From weapons to books

Boosting our confidence as a young practice

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    The placement of the building on site retains existing trees, while its linear footprint allows through- ventilation and brings in natural light to all internal rooms.

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    “Winning these awards boosted our confidence as a young practice and convinced us about the appropriateness of the professional and intellectual path we have defined for ourselves,” – Milinda Pathiraja, Robust Architecture Workshop.

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    The jury sees significant value in the basic message of the scheme and greatly appreciates its translation into a tangible physical structure – the construction of a library and public facility for building the physical and social fabric of a community.

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    To overcome general de-skilling of the construction workforce, and to promote the army’s participation in post-war reconstruction, this project explores the possibility of using real building projects as training grounds for skill development. Planned early, training tasks are built into the design, an approach that can be extended across the building industry as a policy to build workforce capacity.

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    Matthias Schuler is Professor of Environmental Technology at the Graduate School of Design (GSD), Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA; Founder of Transsolar Energietechnik, Stuttgart, Germany; and was a member of the Global Holcim Awards jury in 2015.

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    Yolanda Kakabadse Navarro, member of the Board of the Holcim Foundation (2004-13), at the 4th Forum on “Economy of Sustainable Construction” held in Mumbai, India (2013).

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    The finished building is a repository of knowledge for soldiers and the local community – mainly school children and women who have been long deprived of accessing such knowledge. For all, the project delivers the possibility of social cohesion and personal advancement.

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    Re-used steel sections gathered from dilapidated old factories and discarded timber railway sleepers collected from a neighboring train station provide other key materials for structure and floor respectively. Such uses of renewable, recycled, zero-carbon emitting materials and processes are complimented by sustainable environmental planning that includes cross and stack ventilation, and access to natural light – thus reducing the building’s life-cycle cost.

Architect Milinda Pathiraja explains that the greatest benefit of winning the Global Holcim Award was the international exposure it gave Robust Architecture Workshop as a young architectural practice from Sri Lanka. “We were less than three years into the practice when we won the Awards – the regional and the global one – and the library project was only the third building we had completed”, he explains.

Last updated: August 13, 2019 Ambepussa, Sri Lanka

Architect Milinda Pathiraja explains that the greatest benefit of winning the Global Holcim Award was the international exposure it gave Robust Architecture Workshop as a young architectural practice from Sri Lanka. “We were less than three years into the practice when we won the Awards – the regional and the global one – and the library project was only the third building we had completed”, he explains.

Since then, Robus Architecture Workshop has been invited to speak at many architecture forums, their work has been published widely and recognised by other award schemes, and in 2016 they were invited to present their work at the main section of the Venice Architecture Biennale!

Milinda Pathiraja believes that the Holcim Foundation’s initiative to hold the Global Award ceremony in Sri Lanka also contributed significantly to building up Robust Architecture Workshop’s reputation locally. “But more than anything else, winning these awards boosted our confidence as a young practice and convinced us about the appropriateness of the professional and intellectual path we have defined for ourselves,” he says.

The project developed by architect Milinda Pathiraja and his team from Robust Architecture Workshop in the rural town of Ambepussa, near Colombo, was aimed at enabling the reinsertion of former soldiers into civilian life. This subtle way of dealing with the post-civil war period in Sri Lanka led the jury of the Holcim Awards, which had honoured him in 2014 with a Bronze Award for the Asia Pacific region, to reward him once again in 2015 with a Global Award Silver.

He shares his experience in the special edition of international design magazine L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (AA) dedicated to architecture competitions. Read the full interview and jury member comments by Matthias Schuler, Professor of Environmental Technology, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA and Yolanda Kakabadse, former president of WWF-International.

From weapons to books: Interview with Milinda Pathiraja (English flip book)

Des armes aux livres: Entretien with Milinda Pathiraja (French flip book)

De las armas a los libros: Entrevista con Milinda Pathiraja (Spanish flip book)

Schuler_1503.jpgF13_attendee_KakabadseNavarroYolanda_Ecuador.jpgJury comments

“There is significant value in the basic message of the project’s scheme and its translation into a tangible physical structure – the construction of a library and public facility for building the physical and social fabric of a community.” – Matthias Schuler, Professor of Environmental Technology, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA and Member of the Global Holcim Awards jury in 2015.

“This project contributes to strengthening society: it deals with conflict management, healing the wounds of a past war and acknowledging that a traumatic event can be turned into an opportunity to look towards the future.” – Yolanda Kakabadse, former president of WWF-International, Member of the Global Holcim Awards jury in 2012 and 2015, and Member of the Board of the Holcim Foundation from 2004 until 2013.