The Higher Education Review

Established in the year 2014, under the flagship of Gopalan Enterprises, fulfilling the needs of Architecture and Planning education alongside nurturing values and enhancing skills. For more than 30 years, Gopalan Enterprises have contributed a lot in developing the infrastructure of the region. Being the trailblazer in the construction industry, Gopalan Enterprises has laid the foundation of an institute that infuses knowledge and escalates competency for professional growth.

GSAP is located in Whitefield Bangalore, affiliated with V.T.U. Belagavi and recognized by the Government of Karnataka. Consistently pursuing their quest of creating an ambiance to foster the natural abilities of the learners and exploring the tools and methods to escalate the architectural knowledge. The college curriculum is structured to broaden the scope of learning and gear students with skills to face the challenges of the corporate world and be updated with technology.

Encouraging Ideas To Achieve Future Endeavours
The academic syllabus of the Gopalan School of Architecture and Planning is practical-based; however, it also builds the theory ground concrete. By the vision, the institution wants to be addressed as an academy for excellence in the field of architecture and planning, imparting knowledge through social, ethical, and cultural values nurtured in a well-maintained environment for learners. The courses offered by the institute are framed to help learners face challenges like climate change and socio-ecological issues professionally. Special attention is paid in improving critical thinking, robust analysis, verbal communication and creatively expressing through drawings followed by enhancing multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary skills associated with space, built forms, and constructions. Apart from this, the school provides two years full time course in Architecture and M.Arch in Construction project management. For making learning, various methodologies are adopted by the school namely experimental learning,

collaborative pedagogy, informal learning, group discussions, onsite explorations to study the context and services, expert lecture series for more insight about the industry.

The motive behind the academic objective of GSAP is to make students learn by doing which is aided by hands-on activities focusing on enhancing the thinking and applying abilities of the students, where they learn to set their goals, do it themselves on the trial basis, finding solutions in the form models, walkthrough or complete design where they integrate all aspects. All the activities are designed to proliferate the interest of the students, through every learning portfolio. The students are facilitated to visit the exploration sites of Gopalan Enterprises like residential towers, commercial ventures, and industrial buildings to get practical knowledge and exposure through these projects. The curriculum consists of research and survey where students are asked to visit the historical precincts, study and document the outcome in terms of building form, construction technology, and, climatic impact on materials, in case of surveys, students collect on-site data through a structured questionnaire, inspect the data through latest software as well as propose solutions to it that will be published in a well-known professional journal as a research paper.


Dr. Vimala Swamy,
Principal, GSAP.

Gopalan School of Architecture and Planning ensures the holistic development of students, for they have faculty members from diverse specializations and are active in research, profession, and academia. Besides the faculty and guest lecturers, the institute has a panel of experts from the country and worldwide who deliver their lectures once a month in seminars.

The pedagogy methodologies used by the faculty fluctuate according to the course such as discussions, flipped class learning, site visits, preparation of study material in design at the initial stage of architectural design. To stay updated with the latest technology, teachers participate in faculty development programs, publish

papers in journals, presenting papers at various national and international conferences.

A Path Towards Success
The students have benefitted a lot from the school’s collaboration with renowned organizations like IGBC and GEM ASSOCHAM additionally the institute has connections with many national and international professional firms which recruit students from placements and internships. The postgraduate students experience internships under the construction wing of Gopalan Enterprises and in other well-known construction management companies in and around Bangalore. “We at GSAP are offering balanced academic, practical, and research education and would like to like extend to professional challenges with government, semi-government, and public sectors. The school offers opportunities to participate in ongoing research projects for its students, faculty, and alumni to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

We would like to collaborate with various international organizations and schools to give global exposure to all the stakeholders. As an educational institute, we plan to be a hub of research, innovation, and technology to meet the ever-changing need of society”, highlights Dr. Vimala Swamy, the Principal.

"As an educational institute, we plan to be a hub of research, innovation, and technology to meet the ever changing needs of society"

The building industry is revolutionary, and it is updating every day with different kinds of new construction materials and technology, so is the education industry which has transformed in recent years with more than one domain to study from. To stay alongside updated technology-induced industry and education it is now mandatory to have multidisciplinary knowledge in terms of software, manufacturing, energy conservation, augmented theory, home automation, virtual reality, and a lot more. To fulfil the requirement of upgradation the school has facilitated collaborations, expert talks, software training programs which help to go well with the changing pattern in the building and technology industry. The school looks forward to introducing different courses on art, technology, design, and management which complement the architecture course along with certification programs and short-term workshops that help to enhance knowledge suitable to present context.