The IIIT campus is not laid out according to the geometrical lines of established convention, but is instead styled on tesellations developed by the mathematical physicist Roger Penrose. The process of constructing a 'Penrose universe' was thought to have a 'remarkable existential congruence with the basic process of IT, in which fundamental units of information are aggregated in simple or complex sequences to a form a variety of information structures relevant to the entire range of human activities'. The structures are earthquake-proof, with RCC columns and brick walls. The academic core buildings are finished in Dholpur stone, the housing in roughcast plaster.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture