red roof sweeps over vastushilpa sangath’s school in india

shiv nader school winds through 1,400 trees in chennai, india

Vastushilpa Sangath’s Shiv Nader School in Chennai, India, is unified by a sweeping red roof that weaves through existing vegetation, creating a porous campus that intertwines architecture and ecology. Built around 1,400 mature trees the school is composed of low-slung, modular structures linked by deep verandahs and shaded courtyards. Designed to grow in phases, the campus is thoughtfully responsive to both its climate and context, treating the site’s natural, cultural, and hydrological layers as integral parts of its design logic.

The architects have devised the design language by looking to Tamil traditions, particularly the Chettinad thali, a composition of varied dishes served on a banana leaf. This is reimagined here as a sequence of spatial experiences, unfolding through a series of modest, dispersed volumes unified by sweeping curved roofs and deep verandahs. These transitional spaces also become functional learning environments in their own right, remaining shaded, open, and deeply rooted in local traditions of gathering and exchange.

all images by Edmund Sumner

Vastushilpa Sangath stages the campus as a loop of low volumes

Vastushilpa Sangath’s master plan breaks the built mass into modular units organized in a loop that is adjusted around the existing trees based on their age, species, and ecological significance. The architects prioritized creating the school with minimal environmental impact, and so the construction preserves biodiversity as much as possible and allows for the uninterrupted movement of birds, insects, and small wildlife.

Circulation paths bend and branch around trees, while rooflines are punctuated to allow canopies to pass through. This consideration for the site’s ecological character extends to the construction system featuring prefabricated structural components, including parasol-like roofs, that were assembled on-site to reduce disruption. Footings and service trenches were also combined into a single system, minimizing root disturbance while allowing for future infrastructure updates.

Shiv Nader School sits in Chennai, India

climate responsiveness is integrated throughout

Vastushilpa Sangath has worked with a material palette that draws from local economies and circular reuse for low-impact construction. Grey granite flooring, sourced from the region, supports both thermal comfort and traditional stonecraft, while a secondary skin of reclaimed ship timber wraps parts of the building in a weathered, tactile finish that quietly anchors the new architecture in tactile memory.

Environmental systems are also integrated sensitively throughout Shiv Nader School: solar panels generate roughly a third of the school’s energy needs, while a hybrid ventilation system merges natural airflow with mechanical cooling to optimize air quality, a particularly vital consideration for the architecture studio in a post-pandemic context. Climate responsiveness is equally embedded in water infrastructure. A defunct on-site lake was restored as both an ecological park and a learning resource. The campus now harvests all its domestic water needs through surface runoff and roof collection.

a sweeping red roof unifies the structure