| Abstrakt: |
At the epicenter of ambivalent postcolonial decades, reverting back to once-subverted indigenous traditions with the explicit patronage of elites was instigated by nascent architects of Ceylon. The most celebrated domestic architectural rubric of the nation’s post-colonial period is commonly considered as Neo-Regionalism of Geoffrey Bawa. This particular rubric has over the years, been fiercely-defended by numerous academic polemics, labeling it as the most apposite and valid to the contexts of its spawning; and thus, to the nation as a whole. Then again, it is widely acknowledged that Bawa’s clientele had always been drawn from the country’s elites; of which the bulk being Sinhalese in ethnicity. Sinhalese, the majority population of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is heterogeneous in nature, which has primordially been assembled of numerous caste-based sub-cultures; operating within the framework of one dominant culture. In a Sri Lankan context where caste is a factor which constantly finds academic inveigling to circumvent inter-caste strife, the paper attempts to divulge what underpins a number of elite domestic projects by Bawa, for Sinhalese elite of Govigama as well as Karava castes. It aims to constitute the respective roles of cultural strands of these groups to have survived, and unravel how they were articulated in Bawa’s domestic architecture [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
