UNESCO MGIEP Permanent Campus

The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) is a UNESCO Category I institute. It works to bring social and emotional learning, and peace, into education systems, training teachers and young people through digital pedagogy. It has worked from temporary premises that limit how many people it can take on and the events it can host. The new campus, on a 1.99-acre plot on Nelson Mandela Road in Vasant Kunj, gives it room for its staff, research, training and conferences. The Central Public Works Department appointed ARCH-EN DESIGN to provide comprehensive consultancy services, and work began in October 2025.

Three blocks and their courtyards

The building is a composition of three blocks, front, middle and rear, each of four storeys, set along an east–west axis so that they shade one another. Between them, landscaped courtyards serve for exhibitions, workshops and informal work, with outdoor seating and charging points, and the stack effect draws air through them.

• Front block: reception under a double-height, sky-lit atrium, a cafeteria, a crèche, offices and workstations
• Middle block: meeting rooms for up to 100 people, a media room, and laboratories for behavioural research with EEG and fNIRS equipment and observation rooms
• Rear block: a 200-seat auditorium with its own entrance and a balcony, a knowledge centre and library, and halls for gym and yoga
• Basement: parking, with double-stack bays

Towards net zero

A large-span roof of solar panels, about 2,950 square metres, reaches beyond the building to shade the terrace, the south wall and the courtyards. It is estimated to generate about 3,49,000 kWh a year, slightly more than the building’s estimated need of about 3,33,000 kWh. The south wall is clad in terracotta, the west wall is a double wall of AAC blocks with insulation, and the north and east faces use triple-glazed, low-E units, so that about 90 per cent of the working floor area is daylit. Services and stairs sit on the west and south-west as a buffer against the sun.

Treated water from the sewage treatment plant is reused for flushing and gardens, rainwater is harvested, and construction and demolition waste is turned into kerbs, tiles and pavers. On the site, 222 existing trees are kept and 70 native trees are added.

Open to everyone

The approach road is raised to the level of the entrance and the auditorium, so that everyone arrives the same way. Every space, indoors and out, is accessible, with ramps, accessible toilets and braille signage.