Sri Lankan architects win Silver award in prestigious international sustainable development competition
Sri Lanka secured world attention last week by winning a Silver award at an international competition in sustainable design and construction training and community project. The prestigious Global Lafarge Holcim Silver award 2014 was won by Architects Milinda Pathiraja and Ganga Ratnayake for designing the library at the Sri Lanka army camp at Ambepussa for retired and serving soldiers and others in the rural community there to improve their vocational skills development in future.
Architects Milinda Pathiraja and Ganga Ratnayake of Robust Architecture Workshop receiving their award with top members of the LafargeHolcim team
The project was the brainchild of both Sri Lankan architects who used discarded steel and other waste material to build the library with the help of soldiers. The Silver award put the spotlight on Sri Lanka as the project was selected out of more than 6000 submissions from all continents. The award was presented to the two architects by the General Manager Lafarge Holcim Foundation Edward Schwarz at a ceremony held at the Ampebussa army camp this week. Soldiers were coached in building techniques to use like earth walls and recycled materials.
The library has been marvellously designed to blend with the environment in the vicinity. It is located on a higher elevation in a spacious garden filled with trees and foliage. The Holcim Gold award 2014 went to Thailand for designing a protective bird sanctuary in Chiang Mai in Thailand. On behalf of Holcim (Lanka), its CEO Philippe Richart made a donation of books and a projector to the community centre which was accepted by Major General Boniface Perera. Several delegates from Switzerland, Chile, Japan, India, Thailand, Jordan and Australia participated at the ceremony. Global Awards jury members Maria Atkinson from Australia and Meisa Batayneh too were present on the occasion.
Major General Perera of the Sinha Regiment at Ambepussa camp speaking on the occasion said that soldiers could not be provided with an education to develop their skills during the war, but time has now come for the country to think of their future after the war ended.
The library was built by soldiers with funds collected from musical shows and from well-wishers without felling any trees at the army camp and by not deploying heavy machinery. The library consists of a reading room, a research room, a children’s room, a conference hall, an automated digital room, a cafeteria and a cinema area. It was built in such a way to allow natural light to penetrate through huge glass windows and those inside could see birds and butterflies fluttering about in the vast expanse of the garden, he said. General Manager of LafargeHolcim Foundation Edward Schwarz said Sri Lanka was a great country to celebrate sustainable construction. “There are many archeological heritage sites here and Sri Lanka was a good choice to be here today.” he said.
The board outside the library
Holcim and Lafarge joined forces in July 2015 to become the new global leader in the building materials industry. The activities of the Holcim Foundation for sustainable construction known since 2003 for its international awards competitions, academic forums, online information, hub and publications continues under the name LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. Created by the LafargeHolcim Foundation, the awards are an international competition that recognises innovative projects and future oriented concepts on regional and global levels. A total of US$2 million in prize money is awarded in each three year cycle.
The 5th cycle of regional and global awards competition will open for submissions in the second half of 2016.