Lanka Learning Centre Sri Lanka building in Parangiyamadut, South Asian NGO education building photos
Lanka Learning Centre Sri Lanka
18 June 2022
The process involving villagers and University of Stuttgart students.
Design: feat.collective
Location: Parangiyamadut, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
Aerial view of the Lanka Learning Centre showing its pentangular plan and integration into the landscape. The architects kept all the existing trees, which now provide shade to the complex:
Photos by Nipun Prabhakar
Lanka Learning Centre in Sri Lanka
Civil war and the 2004 tsunami wrought displacement and destruction in Sri Lanka. The client – of mixed ethno-religious background – survived both and became a child psychologist thanks to a German couple’s benevolence.
The complex’s concrete skeleton makes the buildings earthquake resilient. The buildings are also placed on a plinth, protecting them from flooding and sand drifts:
Two NGOs that he founded to encourage education and inter-community reconciliation helped bring about the Lanka Learning Centre that hosts gatherings, craft education for adults and a large annual sports, games and music festival for children, to reduce inter-ethnic prejudice.
Perforated walls made of locally handcrafted clay bricks as well as the lifted cantilevered roofs permits effective passive cooling and allows the building to be used during the scorching summer months:
The pentangular plan’s circumferential wall meanders inwards and outwards, creating pockets of space. Its five pavilions, of local clay brick in earthquake-resistant concrete frames, stand on a plinth around a central sandy area.
Children have ample room to play in the spacious circular courtyard, which also acts as the circulation space between the five pavilions:
Foldable wooden front walls allow indoor/outdoor flexibility. Perforated outer walls and floating cantilevered roofs provide passive climate control.
Teakwood foldable sliding doors make for a versatile teaching environment and create flowing transitions between indoors and outdoors:
The roofs overhang a platform with deep steps that double as a “grandstand”.
The perforated brick walls maximise airflow and the raised aluminium roofs partially reflect the solar heat owing to a Low-E coating, keeping the interiors cool:
The programme was developed through a participatory process involving local villagers and University of Stuttgart students.
Women prepare the children’s meals in a kitchen adjacent to the cafeteria.
The complex was financed by donations and could not afford glazed windows. Nevertheless, the perforated walls and various openings let in enough light and air while shielding the students from the heat and rain:
In a country scarred by decades of civil war, the centre is part of an effort to rebuild trust between communities and brings together children from different ethnic and religious affiliations:
Floor plan:
Courtesy of architect
Lanka Learning Centre – Property Information
Title: Lanka Learning Centre
Award Cycle: 2020-2022 Cycle
Status: Shortlisted
Location: Parangiyamadut Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
Client: Vincent Francis Jesudasan
Architect: feat.collective / Noemi Thiele, Felix Lupatsch, Valentin Ott and Felix Yaparsidi
Completed: 2015
Country of origin: Sri Lanka
Aga Khan Trust for Culture / Nipun Prabhakar (photographer)
2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture Shortlist
Lanka Learning Centre building images / information received 020622 from the Aga Khan Award for Architecture – AKAA
Location: Parangiyamadut Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, South Asia
Sri Lanka Architecture
Sri Lankan Architecture Designs – chronological list
Sri Lankan resort designs on e-architect:
Southbeach Weligama, Matara District, Southern Province of Sri Lanka
Design: Balmond Studio
image courtesy of architects practice
Southbeach Weligama Sri Lanka
Ani Villa Dikwella
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photo : Mkael Benard
Ani Villa Dikwella, Sri Lanka
Post-Tsunami Housing, Kirinda, Sri Lanka
Design: Shigeru Ban Architects
photo : Shu He
Post-Tsunami Housing Sri Lanka
A key Sri Lankan Building:
British High Commission in Colombo
Design: Richard Murphy Architects
photo courtesy of architects
British High Commission Sri Lanka
Star Innovation Center in Colombo
House in a House, Colombo
Design: Read Studio
photo : Eresh Weerasuriya
House in a House, Colombo
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