No. 001 · Education & Research
Classroom Complex, IIT Madras
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- Location
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- Client
- IIT Madras
- PSU
- IIT Madras
- Status
- In design
- Built-up area
- 35,000 m²
- Site area
- 2 acres
- Project value
- ₹350 crore
- Classrooms
- 20 × 180 seats
- Lecture halls
- 608 and 512 seats
- Structure
- Composite steel
- Sector
- Education & Research
The main academic block for IIT Madras carries the campus walking culture indoors: an open section of stairs and escalators rises from the ground to the top floor, beneath a base of columns and terracotta jaali drawn from Tamil classical Architecture.
About the project
IIT Madras is a campus people walk through. Its roads are shaded by old trees, students move between departments on foot and by bicycle, and much of daily life happens in the open. When we began designing the new Classroom Complex, the main academic block for the institute, the question was how to carry that walking culture into the building itself rather than leave it at the front door.
Arriving on foot
You arrive along a campus road shaded by old trees and step into the shade of the colonnade before you reach the door. On a bright morning the terracotta jaali throws the sun onto the floor as a pattern, a kolam drawn in light, long and stretched at first and tighter as the day goes on. Inside, the open section rises in front of you: stairs and escalators climbing floor by floor, with the fifth floor in view from the entrance. Between lectures, students stop on the landings to talk instead of waiting for a lift. Above, the warm red of the jaali carries up into the brick of the classrooms, and the deep overhang of the roof throws a last line of shade.
A section you can walk
The answer lies in the section. From the ground to the top floor, the building opens up in a continuous sequence of stairs and escalators, so that every level can be reached on foot. The route is visible as well as accessible: standing at the entrance, a student can look straight up to the fifth floor and see where they are going.
That visibility changes behaviour. When people can see the floor they are heading to, they tend to walk to it instead of waiting for a lift. Lifts, staircases and fire cores are all provided, but the open section makes walking the natural choice, and the stairs and landings become places to pause, meet and talk between lectures. This idea was at the heart of the scheme from the first presentation to the institute.
Two registers on the facade
The elevations are handled in two parts. Up to nine metres, where the building meets the people walking past it, the facade draws on Tamil classical Architecture: rhythmic columns and terracotta jaali screens give the base depth, shade and a sense of place rooted in the region.
Above that line the upper floors step back in character. Their treatment is quieter, so the building sits comfortably within the academic setting of the campus rather than competing with it. The one exception is the roof, whose distinctive profile gives the complex a silhouette that can be recognised from across the campus.
In numbers
- Twenty classrooms of 180 seats each
- Two tiered lecture halls for 608 and 512 students
- About 35,000 m² of built-up area on a compact 2-acre site
- A composite steel structure that spans the large lecture halls and speeds up construction on a working campus
Our role
Architectural and Engineering consultant, providing comprehensive consultancy: architecture, structural and MEPF design, specifications and bills of quantities, and periodic site supervision
Why it matters
IIT Madras has been ranked the top institution overall in the Ministry of Education's National Institutional Ranking Framework for seven years running, as of 2025.
Concept
The section is the idea
The campus is made for walking, so the building is too. One cut through the Classroom Complex shows how the route, the view and the facade work together.
- 1Walk from ground to roofA continuous switchback of stairs and escalators climbs the open atrium, landing on every floor.
- 2See where you are goingFrom the entrance the eye travels straight up to level 5, so walking becomes the natural choice.
- 3Tamil classical base, up to 9 mStone columns, a Kolam-pattern terracotta jaali and a clay tile canopy give the lower floors shade, depth and a regional character.
- 4Quieter upper floorsAbove a recessed band of glass, the terracotta floors are calm and regular, so the building sits easily in the academic setting.
- 5The roof as a silhouetteA thin, flat roof with deep overhangs, lifted above the top floor and recognisable from across the campus.
- 6Lifts and fire coreProvided alongside the atrium, but no longer the only way up.
- 7Classrooms and lecture hallsTwenty 180-seat classrooms on one side; tiered halls for 608 and 512 on the other.
Education & Research
