Impermanence - අනිත්‍ය

SLIIT

Project idea

The project idea is a house design, that is based on the Buddhist concept of impermanence. This home is designed to dwell and carry out daily activities by fulfilling all the requirements of a home for a person who follows Buddhism and lives by amalgamating Buddhist concepts to his life. And the space which is created have got the spirit of Buddhist concepts stored in it to give a glimpse of calm surroundings and the spaces reflects the instability (amity) in everything in the world which is the main Buddhist philosophy. Every design aspect has got minimalism, simplicity, and purity in it.

Project description

The house is designed for the client Dr. Janaka Wijekoon. Who is a professor at Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology. He is a spiritual person and his family members are also spiritual. He has valuable knowledge about Buddhism and has knowledge about Sri Lankan society and culture. He loves sri Lankan culture and he is cultural person.

Focus is driven towards spatial progression that follows Buddhist culture.The spatial progressing is most important thing. because always people are not living with form of building.they can see form of building within/for few seconds or few moment. Lot of time they are living with spaces of building than form of building.The house is a reflection of the personality of the owner, who strongly believes in impermanence and spirituality.
When The owner of house, his family or someone Else comes to this house,
He or she should enters to the house through the main gate.Then he or she goes through the path where the ghala trees are at both sides, before the enter house. he can get amazing feeling about the nature which is connected to the dwelling.Then one goes further where they can see the head of the Buddha statue. In that case , some kind of curiosity which is about “how big this statue” and which type of Buddha statue is this” is born inside them, then he or she tries to find it and tries to go through the house. Then he or she enter the house .firstly through to the living room. In this area there are lot of photography which is taken by dr.janaka wijekoon. in this movement the new felling just like a studio is born inside him.
so the previous feeling which is based on gahala path(amazing feeling about the nature which is connected to the dwelling) dies because the new feeling which is based on living room is born inside him, showcasing the birth and death of feelings in the cycle of impermanence.
In here he or she can see full view of marshy land.
Again, they try to find Buddha statue because of that he tries to go inside the house. Then they go to the area which is connected to the curve brick wall.. in there they can see large place which is with large concrete columns.it is climax point
The wall which is at the 1st floor is curved wall but ground floor wall is rectangular plastered wall.a contrast between the curved walls of upper floor , descending to the rectangular wall of the ground floor create a deception to the visitors. .then he or she directly try to go to the climax point which is made out of large scale concert columns than Buddha statue.
Then he or she enters to the dining room. There is lot of traditional statue and he or she can get some kind of sri lankan old traditional feeling.
so the previous feeling(new felling just like a studio) which is based on living room dies because the new feeling which is based on dining room(kind of sri lankan old traditional feeling) is born inside him.

Then they can see the large-scale place which is with large concrete columns in ground floor area garden again. It is a climax point and meditation area. Then new curiosity is born than previous one inside them. Then they try to find this area .next he is going through the path to stair case. The stair case is made on rock.
the previous feeling(sri lankan old traditional feeling) which is based on living room dies because the new feeling which is based on stair case (the feeling about landscape because he can see garden area properly) is born inside him.
After that he goes to gathering area in ground floor.
There is lot of traditional statue and he or she can get some kind of sri lankan old traditional feeling. Specially it is a reading area and lot of books and newspapers are there.so he or she faces a curve that becomes linear shape- deception.
Then he or she directly go to the climax point which is made out of large scale concrete columns. While he or she go to the climax point, the curiosity which is about "what is this” is born inside of him. After go to the climax point he or she feels “there is nothing”,”it is peace full” “ only environment”.
In “sansara circle” always we based on the impermance. .feeling is born and feeling dies. this is a circle .but at enlightment we cannot get any feeling. There is a any person and there is nothing. Understanding of anithya or impermanence leads to enlightMENT, or nothingness.
WHICH IS WHY THE CLIMAX POINT OF THE HOUSE IS SIMPLE AND MINIMALISTIC.

Technical information

When the site analysis is taken into consideration This site is found in Pattiyawatte Road, kaduwela, Sri Lanka. Even though Kaduwela is the closest town, the environment of the area is like a rural area. There is paddy field, marshy land and many of characteristic of a rural area.so everyone can get experience of rural area.
There is about 900m from kaduwela town to this site. anyone can easily come to this site by vehicle and foot.
The bottom part of the site faces to the main road, and also beside the site there is a sub road.
The site is faces the marshy land and any one can get an amazing view from the site. Some seasons of year, people can watch many type of bird because many birds come to this marshy land annually.
This area is generally calm and serine.

The total floor area is approximately 450 square meters. And the house consists of 5 bedrooms, 6 washrooms, one living area, gathering area, dining room and two courtyards, as per client request.