Kudos for architectural achievement of Sampath Bank’s Super Branch

• International calendar features local bank’s showpiece

Sampath Bank, known for blending tradition with new trends, was featured in an international calendar for the year 2012. The bank’s Super Branch, located at No. 103, Dharmapala Mawatha was featured in the Alucobond Asia Pacific Calendar for 2012 along with 11 other landmarks from across the world.   

Featuring an array of buildings from Australia to Austria including many Asian, Asia-Pacific, Middle Eastern, and European countries, the calendar highlights the best and trendiest among the many buildings utilising Alucobond around the world.

Arjen Flierman, Alucobond’s Architectural Solutions Director for the Asia Pacific said: “The Sampath Bank building was the clear winner when I was selecting a building utilising Alucobond sheets under the corporate identity sector this year.  The building had a clear design with an extremely attractive colour scheme that perfectly incorporated feng shui principles, making it appear to be very welcoming and appealing to its consumers.

It had the key element of being distinctive and conveying a brand’s trademark and identity at the very first instant which is what we look for under the corporate identity segment.”

“We want the best buildings in the Asia Pacific region for our calendar that really capture Alucobond’s convenience, beauty and elegance and this building was the ideal choice,” he added.

Sampath Bank commissioned Suchith Mohotti Associates Private Limited, one of Colombo’s oldest and most recognised architectural companies, to design and construct the building. Sumedha Wijekoon, Chief Architect on the project attempted to convey the bank’s 25-year heritage of being a customer-oriented bank from a design perspective.

“One of the really fascinating elements of the building is how it’s opened up in the front to ensure appeal and attraction to all its consumers right from the start.   The bank was keen on making sure that several of their key organisation philosophies were highlighted through this building and we’ve done this in several ways.

The glass front opens the interior of the bank to the outside in an unusual way, enabling customers to see everything that’s going on within the bank. This is to create a sense of transparency at a very basic level.”

Speaking about the bank’s decision to depart from its more conventional buildings, Hemantha Marasinghe, the bank’s Senior Manager of Engineering Services stated: “We believe that the differentiation in the banking industry isn’t really in the products they offer but in the service.

And during its 25 year history, Sampath has always stuck to its credo- someone to take care of – ensuring that our customers get the best of everything possible. And this open concept takes the bank’s customer service to an entirely new level where we’ve tried to literally open up the bank in a unique way to all our customers.”

The unique facade of the building, decked with the bank’s signature orange and highlighted with grey panelling, takes a step away from the more traditional branches (over 200) which are located across the island.

The bank was the first local bank to introduce the Super Branch concept, which is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., 365 days of the year. In keeping with the Super Branch identity, the building takes on a modern, artistic appearance, symbolising the bank’s newest venture in being one of the most innovative local banks.

Alucobond, a well known manufacturer of composite structures, has offices located worldwide.

The annual calendar is distributed to more than 25,000 clients, investors and well wishers spanning across 11 countries.  

According to Marasinghe, the bank intends to emulate the basic concept of this building in many other branches, including the Wellawatte Super Branch scheduled to open shortly.