Net-Zero Energy Campus for a 600-Student Government Polytechnic in Hot-Dry Kalaburagi

This design thesis proposes a net-zero energy campus for a 600-student Government Polytechnic on a 4.2-hectare site on the edge of Kalaburagi in north-interior Karnataka — a region of long, fierce summers (daytime highs in the low forties °C), a short monsoon and around 750 mm of rain a year. The campus programme is typical of a state polytechnic: academic block with classrooms and drawing halls, heavy workshops (fitting, welding, machine shop), laboratories, a library, an administration wing, a canteen and a 120-bed girls' hostel.

The thesis argument is simple: in a hot-dry climate, most of the energy a campus uses goes into fighting heat it let in through poor orientation, exposed glass and thin roofs. If the massing, courtyards, shading and envelope are designed from the climate data first, the remaining load becomes small enough for a rooftop and car-park solar PV array to cover over a year.

The work moves through site and climate analysis (Climate Consultant, Ladybug sun-path and radiation studies), programme and area statement, concept and zoning, three massing iterations compared on radiation and daylight, detailed design in Revit, and an annual energy balance in Excel. It complies with NBC 2016, uses ECBC 2017 as the envelope benchmark and GRIHA criteria as the sustainability checklist, and follows the local zonal regulations for setbacks, FAR and ground coverage. Final deliverables are a sheet set, a 1:500 site model, a 1:100 sectional model and a thesis report defended before an external jury.

Abstract

Government polytechnics in Karnataka are usually built from a standard plan that ignores where they are: long east–west glazed façades, flat RCC roofs and corridors that trap heat. In Kalaburagi, such buildings become unusable on April afternoons and depend on fans, coolers and increasingly split air-conditioners. This thesis designs a polytechnic campus where climate analysis drives the plan, passive strategies cut the cooling and lighting demand, and on-site solar generation meets the remaining annual electricity use, making the campus net-zero energy on an annual basis.

Introduction

The client brief (a hypothetical brief modelled on the state's technical-education norms) asks for intake of 600 students across four diploma programmes, workshops with heavy machinery, a library for 150 readers, staff offices and a 120-bed girls' hostel. The site is a flat plot on the city's growth edge with a seasonal nala along its southern boundary and red soil with scattered neem and babul trees.

Literature and precedent gap

Climate-responsive institutional design in India has strong precedents — Laurie Baker's campus buildings in Kerala, the courtyards of the IIM Ahmedabad campus, and GRIHA-rated government buildings — but most published net-zero examples are office buildings in mild climates. Very few studies address workshop-heavy technical campuses in hot-dry Karnataka, where machine-shop heat gains, dust and afternoon glare are the real design problems. This thesis fills that gap with a documented, repeatable process.

Existing approach vs proposed approach

• Existing: standard plan, orientation decided by the road, glazing on all sides, flat exposed roofs, mechanical cooling added later, no energy target.
• Proposed: orientation and courtyard depth decided from sun-path and wind data; long façades facing north–south; deep verandahs and jaalis for the east and west; insulated or double roofs with high albedo finish; stack-ventilated workshops with clerestory north light; rainwater harvesting into a recharge pond on the nala edge; a solar PV array sized from an annual energy balance.

Feasibility

• Technical: every strategy uses materials available locally (Shahabad stone, fly-ash bricks, lime plaster, steel for workshops). Energy simulation is done with open tools (Ladybug/Honeybee) and cross-checked by hand calculation.
• Regulatory: the design is checked against NBC 2016 (Parts 3, 4, 8 and 11), ECBC 2017 envelope requirements and the local zonal regulations.
• Economic: passive measures add modest initial cost; the PV array's payback is estimated from the state's tariff for educational institutions, which the report derives from the published tariff order.

Standard-plan government polytechnics in hot-dry north Karnataka are designed without reference to their climate. Classrooms facing east and west heat up through the afternoon, workshops with metal sheet roofs become ovens, and corridors glare. Students and staff respond with fans, desert coolers and, where budgets allow, air-conditioners, so the campus's electricity use and running cost climb every year while thermal comfort remains poor.

At the same time, the state's own policies push public buildings towards energy efficiency (ECBC 2017) and renewable generation. There is a gap between that intent and the design process actually followed. The problem this thesis addresses is: how can a 600-student polytechnic campus on a hot-dry site be planned and detailed so that passive design reduces its energy demand to a level that on-site solar generation can meet over a year, without compromising workshop function, daylight quality or budget? The answer must be demonstrated through drawings, models and a transparent energy balance rather than claimed.

In scope

• Master plan of the 4.2-ha site: zoning, circulation, landscape, water and energy systems.
• Detailed design of the academic block and one workshop block to 1:100, with wall sections and key details at 1:20 and 1:10.
• Schematic design of the hostel, canteen and administration wing.
• Climate analysis, passive-design strategy, envelope specification, daylight and radiation studies, annual energy balance and PV sizing.
• Bye-law and NBC 2016 compliance checks, including fire exits and universal accessibility.

Out of scope

• Structural design beyond a rational grid and member sizing by thumb rules.
• Detailed HVAC design (only the residual cooling approach is described).
• Cost estimate beyond a comparative per-square-metre estimate of passive measures and the PV array.
• Statutory approvals; the brief is academic.

The thesis follows a research-by-design process in five stages over roughly 22 weeks, with an internal review at the end of each stage.

Research methods used: document review (codes, policies), field observation and photographic survey, semi-structured interviews with four or five staff members, comparative precedent analysis, and quantitative simulation. Every design decision in the report is traced back to a finding from stage 1.