Kumari Jayawardena, “Women in Sri Lanka” in Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (London: Verso, 2016), 136.
While Neloufer de Mel notes how caste impacted the perception of an architect like Minnette in the first half of the twentieth century, this author perceives caste oppression to be less pervasive than gender and class in more recent times.
Also known as Shanti Jayewardene Pillai.
More information on the history of formalized architectural training courses can be found via the University of Moratuwa website: ➝.
Author interview with Shanti Jayewardene, October 6, 2024, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Ibid.
Public discussion with Shanti Jayewardene, “Geoffrey Manning Bawa and Decolonizing Architecture,” (part of exhibition program Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There organized by the Geoffrey Bawa Trust), March 24, 2022, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Abhayagiri is a monastic site exceeding 200 hectares in Anuradhapura, in the North Central Province of the island, dating from 89 to 77 BCE. Although the monastery has not been occupied since the eleventh century, the stupa, which is the second largest in Sri Lanka, is still visited by pilgrims.
Shanti’s doctoral studies from 1998 unraveled the shared interface of imperial architectural knowledge making where British military engineers and Indian intellectuals met, in nineteenth-century South India. Her book, based on this research, Imperial Conversations: Indo-Britons and the Architecture of South India was published in Delhi in 2007 under the name Shanti Jayewardene Pillai.
Vasantha also produced some buildings through her own practice; for more information refer Lamahewa, Susil and Jamaldeen, Shahdia, “The Lady behind the Screen: Finding Vasantha Jacobsen” in The Architect, Volume 123, Issue 1, January 2024.
Author interview with Anura Ratnavibushana, October 31, 2024, Colombo, Sri Lanka; author interview with Philip Fowler, June 28, 2019, transcript, Oral Histories, Geoffrey Bawa Trust Archives, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Author interview with Philip Fowler, December 10, 2024, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
David Robson, Geoffrey Bawa: The Complete Works (London: Thames & Hudson, 2002). Note: neither Philip nor Anura were able to recall this particular detail in interviews with the author.
Author interview with Philip Fowler, December 10, 2024, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Ulrik Plesner, “Minette,” in In Situ (Copenhagen: Aristo, 2013), 55.
Shanti Jayewardene, “Ceylon: Colonial Modern Architecture and Independence, 1939…” in Geoffrey Manning Bawa: Decolonizing Architecture. (Colombo: The National Trust Sri Lanka, 2017), 81.
Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi “Crafting the archive: Minnette De Silva, Architecture, and History” in The Journal of Architecture, 22, no. 8 (2017). In Geoffrey Bawa: The Complete Works, David Robson also writes “Vasantha Jacobsen’s achievements have never been fully documented, and she deserves to be remembered alongside Minette {sic} de Silva as one of Sri Lank’s first women architects.” (pp. 266) Robson also acknowledges that “though she and Bawa were not the best of friends, there can be little doubt that de Silva’s early designs were an important influence for him.” (pp. 51).