Against all odds, the 1940s pioneer of Sri Lankan modernism become one of the world’s most famous women architects. So why are her buildings not celebrated today?

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She exploited her difference – her exotic appearance and unique position at the AA – to launch herself into high society. Within no time, she became a 1940s “It girl”, rubbing shoulders not just with Le Corbusier but also Henri Cartier-Bresson, Picasso and Laurence Olivier. She never married, confiding much later in life to a friend that husbands were only good for carrying one’s bags.

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Minnette de Silva and politician Georges de Silva at the 1948 World Congress of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace.
Minnette de Silva and politician Georges de Silva at the 1948 World Congress of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace. © PAP

The Pieris’ house, her first building in Colombo, bore those unmistakeable marks: striped, lacquered balusters in maroon and gold leaf print, echoing traditional Kandyan craftwork; doors inset with woven palm panels bearing a simple tile pattern in similar colours.

Although born into a wealthy family and an undeniable member of the global elite, she was concerned with more than just building houses for her friends. Her attempt to fuse artisanal traditions with her modernist buildings ensured that often impoverished craftspeople could earn a living from their work.

In the 1950s she worked on a housing development scheme for public servants in Kandy, the island’s second largest city. The scheme was groundbreaking: De Silva consulted extensively with future householders to find out how they wanted to live – information she then used to design different housing types, some of which were built by the householders themselves. It was a participatory approach that was decades ahead of its time.

She experimented with indigenous methods such as wattle and daub, and incorporated rammed earth technology – a process popularly used for today’s ecohomes – into buildings such as the Fernando townhouse, built for Mrs CF Fernando.

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