Futuristic fusion of university campus with desi cultural heritage preserved [closed]

Question

So my idea is to redesign my university campus in a more modern and futuristic setting. But the aim is to keep the original cultural feel to it. For reference the campus is pretty old say 50-60 years old and has an old Indian palace kind of structure. I am not sure if these two contradicting features can be fused profoundly. Previously I was suggested to opt for innovative design but I strongly believe innovative design and sci-fi futuristic design are two different genres. So I am stuck on what methodology to opt to proceed with this idea.

Answer 1

Old universities deal with this regularly

1. It costs more to build a new building than to renovate an old one — to a point. Consequently, it's common for universities to use the buildings they started with for a very, very, very long time. In fact, unless there's a pressing reason to change (e.g., new earthquake codes that exceed the ability to renovate or a billion-dollar-donation for a sports stadium that simply can't justify that old building over there,) universities don't change.

2. One reason to change is that growth has outstripped a single building's purpose. An example is a university library, which may have started in a modest 10,000 square-foot building but today is a 200,000 square-foot edifice. Where possible, due to rule #1, old buildings are repurposed rather than replaced.

3. Another reason to change is that student/staff access has become problematic. For example, the need for new public transport stops, new parking areas, and even new walking paths. It's not always possible to foresee (OK, it's impossible to foresee) how the future will put facilities to use. In very old, densely populated areas (like some in Europe), the college or university may simply deal with it as there's no where else to grow but underground.

4. Yet another reason to change is that a particular field of study must modernize. Physics, engineering, chemistry, etc. often need new facilities that house laboratories or simply rooms for equipment that couldn't be imagined hundreds of years before when the university first opened. It's worth noting that while this happens for the sciences, often the opposite is true for literary-based studies such as language, philosophy, law and history.

5. Finally, universities act to retain a culture when there's a culture to retain. We have universities in the U.S. that are old (Harvard was established in 1636, 387 years ago), but to prove the previous rules, the oldest surviving building is Massachusetts Hall, built nearly 100 years later in 1720. But to be honest, (and with the greatest respect to Harvard and its graduates)... what culture is there to be preserved? The United States has always been a melting pot of many cultures and with the obvious exception that we're as a species loud and somewhat ill mannered, we don't embrace a single, unifying culture (we think we do, but we don't).

Consequence

Grow your university organically. Begin by constructing "the original campus" by determining the number of professors (it won't be many) and the number of students that could be realistically taught in the time period of its founding. Found it far enough back (much earlier than 80 years... that was only WWII) that there's a culture to embrace. Either a patron paid to build the buildings or old (possibly government) structures were taken over. Start there.

Then think through a basic path of development through the centuries as fields of study change, access to education and public literacy change, and governments change. The life of a university can be more complex than the life of an individual human being. Take the time to study the histories of 2-3 renowned universities of differing ages. You'll be surprised to discover their histories embody the wars fought around them, the changes in economic strength, the changes in technology and political structure... a lot of things will affect a university — and through that all it's no surprise that a university will embrace the idea of "hallowed ground," old buildings or locations on campus (like statuary) that hold special meaning for alumni.

Good luck! Great worldbuilding idea.