Minnete de Silva: Aficionado and Architect Extraordinary
Minnette de Silva (Sinhala: මිනට් ද සිල්වා;Tamil: மினிட் டி சில்வா; 1 February 1918–24 November 1998) was an internationally recognized architect, considered the pioneer of the modern architectural style in Sri Lanka.[2][3] De Silva was a fellow of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects.
De Silva was the first Sri Lankan woman to be trained as an architect and the first Asian woman to be elected an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1948. De Silva was also the first Asian representative of CIAM in 1947 and was one of the founding members of the Architectural publication Marg. Later in her life, she was awarded the SLIA Gold Medal for her contribution to Architecture in particular her pioneering work developing a ‘regional modernism for the tropics’….. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnette_de_Silva
Minnette de Silva with Pablo Picasso (left) at the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace, 1948
The north side of the Karunaratne House in Kandy, designed by Minnette de Silva and completed in 1950 (photo: early 1950s)
Open-plan ground floor with courtyards and pools in the Chandra Amarasinghe House, Colombo, 1960. Photograph
Asoka Amarasinghe House, Colombo, 1954 (image from Ellen Dissanayake, Orientations, 1982). Courtesy: Ellen Dissanayake
ALSO SEE
- https://frieze.com/article/born-100-years-ago-remembering-tropical-modernist-architect-minnette-de-silva
- https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/14/minnette-de-silva-the-brilliant-female-architect-forgotten-by-history
Minette de Silva had the misfortune to come of age when architecture was going through one of its Ugly Periods. e Corbusier, with whom she is shown in one of the photographs above, was one of the chief perpetrators of the atrocities of the period. His influence on her is, sadly, all too evident in her work.