Domus Srilanka - April 2016

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The Kadadora temple, which got submerged in 1985 with the Kotmale Reservoir project, has re-emerged due to the droughts, triggering an influx of visitors wanting to witness the “lost city”.
Hans Kollhoff sees the dissolution of architecture and the decline of materiality and craftsmanship as a disastrous outcome triggered by certain utopian visions of the 1960s’ and still affecting the present. Revisiting Le Corbusier’s famous Acropolis sketches reminds us that architecture is a tectonic fact, grounded in the topography of the landscape and cityscape.
In a land flanked by rubber trees in a tropical terrain that overlooks a paddy field and streams in Kalalgoda (Western Province), the architect successfully confronted the idea of designing a house with minimum effect on the environment. The contemporary design has been complemented with subtle ancient styles and earthy tones to create a structure that is camouflaged with the surroundings.
Exactly sixty years since he arrived in Italy, we went to his Rome studio to meet the master, who graciously tells Domus readers here how he has spent these decades. We are treated to an indomitable and potent cavalcade by one of the most prominent figures in contemporary art, who has always given priority to ethical and civil commitment over his work; the portrait of a man who has made his Greek origins and Rome the platform from which to watch and travel around the world. With an art that stoops to no compromises and nails us all to our own responsibilities.