academic blocks known as schools, a computer centre (one of the first-of-its-kind), a nine-storeyed library, a conference, a lecture and a theatre complex, an administrative centre and a students’ activity complex. The academic complex is a quadrangle surrounded by walkways, covered with creepers, and leads to each of these buildings. The whole setting is laid out in a traditionally Indian manner along the slope of the high terrain, well-suited to the surrounding landscape. JNU also consists of sixteen residential sectors, comprising 1,500 faculty residences and hostel facilities for 10,000 students. Each of these residential complexes is named after major geographical divisions of India, and student hostels are named after the major rivers of each of these sectors, including Ganga, Godavari, Kaveri, Narmada, Jhelum, Brahmaputra, Tapti and Sutlej. The campus is self-sufficient with its own primary and secondary schools, a shopping centre, recreational spaces, and other important

infrastructural facilities. The six academic schools at JNU are the School of Life Sciences, Schools of Social Sciences I and II, School of International Studies, School of Languages and School of Environmental Sciences. Each school has a constructed area of 60,000 to 70,000 sq. ft. Furthermore, each building is planned around a court and is generally four-storeyed.

The internal planning of these built forms, including these vertically recessing courtyards, caters to the variegated requirements of different functional rooms on different floors. The design approach relied on an architecture that seeks to foster a harmonious and intellectually refined society of students, professors and adjunct staff. The assembly of forms and spaces, holistically put together, created a true environment of learning.

Traditional methods of education, such as learning in close contact with nature, were also considered alongside provision of advanced educational infrastructures such as laboratories, a computer centre, conference, lecture and theatre complexes, and the library. Since its construction, the JNU library has become one of Delhi’s many educational landmarks, and has been designed to stack over 10 lakh volumes in a vertical block.

Its open spaces, corridors and lawns continue to provide an inspiring sanctuary for national debates and budding leaders in politics, art and business. This project has confirmed the Architects’

position as one of the most forward thinking architectural firms in India, possessing an undeniable sense of artistry and technological intelligence in their design philosophies – visible in the very design of JNU itself. Though the firm has journeyed a long way in its architectural practices since then, the campus remains one of its best designs, continuing to inspire creative scientific thinking in the future institutional projects.