The Indian Institute of Technology at Hyderabad is a 500 acres greenfield campus. Three important architectural firms were selected from an international competition to take up this mammoth task of put a great place for learning in tight schedules, as the institute has already started operating from a borrowed campus. The faculty housing, staff housing, a lecture hall complex, the student commons, various laboratories and departments for electrical engineering, physics, liberal arts, mathematics and computer sciences were the initial structures assigned to be completed as part of first phase, while several other buildings for various departments, dining halls and students hostels were assigned to ARCOP, New Delhi and GMP Architects, Berlin, Germany.

Spread over two phases, the vision of the director and the institute demands for a new radical approach to the buildings both in design detailing and in the technology used for construction.
Other buildings proposed in the campus include a students commons shaped by a large activity area sunken into the ground covered by a large pitched tensile parasol. Various department buildings have a jaali like second skin of the façade to deflect heat radiating from sun in this semi arid climate tropical city, while inviting cool breezes and ambient light.
Spatial experiences must be orchestrated in a manner to create vibrant, energetic and vigorous learning places. A Twenty-First Century institute of technology will be a more multi-faceted and complex community of scholars than ever before. The potentials for the exchange and creation of knowledge will be practically endless. The architecture must catalyze and enhance such a academic community. It must bring people together and facilitate communication and interaction. The campus is physically and by design a kind of “learning exchange” facilitating a multitude of learning possibilities in many kinds of social groups.