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| Sunday, 2 November 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Doyen of Architecture Dr. Justin Samarasekara Dr. Samarasekera's demise is a great loss, not only to his family but for the country as a whole. He was born on the 21st May, 1916 and completed his secondary education at Nalanda Vidyalaya, Colombo. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he chose to become an Architect and therefore proceeded to India in 1938 where he entered the prestigious Sir. J.J. School of Art in Bombay. He returned to the island in 1943 having completed his architectural training and found service in the Public Works Dept. of the Government. He was later to become the Chief Architect of this Department. Two years after his return to Sri Lanka, he was elected a corporate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and thus become a member of a small pool of such architects in this country at that time. Dr. Samarasekera's career has spanned over a variety of fields and interests and since those beginnings he has served the state as its Chief Architect and the cause of the architectural profession and of science in this country.Dr. Samarasekara upon retirement as Chief Architect commenced his professional career over again when he started his own practice in the private sector. His practice was to rapidly expand and become a leading architectural concern in this country. His spirit of service as well as his abundant energies demanded that his interest spans to areas more fertile than a mere successful professional career. He along with the founding fathers of this Institute brought into being the Ceylon Institute of Architects and we are grateful for such foresight. The Ceylon Institute of Architects became for Dr. Samarasekara a vehicle to promote the establishment of architectural education in this country. He served the Institute as it Secretary in 1963 and in 1964 as well. Dr. Samarasekara in 1959 only after a few years of our founding, formed a delegation together with such pioneers of our profession as Herbert Gonsal to make representations to the Ceylon University Commission in their effort to establish the education of Architects at an appropriate level in this country. This achievement took several years of dedicated effort. In 1961 as President of our Institute he led a delegation before the Technical Education Commission which directly resulted in the establishment of an architectural course at the Institute of Practical Technology at Katubedda. His practical foresight made it apparent to him that the establishment of a mere course did not generate a climate for the development of Architectural Education at the appropriate level and soon found himself in the day to day affairs of Architectural Education as the part time Head of the very course that he and others were instrumental in establishing. From these first steps, through a process of hard work and painstaking care and through his personal charisma and his personal influence he was able to establish a substantial liaison between the University College, London, and the Course in this country and a link with the Royal Institute of British Architects. Through such careful nurturing Dr. Samarasekara together with Architect K. R. S. Peiris full time (Head of the Department of Architecture) had set the scene for the eventual recommendations of Prof. Frank Thistlewait, who was responsible for the recommendations of a Dept. of Architecture in the Faculty of Science of the University of Colombo in 1968. Dr. Samarasekara's role in this pioneering history of Architectural Education in this country received recognition when the University of Moratuwa conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, and so became the first Architect to receive such an honour. The most significant contribution he has made has been to the scientific community of this country. Starting an association with the Ceylon Association for the Advancement of Science at its founding, he represented this body as one of its delegates to the International Asian Conference at New Delhi initiated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947. This association with the principal scientific body of this country was eventually to culminate in Dr. Samarasekara being elected the General President of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science in 1976 and thus became the first Architect to be so elected by this scientific body. During this tenure of office as General President Dr. Samarasekara was successful in steering the establishment of the SLAAS Headquarters building in Colombo and his intimate association with our Institute prompted him to initiate a link with the SLAAS and ourselves which has now resulted in the Institute having a permanent home in a partnership of interest with the SLAAS. Dr. Samarasekara has a further distinction of being elected a Fellow of the Academy of Science in Sri Lanka, and is the only Architect so elected among this elite body. Towards the latter part of his life Dr. Samarasekara revived his interest in painting holding two one-man exhibitions some of which are now being displayed in the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects Building. The Council of the Institute by a Resolution and in consideration of Dr. Samarasekara's contribution to the Institute, to the profession, to Architectural Education and to scientific knowledge, elected him an Honorary Fellow of the Institute on the 28th of October 1982. Memories of him will never fade or depart, but will live forever. K. R. S. Peiris, Professor Emeritus, University of Moratuwa. |
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