Sadanandan

In between the numerous houses he has built for clients in Sri i Lanka, Anura Ratnavibhushana built three houses for himself. “For fun,” he says, in all seriousness. We meet him in the second of these, in his compact office space in Borella that reflects modernity in all aspects- masterly use of space and design elements visible at every glance, like the talipot palm leaf lamp shade on one wall. But we are here to talk mostly of his first house, built in the early ‘80s which has now made its way into an international architectural digest, one of just three entries from Sri Lanka among some 80 countries represented.

The Phaidon Atlas‘20th Century World Architecture’released late last year is a hefty and prestigious publication, presenting “an overview of the finest built architecture from around the world completed between 1900 and 1999. The unprecedented global scope of this collection of over 750 key buildings juxtaposes architectural icons with regional masterpieces”, the description reads. Ratnavibhushana’s entry stands with those from the country’s most legendary architects: Geoffrey Bawa- the farm school for the Good Shepherd nuns at Hanwella (the Yahapath Endera-1966) and Minette de Silva- the Kandy Karunaratne house built in 1951.

Ratnavibhushana himself is slightly taken aback that he is in such august company but then he is one of the country’s leading contemporary names with a body of work that is quite remarkably inspirational. His landmark buildings are all over the city and country, the Mahaweli Museum and Royal Asiatic Society library, the UNP headquarters, Kotte, the S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike Museum at the BMICH, the CEB circuit bungalow in Samanalaweva, the Jetwing Ayurveda Pavilions Hotel, Negombo… far too many to list. Last year the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects honoured him with their Presidential Award for his contribution to architecture in this country.

The Phaidon inclusion, is noteworthy yet the house has been recognised even before. The Lagoon House, Moratuwa, as it is known was featured in the book World Architecture, in Mimar (an architecture journal) of December 1987 and in Casa Vogue which gave it a spread under the title ‘Dialogue between history and nature’ in August 1994.

It is a house that holds a good many significant memories for him..his first family house, where he was the client, he