Soulful architecture

Meet the architect

Anjalendran’s office is unique. Years ago when he worked out of his mother’s home, her verandah constituted his office. The architecture students who assisted him in his office were his first ‘verandah assistants’. The same trend continues to this day. Selected architecture students assist him in his work in the verandah of his own home.

Anjalendran now has two homes, both in Battaramulla, in close proximity to each other, the home he built in ‘93 and has lived in since his move to Battaramulla, and a new guest house called the ‘crooked house’ (reflecting the shape of the site) that he built jointly with Miles Young, his client and friend, for whom he has built Mount Cinnamon in Mirissa.

Work experience at Anjalendran’s  office consists of more than producing a set of design and working drawings or visiting sites. Several vernacular buildings and landscapes of Sri Lanka have been documented by staff from his office. During my internship and stay in Sri Lanka I was introduced to the joy and honor of being lent signed first editions from his library. The writings on art, heritage, history and fiction from the Island, writers such as Ananda Coomaraswamy, Michael Ondaatje,  Gopal Gandhi and writers from the west — Hermann Hesse and Richard Bach amongst others.

‘I don’t believe in concept’ says Anjalendran. He believes that the purpose of architecture is to lift the human spirit. This statement strikes me as a powerful and an apt one especially in a war-ravaged country like his where peace has only recently been restored and is prized and cherished. I saw a video of the R & B singer John Legend’s commencement address to the 2009 graduates at UPenn in which he described the soul music he creates as ‘music that is about authenticity’. The same description can be applied to Anjalendran’s architecture which can be called ‘soulful architecture’.

‘The correct and most appropriate building in the tropics is an open pavilion’ believes Anjalendran. His buildings are barns, pavilions and his architecture is always unpretentious and lively. ‘Work should talk for itself’ he states. The architecture that he has created over the years does that. He is one of the few Asian architects to have a monograph written about him with some of the best  years of architectural practice ahead of him.
Commerce does not drive his practice. His belief in the project does. Anjalendran is an architect who has designed successful community projects in Sri Lanka. His SOS children’s villages in Nuwara Eliya, Anuradhapura, Galle, Pilyandala have won him recognition and awards. But it is easy to believe that he has worked on them without the aspiration for any award or recognition. The NGO near Bussa down south was one such Anjalendran building that I visited recently. Even during my internship at his office affordable housing was a part of the work palette addressed and I remember working on the drawings for one such project. Low cost did not mean low quality in terms of materials or spatial experiences but on the contrary it meant greater innovation during the design process.

Through the ebbs and flows of his architectural practice Anjalendran remains an inspiring teacher. For the past several years now Anjalendran has taught the first year students at City School of Architecture (CSA) Architectural design - his ‘experiencing architecture trips’ which forms a part of the design class are renowned. Sri Lankan architect Waruna Gomis who is the photographer for Anjalendran’s monograph remembers and attributes the start of his foray into photography to Anjalendran’s first year classes and his ‘experiencing architecture trips’.

The calendar from my internship in Sri Lanka is filled with jottings and trips to exciting places. For the first time for me it was not only about reading about a place but experiencing it. Anjalendran ensured that I had chance to join his students on their trips to Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. The trip with Anjalendran took us to rare and often unacknowledged architectural treasures, to vernacular and religious architecture of the island but also to modernist works such as the cultural center at Kandy designed by the first woman architect of Sri Lanka Minette de Silva and to the stunning Bawa designed chapel at Bandarawala. The trip also meant discovering crystal clear streams to swim in, waterfalls to trek down to.

Anjalendran’s clients seem gracious and willing to permit architecture students and design professionals to visit their homes. ‘My clients live well’ he reasons. Often private home owners need to prepare for guests to visit their homes but Anjalendran designed homes are usually kept fastidiously by his clients (who are often connoisseurs of art, music, scholars etc).

Seldom do people take as keen an interest and pride in their student’s work like he does. He meticulously documents the student’s studio work and archives them in neat folders. Best work from the batch - origami, sculpture, set design for puppets, photography etc. The students are immersed into all facets of experiencing of architecture. Several of his students have gone on to do exceeding well and are famous designers. Channa Dasawatte, Shamika de Silva, Dipika Dharmadasan, Sumangala were his students. He shares knowledge unabashedly. Kumar his domestic help is as well versed in contemporary Sri Lankan art.

He can tell apart several artists and identify most art in the Anjalendran homes (this is no ordinary feat – as Anjalendran’s homes tend to be veritable treasure troves of art and artifacts). Anjalendran has an eye for beautiful objects and salvages artifacts wherever he travels. He has several collections of artifacts. One hilarious cartoon of Anjalendran that hangs in his ‘crooked house’ depicts Anjalendran in his trishaw (three wheeler) ordering a group of students who struggle while carrying heavy objects (perhaps antiques and finds on one of his trips!) He is equally generous in giving away presents he accumulates during the course of his travels.

Few people know Sri Lanka’s architectural heritage better than Anjalendran. His instrumental role in documentation of these architectural treasures has been acknowledged in the marvelous book on vernacular and religious architecture of Sri Lanka ‘Architecture of an Island’ co-authored by Barbara Sansoni, Ronald Lewcock and Laki Senanayake which has been dedicated to the architect. Design is truly a collaborative exercise in Anjalendran buildings. He collaborates with several Sri Lankan artists and many are famous names now.

His circle of friends is wide and diverse. Anjalendran is also an origami artist, musician and Bharatanatyam dancer and has an extraordinarily talented circle of friends which include artist, sculptor and designer Laki Senanyake, batik artist Ena de Silva, textile designer and artist Barbara Sansoni amongst others. He is also a serious art collector and between his good friend and client Miles Young (for who whom he built Mount Cinnamon in Mirissa) and with whom he built the ‘crooked house’ in Colombo they own the largest private collection of Sri Lankan art and sculpture in Sri Lanka. He takes immense pride in the art and architecture that emerges from his country and in the work of his students. I reasoned that it must be hard for designers especially his former students to refuse a request from Anjalendran. Several architects graciously offered to show me their work. Praise or appreciation from him is genuine.

Also once an Anjalendran’s student, always one! Architect photographer Waruna Gomis and architect Palinda Kannagara mentioned that not only is he very generous in his praise of his former students architectural projects (if found good) but is also generous in his criticism of their work as well. Architects and former students feel proud about their architectural accomplishments when Anjalendran is happy with their work.

Anjalendran is pioneering amongst the generation of architects who have emerged after legendary Architect Geoffrey Bawa. Anjalendran’s regard and esteem for the late master architect stands undiminished. Geoffrey Bawa was a teacher’s teacher; Anjalendran is set to inherit this title as he shapes the next generation of Sri Lankan architects! A fascinating monograph on Anjalendran- ‘Anjalendran Architect of Sri Lanka’ has been published by Periplus. Anjalendran visited India this month and speaking at the RV School of Architecture, Bangalore in April.

The writer practises landscape architecture.