The minimalistic hideaway was made for Lieutenant Colonel Chandimal Peiris, and was built by soldiers under the architect’s direction. No skilled laborers were used at all. For the main structure, Premathilake used a found shipping container that was abandoned after the war. Despite using only one container, the home is a spacious 700 sq. ft. (a luxurious amount of room from the point of view of a New Yorker) and a rooftop terrace and ground floor deck made of found timber add to the home’s usable areas. Two sides of the house have large french doors that can be opened up to let the warm breezes pass through.
“Maduru Oya’s lakefront is the back drop with a range of mountains making the contextual enclosure towards the land side of the camp,” writes the architect of the site. “The visual axis towards the mountain range takes the visitor’s mind into different settings due to the water of the lakefront, the solid mountains with the green belt under a canopy of blue sky. It is an inviting place to relax.”
Photos courtesy of Logan Photogaphy
I do wish you folks would “Google” some of the people whose residences you feature. There is more to life than design and green fashion.
A quick search on the owner of this residence made of “found” materials discloses that he was a Special Forces officer, prominent in the suppression of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka.
From the point of view of the Tamil Diaspora, featuring his house is much like calling attention to the resourcefulness of the design at the Berchtesgaden Eagle’s Nest.