Post-War Collective in Sri Lanka

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 LafargeHolcim 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 LafargeHolcim 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)

Jury 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 LafargeHolcim 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 LafargeHolcim Awards jury in 2012 and 2015, and Member of the Board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation from 2004 until 2013.

More than 80% of the construction workforce in Sri Lanka is untrained – and there is a strong connection between low levels of worker skill and poor quality structures. Workers don’t have the opportunity to be trained and budgets can’t be stretched to up-skill workers before the project begins. The solution is to design a structure so that training can be part of the construction process, and the design itself has plenty of tolerance (margin for error) that accommodates the skills and equipment of the labor force.

Training by doing: building social capital through on-site learning

Former soldiers of the Sri Lankan army built a Community Library in Ambepussa designed by Robust Architecture Workshop (RAW) and won principals Ganga Ratnayake and Milinda Pathiraja a Global LafargeHolcim Awards prize. The project re-trained a labor force geared for combat with building skills that would equip them in the transition to post-military life. Since no funds were available for training before building started, the construction process itself needed to allow workers to learn basic skills, which then developed complexity over the course of the project. Building systems such as joints, components, and fabrication processes were designed with latitude for variances. For example, the roof cladding is not aligned flush to the ceiling or to the roof trusses – enabling small differences in measurements, building elements or angles to be accommodated.

In addition to the focus on labor skills, the sustainable design for a tropical location also incorporates common sense. A narrow building footprint allows cross-ventilation, existing trees were accommodated so that the building is shaded from the heat of the sun, the thermal mass of rammed earth is used to reduce temperatures inside the building, and the entire structure is elevated to ensure the natural drainage paths on a steep slope are not obstructed.

The project proved that the onsite training methodology works – and that architecture can contribute to the creation of social capital through the processes it uses, not only the structure that is created. The workers went on to construct a series of war widow houses using the skills they had developed during the Community library project.

Awards prize money invested into next project

RAW used the proven strategy of on-site training combined with a robust design for the new Boralukanda Primary School Library in the remote farming village of Dewahuwa in central Sri Lanka. The project was entirely funded by prize money received from the studio’s success in the LafargeHolcim Awards competition. The simple structure includes rammed earth walls and a ferro-cement vaulted roof – with plenty of tolerance built into the design. This ensured construction was within the capacity of the volunteer workforce drawn from the parents of the school children during their non-farming days, and the slow process of construction. The library was completed in late 2018.

The design process for RAW incorporates an assessment of the labor force’s level of training and experience. For the construction of a brick house in Kottawa, masons with many years experience had to be trained in techniques for exposed brickwork since they had only built walls that were finished with render. The design progressed to more complex techniques on the façade as the building progressed and skills were enhanced. Temporary accommodation for tourists on a tea planation was designed with prefabricated components so that the structure could be carried to the site by hand and completed dismantled after use. Since no suitable prefabricated components are produced in Sri Lanka, RAW created a design that enabled the components to be made in a small backyard factory close to the remote site at the tea plantation.

Architecture beyond technology

By engaging in the social process, architecture can take on an influential role in social policy. Milinda Pathiraja shows how the function of sustainability is not only something to measure in terms of environmental performance but also in terms of economic costs and returns. “It is vital that architecture looks beyond the technological, so that the social dimension is also an integral part of the design,” he says.

The LafargeHolcim Awards winning project of RAW as praised by the LafargeHolcim Awards jury for “Capacity building that focuses as much on the process as on the physical artifact”. Milinda Pathiraja presented “Can architecture build people’s lives” at the TEDx Colombo event “I, You, We” in October 2018.

Watch the presentation: “Can architecture build people’s lives”

In Asia Pacific, this accolade went to Robust Architecture Workshop in Colombo, Sri Lanka, represented by Milinda Pathiraja. Their design for a community library in Ambepussa, Sri Lanka, built with the support of former army personnel engaged in the nation’s civil war, shows that “turning swords into ploughshares” can be realized even today. The project received the regional LafargeHolcim Awards Bronze for Asia Pacific in 2014 and the Global LafargeHolcim Awards Silver in 2015. Today the library is a source of knowledge for veterans and the local community. The construction methods were selected specifically to help transition members of the army to civil life.

He proposed that the skills and discipline of the troops could be deployed into the building industry: replacing guns with tools. This meant training the military in a different set of skills, and since they were not trained craftsmen, the design needed to be robust and have room for tolerance. The design is repetitive to enable the ease of construction and aid training through repetition and building upon basic techniques. They created a program for building schools and used the project and construction of a community library in rural Ambepussa itself as part of the education process. Given the need for many new schools, this new knowledge has the potential to achieve scale and be replicated many times over in the future.

Beyond the impressive social dimension of the project, Milinda Pathiraja was able to go even further by constructing a building of rather remarkable architectural quality: an intelligent insertion into its context. A careful understanding of the sloping topography, an articulation of the volumes so as to integrate the surrounding landscape and the lush trees of the rainforest, the use of strong materials to provide thermal mass and lighter ones to allow for cross-ventilation, and an elegant architectural language are all operations that should not be taken for granted when working under charged circumstances.

The catalog of the Biennale notes: “So many times we have seen examples that try to tackle complex political and social challenges that fail to deliver quality architecture. Milinda Pathiraja is an exemplary case that demonstrates that the best way to do good is to start by making a good building.”

Post-War Collective wins Terra Award 2016

The community library and social recuperation project was announced Terra Award 2016 laureate in the Public Cultural Facilities category. The Terra Awards were initiated under the auspices of the UNESCO Chair “Earthen architecture, construction cultures and sustainable development” as the first international prize for contemporary earthen architecture.

The Terra Awards notes: “Earth is becoming increasingly popular in contemporary architecture: hundreds of projects of high aesthetic and technical quality are emerging across five continents. This material, which has low embodied energy, is readily available and appropriate for participatory buildings. It could help provide a solution to the needs for ecological and economical housing.” 2012 Pritzker prize laureate and former LafargeHolcim Awards winner, Wang Shu, was head of the awards jury. The prizes were presented in Lyon, France on 14 July the Terra 2016 World Congress, hosted by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

Effective training and architectural proficiency

Overlapping between vocational training and environmental planning strategies, the project attempts to heal social wounds, build workforce capacity, disseminate knowledge, appreciate sustainable building and strengthen social relations. The focus on knowledge creation and retraining – and the subsequent transformation of the army into a society-building institution – intends to support the much-needed demilitarization of the country in the aftermath of its 30-year civil war.

The single-storey building mass spans across the landscape, resting on soil through rammed-earth walls and floating above rocks via galvanised iron stilts. The building informally wraps around an internal courtyard, which is also an extension of the external landscape. Its placement on site accommodates all existing trees, follows the scale of adjacent buildings and acknowledges the natural life of the physical setting.

A series of formal and informal platforms for reading are organised in and around the building; its spatial progression unfolds as an experiential journey across diverse volumes, framed views, and blurred definitions between inside and outside. The library complex consists of three building blocks: the lending and reference section (main library), the children’s library, and the research centre. The main library and the research centre are placed almost parallel to the site’s contour formation, while the children’s section runs up the hill playfully, incorporating sudden changes in spatial volumes, and framing distant views through its cubic protrusions; skylights and the protrusions bring in plenty of light and air, while also generating a formal curiosity to entice the building’s young users.

The work of Robust Architecture Workshop is on display at the Central Pavilion until November 27, 2016, as part of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. The 5th LafargeHolcim Awards competition is open for entries until March 21, 2017 at:

www.lafargeholcim-awards.org

The work of Milinda Pathiraja is an intelligent insertion into its context. A careful understanding of the topography, an articulation of the volumes so as to integrate the surrounding landscape, the use of strong materials to provide thermal mass and lighter ones to allow for cross-ventilation, and an elegant architectural language are all operations that should not be taken for granted when working under charged circumstances. So many times we have seen examples that try to tackle complex political and social challenges that fail to deliver quality architecture. Milinda Pathiraja is an exemplary case that demonstrates that the best way to good is to start by making a good building.

The library, completed in 2015, was the first LafargeHolcim Awards recipient to host its prize handover ceremony in the winning building, and was built by a regional army squadron with the assistance from local community. The approach focuses as much on the building process as on the building as physical artefact, to celebrate a specific understanding of sustainable architecture derived from the very structure of its making. Milinda Pathiraja is co-founder of RAW; Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa (Sri Lanka); and Honorary Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Architecture, Building & Planning, University of Melbourne (Australia). His PhD research examined the possible role of architects in developing world regions as facilitators of construction policy. The study originates from the belief that, when developed with an understanding of regional characteristics, idiosyncrasies and limitations, the strategic design of technological configurations can not only produce sound building artefacts but also increase technical capacity in the workforce.

“Reporting from the Front” is curated by LafargeHolcim Foundation Board member Alejandro Aravena, and includes 88 participants from 37 different countries. 50 of them are participating in the Biennale for the first time, and 33 architects are under the age of 40. The exhibition presents examples where different dimensions are synthesized, integrating the pragmatic with the existential, pertinence and boldness, creativity and common sense.

Architect Milinda Pathiraja explained that the project also contributed to improve the quality of construction in Sri Lanka: skilled workers are essential for architects and acquiring skills is also necessary for those workers aiming at having a career in the construction industry. “Architects have a responsibility not only for the profession and the client, but also to society – it’s our goal to bring these dimensions together in our work,” he said.

The building hosted the Global Awards Silver handover ceremony in September 2015. This was the first time in the history of the competition that the prize was presented on the site of the winning project. In addition to providing outstanding social infrastructure, the project investigated the contribution architects can make to labor policy, and to developing economies through construction projects. The approach facilitates positive economic growth in the context of sustainable development.

The recently completed library makes an impressive architectural statement. The facility is open to both army personnel and the neighboring communities and thereby supports a broad cross-section of the community in the process of establishing strong foundations for their future development. The building complex 60km northwest of Colombo was constructed by soldiers who were coached in building techniques using rammed-earth walls and recycled materials that harnessed their expertise in logistics and modular construction.

Member of the Global jury and the Board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation, Maria Atkinson (left), commended the project for creating a skilled and motivated workforce through an educational program and the thoughtful deployment of specific construction techniques. “There is significant value in the basic message of the scheme – and the construction of a library that builds both the physical and social fabric of a community”, she said. Atkinson praised the initiative of the Sinha Regiment for taking an unconventional approach by offering its soldiers practical education in construction and at the same time a place to study and develop additional skills. The Awards ceremony was the first in the twelve-year history of the competition to be held on the site of the winning project and took place in the main reading hall of the library.

Recognition for the soldiers

Lieutenant General Chirshante De Silva, Commander of the Army, and Major General Boniface Perera, Colonel of the Sinha Regiment, explained that the library project was an effective method for re-tooling former soldiers for meaningful employment that improved lives both on an individual and community level. “The project brings skill development for soldiers so they have socio-economic expertise after they leave the army”, he said. The Generals presented certificates of accomplishment to the entire workforce engaged in building the library complex.

Architect Milinda Pathiraja explained that the project also contributed to improve the quality of construction in Sri Lanka: skilled workers are essential for architects and acquiring skills is also necessary for those workers aiming at having a career in the construction industry. “Architects have a responsibility not only for the profession and the client, but also to society – it’s our goal to bring these dimensions together in our work,” he said.

Commitment to create sustainability in the construction industry

Ian Thackwray, Member of the Executive Committee of LafargeHolcim responsible for Asia Pacific, noted that the Awards were an integral part of the company’s commitment to sustainable development. “We want to use our position as the world leader in the building materials industry to support sustainable construction, build awareness, and to advocate solutions that incorporate architectural excellence and enhanced quality of life”, he said.

Philippe Richart,CEO of Holcim Lanka, a member of LafargeHolcim, commented on the innovative approach to vocational training and building design that is strengthened by Sri Lanka’s architectural tradition. “Robust Architecture Workshop has truly lived up to their name – creating a solution-driven approach to sustainable development that celebrates both community and structures aligned with local climate and materials. The project was selected out of more than 6000 submissions from all continents, and we are proud that Sri Lanka is recipient of one of the top three global prizes”, he said.

LafargeHolcim Foundation and Awards

Holcim and Lafarge joined forces in July 2015 to become the new global leader in the building materials industry. The activities of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction – known since 2003 for its international Awards competitions, academic Forums, online information hub and an array of publications – continue under the name LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.

Created by the LafargeHolcim Foundation, the Awards is an international competition that recognizes innovative projects and future-oriented concepts on regional and global levels. A total of USD 2 million in prize money is awarded in each three-year cycle. The 5th cycle of regional and global Awards competition will open for submissions in the second half of 2016.

The USD 2 million Holcim Awards is the most significant international competition for sustainable design. The jury composed of renowned specialists from around the world and headed by Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University (USA) will evaluate 15 projects out of more than 6,000 submissions. The finalists are the winners of the Holcim Awards Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards 2014 in each of the five competition regions of the world.

The finalist projects competing for one of the three Global Holcim Awards prizes are located in Austria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, France, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, and the USA and were entered by authors from these countries as well as from Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. They reflect a broad variety of the current interpretation of sustainable construction combined with architectural excellence and enhanced quality of life beyond technical intervention.

The submissions will be evaluated by the Global Holcim Awards 2015 jury including Marc Angélil, Senior Dean of Architecture and Urban Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich, Switzerland), Alejandro Aravena, Principal of Elemental (Chile), Maria Atkinson, Founding Director of the Australian Green Building Council (Australia), Meisa Batayneh Maani, Principal of maisam architects and engineers (Jordan), Yolanda Kakabadse, President of WWF International (Ecuador), Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University (USA), Matthias Schuler, Principal of Transsolar(Germany), and Rolf Soiron, Chairman of the Board of the Holcim Foundation (Switzerland).

The winners of the global prizes will share prize money of USD 350,000. Previous winners of the tri-annual Global Holcim Awards include Bureau EAST (Los Angeles, USA), Centola + Associati (Salerno, Italy), Coelacanth and Associates (Tokyo, Japan), Ingenhoven und Partner Architekten (Dusseldorf, Germany), Kéré Architecture (Berlin, Germany), L’OEUF (Montreal, Canada), Public Architecture (San Francisco, USA), Proyectos Arqui5 (Caracas, Venezuela), realities:united (Berlin, Germany), Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), and Urban-Think Tank (São Paulo, Brazil).

Members of the Global Holcim Awards jury 2015

Finalist projects for the Global Holcim Awards 2015

Videos of all Global Holcim Awards 2015 finalists

About the Holcim Foundation and Holcim

The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation promotes and illustrates the strength of diverse strategies of achieving greater sustainability of the built environment. As part of its approach, the Foundation publishes booklets on outstanding examples of applied sustainable construction. The initiatives of the Holcim Foundation include the USD 2 million Holcim Awards – the most significant international competition for sustainable design.

Since it was established in 2003, the Foundation has been supported by Holcim in more than 70 countries worldwide and is independent of commercial interests. Holcim is one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates (crushed stone, gravel and sand) as well as further activities such as ready-mix concrete and asphalt, including services. 

Post-War Collective aims to re-integrate former soldiers into post-civil war Sri Lankan society. Young men from underprivileged socio-economic backgrounds are being trained in building techniques through their involvement in the construction of public structures, such as the community library, which is due for completion in early 2015. The Holcim Awards jury commended the way the project focuses “as much on the building process as on the building as a physical artefact. The combination of two objectives, pertaining to the term ‘building’ both as verb and noun, celebrates a specific understanding of architecture – one derived from the very structure of its making.”

The slip-form, rammed earth wall construction process is an opportunity to transfer technology to locals and former soldiers. The subsequent training tasks were planned at an early design stage, various components of the system and formwork were delineated, the fabrication/training tolerances defined, the production site (training ground), minimum module and sample labor gang (for training) were established, and fabrication steps laid out.

Project author Milinda Pathiraja received the 2011 RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding PhD Theses. His dissertation, The Idea of “Robust Technology” in the Definition of a “Third-World” Practice: Architecture, Design and Labour Training, was completed at the University of Melbourne School of Design. Dr Pathiraja investigated the contribution architects can make to labor policy, and to developing economies through construction projects; and the findings of the research were integrated into Post-War Collective as a way to change current practices to facilitate positive economic growth in the context of sustainable development. 

Progress: 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. Innovative use of rammed-earth demonstrates the first attempt in Sri Lanka to use that material for a building of this type and scale.

People: For psychologically, socially and economically destitute soldiers, the building process facilitates a career development path and an opportunity for social integration. 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.

Planet: Rammed-earth is sourced from an adjacent site undergoing excavation for a playground. 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.

Prosperity: The army’s human resource is assimilated for a social building project through carefully planned on-site training initiatives. This reduces immediate labor costs and produces a skilled workforce, whose training expenditure is internalized within the project, thus saving on social cost. Recycling and reliance on free, low-tech, natural resources saves money and long-term environmental costs. Programmatically, access to knowledge is reinforced as a counter to ethnic disharmony and racial conflicts, and the vehicle for proper economic development.

Place: The building’s placement on site accommodates all existing trees, follows the scale of adjacent buildings and enhances the natural charm of the landscape. A series of formal and informal platforms for reading are organized in and around the library; its spatial progression unfolds as an experiential journey across diverse volumes, framed views, and blurred definitions between inside and outside.