ARCHITECTURE IN MOTION

Designed by MOFA Studio, the National Institute of Water Sports, Goa, reimagines public institutional architecture as a fluid, wave-inspired campus that fuses education, adventure, and the coastal spirit of India's smallest state

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India as a developing country, is progressing at a significant pace. One of the primary indicators of development in any nation is its education quotient. Our education system is evolving in parallel to other markers such as finance and healthcare, and we have begun to prioritize forms of education that, while unconventional by global standards, are highly relevant and rational within the regional context.

Goa, with 70% of its land along the coast, relies heavily on the sea for its economic growth. There's a local saying: “In Goan blood, God mixed some sea salt too.” Apart from fishing and tourism being the key industries, marine tourism has also evolved as an independent stream over the years. Recognizing this unique relationship and the need for a formalizing a systematic development in adventure sports and marine tourism, the government decided to establish the largest Water Sports Institute in Southeast Asia in Goa, also ironically, the smallest state of India.

When it comes to Public Institutional architecture in India, governments tend to follows a more pragmatic and understated approach. Interestingly, in the case of design for the National Institute of Water Sports in Goa, the state government released an international level competition, with a dual purpose; firstly, to make a bold iconic statement, that places Goa on a global map and secondly, an expression that treats the institutional architecture beyond the functional pragmatism.