‘Ini: A selection of buildings by Vijitha Basnayaka’ debuts

Saturday, 26 August 2023 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Vijitha Basnayaka (2nd from left) presents a copy of ‘Ini’ to architect Anura Ratnavibhushana. Architect Ashley De Vos (left) is also present

‘Ini’ – a much-awaited book on the inimitable architectural works of Sri Lankan architect Vijitha Basnayaka was launched on Wednesday, 23 August, aptly in a building designed by the architect.

This book provides an insight into Basnayaka’s highly collaborative process of design, where buildings are steered through an informal path of development, aiming at a sense of spur-of-the-moment casualness in architectural production.

The book reflects on how over the past 35 years, Vijitha Basnayaka and his collaborators have created buildings of immense poetic appeal, supported by a choreographic mastery of space and form, true commitment to environmentally sensitive design, and a unique insight into local building production traditions.

Basnayaka’s buildings are genuinely space-specific in their form and meaning, refreshingly candid in their environmental and cultural ethos and masterfully poetic in their spatial and experiential narratives. His work is an outcome of life-long research on the spontaneous qualities of the vernacular space and tectonics, the disciplinary interpretations of tradition and modernity, and the discursive overlapping between art and architecture.

Trained entirely in Sri Lanka, Basnayaka’s work offers an alternative perspective to post-colonial architecture in the South Asian region, through a practice of building that values the process as much as the product.

‘Ini: A selection of buildings by Vijitha Basnayaka’ is a hardcover coffee table book consisting of 306 full-colour pages showcasing a comprehensive selection of Basnayaka’s architectural projects. The bilingual edition features text in both English and Sinhala. The book is available for sale at Vijitha Yapa Bookshops.