Episode 17: Minnette de Silva
Minnette de Silva was born February 1st, 1918, in Kandy, Ceylon, today Sri Lanka. She studied architecture in Bombay and worked as an apprentice for the firm, Mistri, and Bhedwar. During this time her sister was also in Bombay and she along with a group of people founded Marg, a quarterly journal on modern art and culture. Minnette was a contributing editor. After Bombay, she graduated in 1948 from the AA in London. She was the first South Asian woman to become an Associate Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. She attended CIAM as a delegate of Sri Lanka and India making her the first Asian delegate of the group. There Minnette became close friends with Jane Drew and Le Corbusier. After she graduated she returned to Sri Lanka.
She was one of the first architects in Sri Lanka that incorporated what she learned from the West with Indian and Sri Lankan architecture. Her work includes the Pieris House, the Amarasinghe Residence, the Fernando House, Aluwihare Sports Pavilion Police Park. During the 1970s she wrote the section on South Asian Architecture in the 18th edition of Banister Fletcher’s A History of Architecture. After that, she joined the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong, as a History of Asian Architecture lecturer. In 1996, she was awarded the Gold Medal by the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects. Minnette dreamed of publishing an autobiography yet on November 24, 1998, she died at 80 years old. The incomplete autobiography was published posthumously in 1998. It's called "The Life and Work of an Asian Woman Architect."
Publications
Marg Journal, Contributing editor, 1946
18th edition of Banister Fletcher’s A History of Architecture, Section on South Asian Architecture, 1975
The Life and Work of an Asian Woman Architect, 1998
Caryatid: Assumpta Nnaggenda-Musana
Assumpta is an architect, urban planner and academic from Uganda. She is a lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Physical Planning, in the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology, at Makerere University, in Uganda. She was the first Ugandan woman to achieve a doctorate degree in architecture. Her research focused on informal settlements of Uganda and Kenya. She specializes in sustainable urban settlements and low-income housing schemes in developing countries. Through her work Assumpta values integrating vernacular architecture with the architectural principles from abroad.
References
“David Robson - Minnette de Silva: The Life and Work of an Asian Woman Architect.” YouTube, uploaded by AA School of Architecture, 6 May 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4JKQHLi8IU.
“Minnette de Silva, Wrocław, 1948.” YouTube, uploaded by Suravi France, 23 June 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV0aDhXYxM0.
Muxi, Xaida. “Minnette de Silva 1918-1998.” Un Día | Una Arquitecta, 21 May 2015, undiaunaarquitecta.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/minnette-de-silva-1918-1998.
Pinto, Shiromi. “Minnette de Silva: The Brilliant Female Architect Forgotten by History.” The Guardian, 23 Sept. 2020, www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/14/minnette-de-silva-the-brilliant-female-architect-forgotten-by-history.
Wikipedia contributors. “Assumpta Nnaggenda-Musana.” Wikipedia, 15 July 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumpta_Nnaggenda-Musana.
---. “Minnette de Silva.” Wikipedia, 14 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnette_de_Silva.
Wood, Hanna. “The Emerging Female Architects of East Africa.” Archinect, 16 Oct. 2020, archinect.com/features/article/150164665/the-emerging-female-architects-of-east-africa.
Zagaria, Elisa. “Minnette De Silva, The Story of a Forgotten Pioneer.” ELLE Decor, 7 May 2019, www.elledecor.com/it/best-of/a27423736/minnette-de-silva-architect-sri-lanka.
Images (in order of appearance)
Darley, Gillian. “North side of the Karunaratne House in Kandy”. Apollo International Art Magazine. 28 Mar 2018. https://www.apollo-magazine.com/minnette-de-silva-was-a-great-architect-and-her-buildings-should-not-be-left-to-crumble/
Darley, Gillian. “The dining room of the Karunaratne House”. Apollo International Art Magazine. 28 Mar 2018. https://www.apollo-magazine.com/minnette-de-silva-was-a-great-architect-and-her-buildings-should-not-be-left-to-crumble/
Pinto, Sharomi. “Minnette de Silva’s house for Ian Pieris” The Guardian. 14 Dec 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/14/minnette-de-silva-the-brilliant-female-architect-forgotten-by-history
Pinto, Sharomi. “Meda midula, Pieris House” The Architectural Review. 9 Aug 2019. https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/minnette-de-silva-1918-1998
Pinto, Sharomi. “Chandra Amarasinghe House” The Guardian. 14 Dec 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/dec/14/minnette-de-silva-the-brilliant-female-architect-forgotten-by-history
Robson, David. “Flats in Gregory’s Road”. Matter. https://thinkmatter.in/2015/03/04/andrew-boyd-and-minnette-de-silva-two-pioneers-of-modernism-in-ceylon/
Darley, Gillian. “Kandy Arts Centre Auditorium”. Apollo International Art Magazine. 28 Mar 2018. https://www.apollo-magazine.com/minnette-de-silva-was-a-great-architect-and-her-buildings-should-not-be-left-to-crumble/
