Article source: CHINTHAKA WICKRAMAGE ASSOCIATES

Site is located overlooking the ‘Karachchi Thona’ lagoon in Maligakadu , Karaithivu .

Karaithivu is one of the areas worst hit by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, in Ampara District of the Eastern Province. Buildable land is scarce in Karaithiv, which is sandwiched between the vast stretches of paddy fields and the densely populated coastal belt and inland settlements. The reservations created by the Lagoon and the Access Road, further challenged the Architect of building a school on a compact narrow linear site, measuring 95ft. by 300ft, a reclaimed land along, the lagoon bank using tsunami debris.

The brief provided an opportunity to design a building that immersed itself into its context, as a building that can contribute to and formed part of the landscape. If the ground plane was a natural scar on the landscape due to the tsunami, could the new building effect a new condition that repaired and rejuvenated it. Could a built solution contribute to the context of an existing location? These questions informed the built solution, the selection of materials, articulation of interior volumes and the resolution of the architectural form itself.

Image Courtesy © CHINTHAKA WICKRAMAGE ASSOCIATES

• Architects: CHINTHAKA WICKRAMAGE ASSOCIATES
• Project: School by the Lagoon
• Location: Ampara, Sri Lanka
• Client: GOAL Ireland
• Assisting Architect: Nileeka Senarath
• Assistants: Bhagya Panadura, Anuradha Susantha, Sampath Rathnayake
• Engineers: Upcountry Consultant Engineers
• Quantity Surveyor: R. K. Engineering Ltd
• Coordinators: Dyfed Aubrey, Maggie Stevenson
• Contractor: Windsor Construction Ltd.
• Project Cost: Rs. 39.5 Million
• Extent: 22,750 Sq.Ft.

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