Gandhi was always an advocate of the local resources and hence often his philosophy has been interpreted in the simplest form of Vernacularism in Architecture or Simplicity in planning and human scale of spaces so that the built is stripped to its bare minimum requirement in form.

However Gandhi was also an advocate of Democracy which is a very political word but can be interpreted in many ways. The design approach of the institute aims at interpreting Gandhian Philosophy in Architecture in a different and non literal way. This institute is designed on the concept of Democracy in Space.

What if the students themselves could mould the space around them? What if they could decide how their studio should work spatially? Each activity carried out in a studio may not be able to completely adapt to the form of the studio, however if the Architecture can adapt to certain arrangements then the studio would work better. This power to decide and dictate, when given in the hands of the students could be interpreted as democracy. Such a space would require a very rigid frame with large spans and flexibility for the space to work. For this reason a modular approach is taken in planning to simplify the process and steel is used as the construction material. This approach gives rise to a different kind of Architecture called Vertebrate Architecture where the structure defines the form.

Taking this idea ahead, since steel provides flexibility, the concept of future development was also possible. What if today's pergolas could become tomorrow's joists per se? By using steel connections the building can be subject to vertical expansion and future growth. This ability of the building to change, amend itself and grow also falls under the larger idea of Democracy.