In a ceremony held today, Hon'ble. S. M. Krishna, Minister for External Affairs, Government of India and Hon'ble Basil Rajapaksa, Minister for Economic Development, Government of Sri Lanka, presented awards to the top three architects whose entries were selected by a jury, on completion of the National Design Competition for the Jaffna Cultural Centre, to be constructed under Indian grant assistance. The awards include a prize amount of US$ 3,500/- for the 1st prize, US$ 3,000/- for the 2nd prize and US$ 2,500/- for the third.

As part of its development partnership with Sri Lanka and in response to the request by the Government of Sri Lanka, the Government of India is undertaking a Project to construct a Cultural Centre at Jaffna at an estimated cost of 900 million Sri Lankan Rupees. In order to preserve and foster the rich cultural heritage of the Jaffna District and other nearby areas, which are replete with historical, archeological and religious resources, it was decided to develop the Jaffna Cultural Centre as an iconic building that would serve as a cynosure of cultural activities in Northern Sri Lanka. It will provide a cultural and social space for the people of Jaffna to enjoy various local and international cultural products, apart from serving as a delivery centre for training, instructions and education in a variety of cultural disciplines. It will also create opportunities for networking and cooperation amongst artists and connoisseurs of art from all Sri Lankan communities, including Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese.

For these purposes, the Centre would comprise a theatre-style auditorium (with projection facilities) with a capacity of about 600 people, a multi media library with on-line research facilities, exhibition and gallery space and a museum. It would also have an instructional wing, which would have facilities for the conduct of classes in vocal and instrumental music, dance and languages, including a language lab, and a conference hall-cum-seminar room.

In order to select the best design for Jaffna Cultural Centre that would take these requirements into account, it was jointly decided by both the governments to conduct a National Design Competition. The Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (SLIA) was entrusted with the task of conducting the National Design Competition in two separate rounds. A seven-member jury, co-chaired by H.E. Ashok K. Kantha, High Commissioner of India and Mr. Ranjan Nadesapalli, President of SLIA, one architect each from SLIA and India, one representative each from the Government of India and Sri Lanka, and the Mayor of Jaffna evaluated the entries received. The identity of the participating architects were not revealed to the jury, to ensure a level-playing field. This was achieved through code number assigned to each entry.

During the first round of the design competition, 29 designs were received, out of which the jury shortlisted eight designs for the second round of competition. The evaluation of these eight entries was based on a number of carefully-identified criteria such as the technical acceptability, context plan, aesthetic/architectural language, space efficiency, buildabillity and environmental friendliness, and sustainable architecture.

At the end of the process, the Jury unanimously selected the following as the best three designs:
Rank 1: The design submitted by Archt. Madura Premathileka
Rank 2: The design submitted by Cynthia & Athula Ranasinghe Chartered Architects
Rank 3: The design submitted by Design Consortium (Pvt) Ltd.

At the awards ceremony, the architect whose design won the first prize made a multimedia presentation of the design before Hon'ble S.M.Krishna, External Affairs Minister of India and Hon'ble Basil Rajapaksa, Minister for Economic Development of Sri Lanka, explaining the key features and the rationale behind his design choices.

This Project is one of the many initiatives taken by the Government of India to assist the people of Sri Lanka and will be implemented under grant assistance from the Government of India, with the cooperation of the Ministry for Economic Development and the local Government.

Cultural_Centre_Jaffna
Colombo