The architectural configuration of a building profoundly influences its energy efficiency, particularly concerning HVAC and lighting within its interiors. This aspect holds significant relevance in the architectural design process where the building must balance design concerns with energy efficiency, especially in HVAC and lighting systems, which are typically the primary energy consumers dependent on design. This paper assesses the efficacy of passive design strategies, as suggested by various sources such as Climate Consultant and GRIHA, applied across diverse architectural forms limiting to higher education buildings for enhanced energy efficiency indicated by the Energy Performance Index—EPI toward a climate responsive architecture. The diverse forms include an existing higher education building characterized by a courtyard-based design and a few massing iterations developed in an ongoing architectural thesis project of similar typology. The EPI values of the base case as per the guidelines of ECBC and the improved scenarios (by applying passive design strategies) are compared against the benchmark set by BEE, which stands at 117 kWh/sqm/year for educational institutions in composite climatic conditions of Hyderabad. The analysis also encompasses comparing each aspect of energy consumption, such as cooling load, lighting load, etc., across varied forms and establishing correlations with architectural design features. Energy calculations are conducted using Open Studio in conjunction with Honeybee tools within the Rhino Grasshopper environment.