• Architectural status quo of Sri Lanka: Interview with architect Prof. Nishan Wijetunge 

Local architects have a great responsibility to design passive, climatically modified buildings while people, including clients, have a responsibility not to engage in haphazard and precarious settlements and to eschew ostentation. 

Instead, they must sensibly adopt optimisation, functionality, affordability, and convenience in terms of maintenance for the purpose of living in hybrid designs that balance modern sensibilities with traditional sensitivities, a top local architecture academic and practitioner with international experience emphasised.

Arch World continues from last week and seeks the country’s youngest serving Professor of Architecture who is currently serving in the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of the Built Environment and Spatial Sciences of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) Southern Campus based in Suriyawewa, City School of Architecture (CSA) juror and examiner, Treasurer of the Sri Lanka Institute of Interior Architects and practicing Chartered Architect, Nishan Wijetunge’s opinion on a number of timely issues pertaining to our country’s architecture.

Climatic dilemma

We know that weather patterns too are changing around the world, and Sri Lanka is no exception. Recently, according to reliable sources, Sri Lankans experienced the warmest weather in the Island in 140 years, and the precipitation too has been sporadic and uncontainable. 

“The good thing is that we do not have extreme weather conditions as some places in the world do. We have tropical weather which is hot and humid throughout the year. The heat and humidity together is not a good combination for buildings. On the one hand, these factors create discomfort for the buildings’ users, and on the other, help in the fast deterioration of the buildings. In order to create comfort, we have over the years relied mostly on mechanical ventilation systems such as ceiling fans and air conditioning, which have helped to push our electricity production capacity to its limits. A couple of months without rainfall or the shortage of foreign exchange to purchase fuel for energy production, and we experience extended power cuts,” says Prof. Wijetunge.

He affirms that architects therefore have a great responsibility to design passive buildings.

“The ordinary people too have a huge role to play. They settle down in flood prone river valleys, precarious sea shores and dangerous mountain slopes for example; and when things go wrong, expect the Government to pay compensation when they are the ones who are actually at fault. The State cannot afford that anymore. Hence, it should do everything in its power to prevent people from engaging in such haphazard settlements in the first place. After all, prevention is better than the cure.” In his view, such preventive measures will also do wonders for the environment as people will not be able to settle just anywhere they please and irreversibly disrupt it. 

Between ‘wants’ and ‘needs’

In architecture, there is a dictum that dictates against architects providing what clients “want” as against what they “need”. 

“In terms of houses, most clients want more than what they actually need. Why would you want a five bedroom house when you can perfectly do with a three bedroom one? You need to know what your exact necessities and economic capabilities are. I personally hate to design something that would either take ages to be completed or not be built at all. So we try to advise such overambitious clients and convince them to cut down on their ostentatious briefs. Maybe, even phase out the construction,” says Prof. Wijetunge.

As he further adds: “Even when it comes to the commercial and institutional realms, the Government and private sector patrons of buildings should learn to optimise. Owing to the dire economic circumstances of the country, a building should be conceived very carefully and rationally. We cannot leave any room for the wastage of materials. Each and every space should be evaluated and re-evaluated carefully before one starts to build. Passive measures are a must nowadays. It is not a time for high-tech architecture but sensible architecture. If we do all this, we are not only easing the strain on our hard-up economy, but also on the deteriorating environment. Once we get out of this mess, then we can think about going big someday.”

Best architectural style 

Whatever the purpose, architects like to keep things simple and uncluttered. To make a building look attractive on top of being functional, which is an absolute necessity, it needs to have a number of attributes – e.g. cleanly designed facades and spaces, elegant furniture, matching accessories, colour balance, contrast and texture, good lighting layout and natural lighting, etc. Adhering to such measures is imperative for good architecture, as per Prof. Wijetunge. 

In terms of style too, he has interesting points to add. 

In this age of globalisation, no country in the world can live in isolation. We are invariably influenced by other cultures. We are invariably influenced by their ways and their trends. Nowadays, international trends are arriving here fast. They go hand in hand with the new materials and accessories that are imported.

It is not wrong to say that our architectural profession is at the forefront of what is happening in our region. When one discusses the tastes of Sri Lankan clients and examine what designs are most in vogue, one will find that they are trying to become modern, sometimes blatantly modern even to the extent of completely going against regionalist trends that can help device hybrid versions that will work better in this country. Some need to have more open minds about these things.

In a way, opting for modern architecture is better than trying to perpetuate the “British bungalow” or the “neo-walawwa”; the houses that take after Greek-Roman villas or pattern-book architecture. At least modern architecture is a genuine gesture. 

“Modern architecture, especially its climatically modified version that is ‘tropical modernism’, could be put to use well here in our climate. Add rationality, functionalism, passive measures, and easy and cheap maintainability, and we have a formula that works for Sri Lanka right now. When the materials too are mostly drawn from within the country or the surroundings, it becomes vernacular too. This is what the neo and tropical regionalists attempted in the 1960s – to eventually push the style to become the flagship style of the country by the 1980s. This is evident in our Parliament building in Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte, the Ruhuna University in Matara, etc. To prevent us from going overboard in terms of the so-called ‘international style’ of architecture that we have freely embraced after the open economy of 1977, we can add tradition as appropriate, just as the regionalists did. My best bet is the hybrid version, as the regionalists also agreed,” he adds. 

Hybrids are designs that strike a balance between the modern and the traditional. 

“In other words, designs that are both modern and regional. Both soft and rustic. That’s my own stylistic inclination. The location matters too of course. Like the famous Heritance Kandalama hotel by Geoffrey Manning Bawa, a building should be something to see from, rather than to be seen. I do not want a retinal centric façade. Buildings should blend with nature and not be eyesores to the beholders. Neither should they make strong statements nor alienate their contexts. If this is done, there should be a very good underlying justification. This cannot just happen willy-nilly.”

What does the future hold?

Prof. Wijetunge shared his predictions for the future, opining: “Owing to the economic mess that we are in right now, we will be left behind in the architectural world. New, more technology driven, sophisticated building styles and trends will emerge and we will not be able to keep up just yet. We will not see, in the near future, intelligent buildings with facades and forms that will change like chameleons, keeping up with environmental shifts as they are implemented in the US.

“We also will not acknowledge new concepts such as old buildings being ‘energy banks’ or ‘material repositories’ as they are considered right now in Europe. The Europeans are getting used to the crude aesthetics of rusticity even in the so called ‘posh’ corporate and commercial realms of architecture. It will take time before we reprogram ourselves to absorb such novelty. 

“We will not see any more modern towers of statement as it happens in the Middle East. Nor will we see smart façades as they implement in South East Asia. So, the best thing to do is to just hang on. Let rationality prevail in our architecture. Do the time. Then, when we are out of economic danger, we can really go for it. We will catch up someday. It’s really simple.” 

(The writer is an architect and an External Lecturer at the University of Moratuwa, the KDU, and the CSA)