With the increasing number of droughts, floods, landslides and earthquakes, we are losing our biodiversity at an alarming rate. With all natural disasters somehow interwoven with each other, in order to cope with nature’s fury, we have to work closely with nature. Hence sustainable planning and architecture are crucial and can help in finding solutions to these problems. Principal Architect and Proprietor at NKLD, Namrata Kashyap’s great passion has always been working with nature and conservation. To share her views, ideas and tips, she was invited as a guest on The Navhind Times’ Talk from the Heart show that aired on the Goa 365 channel.
An award winning student from Delhi’s famed School of Planning and Architecture, Kashyap began her career as a Landscape Architect in 1997. Her illustrious profile includes projects like the ACC Cement Works, Jindal Steel Works Township, Goa Marriott Resort, Naval Golf course besides others. As a landscape architect her scope of work includes site planning, environmental restoration, recreation spaces, green infrastructure planning and provision and other areas of Landscape Planning and Design.
Her company NKLD started as a one woman enterprise in 2004 and has metamorphosed into a sustainable practice. “We are an all-women enterprise of eight and the company comprises architects, craftsmen and architectural assistants,” she shared. Using technology as a tool, Kashyap borrows richly from ancient traditional design practices that have stood the test of time. Explaining this concept, she said, “Architecture and culture are closely related and besides using the design practices our ancestors followed, we also use vernacular materials and vegetation. Research in to the traditional practices and cultural beliefs of the place are also taken in to consideration when we are designing various structures.“
In designing a structure there is involvement from many individuals right from the client to the building contractor, all who play a key role. “While designing a building, the lead person is the client who has a particular purpose in mind, then comes the principal architect who will design the vision and the building, next is the landscape architect who will understand the lay of the land and respect it and build with it and lastly the building contractor who will put it all together and build it.” Landscape architects she clarified come in when there are certain constraints of the site or there is a conscious desire to manage resources like soil, energy, water and building materials thereby reducing the carbon footprint.
Kashyap is of the opinion that to be sustainable, architecture has to be resilient. “Resilience is the ability to face whatever is coming your way and continuously bounce back and regenerate. It’s about learning how to cope with the ever-changing ‘new normal’. In an era where climate change can cause traditionally built systems to fail, the adaptive, multi-layered system can maintain their vital functions and are often more cost-effective and practical solutions,” she elaborated.
She also spoke about biomimicry and gave examples to explain its benefits. “There is a school in Gujarat that is being designed on the principles of biomimicry. Gujarat is very hot and the building has been designed in such a way, that it channelizes the air and keeps the interiors cool,” she shared.
For amateur landscape enthusiasts she gave a few tips and said, “A successful design is able to stimulate the five senses and one way of doing it, is to get local plants in to your balconies and even wash areas. The relaxation you feel when you see any form of nature is far more than any kind of social media entertainment,” she stressed. She explained how plants also attract birds and the calming effect of bird-song. In addition, she recommended recycling water bodies which have a soothing sound.
Other topics she spoke about were green flooring options, conserving water, Goa’s changing landscape and more.
