The Hindu Business Line : Navy blueprint

For architect Namita Singh, it was a proud moment when a senior chief engineer admired her work on the newly inaugurated Indian Naval Academy in Kerala saying, “It looks just the same as you said it would.” “That was the most satisfying moment in my career,” she says. Situated on the headland of Ezhimula, 7 km from Payyannur in Kannur district, the academy had been inaugurated by the Prime Minister.

For Namita, 60, who heads the Chandigarh-based architect firm Satnam, Namita and Associates, it has been a journey of sorts during the making of this project. Speaking over phone from her Delhi office, she sounds jubilant. “It is the kind of satisfaction you get on seeing your name appear in the paper,” she quips.

When Namita began work on this project, her children were still in school; and, today, when the completed structure is drawing praise from all over the country, her daughter has grown to become an established architect herself.

The architect Namita Singh

Namita was chosen from a two-stage national design competition conducted in 1989 by the Ministry of Defence. “This project came to me as part of my husband’s legacy. I was working with my husband in his firm, where I did the design work while he got business to the firm,” she says. Her husband died when she had just begun work on the design. “Those were tough times. But one has to move on, so did I,” she reflects philosophically.

She worked on other projects too even as work on the Naval Academy progressed. The Welhams Girls’ High School, Dehradun; RBI officers’ quarters in Chandigarh; Yadvendra Public School’s junior wing in Patiala; and the INHS Ashvini Hospital in Mumbai are among her other works. While she deems the last to be one of her toughest projects, one design of hers that she talks about passionately is the Kasauli Club in Kasauli. “It was a small project, but again it was very satisfying,” she says. The club was damaged during a fire accident and the members were keen to restore the building with all its heritage features intact.

Asked about the fact that most of her work has involved institutions, she laughs in response. “I am currently working on a centre for arts that will house three theatres, a pedestrian plaza and a basement parking to name just a few of the facilities,” she says .

Describing the special features of the 2,500-acre Naval Academy, she says the site includes 7 km of beach land and seven hillocks. Namita promised herself that she would not allow any “human intervention” to mar the natural beauty of the site. The buildings have been designed in tune with the natural topography “to avoid large-scale cutting or filling”. “It was by far the biggest challenge I’ve faced in my career… to create a functional academy in a virgin site like this,” she confesses. The mammoth academy — which is almost like a township — includes an academic complex, an Olympic-size swimming and diving pool, firing range, equitation lines, athletic tracks, parade ground and covered drill sheds, auditorium, dining hall, library, accommodation for staff, hospital, market and logistics complexes, officers recreational clubs, and a community hall.

Besides traditional architectural styles, Namita has made use of natural lighting and cross-ventilation wherever possible. For example, there is no air-conditioning in the large eating-hall, which seats 900, and instead there are many windows and skylights for cross-ventilation. The sea-facing hospital has an expanse of beach in front. There are plenty of courtyards and verandas in the academy that blend well with the surrounding heritage structures.

“I have used as much natural resources as possible,” adds Namita. The laterite and granite retrieved from the site were used as blocks, gravels and for landscaping. Everyone living in the township, from a commodore to a sailor, will enjoy the sea view.

She recalls how she travelled back and forth between Kerala and Chandigarh during the ten-odd years of building the project. “It became a joke in the family. In the letters that my kids wrote to me, they would enquire, ‘how is your Naval academy’,” she laughs. The academy will become fully operational in June.

In the meantime, Namita is working on other projects that include Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh; an extension at the Punjab-Haryana High Court; and an IT Park in Chandigarh.

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