CL: We’d love to know a bit more about you and your work experience, or perhaps how you came to be in this field? GR: Sure, I’m from Kandy, and I’m from a very conventional family. My parents were teachers. I was a studious student in school, but I did a lot of extra-curricular activities. Even though I selected Biology stream for my A levels, I was involved with other activities related to creative and performing art fields at school. I was passionately involved in the arts circle, participating in drama competitions, choirs, etc. So, my mother was getting worried and was helping me think about a career path, but she knows my abilities towards the arts. Later we got to know about the architecture programme at the university—at that time it was the only university that offered the programme. It seemed like a good fit for my career.
From there onwards I was fascinated by architecture—I was excited by the idea that something we design on paper comes to life. Eventually I sat for the aptitude test and got a position in the Bachelor’s degree programme, which was a three-year stint at that time. That’s where I met Milinda; we were in the same batch and completed the
B.Sc. in Built Environment programme together. Soon after that Milinda got an offer from the University of Melbourne to complete his
B.Arch programme there, but I continued my studies locally, doing my
M.Sc. here. After having a couple of years of work experience in Colombo, I sat for the Chartered examination and got my licence to practise architecture in 2002. Then I eventually moved to Melbourne with Milinda.
I was really lucky to kick off my career at a reputable architecture firm MGS Architects in Melbourne. I worked directly under two directors, Rob McGauran and Eli Giannini. I was young and didn’t have much experience about the practice and the nature of the industry there, but throughout my tenure there they have been very supportive and encouraged me to gain experience in a range of projects, from urban design and infrastructure to personal houses and affordable housing.
As an architect, that laid the foundation for me and that triggered the urge for me to contribute to architecture as a practitioner, and to do our part in our local context. I worked really closely with Eli, and I’ve seen her creativity, determination and commitment to her work, and I was totally inspired by her, and was really thankful for her for being such an exemplary role model whom architects like us could look up to. By 2011, Milinda completed his PhD, and we were both keen to come back and set up our own practice in Sri Lanka.
We didn’t think it would be that challenging, because we are coming back to our own local context, or so we thought. But starting out was really challenging, and it was all about learning and unlearning, because we’ve been apart from the country for nearly 10 years. By that time, most our contemporaries have set up their own practices and they’ve become established architects. So, it was a new beginning; we had to understand our local context again, and change our thinking and the way of working accordingly and adapt to the situation. Most projects here happen in different socio-economic, political contexts, so each project has different challenges and strengths. So far, we’ve been very fortunate—we’ve had a chance to work in an array of projects. So now we have a fair bit of understanding of how the industry works and what contributions we can make.
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