The Geoffrey Bawa memorial lecture was held on the 25th of May 2012 at the P de S Kularatne Hall, Ananda College, Colombo 8.

This year the lecture was delivered by Architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai Architects. Bijoy Jain was born in Mumbai, India in 1965 and received his M. Arch from Washington University in St. Louis, USA in 1990. He worked in Los Angeles and London between 1989 and 1995 and returned to India in 1995 to found his practice – Studio Mumbai.

The lecture was based on ‘Praxis’. “Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practiced, embodied or realized. It may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing or practicing ideas.”

All encompassing, the practice of the architect, whether tangible, ambiguous or theoretical, is primarily concerned with the nature of being. This ontological understanding in ‘Praxis’ may begin to express how the work at Studio Mumbai is created from an iterative process, where ideas are explored through the production of large-scale mock-ups, material studies, sketches and drawings. Making things, to form an intrinsic part of our thought and body.

Projects are developed through careful consideration of place, and a practice that engages intently in an environment and culture where building techniques and materials draw from an ingenuity arising from limited resources.

The endeavour is to give an insight into the human infrastructure that has evolved in the workshops of the studio over the past seventeen years; the physical and emotional engagement of the people involved, and the resulting work.

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