FUTURARC INTERVIEW
GR: Yes, we really enjoy working with the community, and even contributing our own labour; our young colleagues also contribute a lot, enjoy the process and improve their skills and understanding. We would do workshops, stay there for few days, and then have a different work/life experience, working with the locals. So, yes, we get so much return or fulfilment working with the communities.
CL: What do you think is your brand of sustainable design, what does it mean to you? GR: I see it as a sort of collective responsibility. Everyone should recognise it, and act on it. It’s the right time to do that. Our design outcomes should reflect sustainable strategies, so this needs to be the norm or the new way of designing. These strategies are a must, and should be an integral part of what we do. So, it’s not some fancy idea. And having to face global issues like climate change, natural disasters and so on, our built environment needs to support natural cycles and we need to be part of that again, not a hinderance to it. So, as professionals who are involved in shaping our built environment, we have a direct responsibility to support those natural systems, and incorporate sustainable strategies not only in terms of the environment, but also to strengthen our communities to thrive again. So that is something that as an architect, we need to be serious about.
CL: Do you apply the same ethos for your urban projects? GF: Yes, when it comes to the urban projects, we still base our strategies on the local context, as a bottom-up process, so that it’s part and parcel of that urban setting, including the selection of materials, technology and even the way we work with the workforce. When it comes to labour, there’s a certain level of training needed to achieve the inventions that we have proposed, so the workshops and the way of upskilling the labour for these are the same ideas as those we’ve applied in rural settings.
CL: Does gender have an impact when it comes to Green architecture and sustainability in Sri Lanka? GR: There have been some great contributors to our profession like Minnette de Silva and Hirante Welandawe, and they have done admirable work and are well-known in the industry. Their buildings take care of people and the environment. But unfortunately, there are very few of them. By saying that, I don’t know whether we can recognise it as a discourse as such or if gender has an impact to it. However, regardless of our gender, being in a profession that is directly responsible for shaping our environment, as I said earlier, we have a far greater collective responsibility.
12 & 13 SWP Lodge: Communal spaces are nestled in a pavilion‐type building, thus seeking the comfort of the breeze puffing across the lake 14 & 15 Resort: The building revels on the seclusion offered by being contained within a thick forest grove and the ensuing voyages that celebrate Nature
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