Designing an Architecture School: Nurturing Creativity in Space

Can creativity be taught?

The architect Charles Correa used to say, ‘I am not sure if creativity can be taught, but I am sure it can be learned.’ Five years of architecture school is an experience that has a deep impact for most architects, influencing the way they approach design and the profession. Besides the core education that comes through studios, lectures and projects, architectural influences come to students in many ways. It may come from heated discussions in the cafeteria, from a visiting lecturer who may entirely changes a student’s perspective, from the camaraderie shared while preparing for group presentations, or even from decorating the campus for a college fest.

When we began the design for School of Architecture at the Vellore Institute of Technology, we began with the central question: can creativity be taught? What are the key aspects of the architecture undergraduate programme, and how can we create a creative and inspiring space for each of these?

In line with this, the first step was to break down the programme of the architecture school into five different key aspects that learning comes from: lectures, studio work, experimenting, observing and informal interactions.

While the first two are part of the planned and structured learning, the other three are more connected with chance and spontaneity. The design approach focussed on looking shaping spaces that will uniquely enable each of these five types of learning methods.

1. Lecture Halls

While lectures are not the primary method of learning in architecture schools, they are still an important part of the college experience. At VIT, the lecture halls are at the lower-most level and are designed to be partially underground and surrounded by earth berms.

This design serves two purposes: it helps in insulation, bringing down the use of air conditioning. Second, it visually scales down the building and establishes a closer connection between the studios on the first floor and the ground level. The contemporary teaching method is mainly through audio-visual presentations, hence, situating them below ground level had the added benefit of allowing limited entry of light.

2. Studios

The architectural studio is a highly collaborative space that is central to the creative process. It is expected to be flexible and multifunctional, and should allow for both energetic discussions in a group and a sense of quiet and privacy for an individual to concentrate.

At the VIT School of Architecture, each student has personal space within the studio to create a sense of familiarity and homecoming. Low height parapets are introduced between the studios and the corridors, to allow for privacy and concentration in the seated position, while also allowing visual connectivity across the studios while in standing position.

The central spine is flanked on either by studio clusters. The studios on the lower floor are designed are designed with a split level adjacent to the corridor that overlooks the central spine. The studios on the upper floor are designed with a mezzanine level which overlooks the lower level and the corridor through a double height space. The studios are also interspersed with connecting spaces: open courts at lower level connecting adjacent studios, while the upper-level studios have spillover terraces layered with jaalis and green walls. These courtyards create a series of interconnected spaces across studios, which helps foster interaction between students in different years of college.

Visual and physical connections between the different levels of the studio and the spine

3. ‘Learning by doing’

Architecture school is one place where students get their hands dirty with tactile-activities such as model making and understanding building materials. Even as architects have adapted to the digital age, these activities remain important for learning by doing and understanding scale, textures and materials. The courts of the lower studios and and spill-out spaces from the upper studios are treated as spaces that can allow for activities like model making, getting introduced to real life materials and creating physical installations.

Graphic walls that can act as ‘focal points’ were also introduced into the design. These spaces at the end of all the major axes can display the students’ creative work including design sheets and models. This becomes a temporal aspect of the design, and their continuity at regular intervals can create a sense of motivation and inspiration for students, prospective students and parents, and visitors to the campus.

Spillover spaces that are used for ‘doing’

4. Learning by observing

We began this post with the central question: can creativity be taught. Observing and listening are two essential aspects of the learning process for a creative field, where it is not only about the work you do, but the work and interactions of others: design juries of peers and seniors, watching others prepare for competitions and group presentations, participating in impromptu discussions.

The design introduces many deliberate attempts to create an interactive environment, particularly along the central spine that runs through the studios and lecture halls. This spine is not merely a corridor, but doubles up as a multi-functional space for events, exhibitions, discussions and design juries.

Since the studios are designed with low walls and courtyards, they are visually connected with the spine and the activities taking place here. The spine is also broken up occasionally into wider spaces and amphitheatres, that can host both planned seminars and reviews and impromptu discussions and group work. These spaces are part of the spine, but also have sufficient privacy for concentrated work. The central spine can also accommodate pivoted display panels across the campus. While these can display student’s work, they can also create temporary enclosures that could be used to conduct design reviews and discussions.

5. Informal interaction spaces

Besides the discussions in the studio, the chance-discussions in other spaces are often more interesting and generate ideas. Spaces like the cafeteria, sports grounds and corridors where you meet your peers, your seniors and faculty are often the hubs of discussion. The design tries to integrate these kinds of nooks and corners which can spark these informal discussions.

Climate-responsive design and heat control

The design also responds to the context, climate and culture of the region. The orientation of the building is in a mostly north-south direction, minimising the harsh sunlight and bring in glare free natural light. The campus is designed with an abundance of landscape.

The waterbody towards the western end of the spine, predominate direction of the wind, picks up moisture to humidify and cool the spine.

In addition to these, the design adopts other methods to bring down the temperature:

Green screens

The green screens are present in the spill-out area of the first floor studios.

The screen comprises two layers- an inner later with a wire mesh that allows creepers to grow, and an outer layer composed of prototherm blocks. The screen helps cut down direct sunlight. Additionally, the screen is designed to allow the use of a misting spray that humidifies te clay screen between the layers that can cut down the heat, and help reduce cooler micro-climate. 

Radiant cooling

In the studios, a radiant cooking system is adopted to ease temperature. A radiant system is a more energy efficient alternative to air conditioning, and uses chilled water pipes in the floor slabs to bring down the ambient temperature of the room.

The design thus tries to create and ambiance of creativity and openness, while fulfilling the practical requirements and also responding to the climate and context.

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Core architectural team: Ar. Mohe, Ar. Chelliah, Ar. Sivaraman, Mr. Mahesh

Structural engineering team: Mr. Ramkumar, Rays Consulting Engineers , Bangalore

Electrical: Madras Electrical Consultants , Chennai

HVAC: ATE  Air Treatment Engineering Pvt. Ltd, Chennai

Plumbing: Prism Consultancy , Bengaluru

PMC: Cheralathan Associates, Chennai

Civil contractor: Discoy, Bangalore

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Photos: Somasundaram Chockalingam, Link Studio

Content editing : Archita S

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