By Ruvini Jayasinghe
He is a son of the south, having received his primary and secondary education in two of the most prominent schools in Galle.
In fact, his first introduction to architecture was through an Advanced Level English school text which had a chapter on The Architect! His early interest in sketching and drawing kindled his inspiration and passion for his higher education at the University of Katubedde (Moratuwa) in the Faculty of Architecture. Mr. D. H. Wijewardena completed his Master’s Degree (MSc) also at Katubedde campus.
His career began with Mihindu Keerthiratene as a junior architect and subsequently as a senior architect with Design Consortium under Mr. Lakshman Alwis. In 1991, he formed his own company, DH Wijewardene Associates, currently a company in multi-disciplinary practice in the building sector. Their projects include, the Galle Central Public Bus Complex, public houses in Dematagoda, hotels in Colombo, interior design of banks, corporate offices etc. Mr. Wijewardena is also a Certificate Holder of the Project Management Course conducted by Sri Lanka Institute of Architects. In 2008, he headed the Peer Review Team for the Airport Projects in Muscat & in Salala in Oman for Larsen & Covi JV Consultancy Firm in Oman. He has also served in the University of Sri Jayewardenepura as a visiting lecturer and currently holds a similar position in the City School of Architecture in Colombo 07.
Mr. Wijewardena was elected as President, Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (SLIA) in 2017, a two-year tenure in which he has taken bold steps towards the “propagation of the profession.”
BMD discussed his role and vision as the President of SLIA and some of the initiatives during his tenure for the advancement of the profession.
Excerpts from the interview:
I encouraged our young members to participate in the regional forum Arcasia and to represent us in forums in India, Indonesia and Thailand. These moves were strategic in working towards my vision of building a second line or a line of succession from the older generation of SLIA membership.
What are the achievements you most value in your tenure as President of SLIA?
I joined SLIA as a council member 14 years ago and climbed up to its different levels from Assistant Secretary, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President, Senior Vice President and finally to its highest office of President. I believe, this long journey of holding different offices in the SLIA is important to prepare oneself to be appointed as president and to steer the institute towards higher goals.
One of my primary responsibilities is to safeguard our membership and address recurrent issues and grievances. We need to co-exist and work together professionally with other allied professionals, like engineers, quantity surveyors, and even with non-professionals, while maintaining our status as qualified chartered architects.
But my vision for the Institute during my tenure has been threefold. My aim was to get our membership to rally round the institute, improve our knowledge base and technical skills, and propagate the profession, creating better opportunities and skills for our young architects.
I also introduced the first ever Architects Awards Ceremony during my current two-year tenure. SLIA recognized architects’ achievements with recognition awards at our inauguration ceremony, but there had been no official awards ceremony to present these awards. We invited a renown Bangladesh architect Marina Thabashim, an Agar Khan Award Winner for her unique design of a mosque, to the event.
How far have you been successful in achieving your targets and vision?
I introduced and implemented many new changes, developments and activities that have paid off. Many professional development programs for members were held, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programs to enhance the skills of young professionals and make them competitive with the rest of the region, especially with countries like Singapore, Malaysia, etc. We held about eight programs and participation increased by about 50%.
Among the activities was the “Young Architect’s Forum” an opportunity created for young architects to exchange views with senior members and also share the knowledge from the senior membership.
I broke with tradition and encouraged non – council members, especially young architects to represent Sri Lanka at regional forums, instead of the established system where council members always represented our county at international forums.
I encouraged our young members to participate in the regional forum Arcasia and to represent us in forums in India, Indonesia and Thailand. These moves were strategic in working towards my vision of building a second line or a line of succession from the older generation of SLIA membership. We need new, fresh, young blood infused into our membership. Our membership is about 1,300 now, and we do have about 200 members attending each of our events which is an improvement form the past, where average participation was about 75 – 100.
Increasing membership, especially young membership, is important for the survival and propagation of SLIA so that it does not get isolated as a professional body. Many events/workshops to develop knowledge were organized in my tenure as President, SLIA.
How successful are the measures taken to improve the knowledge base of architects, and their IT skills?
In discussions with the government, we were successful in obtaining approval for a Rs. 50 million fund for a Software Training Centre for architects and other professionals. We have convinced the government to include this in the national budget and to make this a reality in the near future.
Due to the recent political situation that prevailed in the country, the budget was not presented in parliament as scheduled, last November. But we are confident that the fund will be approved and work can begin on setting up the training centre as planned this year.
There is concern in our fraternity that foreign architects come to our country and take over. One answer to this is to prepare ourselves with advanced knowledge. In general, our knowledge is low in comparison to the region. Unless we improve our knowledge, we will find it difficult to survive. We are already experiencing this. For example, currently Singapore is experiencing a recession and their architects are offering their services at competitive rates and provide drawings in 24 hours as they are highly developed in their IT skills. They do not need to move to a country to work on a project, but simply connect online and provide the service on time. This works well with our private sector projects, but it is a situation that the SLIA has to address and ensure that our architects have a level playing field in bidding for these contracts.
Our government is signing Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with other governments. That is a trend that is happening all over the world and we cannot adopt a frog in the well attitude toward this and demand for state protection for the industry and profession. We have to open up and be competitive with international competition in terms of fee, knowledge, skills and technology. Most software here is basic, we do not have much use of licensed software and we don’t handle advanced software.
Do you think Colombo is a fully planned city and development at its present rapid pace is beneficial to the country? What repercussions do you foresee?
Unlike many other properly planned cities, Colombo does not work according to an urban design when planning approvals are given. Not possessing an urban design is a major setback, when forming
the volume of the city. For example, countries like Singapore and some cities in Malaysia have proper urban design, where the third dimension of the city is pre – planned. What is happening is Colombo now is that the same planning regulation is applied irrespective of the nature of the location. That is why there are different scales of buildings, mushrooming in the city at different locations. Singaporean Professor, Mr. Mok Wee Wee on his visit to Sri Lanka to judge the Geoffrey Bawa Awards, was surprised to see that this important aspect of planning was not practised in planning the city of Colombo. It is vital that this aspect is addressed even at this late hour.
Another important aspect is that the present development is not keeping pace with the development of infrastructure facilities. It is an open secret that Colombo discharges all its sewer in its raw form 2 km away from the coastline. Further, with the slightest drought, certain areas of Colombo, go without water. The same situation exists with power supply. Unless these situations are addressed , unplanned development could lead to the destruction of the city. It is important that all of the agencies work together, and work for a smart city concept where all the development services, including transport, are looked into in a more scientific and advanced manner.
An indicator that we are on the wrong track is that during the last five years, the average city speed of Colombo has dropped from 12km per hour to 8 km per hour and the trend is decreasing further. If it drops to five km per hour, walking will be faster than driving in the city.
In areas like Slave Island, luxury developments have been built next to low income housing developments creating a situation where contradictory land users are forced to come closer together. As is evident in the Slave Island area, massive structures have come up close to each other, destroying the identity of Colombo as a Garden City.
Do you think there is adequate capacity and encouragement for youth to select architecture as a profession?
No, Not really…
Today, very often, the role or the necessity of an architect in the building process is underestimated or misunderstood.
People still think buildings are different from architecture and that architecture is just something that is an add on, purely to beautify a building. However, this misconception is fast changing, but the rate of change, inadequate. So, therefore, the misconception keeps the lead role. To give architects their due position, they should have the freedom to design new ideas which differ from the standard plans and forms. In many developed countries this is very well understood and to promote creativity among designers, a successful solution has been to conduct design competitions. Even in countries like Bangladesh and India for prominent buildings, design competitions are conducted. This is pretty much evident even in Sri Lanka’s Port City project by the Chinese developer. The investors carried out an idea competition for the Central Business District and also for the Luxury Villas that were to be constructed along the 1.5 km artificial beach.
In such instances, very talented, but unknown architects come to the limelight and this helps the younger generation to get their proper place in the profession. Unless we also provide such opportunities, which will give young architects the proper exposure, better financial backing and recognition in society, the talented may wither away from the architect’s profession. This is very much evident in Sri Lanka because in the last decade, there are very few buildings of architectural value, that have surfaced.
With the new procurement systems like “design and build” the role of the architect has been undermined. The SLIA is continuously attempting to address these issues with authorities especially with the Construction Development Authority of Sri Lanka, which is the regulatory authority in construction aspects in Sri Lanka. bmd