Anjalendran

Text: Hasan-Uddin Khan 
 

The mantle of the great architect, Geoffrey Bawa, is now draped over C. Anjalendran whose fine buildings continue Bawa’s approach to architecture, and extends it further.  A new book by David Robson, chronicler of Sri Lankan architecture, celebrates Anjalendran’s work in a book titled Anjalendran: Architect of Sri Lanka (Tuttle Publishing, Singapore, 2009).

Anjalendran was born in 1951.  He first studied dance but gave that up to study architecture in Sri Lanka.  He went onto London for further studies and worked there for three years till 1977.  His interest in architecture was piqued by his encounters with artists such as Barbara Sansoni and the architecture of Geoffrey Bawa and Ulrich Plesner (an associate of Bawa).  He returned to work with Bawa between 1978 and 1980.  For a while it seemed that Anjalendran was being viewed as Bawa’s successor but eventually it was felt that Anjalendran did not fit into the milieu of the office, and so he left and worked for another architect for a couple of years.  Too much of an individualist, Anjalendran went on to form his own practice in 1982, working from the veranda of his mother’s house.  He worked there until 1993 when he moved and practiced out of a house he had built for himself, where he continues to be based. 

The story of the architect’s life experiences, education and work experience are well recounted in the first part of Robson’s monograph in the chapter “Anjalendran’s World”.  It is written as a breezy set of tales that reflect well the architect’s eclectic existence.  The photographs for the book were taken be Waruna Gomis and are sensitive manifestations of the architect’s intentions.  (I suspect that Anjalendran had a significant input into the choice of illustrations.)  It is also interesting to note the style of the architectural drawings used in the book – they utilize the same techniques of presentation as the ones employed by Bawa.  The style of drawing was developed by the artist Laki Senanayake for Bawa and since then has been used by many architects in the country.  It is very expressive and appropriate for buildings that refer to the vernacular and landscape.  It is good to see drawings that reflect the character of place and building, away from the usual rendering techniques used for modern architecture or the more recent Sketch-up and Revit models.