Many architects have contributed to the design and development of the IIMA campus. But the work of Louis Kahn, IIMA's first principal architect, has perhaps contributed the most to the iconic status that the campus enjoys today. His imposing red-brick complex instils in the viewer a sense of awe and wonder; the interplay of light and shade, the spacious corridors, the open spaces, the well laid out green lawns lined by brick paths, and the multitude of arches supporting the structures, all contribute to this experience. The closeness of the students' dormitories to the academic complex-the two blocks connected by a series of arched corridors and landscaped courts-helps students take the academic dialogue into non-academic spaces.

The search for an architect began soon after the Institute was set up. On August 3, 1962 Kasturbhai Lalbhai, who was heading the Building Committee informed the Board of Governors that the National Institute of Design would undertake the design work. It would appoint Louis Kahn as "foreign consultant and principal architect", and Balkrishna V. Doshi as the "Indian consulting architect". Anant Raje assisted in the work, and after Kahn's death in 1974, completed many of the originally planned buildings.

Louis Kahn was born in 1901 in Estonia; his family emigrated to the USA when he was very young. He graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and worked on several projects before joining Yale University in 1947 and the University of Pennsylvania in 1957 where he taught until his death. The philosophy behind his design for IIMA is best expressed in his own words: "The plan comes from my feelings of the monastery. The idea of the seminar classroom and its meaning of 'To Learn' extended to the dormitories comes from the Harvard Business School. The unity of the teaching building, dormitories, and teachers' houses-each its own nature, yet near each other-was the problem I gave myself. The lake between student and teacher is one way of distance with little dimension. When I found this way, the dormitories tended psychologically to break away from the school, though it has no appreciable distance from it." Kahn first visited IIMA in November 1962; and campus construction began on September 9, 1964.