Constructive Minds

Sri Lanka Institute of Architects Celebrate 50 years:

by Prasad Abu Bakr

They are all a whole bunch of people who has kept Sri Lanka's building concepts grow from time in memorial. If one looks around in the city even though one see a few bad buildings there still many that are overly beautiful and the good thing is that most of good ones are seemingly designed and built by our own Architects.

Today the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects too are threading along such lines bringing together a group of professionals who dictate terms when it comes to building and spear heading the field of architects to the future.

A full fledged body of professionals the institute is based on the same lines of the Royal Institute of British Architects and is amongst the few which is also accredited by the RIBA The SLIA which began with a small membership of 16 numbers today boast of over 700 qualified professionals within its fold.

It was in 1948 that the first move was made to create an Institute of Architects by Herbert Gonsal who was amongst the few Ceylon Architects to return to the island after qualifying in England in 1935. Even though the idea was hatched in 1948 nothing actuall materialised until 1956 owing to disagreements on some of the proposed issues.

It was then named Ceylon Institute of Architects (CIA) comprising of a small group of overseas qualified Architects, who also had the membership of the Royal Institute of British Architects. The institutes inaugural meeting was held on the 11th of September 1957 at the Tea Propaganda Board situated in the Price Building at

Prince Street, Colombo Fort.

Oliver Weerasinghe became the first president to serve with three others, namely T.N.Wynne-Jones, Herbert E. Gonsal and G.B.Altham who formed the first group of Fellow Members of the CIA.

The first Associate Members were H.J.Bilim oria,Ronald de Kretser, S.A.David, Justin Samarasekara, Visva Selvaratnem, S.Candaval, P.N.Wijesinghe and Wilson Peiris.

In 1960 the CIA was accepted as an allied society of the RIBA by this time its membership had risen to 30.Due to the hard work of some of the founder members of the institute a School of Architecture attached to the Institute of Practical Technology, Katubedda was established in 1961.

The Ceylon Institute of Architects however was incorporated as the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects in 1976 through a private member motion and an Act of Parliament, called Sri Lanka Institute of architects Law No.1 of 1976.

It is within this scenario that many important and noteworthy structure have come up during the past so many years put up by men who has mastered the art of building with sense and style.

Architect Geoffery Bawa is a name amongst such professionals that can never go unnoticed in the annals of history of architecture in this country.

He in fact created a new sense of thinking and created awareness amongst young aspiring students in lines of style and elegance. In fact he sort of revolutionized the entire concept on building one could say looking at his past work and the vast difference he has managed to project through them in comparison to the kind of buildings that existed in this country at the time.

With special thanks to Veranjan Kurukulasuriya. Author of The Architect 1957-2007, Commemorative Edition to be issued on the opening day of ARCASIA - 14 in Colombo on the 18th of September.