Tag: Nileeka Senerath

A 2 unit cost effective rustic residence was conceived on a 170 square meter plot bordering a 6 meter residential street in Colombo suburb of Nugegoda, Sri Lanka. Exposed clay bricks were used for the ground floor 2 bedroom unit in an experimental capacity while exposed cement bricks were used for the 1st floor 2 bedroom unit. Ground floor was allocated with 2 car parking slots 1 each per unit paved with rough hand cut granite recycled from upcountry tea plantations. 1st Floor unit bedrooms have access to balconies which overlook front & rear gardens  while lounge areas of both units are provided with generous glazing with multiple timber framed glazed windows. 1st floor unit is accessed from open to sky external steel staircase, while different types of cement louver grill-works are used for boundary walls in keeping with the rustic textural theme of the project, a breeding ground of various ideas of the architect client used in his previous projects. Two floor  slabs use 1″ thick pre cast ferro cement permanent shuttering resting on pre-stressed pre cast concrete beams laid out at 2 feet intervals. Structural skeleton is Steel.

New construction systems can be executed much faster than working by hand and the most basic technological solutions prove to be more durable, the desire for change can now be satisfied more quickly, with no reference to the past. Anything that one potentially anchored us to a historical tradition is doomed to be hidden and eventually disappear. Time may be approaching for the tradition of building with exposed bricks- beautifully and tastefully- is fast going to be a thing of the past, judging by the latest trends in architecture. This view can be applied to the world as it is today, where nearly everything has become unreal, a vulgar imitation, a substitute, where immediacy, industrial production and greed have produced abundant copies, where little in the market retains a connection with history, a sense of origin, a sense of belonging, or a relationship with nature.