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Minnette
De Silva was the first Sri Lankan
woman to be trained as an Architect
and the first Asian woman to be
elected a Memebr of the Royal
Instituie of British Architects.
She returned to Sri Lanka in 1948
and her experiments in architecture
began with the karunaratne House,
Kandy. This house still stands
as a testimony to the brave family
who had faith in Minnette and
her ideas.
In
1960 she left Sri Lanka for 5
years and called it her period
of self-renewal.
She spent this time |
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travelling in Greece,
Iran, Pakistan, and
Afghanistan and revisited India. After her
return to Sri Lanka she was engaged in the
design of a series of large tourist hotels.
In 1975Minnette went Hong Kong to join the
Department of Architecture as the first woman
architecture. She left Hong Kong after 5 years
and in 1982 Minnette settled down to work
on the much-needed "Art Center" in her hometown
kandy. She was a feelow of the Sri Lanka Institute
in 1977. She passed away in November 1998.
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commision for the project came from friends of her
parents, Algy and Letty Karunaratne- A Buddist Sinhalese
House. She rose to the challenge and prepared plans
for the first building to be designed by a woman
architect in sri Lanka and it was complete by October
1950. The site was on the southern hills around
the town of Kandy. By planning the house along the
slope, each room had an advantageof the view. The
House seem to be earved out of the hillsides. The
main feature of the living rooms is the spacious
feeling within not-so-large an area. The living
room overlooks the entrance and they are separated
by built up furntiure. People complained that the
random rubble masonry stonework looked dirty, they
being used to smooth ashlar. She had especially
picked it up for its patina. She used local timber
to show that they didn't have to import timber from
Burma, in a natural state exposing the knots and
faults. For the roof trusses, a lattice with small
pieces of wood bolted together was used. |
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