Founded by Queen Victoria and built as a monument to the military victory over Napoleon, Berkshire’s Wellington College is as British as it gets. In the 21st century, the school remains a leading institution, consistently ranking as one of the nation’s top schools. Today, however, the college boasts an international footprint via partnerships with affiliates in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Tianjin and Hangzhou, as well as Bangkok, Thailand and Pune, India. Some 100 kilometres southeast of Mumbai, the recently completed latter campus deftly blends the school’s rich heritage with a distinctly contemporary — and distinctly local — design.

Designed by London-based MICA Architects with interiors by global firm Education Design International (EDI), the 3.7-hectare campus occupies a long waterfront site along the Mula Mutha River on Pune’s eastern periphery. Serving almost 1,000 students, the K-12 institution is organized as a linear riverside campus, framed by greenery and sports fields. Delineated by age group, the school is divided into discrete blocks while retaining a cohesive architectural identity.

From east to west, Pune’s Wellington College International begins with a nursery and an elementary school. At the heart of campus, shared facilities comprise a multi-use auditorium and sports facilities — including a swimming pool — as well as administrative offices and a reception hall. Finally, the high school bookends the complex. Carefully balancing separation and connection, a series of sheltered outdoor passages link the campus, distinguished by elegantly vaulted brick ceilings and generous collegiate proportions.

According to MICA Architects, the spatial organization is rooted in a “sense of gateway… both literal and metaphorical, both to orientate movement across the site, and as representative of the school as a progressive journey of learning and experience from starting at early years, stepping up to senior school and finishing well prepared for adult life.”

Although the architects — who also worked on a new master plan for Wellington College’s original Berkshire campus — drew on a distinctly British language of red bricks and quadrangles, the indoor-outdoor spaces and latticed facades respond to the local climate, while the cadence of vaults and curves also nods to India’s architectural heritage.

Belying the campus’s substantial scale, the carefully articulated procession of indoor and rooms carves out a series of more intimate environments, which the EDI team describes as a “learning village.” Clusters of educational spaces “form the building blocks of this village, offering flexible, multi-zoned spaces that adapt to a variety of pedagogical approaches,” note the designers. “These clusters are connected through transparent and operable partitions, creating a seamless flow that encourages collaboration among students and educators alike.”

Across campus, courtyards and skylights bring natural light deep into every building, while outdoor spaces offer up panoramic views of the riverside landscape. Imagined as “learning stairs,” the school’s intentionally oversized internal staircases are also a key feature of the campus, serving as circulation routes and informal gathering spaces.

Anchored by earth tones and natural materials (including granite and marble), the interiors emphasize comfort and connection to nature. For younger learners, soft tones and warm colours evoke a comforting a sense of home. In the high school, meanwhile, flexibility is paramount, with more formal learning areas that accomodate independent study, while operable partitions open up larger rooms for group discussion and collaborative work as needed.

Whether over the course of a single day or a years-long education, the design underscores the sense of a journey. “As students progress to middle and high school, the design transitions into more structured and expressive spaces, marked by deeper tones and bolder materials,” notes EDI. It feels good to be going somewhere.