Hettiarachchige, Ranjaka

Ranjaka Hettiarachchi P O R T F O L I O 2 0 2 1 Master of Architecture Liverpool School of Art and Design

ABOUT ME

I am a Postgraduate architecture student who has recently completed the second year of the MArch Architecture program in Liverpool John Moores University. Having completed my bachelors with a first-class, I was awarded with the chancellor’s scholarship to study my Masters at LJMU. Being an international student, I have gained a considerable amount of experience up until now in academics and in the professional level. I am a passionate individual in seeking unique design solutions in challenging environments. I consider myself open minded when working and seeing things through. Art of Composing spaces, free hand sketching, abstraction and digital 3D building took my interest from the beginning and lead me to develop my expertise. I find music, travelling and reading books most important to be complete as a soul. Making the world a better place with creativity is my long lasting will.

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CONTENT

March Year 02 Semester 02

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The Thesis design project – Galle Face pier March Year 02 Semester 01

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Live project - Management practice and Law Urban design 02 – Tower to the pier urban route March Year 01 Semester 02

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The Housing project - The Canal Front Housing Specialist study - Tropical Modern Design strategies used by Geoffrey Bawa March Year 01 Semester 01

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Urban design 01 – Revitalizing River Dee Basin Resume

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MArch Year 02 Semester 02 – Thesis design project The Galle face pier This thesis design project is deriving from an urban design proposal implemented in slave island, Colombo, Sri Lanka. The report demonstrate the research, origination and resolution of the end part of this proposal in a gradual manner which manifest a development of a 400m long seaside pier running towards the west horizon of Colombo. The embarkment point of the pier is the Galle face green area which is a current open recreational realm in a hectic city. The report explores and questions the architecture of piers through research and precedence while imagining new design possibilities. Colombo as a city is going through many urban issues. The disturbing gentrification projects established as High rise buildings are major one to be considered. The dominating effect of these projects on the city life is quite critical. Major Lack of response to an overall urban master plan is evident when investigating the allocation of these projects. For the past ten years local urban dwellers are often threatened with these projects which forces them to move from their native context to another as the commercial development is the only goal behind it.

Many people half refuse it by leaving first and return with unauthorized and unorganized settlements in every corner of the city they may find as long as it is close to their area. In this scenario the cultural and historical heritage of people and the existing buildings are often neglected and as a result we see a chaotic and an unpleasant urban fabric has formed as the city of Colombo. Colombo does not need more of this vertical architecture rather it is craving for horizontal recreational spaces and platforms which would create meaningful connections between the places throughout the city. The city should be more permeable to the public and less hectic, chaotic, and insecure which are caused by increased fragility of the urban fabric. This thesis project is a part of such a proposal which is planned to uplift the cultural and historical values of the city while providing with a meaningful route that would start from the lotus tower premises and end at the west seaside of Colombo. The route indicated three main zones which provides peculiar solutions for urban issues in each passing sector . The wetland and the urban village in the Beira lake, the incremental housing in the slave island area were the first two and an enhanced recreational realm in Galle face green area that brought the seaside pier would be is the third and the final part which is the beautiful west climax of the journey. With the introduction of this seaside pier, the urban necklace was completed providing a great extent of a permeability and a meaningful journey to the urban dweller while catering to the well identified urban issues .

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M A S T E R Pier is the ultimate promenade of recreation and leisure. It was designed with carefully selected functions not harming the progression as a whole while keeping the promenade and the pleasure aspect of the pier separately. Through research it was evident that many piers have failed to adopt the both mentioned realms together successfully. A modern seafood restaurant as an extension to the Galle face hotel was established on the pier as a main building.

Apart from it an Open-air amphitheater, pier garden, a wedding hall and a wet zone for Colombo was introduced as the meaningful functions and developed to a great extent during the progression of the thesis project. This functions were rigorously thought to be as contextual as possible. The enriching colonial architectural heritage manifested by the Galle face hotel will be an empowering feature to the embarkment of the pier. As the subject of the pier itself runs back to the beautiful era of Victorian architecture, the story of the Galle face hotel and the new pier has an intangible bond from the start. As a summary, the design intents of this thesis project can be listed as Enhancing recreational space in Colombo, Bringing solutions to the Urban heat crisis in Colombo, Reprogramming Galle face green area, Contrasting and celebrating the exiting colonial architecture, Complimenting and contracting the old heritage with the new, Allow adoptability, Making a more meaningful destination for the group urban proposal “Tower to the pier”, Rethinking the Architecture of piers and Saving Galle face green from isolation due to the upcoming port city development

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P I E R

P L A N

S O U T H

E L E V A

A T I O N

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The restaurant is an intangible part of the Galle face hotel. It should hold the classic nature yet bearing a slightly dynamic and a modern character which will help towards breaking the rigidity of the Galle face Hotel building and its façade grid. The intension was to contrast and compliment the Architecture between the two buildings. While referring to the existing building lines of the Hotel building ,restaurant took a wavy formation that almost reminisced the facade grid of the hotel, is breaking with the clash of waves. As the roof breakdown with the identified concept, the end part of the restaurant represented a possibility of a viewing amphitheater that might also be granting a part of some outdoor dining experiences and other recreational activities for the public.

KEY PLAN

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UPPER FLOOR PLAN SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

LOWER FLOOR PLAN SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

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RESTAURANT SOUTH ELEVATION

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KEY PLAN

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PLAN WEDDING HALL

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KEY PLAN

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Serial vision - Along the pier

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Design progress - Sketch work

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Rendered physical model

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MArch Year 02 Semester 01 - Live project The Royal Standard (TRS) is a registered Liverpool charity and an artist-led gallery and studio complex currently based in The Baltic Triangle. It was Established in 2006 by four Liverpool-based artists. The Royal standard is dedicated to fostering opportunities for the most outstanding recent graduates and emerging artists through providing affordable studio space, free public exhibitions, events and training, and have worked with over 350 artists and delivered over 80 unique exhibitions and events.

The inceptive phase of the project was to do as much as research about the Royal standard. Among the two groups we were a group of five students. In the initial stages the project introduction and other necessary guidance and the imperative site information was provided by our design advisor for the project Jamie Scott accompanied by Craig Mitchell whom I am thankful for. The project was initiated in a time of ongoing lockdown restrictions in UK due to COVID -19 global epidemic, we were challenged to organize the work among us virtually.

The offered empty interior space unit was on a lease hold by the M&S .According to the lease legislation there should be no major work done to the existing infrastructure and finishes, and all the proposals should not be structural which was an interesting design challenge. At first the main focus of the two groups were the M&S space and the strand outlook.

Client’s statement regarding the M&S space reminisced certain requirements that were provocative to produce various solutions on the due client meeting . He imagined mixed-functional programs taken place in the open room plan of the exhibition spaces. A vast space that maintains a sort of a transparency in-between functions was appreciated . The studio spaces were needed in such a manner that they might not be predefined but organic allocations, which the users might get use to and make their own way of interaction with it. Along with these, a space for artist to sit , interact and work together was desired by the client.

Keeping in mind the above aspects, on the first client meeting the two groups presented their own design consideration of the M&S in the forms of project precedents collected. Among the preferences, the idea of scaffoldings to create temporary structures while maintaining a transparency throughout the vast space took considerable attention of the client.

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LIVE PROJECT REPORT 7231AR Management Practice & Law

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MArch Year 02 Semester 01 – Urban design 02 - Tower to the pier This module is emphasizing on an urban design proposal which is implemented in the Slave island area in Colombo – Sri Lanka. A comprehensive analysis, problem identification and a suited , meaningful urban strategy was proposed as the ultimate solution which can be witness throughout this project. Slave Island also known as Kompanna Widiya (Company street) is situated in the south of the Colombo fort which is the central business district of Colombo. It operates as a mercantile hub with several shopping centers and small street food businesses.

Even though the whole area does not have a high-end lifestyle or a facilitate infrastructure the mixture of different ethnicities (Malay, Sinhala and Tamil) and the culture adds a certain value and a uniqueness to the place.

One of the origin stories of the Slave island goes as, the African heritage slaves were brought by Portuguese from Swahili coast and Portuguese East Africa and held in the Slave island. Whereas the other origin story runs back into mid 17th century when the country was under the Dutch rule. In old publications Slave island has been described as a peninsula which was surrounded by water from three sides. As the reality once was Slave island has been house Malays from Indonesia with a Malay locality brought down by Dutch for government jobs who were also known as 'Kaffir slaves'. Old street names such as, 'Malay Street' and 'Java Street' are proof that there was a Malay locality from the origin.

The slave island, present-day which has neither slaves nor is an island is a suburb in Colombo, Sri Lanka. However, the place has been well known for the resident's culinary specialty which is 'Kodal babath curry'. Slave island highlights as a suburb in the country not only because of people and the multiethnic culture but also because of the outstanding Dutch era colonial architecture.

Railway station and the long building facades of the buildings still stands as remnants of that colonial architecture with stylish arches, winding woodwork, and metal installations, which emphasize Victorian-era styles. Some part of the history still lives in the comers of the streets full of life with playing children and colorful flats. Slave Island, the suburb with a history and many stories, currently losing its characteristics as a result of urban development and modernity in Colombo. The establishment of new commercial buildings now stand alongside while neglecting the existing congested neighborhoods, owned by people who have lived there for generations. It’s also home to a rare part of Colombo where you get a church, kovil, mosque and temple all in one block.

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GALLE FACE (COLOMBO COST SIDE )

LOTUS TOWER AND THE BEIRA LAKE AREA

SLAVE ISLAND

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Urban issues in Colombo – from Lotus tower to the west seaside

Invasion of Highrise buildings Public space encroachment Non shady Galle face & the Urban heat Small and crowded beach strip

Unidentified Sea food street

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International Interference

T

Forgotten historical an cultural heritage

Threaten local community with gentrification

Beira Lake treated as a backyard Lake pollution

nd Vehicular traffic

Housing struggle

Neglected landmark

Refuse disposal

Floods

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Master proposal 3 From the lotus tower to the west Colombo a new route reminiscing an urban necklace was proposed. This cultural pathway passes the Beira lake, the vibrance of Slave island and ends with the west seaside which is the Galle face green area. In each node new meaningful functions were adopted and provided with peculiar solutions for different urban issues .

1) Wetland and the urban village - Bridge from the lotus tower over the Beria lake to the slave island side - Recreational islands - 200 housing units - Wetland - Street until the 6-way junction 2) Square and the housing - 6-way junction - Community square - Incremental housing units - Newly developed and proposed shop houses 3) Galle face and the pier - Canal bridge - Street from the canal until the Galle face - Galle face open space - Street food shops – sea food - Beach - proposed Pier

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2

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1) Wetland and the urban village

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2) Square and the housing

West Beira Lake

Carolis and Sons Building

Foot bridge over the railway

Train Station

Incremental Housing

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Community Square

De Zoysa Building

Junction

Boulevard trees Community Square Mosque

De Mel Park

Graffiti wall

Roundels Church

Buddhist Temple

Asphalt Multi coloured cobblestone

Yellow cobblestone

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Sri Lanka Federation of the Visually Handicapped

Main Entrance

Community garden

New Shophouses

Secondary Entrance

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De Soyza Building – oldest remaining shophouses

Mosque

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3) Galle face and the pier

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Canal Bridge

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MArch Year 01 Semester 02 - Housing Project - Liverpool - UK This project is to design spatially and contextually responsive large-scale housing Since most of the English cities exhibit the difficulty in succeeding the dense urban housing. The objective is to design a livable, simple, quality environment throughout the architectural design of this proposed urban housing. As dense urban housings construct and represent a significant amount of our built environment, it is mandatory to create an architectural landmark that has a positive impact on the overall image of the city as well as the community.

Context The Site is located on the east of the LeedsLiverpool canal with an astonishing view towards the canal next to the Eldonian Way. The immediate context of the site consists of a considerable number of residential neighborhoods. The site has been already recognized as a potential housing site by Liverpool City Council. Furthermore, the site shows its potential not only due to its own topographical qualities but also it is surrounded by continuous, widely spread, and easily accessible roadways. In the design the natural 2meter slop was used to elevate the whole housing to get the maximum view towards the canal even from the ground floor without any obstructions.

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THE CANAL FRONT HOUSING

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Ground floor

The building allocation was done in such a way that it will create its own recreational spaces while also responding to the site. In the sketch it is clear how the building placement is responding to the existing road patterns and how the new urban movement will be. By responding to the existing infrastructure and creating a public access aligned with the current road the design allows to Pedestrianize the urban movement through the site to the canal. To maximize the view, the building front facade is built like a stairway shaped element. The roof gardens were created with this idea.

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First floor

Third floor In addition to all the environmental concerned issues of housing in England, the availability, and affordability of modern housing especially for young adults is not a latter-day problem. The considered main occupants are this young group of people and citizens who are facing issues due to unemployment and low income. The integrated philosophy behind this design is to uplift the quality of life of the occupants, through a specific architecture. The scheme represents only singlestory units planned for families and individuals. As this caters to affordability the aim was to create a dense housing at the same time being compatible to the urban flow. The housing will provide with 133 units each attach with semipublic spaces and most of them directly responding to the canal environment.

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The middle blocks were planned to offer for small families and young couples making an interactive environment. To encourage people to interact, allotment spaces were provided in the middle recreational area. This may benefit the users in every way resulting a pleasant neighborhood

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Sketch Journal highlights – Precedent study

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MArch Year 01 Semester 02 - Specialist Study

TROPICAL MODERN DESIGN STRATEGIES USED BY

GEOFFREY BAWA

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SPECIALIST STUDY HIGHLIGHTS CH.01 - INTRODUCTION Considered to be the most prolific and influential architect in Sri Lanka, Geoffrey Bawa has put a tremendous impact on Asian Architecture according to the reviews of numerous experts in Architecture worldwide.

Bawa’s creative approach towards Architecture, was to bring out a remarkable flow through the site and its surroundings, responding in a natural way to topography, view and climate in a tropical zone. While evoking the aesthetic pleasures of a space, combining the built and the natural realm together, Bawa’s work was enriched with the ancient Sri Lankan culture (Ceylon), and lifestyle representing the traditional elements in the minimalistic Vernacular Architecture. Moving on from only being a traditional interpreter the Architect has achieved a harmonious fusions of local building traditions in sri Lanka and the modern forms of the western methods, shouting out to the world as an architect ahead of his time. Bawa was able to demonstrate the space in a way which symbolizes how its essential meanings could be preserved and enhanced in a memorable way.

Being able to imagine and design in such an extensive manner Bawa was influenced by many places, people, and scenarios throughout his life. Exploring his utmost work and appreciating it should be done in such a way where one should identify Bawa as a strategical Architect rather than a celebrity. Bawa has done many projects which brings out the most beautiful spaces, captured by many talented photographers that are aesthetically very pleasing to look at in a book. However, most of them directly projects the perception of “Great Geoffrey Bawa - The picturesque place maker” rather than “Geoffrey Bawa -The strategical Architect”.

As an Architect Geoffrey Bawa was a real genius and influenced the world from his design strategies used in Tropical Modernism.

Later, he was named as the “Father of Tropical modernism”. Tropical modernism elaborates the certain two qualities of the Bawa movement towards architecture. Term Tropical, executes the context or the geography where Bawa was highlighted. Modernism is something which represents the time period his Architecture took into action. The need of analyzing the substantial factors as such is crucial to understand the real importance of Geoffrey Bawa’s way of creating Architecture.

This study will be focused in demonstrating Geoffrey Bawa’s architectural interpretation, referring to the regional and modern design strategies he has incorporated. As a tropical modernist Bawa has done many projects with varied functions. The direction of the thesis will be going through few exemplar Case studies of selected projects manifesting the variety of his applications. This particular study is dedicated to clearly identify Bawa specifically as strategical Architect, and explore what are the methods he has followed in tropical modernism and what were the influences he has attained from the world throughout his life in doing so, before he had his own great influence in the world of Architecture.

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As an Architect Geoffrey Bawa was an individual from the end of the Modern Era. He was professionally emerging simultaneously with the division of the modern movement resulting different paths of modernism in late 1950’s and the early 1960’s.Bawa was educated and train abroad and was widely travelling the world conceding himself to be fully aware of what is happening in the particular time period. Brian Brace Taylor states in his book of Bawa as “Bawa was cosmopolitan: he knows what is going on elsewhere in the world, culturally speaking.” (Taylor, 1986). Brian further demonstrate how “Time” acts as one of the essential factors in manifesting the built work of Geoffrey Bawa. It executes the idea of how the “time” is made from the works and words out of men. Different times passes by, and in each time, society possesses an image of the world that is unique to that phase. People in each era act upon the image they had towards the world. Identifying Bawa as an interpreter is saliently tallied with the image he possessed towards the world of that era.

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1.5 – Bawa and the Architectural Association (AA)

In 1954 he enrolled as a student in Architectural Association (AA) in London where all the modern debates were raging. Geoffrey was remembered as the wealthiest, tallest, oldest and the most argumentative student in his day in Architectural Association. (Robson, 2002) .Channa daswatta was a trainee under Geoffrey Bawa for many years and now a leading Architect in Sri Lanka .He is very much involved in continuing Bawa’s Legacy. One of the Daswatta’s presentations says that the idea of spatial promenade was confirmed by Bawa’s education at the AA where the works of the modernists Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe were very much a part of the discourse although Bawa occasionally championed a classical approach. His final thesis on Balthazar Neuman’s baroque architecture confirms his picturesque leanings. These two ideas would perhaps more than anything else inform his architecture throughout his career. Arief B. Setiawan’s research of ‘modernity in architecture in relation context’ explains more in-detail summary of the time Bawa spent in AA school of Architecture and the influences Bawa exposed during that time. It highlights the academic activities taken place coincidingly to the architectural practices in that era. The examinations conducted by the AA in 1952 was assessed by David gray who noted the influences students expressed about continental ideas. He examines that the students tend to exhibit optimism, a theory where architecture was considered as a social and physical instrument for reconstruction. As such in Bawa’s time many trends were acting up in AA including Brutalism, Mies’s classicalism an anti-picturesque ideology.

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2.2 - Bawa the Tropical modernist

The style Bawa represented as International architecture was marked by several distinguishing features.

Amongst most important features can be seen as the complete break with 'historical form' and the creation of a new aesthetics based on an intimate relationship between material, form, and function. As part of the modem movement, its architectonics, ornamentation, internal and external finishes, even its furniture and fittings, absorbed and contributed to contemporary avant-garde art and design. (Senaka, 2011) Above all, it deployed space in an entirely new way. This is where the term “Tropical modernism” comes. It conveys the idea of how Bawa hasn’t completely ignored the essence of the modernity, in the process of implementing the vernacular architectural features in a tropical climate.

What Bawa developed in tropical modernism led his style to be separated from the conventional European influenced design, such as Neo-Classicism and the opposite of it known as the Orientalism which were the styles that dominated Sri Lankan public and elite architecture for a century before the 1960s. (Senaka, 2011)He read the indigenous Sri Lankan architectural tradition with a contemporary eye which originated a new language of form and space. It can be stated that Bawa’s architecture was contrary to international modernism even though international style was permeated in his work. The principle source Bawa tend to find as the most salient, was the 'perennial' Sri Lankan architectural landscape. Staying within that context he applied what he learns throughout his life, strategically with different clients and functions.

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2.2 - Bawa & the Danish Architect

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2.2 – Materiality

Bawa often looked at the ways that he could emphasize the utilization of locally well known existing materials and architectural elements. By returning to usage of the traditional, half-round, terracotta roof tile in elite and middle-class housing, as well as the unglazed or red-slipped terracotta floor tile, which were the applications that almost disappeared by the mid-twentieth century, Bawa intend to implement a vernacular essence. In his earlier, small -scale housing projects, it can be observed that he has given a significance in using ‘varati’, a shell fossil-based lime washbowl in order to achieve a soft but glaring white finish to walls. An exemplar is the architect's own home in Colombo which is a project that has been evolving over 45 years.In his early projects in the practice of Edward, Reid and Begg, the structure, materials and the detailing expressed the model of a contemporary western model. Some of the projects such as the office building for the automobile association, St.Thomas school extension and the Bishops college classrooms were explicitly exposing the use of reinforced concrete. The design ethics used in the materiality in these buildings were modulating his language, which is showcased as a personal interpretation in the Montessori School he designed later in 1964 that will be discussed further as a case study in the thesis.

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2.5 – Spatial Essence

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CH. 03 - CASE STUDY 01 - THE ENA DE SILVA HOUSE - 3.1 - Introduction

Ena de Silva was one of the most peculiar Batik artists in sri Lanka. Her husband was a government official, and her son showed a great talent in visual arts. The Ena De Silva house was designed by Bawa in 1960 with the collaboration of the Danish Architect Ulrik Plesner for the De Silva family who belonged to the upper class in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The site was a fairly small plot on Alfred road in the Colombo suburb of cinnamon gardens - a prime location in the city. This was consisted of 750 square meters and was bought for 180,000 Sri Lankan rupees. Ena’s requirements for the house included offices for her husband and herself, a workspace for her son, and accommodations for the guests. Apart from this, Ena had various demands for Bawa as she wanted to incorporate traditional elements yet having a modern feel to it. She needed a traditional part as it should specifically features the ‘Kandyan architecture’ in sri Lanka. The essence of a ‘Walauwa’, traditional ‘Kandyan manor house’ was related to her childhood memories where she used to live. Not disappointing his client, Bawa provided her with the required features creating a totally introspective house highlighting a free dynamic of internal and external spaces. This chapter will be focused on expounding the key features of Ena de Silva house specifically emphasizing influences Bawa incorporated, while discussing the modern and vernacular design ethics he and Plesner implemented in the house.

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The central courtyard in the De Silva house bared a resemblance to the courtyards in Sinhalese Walauwa or to the ones in colonial houses. From the two pavilions in the either side of the courtyard, the first one houses the garage, office, guest suite and the studio. Passing that block, along the main axis the courtyard is aligned with the verandah that direct visitors to the living and dining rooms allocated in the back. Servant’s accommodation and the kitchen is allocated along the verandah. The living space is visually connected with the central and the back courtyards. One must continue their journey along the verandah in order to reach the second floor of the pavilion through the spiral staircase. The second floor of the pavilion is occupied by the bedrooms and the bathroom. All the inbuilt functional spaces are oriented towards the central courtyard. Hence, a convenient temperature is established inside the house with the use of wide eaves together with the courtyard filled with vegetations, providing the atmosphere with natural shades.

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CH. 04 - CASE STUDY 02 - ST. BRIDGET'S MONTESSORI SCHOOL 4.1 – Introduction

St. Bridget's Montessori School is a pre-school located in the heart of Colombo, built-in years 1963-1964 on southern edge of the St. Bridget’s convent premises. Bawa designed the Montessori school for the nuns of the Good Shepherd Convent with the collaboration of Barbara Sansoni and Laki Senanayake. Barbara Sansoni who was involved in selling up weaving workshop for nuns at the time introduced Bawa to the order of the Good shepherd. Through the Gaudiesque vocabulary of rounded edges Bawa has been able to reinvent the Roman Catholic convent experience in a playful manner. Biological forms curved concrete stairs and droopy windowsills and the soft color palette with earth tones witness Bawa’s attempt in delivering and defining a peculiar style to architecture involved with children. By observing the creation of Bawa which still operates in a good condition it is clear that Bawa has tried to create round edged secured, and also functional child-friendly environment.

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Architecture that Bawa used for St. Bridget's Montessori School is well-known for its very own child’s perspective quality which makes children feel safe and free within the spaces. He was in a constant trial of creating a space which psychologically conveying for a child’s mindset. Bawa succeeded in creating a different with architecture which children could identify as their own. In this child world, the space signified teaching areas and the verandah which is only 3 feet high and the rest of the building being entirely open. All the cupboards and balustrades also have been made according to the proportion of a child. The particular proportion allows the teacher to observe the child anywhere in a seeing distance occurring a great connection between the child and the teacher in terms of affection and safety. The structure of the building with the slab and the wide roof gives the sense of a shelter to any preschool child with the impression of being under a wide and splendid tree.

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CH. 05 - CASE STUDY 03 - ST. BRIDGET'S KANDALAMA HOTEL - 5.1 – Introduction

In 1994 Bawa designed a strict austere hotel building stand out against a dramatic landscape in a site located in central dry zone of Sri Lanka. The hotel was designated by Aitken Spence Group in 1990 with a notion of providing the facility for the tourist to King Kasyapa's rock citadel at Sigiriya and the cave temples of Dambulla. Originally, the clients had planned to construct the hotel near Sigiriya considering its impressive Sinhalese fifth century palace and fortress built around, into and on top of a giant rock. However, Bawa rejected the site and instead opted for a new location with distant views to Sigiriya across the ancient Kandalama tank (Robson 2002). It was at a point where a boulder-strewn ridge was overlooking the southern shore of the tank. The project work was facing contradictions from cultural and religious bodies which lead to bare several changes. At the end it was a hotel with 160 bedrooms, and it was allocated around the two contrary sides of the ridge.

The hotel holds a peculiar quality according to its context and deviated from a Beach hotel or a hotel in a monsoon shore done by Bawa. It is a conspicuous departure from the more familiar modes of Bawa style. When one sees across the Kandalama tank at the hotel, it is almost invisible as the built architecture is melted into the ridge. Architect Channa Daswatta Puts the essence of the Kandalama hotel in one of his notes“ The vertical lines of the support structure and the horizontal planes of the floors completely devoid of decorations, accentuate the landscape by letting it dominate and take over but with a strong sense of the hand of man still visible in the landscape. “This chapter will institute the key design strategies used in Kandalama hotel while revealing the tangible and intangible values of its architecture.

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The flat roof itself is a tropical garden on the building. The concrete frame in the elevations is holding horizontal timber frames acting as shading pergolas wholly being a supportive screen of vegetation. Responding to the site, the entire building is covered with a vegetative cloak making it hidden in the natural landscape. While maintaining continuous flow of earth, vegetation, and waterbodies in the division between the hotel floors and natural terrain, the building is embedded in the landscape being an unrevealed part of it. The orientation and structure of the building characterized a tectonic quality which is ideally shaped around the ridge taking the visitors in a journey runs alongside an overhanging cliff-face before reaching the room. Spatially, it brings out a glimpse of Sigiriya rock, that is in a way manifesting the design ideas Bawa might have taken from the immediate context and the culture.

Public spaces in the hotel are made with the use of cool and hard materials. The trial of establishing the spirit of king Kasyapa's palace can be seen incorporating the large expanses of naked rock. (Channa Daswatta,David Robson, 1998)The contemporary framework of the building was layered in way where the skin of the building was perceived as a giant open verandah, wrapping around the cliff face as its rear ‘wall’ and visually flowing out to the Kandalama tank beyond. The disparity between inside and the outside of the building was strategically blurred.

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CH. 06 - CASE STUDY 04 - STATE MORTGAGE BANK - 6.1 – Introduction

In 1978 Bawa was assigned to design a twelve-story office building required by the socialist coalition government of Mrs. Bandaranayake to house the State Mortgage Bank. Nonetheless the building was built during the next new government of J. R. Jayewardene. The building ultimately served the function of the main secretariat of the Mahaweli Development Ministry. Considering its built nature, the geometric form of the building is inconsistent with the vernacular and picturesque aspects of Bawa's work which makes it unique from the ordinary style. The building is allocated in a commercial district between Darley Road and the southern tip of the Beira Lake, overlooking the Colombo’s Hyde Park.

The building was an early exemplar for a vigorous and futuristic prototype for the upcoming multistory buildings in the tropical city of Colombo. The environmental strategies extensively used in creating a sustainable building is highlighted in the design manifesting a different side of Bawa’s applications. The particular chapter is focused on the architecture of state mortgage Bank portraying the tropical, modern and regionalist ideas Bawa has utilized in designing a multi-story building.

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In the particular era, reaching the use of high-tech modern materials was not possible for Bawa. As importing building material externally to Sri Lanka, was severely restricted, state mortgage bank was constructed using locally available materials. The building was constructed with a reinforced concrete frame which is strongly conveyed on the elevations. The complete outlook of the building is holding the essence of concrete materiality layered upon every level. The floor finish of the building was defined with a polish cement rendering. Window frames were made of timber while the ventilation louvers were fabricated of precast concrete. In a cross section, an interesting use of materials by turning them to small functionalities can be explored. Bawa has used the overhanging floor slabs as gutters and sloping surfaces in order discharge rainwater into pipes (Kiang, 2006).

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Conclusion Considering the aspects covered in the study including the four case studies, it is certain that Bawa has represented architecture expressing his influences in life journey. Bawa was experimenting himself in tropical context by being vulnerable to locally available resources yet being in a state of applying modern possibilities that could be strategical, functional and aesthetical to the particular context. Somehow the modernity Bawa incorporated was working in the Sri Lankan context as the strategies he used was environmentally connecting and being greatly suitable to the climatic and geographical conditions. Bawa has studied the natural surroundings of the context in a way where he could create the most appropriate spatial arrangement blends with the natural realm. The design strategies Bawa implemented were clearly based on the tropical spirit which allowed him to think as a site responsive architect more than anything else. However, Bawa was influence by many theories, places and movement in architecture, culture and traditions locally and internationally. Undoubtedly, the methods he has taken in order to produce architecture was based on precedent taken from his life experience which later became a bridge between the locality and the modernity of architectural applications in Sri Lanka. Admiring the vernacularity in the existing architectural setting of the island what Bawa did was updating it with modern applications which built a different identity in defining sri Lankan architecture. It was contemporary yet holding vernacular elements in a tropical climate. This blend was a key feature of Bawa’s interpretation. By exploring the story of Bawa’s tropical modernist strategies and how it was shaped up and decorated by the influences and inspirations he grasps throughout his life is one of the aspects that can be supportive in defining architecture. This explains the idea Bawa has in his mind regarding architecture, that there is no definition for architecture which explains why Bawa hasn’t’ ever interpret it in a theoretical way leaving it for the others.

"That’s for others to do. You can find strong theoretical ideas in the work. If someone else can just as easily see the point of the whole project that is the theory. However much one tries to explain Architecture in words, I do not think this is possible as it is only the final built object that can be judged, understood, and liked or disliked” (senaka,2011)

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MArch Year 01 Semester 01 - Urban project Chester - UK

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REVITALIZING DEE BASIN

This urban design masterplan proposal is to extend the Chester City wall by creating a flyover. This would be a modern extension for this classic architecture. The vision is to bring vitality and create a social hub at the site which used to be the Dee Basin. Each access point from the flyover to the basin is where the main activity will be taking place.

There are 3 major nodes – The Market Node, The Agricultural Node, The Fishing Node. The Golf Activity Node which is an additional Node on the other side of the River Dee.

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EDUCATION Universities Liverpool John Moores University 2019 – 2021 MArch Architecture – RIBA part ll Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) 2016 – 2018 BSc (Hons) Architecture with a first-class (1:1) honor awarded by Liverpool John Moores University.

Schools Ananda College – Colombo – Sri Lanka 2006 – 2013 Secondary education A/L in Bio Stream School President’s College – Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte – Sri Lanka 2000 – 2006 Primary education

WORK EXPERIENCE MICD A – Sri Lanka Architectural Intern 2018 - 2019 Involved in the multitude of projects undertaken by the firm as a Junior Architect.

ACHIEVEMENTS Awarded with the Prof. Nimal de Silva Gold Medal for Best Overall Performance, in BSc (Hons) Architecture Degree Program - 2018 – SLIIT Recognized for Academic Excellence and been on the dean’s list of SLIIT for two semesters.

Awarded with the Vise Chancellors postgraduate scholarship by Liverpool John Moores University

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RESUME SOFTWARE SKILLS Sketchup Lumion Photoshop AutoCAD

LANGUAGES Sinhala English Hindi

PERSONAL SKILLS + 94 717874359

Artistic / Architectural Efficient and excellent Free Hand drawing skills / Perspective drawing /Graphic Composing / Portrait drawing Professional Dedicated / creative /responsible / focused / available for travel / teamwork / adaptable /easy going

+ 94 717874359 ranjakakalhara@gmail.com rkpro_creations

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