Vision for the Shiv Nadar University nurtured to foster an environment which would encourage freedom of enquiry, criticism and creativity amongst its students. 

The site is located in a greenfield area with an eco-sensitive geography required careful consideration while designing. The Masterplan is hence, imagined in a manner which merges seamlessly with the surrounding greens.  The site is located adjacent to the Grand Trunk Road in Gautam Buddh Nagar, Greater Noida. The campus uses intelligent site-planning features and urban landscape design strategies to develop a holistic design satisfying the above said visions of the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

The campus was envisioned to be an epitome of environmental design and hence was planned according to principles of compact urbanism which encourages concepts like ‘walkable and cyclable campus’ – the buildings are attempted to be organized within a close proximity of each other leaving most of the site areas free for landscaping.  The close circuit of the buildings so laid on site are further stitched harmoniously with each other by means of a vibrant public space network comprising of a main public spine which is punctuated intermittently with open spaces to create a variety of experiences and also control the hierarchy of activities.  

The natural depressions on the site were carefully studied and many of them were designed to be reservoirs for harvesting water.  A large Eco-lake was been proposed at one end from which thin informal strands of water channels would percolate into the green landscape between the building blocks to merge the water body effortlessly with the architecture of the site.

The entire Masterplan is structured in such a way that the Landscape becomes an essential unifying element between Architecture and Nature – the landscape is hence designed to flow in the open and semi-open spaces as well as occasionally within the buildings.  The large Central Maidan becomes a major breathing lung of the site which, also, is planned to serve as a central social space amidst the hostel.  Green arms glide out from the Maidan and creep between the buildings to join hands with the Eco-lake on the other end of the campus.  A variety of open spaces are proposed in a hierarchy to control degree of privacy and public visibility at different points within the campus.  

Slender flowing water veins from the Eco-lake are introduced as water channels, punctuated with fountains, between Academic Blocks which create a serene environment conducive for peaceful learning.  

The playfields are placed on one end of the site as a separate Sports Hub containing Tennis Courts, Cricket Ground with practice nets, Basketball Courts, Volleyball Courts and Football Ground as outdoor sports facilities and a Gymnasium, and Indoor Sports Facilities like Badminton, Table Tennis, Chess and Carom. Besides the sports facilities the site also offers Yoga Gardens for meditation and extensive trails of Jogging and Cycle-tracks as a ‘Daily Keep Fit’ network on site.  

Urban Design Philosophies have played a very crucial role in assembling the Masterplan of the 286 acre campus with 1.8 million square feet of built-up area. The vehicular road runs all along the periphery of the site and occasionally gives access to the buildings in turns.  The inner part of the site is kept, mostly, pedestrian which supports the compact planning, encouraging walking and cycling within. Array of trees with thick canopies are proposed in lines along the footpaths and bicycle-tracks to keep them shaded from the sun, especially during the harsh summers. The visual corridors have been designed within the site so as to give maximum number of buildings a breathtaking view opening out to the Eco-lake. Visual linkages are designed to enhance communication and public interaction within the campus minimizing the distance felt between the buildings.

The radial layout of the Academic Blocks around the Eco-lake, makes the latter a major focal celebrating element within the campus. The specific urban form and typology of blocks for the Hostels is an added feature to the overall design of the Campus.  Judicious amounts of space has been left on the site to accommodate any future expansion and has been placed in a manner which would not hinder the current design structure of the University in any way. 

In order to achieve a sustainable environment in economic terms, passive engineering principles are used while developing the design. Landscape has been used as a chief element to control micro-climate within the site through shading and channelizing local winds in the desired directions. Trees with thick groves are proposed especially to keep the campus cool in the hot summers. 

The Eco-lake created on-site acts as a natural reservoir that harvests water in the otherwise hot and dry climate. The water from this water-body cools the campus during summers through evaporative cooling. Wind from the south flows over the eco-lake which gets saturated with water vapour and is channelized by trees lined into open courts of the site which are hence, kept cool and ventilated during the hot summer. Compact arrangement of buildings and courts allows self-shading and keeping cool in summer whereas in the winters, the orientation of the buildings blocks the chilly winds to enter into both, the public spaces as well as the indoor spaces, keeping them warm and comfortable. Such passive climate controls appreciably cut down air-conditioning costs in summer and electrical-heating costs in winter. .Playfields are oriented to get diffused north light all round the year and hence, helps cutting down lighting costs during day hours. The extensive planting of trees and groves on site indirectly makes up for the carbon footprint generated during constructions of the project. This makes the project eco-efficient with a minimum carbon footprint. The variety of open spaces created on site account for a large number of public spaces added to the fabric of the city that encourages a vibrant social life, cultural celebrations amongst the vast diversity of the students.

The Shiv Nadar University is designed to become an ideal urban model of an institution which harnesses a futuristic and environmentally-conscious architectural design with efficient building technologies and passive engineering. The architecture of the University achieves such great success in design owing to smart environmental and landscape planning aided by cutting-edge urban design concepts that help developing it as a Smart and Economic Institution Design in the Indian urban landscape.