Rajpal's Column

29th November 1998

Defining the Sri Lankan building

By Rajpal Abeynayake

So perhaps a special debt is owed to Bawa and a handful of such others, Minette de Silva among them who imparted the idea to house builders that there is something uniquely comfortable and livable which can be done with Sri Lankan materials and Sri Lankan motifs.

This column is usually not devoted to obituaries, and this is not one either. But amidst the hurly burly dust and wind of the political whirl, there are sober events which should not escape public attention. One such is the passing of Minette de Silva, the first woman architect of Sri Lanka, who had the distinction of being an understudy to some of architectures all time greats such as Le Corbusier to name one.

The uninitiated will no doubt say that Sri Lankan architecture is synonymous with the very large person of Geoffrey Bawa, but for professionals this will be a heresy. Others such as Minette de Silva brought Sri Lankan architecture into its own somewhat before Mr Bawa became the dominant force in the field.

Sri Lankan buildings like everything else Sri Lankan, were mimicking the West, and people were sinking millions in the process. Then, rebels like Minette de Silva emerged from somewhere in the woodwork. Since she was to the manor born, being a daughter of George de Silva of Kandyan fame, she would have had the luxury of being able to enter a profession which at that time was seen as an esoteric pursuit. Obviously, she was a rebel for having taken up a profession that was alien to the Sri Lankan female. But the better thing was that rebellious spirit continued.

Now, Sri Lankan architecture has evolved to be something special in the subcontinent. Bentota Beach Hotel for instance was voted the best hotel in Asia, and that design was of the early Bawa period.

It's interesting to know how Bawa himself gravitated towards architecture. He is said to have had a yen for designing, and he started dabbling in designing houses with a Sri Lankan touch. But, Bawa was initially spending his own money on his pet projects, until a friend of his advised that he should get qualified abroad in order on his return he enjoy spending other people's money instead. Bawa did as suggested, and on his return he got enough assignments with which he could indulge in his experimental flair with other peoples cash.

Eventually Bawa became Sri Lankan architecture's Rolex watch. Anybody who wanted a status symbol in life wanted Bawa to design their house.. Quite incidentally, he designed the house of Upali Wijewardene, for instance, which doesn't quite bear the Bawa stamp. Certainly one could recognise a Bawa piece of work anywhere in the same way one would recognise a Keyt .

But, there was also work such as the square, jutting black box of a creation that was built for Upali Wijewardene with a helipad as the crowning gimmick. That must have been one of Bawa's off days.

But, the main thrust of Bawa's work , and of course others such as Minette before him, was to have Sri Lankan architecture weaned away from the tradition to which the British had introduced it. The most visible symbol of a country's cultural integrity would be its architecture, but yet, there were very few people who were bothered about a resurgence in Sri Lankan design. Maybe this was because architecture was not a pursuit which attracted the scholars or even the artists.

Architects would probably scream at the suggestion because there is a tendency in the profession, correct me if I'm wrong, to fashion themselves as artists in the same way perhaps that creative directors in advertising fancy themselves as creative spirits. Nobody would deny the creative element in architecture, but architecture is also the hard technocratic science of materials, ventilation, safety et al. Architecture in this way was certainly not meant for the incurable romantic.

But perhaps, to just think aloud, this sheer functionality that is involved with architecture prevented the birth of what is called a pure Sri Lankan design.

In a staggered haphazard and accidental way architecture would have come into its own in this country. But certainly there doesn't appear to have been an inspired vocal movement that exhorted architects of the world to "unite''—— and break free from the shackles of the old colonial influence.

So perhaps a special debt is owed to Bawa and a handful of such others, Minette de Silva among them who imparted the idea to house builders that there is something uniquely comfortable and livable which can be done with Sri Lankan materials and Sri Lankan motifs.

In the process, detractors would argue that what evolved was a hybrid, because Geoffrey Bawa, if we can make so bold as to say, was himself a hybrid.

A lingering look at some of Geoffrey Bawa's memorable work, such as the Pradeep Jayewardene residence in Mirissa would of course confirm this contention . The building is not something that has come straight out of the storybooks.

It's both radical and functional, but not in a back- to -the walauwa kind of way. A Sri Lankan architect who explained some facets of Bawa's work recently said that the atrium ceiling in the parliament complex, for instance, was designed for functionality and ambience, and that Bawa installed the massive Sri Lankan flag motifs in the chamber so that the light would be reflected onto the atrium ceiling.

So what one would have thought was pure dedication to art and ambience was in fact a great functional stratagem in the end. Nobody is faulting Bawa for it.

But, even though the parallel maybe an over simplification, post colonial resurgence never entered mainstream as it did in drama or literature. So it seems as if indigenous or at least tropicalised Sri Lankan architecture remains still on the fringe.

Said our eminent architect friend, that most of the buildings that have appeared on Galle Road for instance are distinguished by their facades.

The Mannapperuma building and clones, the Casino constructions, are all facades that seek to sensationalise the landscape. So, if you want to get a whiff of the Sri Lankan ambience, you probably have to go off road, and then if you are lucky.......

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