{"id":102324,"date":"2022-10-21T16:46:43","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T16:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=102324"},"modified":"2022-10-21T16:47:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T16:47:14","slug":"minnette-de-silva-the-brilliant-female-architect-forgotten-by-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/minnette-de-silva-the-brilliant-female-architect-forgotten-by-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnette de Silva: the brilliant female architect forgotten by history"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Minnette de Silva: the brilliant female architect forgotten by history<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Minnette de Silva and politician George de Silva at the 1948 World Congress of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace.\u00a0<\/span>Photograph: PAP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source:<\/strong>Theguardian<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Against all odds, the 1940s pioneer of Sri Lankan modernism became one of the world\u2019s most famous women architects. So why are her buildings not celebrated today?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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T<\/span><\/span>he second house designed by Minnette de Silva, once one of the most famous female architects in the world, stands in Alfred House Gardens, a leafy street in Colombo,\u00a0Sri Lanka<\/a>, tucked away from the fumes of nearby Galle Road.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Raised on columns, the house shelters within a limestone boundary wall, its iron gate patterned with leaf shapes. A yellow oleander tree and red bougainvillea spill over the gate, almost entirely obscuring the house that was built for family friends the Pierises in 1952. Inside are De Silva\u2019s trademark features: open courtyards and verandahs alive with trees, shrubs and a pond; a walled garden; a parking space that once doubled as a play area; and a staircase sweeping up to the second floor, where the bedrooms and kitchen are located.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe bedrooms were one big room divided by teak cupboards,\u201d recalls Prianga Pieris, son of the original owner. \u201cAir flowed freely along the top. As children, we used to talk to each other over the walls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His sister, Malkanthi Perera, who lives next door, says: \u201cShe had a wonderful sense of using space usefully. Nothing was wasted.\u201d As Perera speaks, the clamour of jackhammers scythes through the leafy canopy. Yet another luxury apartment tower is rearing up, this time behind her house. Colombo is changing at a rapid pace: the population is now\u00a0about 6 million<\/a>, and high-rise blocks are encroaching on the elegant villas of Alfred House Gardens. De Silva\u2019s house is one of few that remain.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Minnette de Silva\u2019s house for Ian Pieris in Colombo\u2019s Alfred House Gardens.<\/span> Photograph: LASWA<\/span>Meanwhile, the architect\u2019s own studio and home in Kandy have fallen into ruin \u2013 a sobering symbol of how the legacy of this once-famous architect has been neglected.<\/span><\/p>\n

The daughter of a reformist politician and suffragette, and a close friend of the architectural giant\u00a0Le Corbusier<\/a>, Minnette de Silva was Sri Lanka\u2019s first modernist architect and the first Asian woman to become an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects.<\/span><\/p>\n

She pursued her vocation despite her father\u2019s opposition, moving first to Mumbai and later postwar London to study. During her time at the Architectural Association (AA) in the UK she cut an elegant figure, draped in silk saris and followed by a train of young male students bearing her bags and instruments.<\/span><\/p>\n

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De Silva with Pablo Picasso, Jo Davidson and Mulk Raj Anand in 1948.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: –<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She exploited her difference \u2013 her exotic appearance and unique position at the AA \u2013 to launch herself into high society. Within no time, she became a 1940s \u201cIt girl\u201d, rubbing shoulders not just with\u00a0Le Corbusier<\/a>\u00a0but also Henri Cartier-Bresson, Picasso and Laurence Olivier. She never married, confiding much later in life to a friend that husbands were only good for carrying one\u2019s bags.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Sri Lanka became independent in 1948, De Silva returned and set up a studio in her family home at St George\u2019s \u2013 one of only two women in the world at the time to establish an architectural practice in her own name.<\/span><\/p>\n

From there she began designing and building everything from cottages to villas to entire apartment blocks. Her trademark was to develop modernist architecture in harmony with the landscape and traditional craftsmanship.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Patterned tiles in De Saram House. Colombo 1957.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: LASWA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Pieris\u2019 house, her first building in Colombo, bore those unmistakeable marks: striped, lacquered balusters in maroon and gold leaf print, echoing traditional Kandyan craftwork; doors inset with woven palm panels bearing a simple tile pattern in similar colours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although born into a wealthy family and an undeniable member of the global elite, she was concerned with more than just building houses for her friends. Her attempt to fuse artisanal traditions with her modernist buildings ensured that often impoverished craftspeople could earn a living from their work.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1950s she worked on a housing development scheme for public servants in Kandy, the island\u2019s second largest city. The scheme was groundbreaking: De Silva consulted extensively with future householders to find out how they wanted to live \u2013 information she then used to design different housing types, some of which were built by the householders themselves. It was a participatory approach that was decades ahead of its time.<\/span><\/p>\n

She experimented with indigenous methods such as wattle and daub, and incorporated rammed earth technology \u2013 a process popularly used for today\u2019s ecohomes \u2013 into buildings such as the townhouse, built for Mrs CF Fernando.<\/span><\/p>\n

Located a little further south in Colombo, the Fernando townhouse was the product of her research into cost-effective builds. In a 1955 article, De Silva wrote: \u201cWe must re-orientate our ideas for living comfortably in congested towns like Colombo, where we no longer have expansive acres of garden and spacious cool pillared halls …\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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De Silva\u2019s Pererea House, Colombo 1957.<\/span>\u00a0Photograph: LASWA<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fernando house is a compact cube, with cooling crosswinds channelled through a central staircase and surrounding verandahs, and air shafts between the door lintels and the ceiling. In a city where temperatures regularly surpass 30C (86F) in 90% humidity, such measures are crucial.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a very nice, intelligent lady,\u201d says Fernando, who still lives in the house. As we speak at her dining table the nearby staircase, constructed from inexpensive but brilliantly polished satinwood, seems to spill sunlight down into the room. \u201cShe had done a lot of improvements in building and trying to cut down expenses. She was very cooperative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For all De Silva\u2019s vision, her contribution to architecture has been only belatedly \u2013 and sometimes begrudgingly \u2013 acknowledged. It is\u00a0Geoffrey Bawa<\/a>\u00a0whose work is usually quoted as pioneering in Sri Lanka, even though De Silva preceded him by a decade. As the writer and architect\u00a0David Robson<\/a>\u00a0has pointed out, it was De Silva\u2019s experiments in fusing European modernism and a regional style of architecture that made it possible for Bawa to create the masterpieces for which he is celebrated.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a woman, her ideas were often questioned by clients, even her own contractor. While building the Pieris\u2019 house, she was forced to have her design endorsed by an engineer in London before her contractor agreed to build it. \u201cIt was\u00a0male chauvinism at its best<\/a>,\u201d observes\u00a0C Anjalendran<\/a>, an architect once closely associated with Bawa and De Silva.<\/span><\/p>\n

These setbacks toughened her demeanour. \u201cIt was very unusual to see a woman in that kind of occupation,\u201d says Charith, Fernando\u2019s son. \u201cShe was very assertive \u2013 she was able to get round the workmen. She wouldn\u2019t stand for any nonsense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n