SWP Lodge
In the hills surrounding Kandy city centre—to which this building is tucked into—glass and concrete boxes peep one above each other in search of expansive views of the city, thereby obliterating the natural landscape that is very much part of Kandy’s ecological and cultural setting. In such context, the genesis of this boutique hotel design stemmed from an urge to develop a building typology that, on the one hand, reacts against the city’s increasingly degrading building culture and, on the other hand, calls for a more humanistic approach in using local resources and landscape for economic gains promoted by tourism-related industries. Subsequently, the placing of the building in its undulating topography has given the particular emphasis on protecting the ecology of the site and the city as a whole, thus proposing an alternative typology for building on the hills of Kandy with a move towards responsible tourism.
Above all, this building attempts to devise an architectural proposition that captures the best of city views, but without altering the visual and physical landscape of the hills as seen from the city itself. The subsequent contextual approach of veiling the building amongst the green landscape is partly a phenomenological response and partly a form of social activism, which calls for greater responsibility in protecting the ecological pockets left in the hills above the lake.
This dedication of the building to become an advocate for preserving the ecological fabric of the city is extended to its use of environmentally sustainable design parameters in the planning of internal spaces and forms. The building relies heavily on the maximisation of natural light and cross ventilation. The expansive eaves provide shading against the tropical sun. Thick masonry walls of the rooms offer a thermal mass to counter the tropical heat while the communal spaces are nestled in a pavilion-type building, thus seeking the comfort of the breeze puffing across the lake.
The building is terraced and tucked into the sloping land to avoid unnecessary cutting and removal of earth. Every effort has been made to retain the existing trees on-site, thus designing buildings around the trees, forming organic courtyard spaces and outdoor rooms, which in turn provide opportunities for private and communal gathering for the visitors. The material pallet of natural stone, clay bricks and timber—coupled with recyclable steel—offers minimal impact to the building’s ecological footprint. Considerate landscaping, permeable surfaces, water collection ponds, etc., support natural drainage patterns and storm water discharge. Tectonically, while past traditions are acknowledged
and reinterpreted, the aim has certainly been to respond to the realities of the present and the possibilities of the future. Traditional building typologies of the region (such as pavilion type/colonnaded spaces, elevated platforms) and craft practices (such as stonemasonry, timber work) are complemented by off-the- shelf, industrial components (such as G.I tubes, metal roofing) and alternative trades (such as steel welding, cement casting) to explore a new culture of production—and consumption—that is strategic, robust and economical, and therefore can trigger an alternative path for future restructuring of the city and its building industry. This design thinking moves from a strategic position in city building (for Kandy), which calls for a building culture that fuses industry- organised production modes with the necessary support for traditionally-formed craft practices.
In the end, the critical design issue at heart here is not about how to impose preferred stylistic tropes of architecture, or whether one should place a traditional looking building or a modern one; instead, the spatial and contextual obligations, environmental prerogatives, industrial processes, and city-building goals are allowed to determine the type, shape and form of the final building output. By doing so, the architectural design is expected to generate a critique—and a dialogue—about the city that nestles it, as much as it is about the incontestable commitment a building must lend to its functional and experiential programme, its immediate topographical conditions, and its definition of appropriate technological vocabulary.
PROJECT DATA Project Name SWP Lodge Location Kandy, Sri Lanka Completion Date 2019 Site Area
771 square metres (30.5P) Gross Floor Area 484 square metres Number of Rooms Six units
Building Height Two to three Levels Client/Owner Sinhala Welanda Peramuna, Kandy Architecture Firm Robust Architecture Workshop
Principal Architects
Milinda Pathiraja; Ganga Ratnayake Main Contractor
Stephen Construction (Pvt) Ltd Mechanical & Electrical Engineer Enry Engineering Consultancy Civil & Structural Engineer Ranmal Fernando Associates Images/Photos
Kolitha Perera; MAD Factory; Dulaj Gunasena
8 The building relies heavily on maximising natural light and cross ventilation 9 Expansive eaves provide shading against the tropical sun
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