Designing India’s First IGBC-certified Net-Zero Business Park
International Tech Park in Chennai is a Grade-A campus developed for CapitaLand, one of Asia’s largest diversified real estate groups. Designed to host multiple corporate tenants, the 3.43 million-sq-ft development is IGBC Platinum and WELL pre-certified, making it India’s first net-zero business park.
The 12.67-acre campus is situated on the new 200-foot Radial Road, alongside IT hubs such as DLF Downtown, Embassy and KRC and is approximately six kilometres from Chennai International Airport. The campus master plan outlines clear ground-level circulation. Along the east, a pedestrian spine with a continuous covered walkway extends into work pods and informal meeting niches, keeping the zone active throughout the day. The western side serves as a dedicated lane for vehicular access and services. Between these circulation axes, two identical towers are zoned, with a shaded plaza in between that functions both as the campus’s green lung and the designated fire-tender route.
Each tower rises to a height of 45 m, comprising three basement levels for parking, a ground level for retail and food courts, and ten storeys above for office leases, capped by a terrace programmed for wellness activities. A naturally lit central atrium featuring hydroponic vertical gardens enhances indoor air quality and offers visual relief to each level. A high-performance glazed façade wraps the towers in laminated glass fins whose tonal variations echo CapitaLand’s brand palette. Landscaped refuge balconies and projected masses add a dynamic quality to the facade by offsetting the linearity of the tower.
The floorplates, spanning 100,000 sq ft, are designed to offer maximum flexibility. They can accommodate a single occupier or be subdivided into up to eight independent modules, each with direct access to the service cores and fire refuges. This modularity maximises leasable area while offering twice the partitioning flexibility of a conventional office building.
With a commitment to reduce resource consumption, the design incorporates active and passive sustainable strategies to achieve self-sufficiency. High-performance glazing delivers 75% daylight penetration, reducing artificial-lighting loads managed by an intelligent automation system that also controls blinds and air conditioning. A hybrid water- and air-cooled HVAC system, combined with digital-twin metering, further reduces energy demand. A redundant source for each equipment is provided in the event of failure.
The campus also features water management systems to minimise raw water consumption, treat greywater, harvest rainwater, and recharge the local aquifers. A green procurement policy, responsible resource handling, on-site waste segregation, and vendor tie-ups diverted all construction and operational waste from ending up in landfills. Together, these measures achieve net-zero performance in energy, water and waste management, offering a blueprint for the next generation of high-performance IT campuses in India.