Case Study

Building aNUTUniversity, Neemrana, Rajasthan

The goal of the NUT University campus was to establish standardsby which campuses ought to be built as also to define appropriate

ways of building in a hot and dry desert regime.Vinod Gupta

I'I,

he NUT University campus is located abouthalf way betWeen Delhi and Jaipur on NationalHighway 8, in a very dry and hot parr ofRajasthan. An outcrop of the Aravalli Range

to the east of the campus gives a special character tothe site. Rainfall is scarce in this region but when it doesrain, water running down the hills can cause flash floods.The promoters of the NUT campus were keen to build aneconomically and environmentally sustainable campus. Theneed for environmental sustainability is understandable, buteconomic sustainability meant that one had to build at anaffordable price.

Looking at the tools available for making a sustainable.1 campus, one realised that simply making green buildings

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that are efficient users of water, energy and materials wouldnot create a green campus. Even if the buildings managedwastes and created better indoor air quality, they would notbe able to create a sustainable campus. Much of the energyin a campus is used outside the buildings and even more sooutside the campus. Students and teachers consume energyto get to the campus and that can sometimes be more thanthe energy they would consume in the buildings.

Like any other large construction project, a campusconstruction also requires an environmental clearance.The environmental impact assessment (EIA) process, morebroad based than green building norms, deals with existingtechnologies only and merely ensures compliance withexisting standards for water and energy use along with solid

Case Study

and liquid waste management. Additionally, EIA deals withnatural features of the site and with building materials bUtit does not promote alternative technology or behaviouralchange that can make a real difference. The green goals ofa large campus are severely limited by merely following th.egreen building norms and the EIA process. The goal of theNIIT University campus was to establish standards by whichcampuses ought to be built as also to define appropriate waysof building in the hot and dry desert region.

LANDThe first task was to establish the carrying capacity of thesite and to use the available 75 acres in the best possible

way. Two important guiding factors for this were wateravailability and the constraints of the zoning regulations.The Neemrana region receives only 570 mm of rainfallin a year and that limited the 75 acre site to about 3000resident students only. This number would not have beeneconomically sustainable for the University. Many townsin Rajasthan depend upon man made lakes for watersupply and on further investigation, it was found that thesite does not have a sustainable source of water supply dueto the nearby hills. For turning this disadvantage into anadvantage, it was decided that rainwater from the hills wouldbe harvested by creating check dams and planting trees alongthe slopes. The water supply enhanced in this way would beable to support a larger population that would be limitedonly by the permitted floor area ratio (FAR). At the plannedcapacity of7500 students, the NIIT campus would be about20 times the density ofJawaharlal Nehru University (JNU),New Delhi and 6 times the density of the Indian Institute ofTechnology (lIT) Delhi.

Land is in short supply in India and educational campusesare some of the biggest wasters of land. New lIT's are beingbuilt on more than 1000 acresofland and National Institutes

of Technology (NIT's) on 750 acres ofland. Such campuseswill never pass the standard for sustainability even if they arebuilt with green buildings. Low density developments takeaway agricultural or forest land, create infrastructure withhigh costs including high transportation costs leading tohigher carbon emissions. Traditional Indian towns were highdensity energy conserving places. The city of Jaipur is manytimes denser than the newer planned city of Chandigarh.Most newly ph~nnedhigh density developments are designedsimply to maximise FAR, not to reduce carbon emissions.

The NIIT University campus is built on fallow landconsidered unusable for agriculture. The layoUt of thecampus was designed to minimise development costs bypUtting students and teachers housing complexes next to theacademic buildings, making the campus entirely walkable

- reducing the need for motorised transport within thecampus. This minimised the need for pitched roads, andin order to make this work well, shaded and rain protected

walkways have been provided on the campus. Students liveon the campus and walk to the academic areas from thehostels. On campus staff residential accommodation has notyet been completed and presently the staff commUtes fromthe nearby residential areas by car pool.

Green infrastructure planning at the NIIT campusincludes preservation of the natural water courses andgrading with minimum cUt and fill, keeping in line withthe natural features of the land. The landscape was planned

with local species of plants that do not require much water tosustain and can withstand the rigours of the desert. Grassyareas requiring high maintenance and irrigation, have beenlimited to a minimum.

WATERHaving established a sustainable source of water and asystem for harvesting rainwater from the hills, the next stepwas to create a system of water use that would use less wateras well as treat and reuse waste water. Water conserving toiletfixtures were used and a sewage treatment plant installed.The treated waste water is used for drip irrigation oflandscapewithin and outside the campus and for flushing toilets in thecampus buildings.

ENERGY: LIGHTING AND AIRCONDITIONINGHaving planned an infrastructure that saves energy intransport, the buildings were also designed to save energyin lighting and in providing thermal comfort and dustcontrol. The buildings were planned with windows facingnorth-soUth where passive sun shades could be provided tomini mise the heat load on buildings. The class rooms andlaboratories use day light to the fullest. Shallower class roomswhere windows can provide adequate day light were plannedon the north side while deeper laboratories were planned onthe sOUthside where light shelves have been built to bringlight deep in to the space. Internal corridors and deeperrooms at the top floors are lit through skylights. There are afew dark areas in the buildings without day lighting and it is

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Case Study

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planned to light these with a grid interactive system of solarphotovoltaic (SPV) lighting without battery back up.

Like other green buildings, the NUT buildings haveinsulated walls and roof, but the system for thermal controlrequired a great deal of thought. Simple passive architecturalsystems with natural ventilation cannot provide dust controlduring summer and humidity control during the monsoonmonths. Passivedowndraught systems are also incapable ofcontrolling dust and humidity. Evaporative cooling providescomfort during summer but not during monsoons. Afterdue evaluation of the various options, it was decided toinstall a combined system of evaporative cooling and regularair conditioning together with a system for pre-cooling freshair by passing it through a system of underground tunnels.This system controls heat during summer, cold duringwinter and dust all year round. It is a low energy systemthat provides a reasonable degree of comfort in the academicbuildings at a low energy performance index (EPI) of 33kWh/sq m/year. Comparatively the Energy ConservationBuilding Code (ECBC) norm is 140 kWh/sq m/year forair conditioned buildings and a Green Rating for IntegratedHabitat Assessment (GRIHA) 5 star rated academic

building at Kanpur has an EPI of 98 kWh/sq m/year.After the first set of buildings were built and used, it

was found that the tunnel pre-cooling system cost a lotmore than originally envisaged and some of the newerbuildings are being built without it. The combined system..

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of evaporative cooling and air conditioning has been foundto be cost effective and that is being continued. However,winter heating is not possible through this system.

COSTSIt is well known that green buildings cost more than otherbuildings but it is not necessary that a green campus shouldcost more than others. In case of the NUT campus therewere savings due to environment friendly campus planningwhile the other systems described above did cost more.Infrastructure costs of roads and services were reduced with

compact walkable campus planning. The campus startedwith a very small developed area and the linear growthpattern allowed the cost of electricity, water supply, sewageand drainage to be limited since extra areas without buildingsdid not have to .be developed. The savings in infrastructurecosts more than offset the additional costs of the buildings. 0

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The author is Head, Space Design Consultams, New Delhi.

32 April 2011Volume4. Issue5