FUTURARC INTERVIEW
But even now if we think, “okay our next project would be easier because we have had certain experiences and the process would be relatively straightforward”, that’s not the case. You realise that every new project comes with a totally new set of challenges and issues that we need to tackle and bring solutions to.
CL: What are the main challenges for you, aside from challenges faced by you and Milinda as a team? More specifically, what do you think are the main challenges for you, back in your home country, or you can talk about some of the challenges you’ve faced while you were working in Melbourne? GR: I will start with the Melbourne experience. Basically, the practice there has an established procurement process of design and building. So, even though you are an outsider, you can adapt, fit in and contribute to that system. It’s systemised in a way, so once you’re involved in the design process, you know what you will get as an outcome; you are more or less guaranteed to get the outcome that you anticipated at the design stage.
But here in Sri Lanka, the actual industry set-up is totally different; more often we find that many projects have their unique procurement processes based on their spending capacity and access to resources; and most projects happen in an incremental manner. I remember when we first started our practice, we did a lot of drawings—many sections and details illustrating our ideas and solutions— but the on-site team didn’t know how to read them to eventually build those details. So, there’s a significant gap in skill levels and knowledge transferring. You have to change the way you work with the industry here while getting the outcome you seek. To a certain extent, the design process is also happening at the site itself here, and we have to accommodate many unforeseen situations that could suddenly pop up. Therefore, the architect’s involvement on-site is quite demanding and even to the extent that you will have to be involved in skill- building at the site. So, the variations in the procurement process and the unpredictability of the labour resources are the main differences that I would see.
CL: Is there is any differentiation in challenges in terms of gender? GR: I think being a career woman in our local context, we have our own personal expectations to be successful in our respective fields. We want to be independent, hardworking and committed to our jobs, confident and strong—so that set of expectations are there as a career woman. But on top of that, in our society, women have social roles—there is another set of expectations that society expects us to fulfil— being a mother, wife, etc.
And mostly those are related to household duties, responsibilities: taking care of your kids, making meals, and maybe managing your family financing, and stuff like that. So, you have that baggage, even though you are a career woman. I mean, society is not ready to take away certain responsibilities from your shoulder, even if you are successful in your career. I think that’s a massive challenge.
But I see a transformation to a certain extent, and we’ve seen inspiring career women in the past who have done really well in their respective fields, especially male-dominated fields. We’ve had the world’s
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