Abstract:
Following a brief stint of independent-rule
from 1948 under a class of post-colonial third
culture, a political breakthrough came in
1956, when a faction of local-elite with a
strong nationalist agenda came into power in
Ceylon. Within this politically-induced
backdrop, several nascent Ceylonese
architects felt the urgency for a new
architectural identity for the nation. The
domestic architectural rubric they derived on
behalf of the country's newly-defined elite
stratum is referred to as Modern regional
architecture in the tropics (MRAT), which in
another sense could be postulated as
Designed-vernacular. MRAT was based on
Architectural Modernism, and epitomized in
its making the essence of the country's
proverbial indigenous architectural tradition
of Kandyan vernacular. Furthermore, the
selective-traditions of colonial-Dutch and
colonial-British of hybrid parentage were
incorporated to the formula. This modus
operandi was further-enhanced through'traits
obtained from the local arts and crafts
movement by the rubric's proponents such as
Geoffrey Bawa. This rubric gradually
culminated as an immense success over the
years, to become the flagship elite domestic-style
of the island. Moreover, it became the
ideal manifestation of the immutable position
of country's core-oriented elites while
securing its posterity. Conversely, a lone
contemporary counterpart challenged this
position by embracing a socialist agenda and
attempted to realize it through an
expressionist modernism, with the emphasis
on the international-style technology. By the
exclusion from his designs, the elements of
tradition and vernacular- which by that time
had become a quintessential part of the
representational repertoire of elite domestic
architecture- Valentine Gunasekara strived to
disseminate the notion of a more equitable
society, perhaps somewhat less-successfully.
The paper attempts to adduce the triumph of
the cross-fertilized MRAT, as against its
relegated modern expressionist counterpart,
in order to discern the respective roles played
by tradition and vernacular in the scenario.
