Valentine Gunasekara
Encyclopedia
Valentine Gunasekara is a Sri Lanka
n architect
considered to be one of the most influential for architecture during Sri Lanka's post-independent period.
He studied in London and became a modernist architect.
There is a book about him.
who had lost his wealth in the Great Depression
of the 1920s. He died when Valentine was 2½ years old, and Valentine's mother had to raise a family of eight children on her own.
Gunasekara was educated at Royal College
, Colombo
07, which was essentially a school modeled on a Victorian grammar school
. It was predominantly attended by the children of the rich and privileged of Ceylonese society of the time.
Gunasekara married Ranee Jayamanne in 1962, and they had eight children.
, creating new world power
s. With this influence, the British Empire
crumbled and new organizations such as the Commonwealth and United Nations
were formed. This in fact was a new Euro-US domination that was later to alter the global-trend, that colonizer nations had attempted earlier. Following Ceylon's political independence that finally made it a nation-state, the Eurocentric
local elite-class who took over the power, stuck to the same British-model of politics, administration and economics. As no significant differences were felt in lifestyles, elite-domestic architectural scene too remained rather constant enabling the style of 'Post Colonial' to prevail. According to some scholarly studies, Post Colonial consisted of various styles ranging from semi-classical; colonial and stately used style, pseudo-architectural style; commonly utilized for large-scale public projects and especially the Neo-Sinhala style; illustrating elitism of the Walauw-class.
The 20th century also saw a political re-orientation towards socialist
views which appealed very much to newly independent nations such as Ceylon. With such a revolutionary backdrop, political leadership of the nation changed hands into a new regime of patriotic-elite in 1956, with political ideologies of nationalism
backed by socialism and especially, non-alignment as a way of opposing colonial-legacy. The elite by this time had realized that they had to ride this new tide of ‘nationalism’ in order to be at the forefront of society.
Architectural Modernism which came into being in the late 19th century, by this time had reinterpreted itself as 'International Style
' around the globe. It had no continuity with architectural history
whatsoever and avoided decoration, placing emphasis on space and plan rather than mass. The ideas of Modernism were also in accordance with the socialist-inspired desires of most post-colonial leaders, whose objective was to use the post-colonial state as an instrument of change in building a modern-nation. It was this environment that made modernism comfortable for non-European architects who were handed-over the task of coming up with new architectural identities. Furthermore, the only form of reference in the modernist discourse to a particular place was found in the idea of tropical architecture. This assumed that there are two major climatic regions of the world that are temperate and tropical. These ideas reinstated that architectural modernism did not recognize any social or cultural differences amongst people, apart from merely a climatic difference.
For the post-independence Ceylonese architects seeking a new architectural identity for the nation as an attempt to break away from the British architectural legacy, the modernist architecture provided the perfect “neutral” terrain.
Just as architecture itself, architectural education
in the former colonial nations during the time reflected similar views. The post-imperial Commonwealth
further facilitated this trend by providing opportunities for post-colonial subjects to travel to other dominions to study architecture. Tropical modernism which found common practice during the immediate post-independence period was the result of this European attempt to further govern the built environment
of their former colonies. It has to be noted that the prospective architects who made these trips essentially had to come from elite family-backgrounds. On their return, they were mainly employed by the contemporary elite who were riding the tide of nationalism
, and their domestic buildings had become the best way to show-off their newly assumed commitment to the society.
in Edward, Reid and Begg (ER&B), following the completion of his studies at Architectural Association
(AA) school in London
. He had further participated in the course on tropical modernism run by Maxwell Fry
at AA Tropical School.
In 1965 he won a Rockefeller grant and spent the whole of the following year touring the United States
and personally meeting famous American architects such as Louis Kahn
, Kevin Roche
, Charles Eames, Richard Neutra
, Paul Rudolph
and Phillip Johnson
. He further had the rare opportunity to work with Kevin Roche, and this could be seen as one of the decisive turning points of his design ideology.
Despite the great design freedom he enjoyed at the ER&B, his subconscious and conscious vengeance, towards existing and developing architectural patterns at the time, led to his obsession of discovering a unique architectural style of his own for a more just society. Being an ardent Catholic
, he was very much committed to his religious philosophies that extended into his architecture that was based on communality, purity, serenity, as well as accuracy.
The rubric
of Modernism that was largely prolific in Europe and the Americas in the form of so-called International style, also found its use in the post- colonial Ceylon that had undergone a radical political transformation, with the intervention of a number of new-generation of architects educated in the West. Architect Valentine Gunasekara could be stated as the boldest expressionist modernist the country's architectural profession has ever encountered.
Christopher de Saram joined his practice from 1969 to 1974 and remained a conspicuous figure; a friend and associate of Valentine before he left in 1974 to join University of Moratuwa
, Sri Lanka, to teach social studies. During this time, they collaborated in an array of interesting projects; the most notable being Tangalle Bay Beach Hotel in Tangalle
, Southern Sri Lanka. Jayati Weerakoon became his most reliable structural engineer
, and the two worked together in numerous interesting and complex projects. This partnership spanned throughout his entire carrier. Valentine Gunasekara also had the habit of employing a very few contractors to carryout his projects and M. C. Costa was the most notable.
With such a close-knit and nonhierarchical team, and commissions which mainly came from his Catholic connections, the practice ran for a substantial period. He deployed the novel methods of designing that he had picked up, from his working stint in the States, such as design development through models (etc.) quite effectively. Furthermore, he is said to be determined to design his projects affluently before going to tender. However, some postulate that he had the constant habit of changing his designs during the process of construction, adding to the frustration of clients and engineers.
s, temples, monasteries and colonial buildings through redeployment of some of their architectural components. Architectural features such as ancient columns and fenestration were reutilized along with constituents of form such as interior courtyards, colonnaded passages, transitional verandah
s and overhanging clay tile roofs.
In a more opposite extreme and abiding by his Modernist ideologies, Valentine disliked most traditional design concepts relating to the basic constituents of form. Downward or overhanging roof slopes of traditional verandah spaces was the most problematic as well as disturbing for him and wanted these roofs and ceilings to open out in order to allow the beauty of the surrounding in the form of trees, shrubs, their flowers and more of the sky to be captured further more to the interiors. His discretion of the traditional roof form was caused due to his thinking that the downward sloping roof obstructs the "inside-outside relationship" and acts as "a pause in Sri Lankan architectural space". The "feeling of introspect" was something to get rid of according to his novel way of thinking. Valentine considered that the spatial progression of a building at the boundary, where inside meets outside, is something that has to be more fluid, and this was achieved by raising the canopy
or the roof edge up to ensure the outward draw. The more sculpturous forms seen in modern-movement examples of the day strongly appealed to him to be a great attraction.
Anusha Rajapaksha also categorizes the evolution of Valentine's architectural concepts into three chronological phases, where his philosophy, concepts and forms saw a transformation that was rather radical. He was in constant quest for new spatial concepts that could be created with the innovative technology and material of the time such as glass and reinforced concrete.
His diverse portfolio
consists of a number of domestic buildings of the Modernist discourse. These were done mainly for the new elite-class of the country and they bare witness to the gradual path to his sculpturous and expressionist or in other words, rather raw forms of Modernism achieved during the last phase, having commenced from more tolerable counterparts of the first two phases.
, in the early 1980s, and worked on a number of prominent government projects there.
During the course of his architectural carrier in Ceylon, he migrated twice to the United States; for the first time in 1974 (and returning in 1976) and for the last time in 1987 for good. He had to resort to becoming teacher in Wentworth College, a small private school in Boston, to support his family. He later moved away and retired (in 2002) in California
.
, as the latter is conceived as the antithesis of the former. A notion prevails in the Sri Lankan architectural academia that Valentine's architectural carrier is not as affluent as Bawa's, the very reason that prompted him to retire while his counterpart, in comparison, received worldwide acclaim.
Sri Lanka is a nation with an array of primordial traditions instigated by an immutable Sinhalese-Buddhist cultural base, which had been time-tested throughout various quantum leaps that occurred in globalization
history of the world. The building traditions springing from this unique culture- in grand and folk design traditional forms- have been appropriately re-invented from time to time throughout history, allowing new rubrics with their distinct identities to spawn. In these rubrics, the presence of Sinhalese grand design tradition and vernacular has always been affluent. Hence, judging by the immense public acceptance and thus, success of the hybrid rubric devised by Geoffrey Bawa (that synthesized with indigenous traditions, as against the alienation by Valentine Gunasekara sprung up through the attempted relegation of the local with a frivolous foreign antithesis), the ever-prevailing immutability of the local building traditions and thus, the dominant indigenous elite sub-culture falling within the dominant ethnic culture of the country becomes explicit.
On the other hand, "Art for Art's sake
" never seemed to have worked in Sri Lanka, albeit being aimed at the betterment of the society; art is ultimately political. Finally, it could be avowed that, the Sri Lankan elites of influence, did not embrace a rubric based on vernacular
tradition due to their genuine belief of it as the one that best represents the country's identity; within the process of fulfilling their social responsibility as elites. The surviving feudal elites were rather obsessed with creating a picturesque
and nostalgic niche of their own, through a rubric that best epitomized the defunct design traditions from medieval and colonial periods of Ceylon, from their past heyday. It also appealed to the elites who were progeny of the country's latter social mobility
, as it was conceived as the ideal means of artificially aligning them with their old counterparts to gain public legitimacy. Hence, neither the vernacular nor tradition was utilized to their paramount potential, to form the best possible identity for the country's elite domestic architecture. Just because a certain architectural rubric as Valentine's threatens posterity of the elite system, it would never succeed without the familiar traditional vernacular archaic.
However, in terms of genuineness in approach, Gunasekara is unrivalled by Bawa.
Apart from this, only a handful of attempts have been made to credit him for his affluent portfolio of work.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
n architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
considered to be one of the most influential for architecture during Sri Lanka's post-independent period.
He studied in London and became a modernist architect.
There is a book about him.
Personal life
Gunasekara was born to an elite Catholic family in colonial Ceylon. His father, Danny Gunasekara was a landed proprietorLanded property
Landed property or landed estates is a real estate term that usually refers to a property that generates income for the owner without the owner having to do the actual work of the estate. In Europe, agrarian landed property typically consisted of a manor, several tenant farms, and some privileged...
who had lost his wealth in the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
of the 1920s. He died when Valentine was 2½ years old, and Valentine's mother had to raise a family of eight children on her own.
Gunasekara was educated at Royal College
Royal College Colombo
The Royal College of Colombo was founded in January 1835 in Colombo. It is considered to be the leading Public School in Sri Lanka...
, Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
07, which was essentially a school modeled on a Victorian grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
. It was predominantly attended by the children of the rich and privileged of Ceylonese society of the time.
Gunasekara married Ranee Jayamanne in 1962, and they had eight children.
Post-independent period architectural profession in Sri Lanka
The 20th century saw a mass re-organization of ‘worldwide system of States and Empires’ following two World WarsWorld war
A world war is a war affecting the majority of the world's most powerful and populous nations. World wars span multiple countries on multiple continents, with battles fought in multiple theaters....
, creating new world power
World Power
World Power is the debut album of German Eurodance project Snap!, released in 1990 on Bookmark/Ariola Records. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, as the project's musical style and its vocalists, Turbo B and Penny "Tiny" Ford, were well-received...
s. With this influence, the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
crumbled and new organizations such as the Commonwealth and United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
were formed. This in fact was a new Euro-US domination that was later to alter the global-trend, that colonizer nations had attempted earlier. Following Ceylon's political independence that finally made it a nation-state, the Eurocentric
Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective and with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture...
local elite-class who took over the power, stuck to the same British-model of politics, administration and economics. As no significant differences were felt in lifestyles, elite-domestic architectural scene too remained rather constant enabling the style of 'Post Colonial' to prevail. According to some scholarly studies, Post Colonial consisted of various styles ranging from semi-classical; colonial and stately used style, pseudo-architectural style; commonly utilized for large-scale public projects and especially the Neo-Sinhala style; illustrating elitism of the Walauw-class.
The 20th century also saw a political re-orientation towards socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
views which appealed very much to newly independent nations such as Ceylon. With such a revolutionary backdrop, political leadership of the nation changed hands into a new regime of patriotic-elite in 1956, with political ideologies of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
backed by socialism and especially, non-alignment as a way of opposing colonial-legacy. The elite by this time had realized that they had to ride this new tide of ‘nationalism’ in order to be at the forefront of society.
Architectural Modernism which came into being in the late 19th century, by this time had reinterpreted itself as 'International Style
International style
International style may refer to:*International style , the early 20th century modern movement in architecture*International style , the International Gothic style in medieval art...
' around the globe. It had no continuity with architectural history
History of architecture
The history of architecture traces the changes in architecture through various traditions, regions, overarching stylistic trends, and dates.-Neolithic architecture:Neolithic architecture is the architecture of the Neolithic period...
whatsoever and avoided decoration, placing emphasis on space and plan rather than mass. The ideas of Modernism were also in accordance with the socialist-inspired desires of most post-colonial leaders, whose objective was to use the post-colonial state as an instrument of change in building a modern-nation. It was this environment that made modernism comfortable for non-European architects who were handed-over the task of coming up with new architectural identities. Furthermore, the only form of reference in the modernist discourse to a particular place was found in the idea of tropical architecture. This assumed that there are two major climatic regions of the world that are temperate and tropical. These ideas reinstated that architectural modernism did not recognize any social or cultural differences amongst people, apart from merely a climatic difference.
For the post-independence Ceylonese architects seeking a new architectural identity for the nation as an attempt to break away from the British architectural legacy, the modernist architecture provided the perfect “neutral” terrain.
Just as architecture itself, architectural education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
in the former colonial nations during the time reflected similar views. The post-imperial Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
further facilitated this trend by providing opportunities for post-colonial subjects to travel to other dominions to study architecture. Tropical modernism which found common practice during the immediate post-independence period was the result of this European attempt to further govern the built environment
Built environment
The term built environment refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from personal shelter and buildings to neighborhoods and cities that can often include their supporting infrastructure, such as water supply or energy networks.The built...
of their former colonies. It has to be noted that the prospective architects who made these trips essentially had to come from elite family-backgrounds. On their return, they were mainly employed by the contemporary elite who were riding the tide of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, and their domestic buildings had become the best way to show-off their newly assumed commitment to the society.
Setting out
Valentine began his elaborative architectural career as a partner in 1959 alongside the renowned Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey BawaGeoffrey Bawa
Deshamanya Geoffrey Manning Bawa, FRIBA was a Sri Lankan architect. He is the most renowned architect in Sri Lanka and was among the most influential Asian architects of his generation. He is the principal force behind what is today known globally as ‘tropical modernism’.-Early life:Geoffrey Bawa...
in Edward, Reid and Begg (ER&B), following the completion of his studies at Architectural Association
Architectural Association School of Architecture
The Architectural Association School of Architecture, more usually known as the AA, is an architectural school in London, United Kingdom...
(AA) school in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He had further participated in the course on tropical modernism run by Maxwell Fry
Maxwell Fry
Edwin Maxwell Fry, CBE, RA, FRIBA, FRTPI, known as Maxwell Fry , was an English modernist architect of the middle and late 20th century, known for his buildings in Britain, Africa and India....
at AA Tropical School.
In 1965 he won a Rockefeller grant and spent the whole of the following year touring the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and personally meeting famous American architects such as Louis Kahn
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn was an American architect, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935...
, Kevin Roche
Kevin Roche
Kevin Roche is an Irish-American architect known for his creative work with glass.Born in Dublin, Roche spent his formative years in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork before he graduated from University College Dublin in 1945. He then worked with Michael Scott from 1945-1946...
, Charles Eames, Richard Neutra
Richard Neutra
Richard Joseph Neutra is considered one of modernism's most important architects.- Biography :Neutra was born in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Vienna, Austria Hungary, on April 8, 1892. He was born into both-Jewish wealthy family...
, Paul Rudolph
Paul Rudolph (architect)
Paul Marvin Rudolph was an American architect and the dean of the Yale School of Architecture for six years, known for use of concrete and highly complex floor plans...
and Phillip Johnson
Phillip Johnson
Phillip Johnson, Philip Johnson, or Phil Johnson may refer to:*Philip Johnson , American architect*Philip Johnson , U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania*Philip Johnson , retired American tennis player...
. He further had the rare opportunity to work with Kevin Roche, and this could be seen as one of the decisive turning points of his design ideology.
Despite the great design freedom he enjoyed at the ER&B, his subconscious and conscious vengeance, towards existing and developing architectural patterns at the time, led to his obsession of discovering a unique architectural style of his own for a more just society. Being an ardent Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, he was very much committed to his religious philosophies that extended into his architecture that was based on communality, purity, serenity, as well as accuracy.
The rubric
Rubric
A rubric is a word or section of text which is traditionally written or printed in red ink to highlight it. The word derives from the , meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or earlier...
of Modernism that was largely prolific in Europe and the Americas in the form of so-called International style, also found its use in the post- colonial Ceylon that had undergone a radical political transformation, with the intervention of a number of new-generation of architects educated in the West. Architect Valentine Gunasekara could be stated as the boldest expressionist modernist the country's architectural profession has ever encountered.
Own practice
Owing to his conflicts with Geoffrey Bawa at ER&B, he withdrew from the practice in 1969 with eight others and commenced to set out on his own.Christopher de Saram joined his practice from 1969 to 1974 and remained a conspicuous figure; a friend and associate of Valentine before he left in 1974 to join University of Moratuwa
University of Moratuwa
The University of Moratuwa, located on the banks of the Bolgoda Lake in Katubedda, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, is a technological university in Sri Lanka. Apart from the academics including the undergraduate and postgraduate studies, university of Moratuwa presents a variety of social and cultural...
, Sri Lanka, to teach social studies. During this time, they collaborated in an array of interesting projects; the most notable being Tangalle Bay Beach Hotel in Tangalle
Tangalle
Tangalle is a town on the southern coast of Sri Lanka located in the Hambantota District. It has a mild climate, in comparison to the rest of the district, and sandy beaches....
, Southern Sri Lanka. Jayati Weerakoon became his most reliable structural engineer
Structural engineer
Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants...
, and the two worked together in numerous interesting and complex projects. This partnership spanned throughout his entire carrier. Valentine Gunasekara also had the habit of employing a very few contractors to carryout his projects and M. C. Costa was the most notable.
With such a close-knit and nonhierarchical team, and commissions which mainly came from his Catholic connections, the practice ran for a substantial period. He deployed the novel methods of designing that he had picked up, from his working stint in the States, such as design development through models (etc.) quite effectively. Furthermore, he is said to be determined to design his projects affluently before going to tender. However, some postulate that he had the constant habit of changing his designs during the process of construction, adding to the frustration of clients and engineers.
Expressionist Modernism: an alternative to a new Sri Lankan Identity
Following independence, the necessity to discover an architectural rubric that would suit the country exhilarated, and was addressed by the means of using indigenous materials, traditions as well as technology. This exercise gave emphasis to keep up with in-built special qualities of old buildings such as walauwaWalauwa
Walauwa is the name given to a feudal/colonial manor house in Ceylon built by native headmen. It is also reference to the feudal social systems that existed during the colonial era.-Kandyan Walauwas:...
s, temples, monasteries and colonial buildings through redeployment of some of their architectural components. Architectural features such as ancient columns and fenestration were reutilized along with constituents of form such as interior courtyards, colonnaded passages, transitional verandah
Verandah
A veranda or verandah is a roofed opened gallery or porch. It is also described as an open pillared gallery, generally roofed, built around a central structure...
s and overhanging clay tile roofs.
In a more opposite extreme and abiding by his Modernist ideologies, Valentine disliked most traditional design concepts relating to the basic constituents of form. Downward or overhanging roof slopes of traditional verandah spaces was the most problematic as well as disturbing for him and wanted these roofs and ceilings to open out in order to allow the beauty of the surrounding in the form of trees, shrubs, their flowers and more of the sky to be captured further more to the interiors. His discretion of the traditional roof form was caused due to his thinking that the downward sloping roof obstructs the "inside-outside relationship" and acts as "a pause in Sri Lankan architectural space". The "feeling of introspect" was something to get rid of according to his novel way of thinking. Valentine considered that the spatial progression of a building at the boundary, where inside meets outside, is something that has to be more fluid, and this was achieved by raising the canopy
Canopy (building)
A canopy is an overhead roof or else a structure over which a fabric or metal covering is attached, able to provide shade or shelter. A canopy can also be a tent, generally without a floor....
or the roof edge up to ensure the outward draw. The more sculpturous forms seen in modern-movement examples of the day strongly appealed to him to be a great attraction.
Anusha Rajapaksha also categorizes the evolution of Valentine's architectural concepts into three chronological phases, where his philosophy, concepts and forms saw a transformation that was rather radical. He was in constant quest for new spatial concepts that could be created with the innovative technology and material of the time such as glass and reinforced concrete.
His diverse portfolio
Portfolio
Portfolio literally means "a case for carrying loose papers," ....
consists of a number of domestic buildings of the Modernist discourse. These were done mainly for the new elite-class of the country and they bare witness to the gradual path to his sculpturous and expressionist or in other words, rather raw forms of Modernism achieved during the last phase, having commenced from more tolerable counterparts of the first two phases.
Working abroad and emigration
Valentine Gunasekara had a brief spell working in NigeriaNigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, in the early 1980s, and worked on a number of prominent government projects there.
During the course of his architectural carrier in Ceylon, he migrated twice to the United States; for the first time in 1974 (and returning in 1976) and for the last time in 1987 for good. He had to resort to becoming teacher in Wentworth College, a small private school in Boston, to support his family. He later moved away and retired (in 2002) in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
An unfair comparison
The architecture of Valentine Gunasekara is often compared with Geoffrey BawaGeoffrey Bawa
Deshamanya Geoffrey Manning Bawa, FRIBA was a Sri Lankan architect. He is the most renowned architect in Sri Lanka and was among the most influential Asian architects of his generation. He is the principal force behind what is today known globally as ‘tropical modernism’.-Early life:Geoffrey Bawa...
, as the latter is conceived as the antithesis of the former. A notion prevails in the Sri Lankan architectural academia that Valentine's architectural carrier is not as affluent as Bawa's, the very reason that prompted him to retire while his counterpart, in comparison, received worldwide acclaim.
Sri Lanka is a nation with an array of primordial traditions instigated by an immutable Sinhalese-Buddhist cultural base, which had been time-tested throughout various quantum leaps that occurred in globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
history of the world. The building traditions springing from this unique culture- in grand and folk design traditional forms- have been appropriately re-invented from time to time throughout history, allowing new rubrics with their distinct identities to spawn. In these rubrics, the presence of Sinhalese grand design tradition and vernacular has always been affluent. Hence, judging by the immense public acceptance and thus, success of the hybrid rubric devised by Geoffrey Bawa (that synthesized with indigenous traditions, as against the alienation by Valentine Gunasekara sprung up through the attempted relegation of the local with a frivolous foreign antithesis), the ever-prevailing immutability of the local building traditions and thus, the dominant indigenous elite sub-culture falling within the dominant ethnic culture of the country becomes explicit.
On the other hand, "Art for Art's sake
Art for art's sake
"Art for art's sake" is the usual English rendering of a French slogan, from the early 19th century, l'art pour l'art, and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function...
" never seemed to have worked in Sri Lanka, albeit being aimed at the betterment of the society; art is ultimately political. Finally, it could be avowed that, the Sri Lankan elites of influence, did not embrace a rubric based on vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
tradition due to their genuine belief of it as the one that best represents the country's identity; within the process of fulfilling their social responsibility as elites. The surviving feudal elites were rather obsessed with creating a picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
and nostalgic niche of their own, through a rubric that best epitomized the defunct design traditions from medieval and colonial periods of Ceylon, from their past heyday. It also appealed to the elites who were progeny of the country's latter social mobility
Social mobility
Social mobility refers to the movement of people in a population from one social class or economic level to another. It typically refers to vertical mobility -- movement of individuals or groups up from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying; but can also refer to...
, as it was conceived as the ideal means of artificially aligning them with their old counterparts to gain public legitimacy. Hence, neither the vernacular nor tradition was utilized to their paramount potential, to form the best possible identity for the country's elite domestic architecture. Just because a certain architectural rubric as Valentine's threatens posterity of the elite system, it would never succeed without the familiar traditional vernacular archaic.
However, in terms of genuineness in approach, Gunasekara is unrivalled by Bawa.
Legacy
Despite the fact that he designed homes, churches, schools, commercial buildings and hotels, his projects have gone largely unpublished, and unrecognized until Anoma Peiris, an Australia-based Sri Lankan scholar published a book on his architecture titled "Imagining Modernity: The Architecture of Valentine Gunasekara", in 2007.Apart from this, only a handful of attempts have been made to credit him for his affluent portfolio of work.