Shades of the future
Bedecked with ferns: Helium office
Kosala Weerasekara is like a crystal ball in that he reflects in chinks and gleams, the future of our architecture. Winner of the coveted Young Architect of the Year award in both 2020 and 2022, at the Design Awards organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects, the 37-year-old says he has ‘no style’ but his buildings are testimony to his creative vision.
His own home and studio, dubbed ‘Kozy’s Canvas’, is such a relaxing melange – mostly a steel and glass structure but with antique Dutch windows lined with a faint sea green, framed by dark shadowy foliage of the wild garden spilling in. The bedsitter style dwelling features butterfly-like furnishings on a trendy shoestring.
Among his other designs are the walawwa-like Courtyard House where the traditional lines of a heritage home with carved jak and ulu tiles and the Sinhalese chieftain’s splendour are bequeathed on a compact suburban house. Or take the Helium office which has the facade of a series of wooden boxes each spilling out ferns and foliage like a window garden.
Kosala Weerasekara
A product of Richmond College, Galle and the Moratuwa University, Kosala has the naturalist’s proclivity for verdancy as seen in the Helium’s computer-lined working spaces that are wreathed in greenery.
Today heading a buzzing practice with many a junior architect under him, Kosala disenchants one a bit saying architecture is far less an art than a realm with more ‘science and economics’ to it.
The old notion that you can walk into a pristine site and envisage a sprawling architecturally striking structure is no longer practical; such intuitive ideas take a backseat to the design process.
The modern architect is more likely to suggest a more practical option – in Kosala’s case, the humble bedsitter. Kosala points out that building a house for generations is not in the long run sensible because most houses will be occupied “for thirty years maximum”, with children opting for their own homes.
“In European countries or in Australia or New Zealand their building cost is minimal – they don’t build for generations, they build for particular time periods. Whenever you want, you can remove it and make a new one.”
‘Kozy’s Canvas: Kosala’s home and studio
This also allows keeping ahead with the swiftly changing backdrops and trends. As Kosala says “your economic status changes, your way of thinking changes, your life pattern changes”- rather rapidly.
Consequently Kosala’s bedsitters are built rather miniature with plenty of garden but with no ‘half-built appearance’. Little cost means there is no hassle with loans for young parents. Some clients don’t even want to expand later, preferring the cosy feel.
It is sad, he says, that Sri Lankans see the size of their house as a status symbol. Kozy’s Canvas itself, in a leafy part of Battaramulla, apart from his own small bedsitter and studio, has two other bedsitters which he rents out as Air B’n’Bs.
Kosala also sees a silver lining in the current economic crisis. It has brought in its wings opportunities for Sri Lankan architects to work from here on projects abroad, he says.
“Now because of the cost factor we can experiment with new material.” There is scope for new research and it is important he says “that we take it on all positively as a challenge.”
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