The Pearl Academy of Fashion in Jaipur stands as a counterpoint to the placelessness of generic modernism. At once contemporary and contextual, the 150,000 sq. ft. campus reimagines the region’s architectural legacy through passive design strategies, while shaping a vibrant hub for creative education.
The design responds to both its unloved industrial surroundings and Jaipur’s extreme desert climate. Compact and introverted, the building borrows from the city’s high-density morphology, presenting an opaque rectilinear exterior while opening into fluid courtyards within. These internal voids create a sense of continuity, evoking the endlessness of a Möbius strip.
At the heart of the project is a radical fusion of traditional Indo-Islamic elements and modern technologies. Courtyards, stepwells, water bodies, and fretted jaalis are reinterpreted to achieve human comfort without mechanical cooling. A double-skin façade, inspired by the Rajasthani jaali, acts as a thermal buffer: reducing heat gain, diffusing daylight, and balancing privacy with permeability. Roof insulation is achieved through a simple, locally inspired system of inverted earthen pots (matkas) filled with sand and brick, cutting down radiant heat absorption.

The underbelly, derived from the baoli, employs earth-sheltering, evaporative cooling, and thermal banking. At a depth of three metres, temperatures stabilize at 25°C, enabling interior spaces to remain at 27°C even when outside temperatures exceed 45°C – all without air conditioning. This subterranean zone serves as a lively student commons, accommodating exhibitions, performances, a cafeteria, and fashion shows, while reducing the built-up footprint above.
More than an academic campus, Pearl Academy is a benchmark in sustainable institutional design. It demonstrates how heritage-driven strategies, when combined with contemporary thinking, can deliver architecture that is climatically responsive, socio-culturally rooted, and enduringly relevant.