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Lalitha Sridhar

L&T's ECC Division has won international awards for construction, the most recent being the award for "Outstanding Concrete Structure" for its `Tree of Knowledge' building.

The national highway leading out of Chennai is unremarkable except for potholes, curves and encroachments. Then something catches the eye. Tree-lined campus rise buildings, which are obviously more than multi-storeyed office blocks. This is the headquarters of Larsen & Toubro's (L&T) Engineering Construction and Contracts (ECC) Division, 67th among the world's top 100 contractors. ECC's 35-acre complex is embellished with two edifices, which have won prestigious international awards for excellence in construction. The most recent of this was the 2002 award for "Outstanding Concrete Structure" presented by Federation Internationale de la Precontrainte (fip), now renamed as Federation Internationale du Beton (fib).

In the words of K.V. Rangaswami, Executive Vice-President, Buildings and Infrastructure Cluster, "Many architectural ideas remain a mere drawing on the drafting board or worse still, go awry while translating concept to building. When we shifted in 1978, from our old office on Mount Road, we had one thought in mind — our buildings must speak for us. Back then, the distinguished Parliamentarian and architect, Piloo Mody, designed our Administrative Office Building. I remember, he just pulled out a piece of paper and sketched the idea right here — it had just four columns supporting the entire structure, wholly made out of concrete, and it gave the appearance that the building was floating in the air. That got us our first fip award in 1994, also the first for any Indian organisation." "As our company expanded, this (the Administrative Office Building) space was getting choked and we wanted to move out the design division. Having already created a unique structure, we had to make the new one as good as this one — or better. We short listed five or six architects in an expenses-covered competition and finally considered three or four proposals. Our architects, Srinivasan Ranganath Associates, conceptualised this building and made a presentation, which was both unique and beautiful. The EDRC (Engineering Design and Research Centre) structure rises like a tree, denoting the concept of a `Tree of Knowledge', with the trunk (column) spreading at the first-floor level in the shape of a triangle with curved sides. The subsequent three triangular floors are alternately rotated to provide overhangs that give the building its unique form and facilitate green landscaping at each floor-level. The challenge in building our new EDRC division at the Headquarters was to make it an extension of our corporate philosophy — to foster a culture of caring, trust and continuous learning while meeting the expectations of employees, stakeholders and society."

ECC is the only Indian construction organisation to win fib awards, which are like the Oscars for structural concrete. In addition to the two Outstanding Structure Awards for their HQ buildings, ECC won `Special Mention' for their Sathya Sai Auditorium in Hyderabad, also in 1994, plus another such accolade in 1998 for the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bangalore. Rangaswami says of their newest achievement, "The idea was to have a creative ambiance complimenting the people who work here. Budgets notwithstanding, sometimes, a love for aesthetics and beauty must take precedence."

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