Residential architects in Sri Lanka

At Kohuwala the site was 19 perches, narrow and overlooked on three sides, so the brief became how to bring in light and air without giving away privacy. We worked vertically. The ground floor opens fully to a front garden and a narrow indoor courtyard, double-height volumes pull light deep into the plan, and the bedrooms on the first floor each turn to the garden.

On Police Park Avenue, a house had been in the same family for more than seventy years. The brief was to make it work for a modern family without making it look like we had been there. We re-planned the service end, opened the back of the house to a new garden room and matched every new line to an old one. Nine months on site; the budget held at Rs. 18M.

At Weboda the owners had outgrown their home without wanting to leave, so we added rather than rebuilt: a few interior walls came down, the rear got larger openings, and the upper floor was re-planned so every room looks onto the garden. In Borella a dark colonial-era house became a three-storey home around its back garden, and most of the original walls remained. More in renovations.

Each of these houses was designed inside and out. At Kohuwala the interior is deliberately spare: white walls, clean joinery, and a timber stair and handrail that do most of the warmth, with room made for the owners’ own art. In Borella the finishes are quiet and the lighting is low. See interior design.

Sri Lanka makes its own demands. Monsoon, heat, salt air, dust from the hills. We design with these in mind from the first sketch, not as an afterthought once the form is set. For guest villas in Colombo and on the coast, see hospitality architecture.