Postcoloniality, Deconstruction, Identity: Lessons from Bawa and Plesner

Explore the social production of space with activist, researcher, and educator, Nihal Perera.

Contextualising within architectural practices in Sri Lanka, Perera’s presentation will highlight the unique contributions of Geoffrey Bawa and Ulrik Plesner. It will focus on how their work has gone beyond designing for clients' specifications in a capitalist market that prioritises style and aesthetics. It will demonstrate what we can learn about our identities, spaces, and selves.

Professor Nihal Perera (Ball State University, USA) is a leading scholar of Colombo and Asian urbanism, and an original contributor to the study of “post-colonial urbanism”. His research examines how social space is produced through the occupation and definition of spaces by ordinary people, who are viewed not as victims of larger social structures but as agents of change.