Shiromi Pinto on Minnette de Silva

Minnette de Silva: Sri Lanka’s Trailblazing Modernist Architect

Dee Gibson | Sri Lanka: Modern Perspectives from an Ancient Melting Pot

In the vibrant tapestry of Sri Lanka’s modern history, few figures shine as brightly—or as uniquely—as Minnette de Silva. An icon of South Asian modernism and the first woman architect in Sri Lanka, Minnette’s legacy is finally receiving the recognition it deserves. A recent podcast conversation featuring Shiromi Pinto, author of the novel Plastic Emotions, and architect Selva Sandrapragas, offers new insights into Minnette’s multifaceted life.

Who Was Minnette de Silva?

More than an architect, Minnette de Silva was a visionary. Born in 1918 in Kandy, to a politically progressive family, she was deeply influenced by her father, George E. de Silva, a leading politician, and her mother, an advocate for women’s rights and suffrage in colonial Ceylon. This rich, intellectual upbringing shaped her lifelong passion for architecture and social justice.

She celebrated and elevated local craftsmanship by integrating terracotta tiles, handloom fabrics, Kandyan decorative art, and indigenous materials into her buildings.

Her early training in Bombay and eventual studies at the Architectural Association in London marked her as one of the few non-Western women engaging directly with the architectural avant-garde of the mid-20th century. Her travels brought her into contact with legends like Le Corbusier, with whom she shared a long and complex personal relationship—a connection that becomes central in Pinto’s fictional retelling.

“Minnette didn’t just build structures—she told stories through space.” — Dee Gibson

Plastic Emotions: A literary Portrait of a forgotten icon

In Plastic Emotions, Shiromi Pinto gives voice to a largely overlooked but profoundly influential figure. The novel fictionalizes Minnette’s emotional and professional life, bringing nuance to her groundbreaking work and inner turmoil. Through richly layered prose, Pinto confronts themes of gender bias, post-colonial identity, and the emotional toll of being a pioneering woman in a male-dominated field.

The book also references landmark moments such as the "88 Acres" housing project, which encapsulated Minnette’s belief in people-centered architecture—an approach decades ahead of its time.

Podcast Highlights: Conversations that reclaim legacy

In the podcast, Pinto and Sandrapragas dissect Minnette’s dual identity as both a creative powerhouse and a woman wrestling with deeply personal challenges. Sandrapragas, who collaborated with Minnette in the later stages of her career, speaks to her brilliance, complexity, and the often overlooked contributions she made to modern architecture in South Asia.

Together, the speakers emphasize the need to reinsert Minnette de Silva into the global architectural narrative, where male counterparts like Le Corbusier and Geoffrey Bawa have long been canonized.

Minnette de Silva’s name may not appear in every textbook, but her influence endures.

Kalukanda House discovering Minnette de Silva

I first discovered Minnette when I read the novel Plastic Emotions by Shiromi Pinto in 2019—a fictionalized account of Minnette’s life and her rumored relationship with Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier. It opened up a world I hadn’t known existed: a Sri Lankan woman at the epicenter of global architecture conversations, yet somehow erased from the mainstream narrative.

In this podcast episode, I sat down with two incredible guests—Shiromi Pinto and Selva Sandrapragas—to talk about Minnette’s impact, her challenges, and why her story still matters today.

Creative Brilliance in a Challenging Time

Minnette lived and worked during a time of great political and cultural transformation in Sri Lanka. Post-independence was a period of optimism but also uncertainty. Our conversation touched on how creative tension—between tradition and modernity, belonging and exile—shaped her unique design language.

“The time in which she was operating was a time of great change, a great deal of challenge, a great deal of progression, and then regression... But those challenges are what spark us creatively, aren't they?”

Minnette’s work drew heavily on local culture, using Sri Lankan motifs, materials, and labor—long before it became trendy or marketable. She prioritized site-specific design and believed buildings should emerge from their cultural and geographic landscape.

Yet her commitment to originality and integrity may have cost her mainstream success.

Reclaiming a place in the canon of Modernism

Why is Minnette de Silva important today? In the context of rising interest in decolonizing architecture, feminist architectural history, and South Asian modernism, her work is more relevant than ever. Buildings like the Kandy Art Centre and private residences in Sri Lanka reflect a unique synthesis of Buddhist aesthetics, local craftsmanship, and international modernist ideals.

Yet, despite being a founding member of CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne), Minnette remains underrepresented in academic and professional discourse. Correcting that oversight is not only a matter of justice—it enriches the global narrative of 20th-century architecture.

The ongoing revival of a cultural pioneer

Today, as scholars, writers, and practitioners revisit Minnette’s contributions, there’s a palpable shift. Exhibitions, research, and literary works like Plastic Emotions are sparking renewed interest in her architectural vision. This revival is crucial—not just for understanding the past but for inspiring future generations of architects, particularly women and those from the Global South.

Minnette's legacy lives on

Minnette de Silva’s story is not just one of architecture, but of resilience, innovation, and identity. Her life bridges colonial and post-colonial worlds, local traditions and global ideas, personal emotion and public legacy.

As we continue exploring her legacy through literature, architecture, and conversations like the Pinto-Sandrapragas podcast, we move closer to giving Minnette the cultural and historical recognition she has long deserved.

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Shiromi Pinto is author of Plastic Emotions, a novel which unearths the forgotten story of 20th century architecture icon, Minnette de Silva. Shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award in 2020, it is published by Influx Press in the UK and Penguin in India. Shiromi has written short fiction for BBC Radio 4, the Victoria & Albert Museum and opendemocracy.net. Her first novel, Trussed, was reviewed as ‘audacious’ (Bernardine Evaristo in The Independent), ‘brilliant’ (Diva) and ‘so cool that it hurts’ (The Times). After over a decade working for Amnesty International’s International Secretariat, she is now a communications consultant for social justice causes at writingeditingwords.com.

Selva Sandrapragas is a RIBA ARB architect. After finishing his post graduate studies at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London he completed his professional practice qualifications ( RIBA Part 3 ) at the Architectural Association school architecture. As an undergraduate he worked with Minnette de Silva on the “12 Villages Exhibition” exhibition shown at the Commonwealth Institute 1987/88. He was awarded the INTACH ( Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage ) & ICOMOS Scholarship in 1992 to study the wooden Taravad architecture of Kerela. In 1997 he was awarded the ADB/Japan Scholarship to study urban design at the Hong Kong University.