A QUALITY WITHOUT NAME: 
An exploratory study. 
L _ ^ m r OF MORATUWA. si&^F 
This Dissertation Presented to 
Faculty of Architecture 
University of Moratuwa 
Sri Lanka 
For the MSc . (Architecture) examination 
a n d Exemption for 
RIBA Part II 
oil 
78180 
D. K . N A L A K A KRISANTHA 
March -2002 
University of M o r a t u w a 
78180 
78180 
ABSTRACT 
"All living things must perish " Life,space,nature ^universe is 
activated on simple theory- birth, exist and decay Among this, there is 
"happiness drowned in sorrow;" means the life's comfort could be 
experienced in this life which moves between birth and death. 
These life's comforts are experienced by a special quality in nature 
life and space, which is difficult to explain or always remain as "unexplained " 
but This is experienced by beholders one who awaiting for and search it. This 
"unexplained" quality has a power to reveal the unfold world. So This is a 
journey to explore this unexplained quality to reveal the nature, the life, the 
space, the art, the architecture... and buildings. 
AKNOWLEDGEMENT 
Sincere thanks extended to , 
• Archt. Vidura Sri Nammuni, Department of Architecture University of 
Moratuwa, for the inspiration andto show the gravity of Topic , for 
guidance to introduce the names for Kahata Rasa or Tabmula Rasa as 
Bitter taste in English. 
o Archt. Ravin Gunarathna for encouragement and show the path and 
positive way of doing this dissertation for knowledge and books provided. 
• Archt. Vijitha Basnayaka, A rcht. Madura Premathilake for the valuable 
information and the personal views on the topic. 
• Dr.Manawadu the Year Master for his forceful encouragement, pressed 
upon me as "strict order" , that I dared not postponed , undertaking to do 
this dissertation this year. This timely encouragement, which at first 
seemed to me as a heavy burden hurled on me. I now realized, it's truly 
and honestly a "blessing in disguise". 
• Special thanks to dear friend Samanthi for her corperation to type this 
dissertation. 
• indika , Kithmini, Nalika, Geethani, Dilmini, Thushara and Anoma for 
helping me in many ways to finish this dissertation at a time. 
• My brother Manju for his computer. 
• Nilakshi and her parents and my dear parents for their support and 
patience extended throughout the study. 
LIST OF CONTENTS 
page no 
A B S T R A C T 1 
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T 11 
LIST OF CONTENTS 
LIST OF P L A T E S 
LIST OF FIGURES * 
INTRODUCTON 
ft1 
V1 
C H A P T E R ONE 
1 .THE UNFOLD WORLD - THE CONCEPT OF QUALITATIVE 
ASPECTS IN LIFE, ART AND ARCHITECTURE . 
1.1 AN INTRODUCTION 1 
1.1.1 The life and the space. / 
1.2 WHAT IS ART 5 
1.2.1 Art a sentimental creation 
1.2.2 Psychic aspect of arts 
1.3 ARCHITECTURE AS AN ART r 
1.3.1 Art, Space, Life in architecture 
1.3.2 Creative Genius in architecture 
1.4 TASTE: A SENTIMENTAL ORIGIN 1 0 
1.4.1 Emotional Taste l,u 
1.4.2 " Kahata Rasa - Bitter taste " ''' 
C H A P T E R TWO 
2.THE NAMELESS EXPERIENCE - "BITTER TASTE" IN OTHER ARTS. 
2.1 AN INTRODUCTION \/L 
2.2 TRUE ARTIST ,/L 
2.2.1 Different Art forms / ; 
t 
m 
2.3 WESTERN AND EASTERN CONCEPT OF EXPERIENCING ' 
THE ARTS , LIFE AND NATURE 
2.3.1 Loss o f " Kahata Rasa - Bitter Taste" in arts 7 
2.3.2 " Kahata Rasa - Bitter Taste" A universal quality ^ 
(a) Western examples for" Kahata Rasa - Bitter Taste" Ti 
(b) Eastern examples for" Kahata Rasa - Bitter Taste" id 
2.4 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF " KAHATA RASA - BITTER 21 
TASTE" IN DIFFERENT ART FORMS. 
2.4.1 Nature ^ 
2.4.2 Poetry ^ 
2.4.3 Lyrics 
2.4.4.Cinema 
2.4.5 Music 
v 
2.4.6 Opera ^ 
2.4.7 Dancing ^ 
2.4.8 Art - Paintings 
2.5 CHARACTERISTICS " KAHATA RASA - BITTER TASTE" f$ 
C H A P T E R T H R E E 
3 " KAHATA - BITTER QUALITY" IN ARCHITECTURE. 
3.1 HOW" KAHATA RASA - BITTERNESS QUALITY" APPEARS '4t 
IN ARCHITECTURE 
3.2 ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF " KAHATA RASA - f ? 
BITTER TASTE" 
3.2.1 Sri Lankan examples ^ 
(a) Archt. Geoffry Bawa 
(b) Archt. Valantine Gunasekera 4°! 
(c) Archt. Madura Prematilaka ^ ° 
(d) Archt. Vijitha Basnayake 52 
3.2.2 International examples 57/ 
V -
(a) Le Corbusier ^7 
iv 
(b) Mies Van Der Rohe 
(c) Barragan 
(d) Charles Corea 
3.2.3 Examples in Urban Contexts 
3.2 Architecture where the "Kahata Rasa-bitter taste" 
is disappeared 
3.3 " KAHATA - BITTER QUALITY" A CONSCIOUS 
DESIGN METHOD 
3.3.1 How it consciously happer,3 
3.3.2 Misinterpretation of "Kahata Rasa - Bitter Taste" 
3.4 AFFECT OF TIME FACTOR 
CONCLUTION 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
V 
LIST OF PLATES 
Plate no 
Chapter One 
Description 
1 Plate 1-1 Sculpture makes tactual space visible. 
2 Plate 1-2 Light and shade makes movement 
and rhythm in Architecture . 
3 Plate 1-3 Life is blown to architecture by 
its proportion, scale, balance etc. 
4 Plate 1-4 ' The Kahata Rasa' exist in life , 
where the simplicity remains. 
5 Plate 1-5 'Kahata rasa' exist in traditional 
living style. 
6 Plate 1-6 Authentic dishes makes ' Kahatarasa'. 
Chapter Two 
7 Plate 2-1 Antiqves - generates ' Kahata rasa' 
8 Plate 2-2 Vasantha Raga in Veda's art. 
9 Plate 2-3 Le Corbusier's Administration Building 
at Chandigar. 
10' Plate 2-4 Town Hall Building - Colombo 
11 Plate 2-5 New Parliament - Sri Jayawardenapura 
12 Plate 2-6 where the nature and life create 
" Kahata Rasa - Bitter Taste" 
13 Plate 2-7 Ponte vacchio bridge in Italy . 
14 Plate 2-8 Mideval Town , Vanice -Italy. 
15 Plate 2-9 Client East Wood in cow boy film -
For a Few Dollars More. 
16 Plate 2-10 - Scene from " Fist - full of Dollars " 
17 Plate 2-11 - Cow boy film environment. 
Page no. 
0d 
09 
09 
\i 
'•7 
22 
11 
I7) 
f} 
ii? 
U? 
VI 
18 Plate 2-12 - Cow boy film environment. 
19 Plate 2-13 - performance of a country band 
20 Plate 2-14 - Bob Marley. 
21 Plate 2-15 - performance of Madubala 
in Hindi films. 
22 Plate 2-16 - performance of Madubala 
in Hindi films. 
23 Plate 2-17 - 'Kahata Rasa ' in day today 
life & nature. 
24 Plate 2-18 - 'Kahata Rasa ' in hard 
life in village. 
25 Plate 2-19 - 'Kahata Rasa' in hard 
life in village. 
26 Plate 2-20 - 'Kahata Rasa' in sex. 
27 Plate 2-21 - 'Kahata Rasa' in sex. 
28 Plate 2-22 - Black & White films create 
this ' Kahata rasa ' easily. 
29 Plate 2-23 - Sri Lankan Opera. 
30 Plate 2-24 - Pure sounds of Bera, make 
'KahataRasa'. 
31 Plate 2-25 - Kolam Dancing in 
Low Country Sri Lanka. 
32 Plate 2-26 - Bitter taste reveals textural 
hard , simple organic pattern. 
Chapter Three 
33 Plate 3-1 - Architecture touches nature's 
marvel and adopt it. 
34 Plate 3-2 - It shows hardness, shabby and wobby, 
discolouration peeling & etc. 
35 Plate 3-3 - " Kahata -bitter taste" makes life's comforts. 
Vll 
36 Plate 3-4 Polontalawa House. 
37 Plate 3-5 Hanwella farm school building. 
38 Plate 3-6 Danasalawa of Kappina 
walawa -Balapitiya. 
39 Plate 3-7 St. Bridgets convent montessori 
staircase. 
40 Plate 3-8 Jesuit Chapel -Col 04. 4? 
41 
42 
Plate 
Plate 
3-9 
3-10 -
Kaju gaha House at Malabe. 
Kaju gaha House at Malabe. 9\ 
43 Plate 3-11 - By the time walls used for writing. 
44 Plate 3-12 - Royal Bakery - Weilawatta 
45 Plate 3-13 - Steel House - Pelawatta 
46 Plate 3-14 - Detialing & Brick walls. 1A, 
47 Plate 3-15 - Johnson Residence. % 
48 Plate 3-16 - Le Corbusier's Vill Savoye 
at Poissy. 
—i 70 
49 Plate 3-17 - Salvaco church - Bombay. 57 
50 Plate 3-18 - Water Court at Gandhi Smarak. 
51 " Plate 3-19 - Village woman visiting Ashram. % 
52 Plate 3-20 - La defense arch - Paris. 
53 Plate 3-21 - Mahandra Towers - Bombay. 19 
54 Plate 3-22 - Grand Louvre - Paris. 5? 
55 Plate 3-23 - Falling water - Pensovama, bo 
56 Plate 3-24 - Nezam Amery's office building. bl 
57 plate 3-25 - Cargills building - Colombo. hi 
58 Plate 3-26 - Ogura House Tadao Ando . 
59 Plate 3-27 - Humble quality is not the 
bitter quality. 
6f 
Vf/I 
60 Plate 3-28 - Ta jmaha l in India . y. 
61 Plate 3-29 - Envi ronmenta l fr iendly archi tecture ,^ 
is not bitter taste. 
62 Plate 3-30 - Bitter taste generates by 'ol 
t ime Materials. 
63 Plate 3-31 - " no th i ngness " generates !0y 
"Kahata Rasa - bitter taste." 
64 Plate 3-32 - T ime factor affects , 
for "Kahata Rasa - Bitter taste" c 0 
65 Plate 3-33 - T ime factor affects for 
"Kahata Rasa - Bitter taste" 
4 
ix 
LIST OF FIGURES 
fig no 
Chapter One 
1 Fig 1-1 
2 Fig 1-2 
Chapter Two 
3 Fig 2-1 
4 Fig 2-2. 
5 Fig 2-3 
Chapter Three 
6 Fig 3-1 
7 Fig 3-2 
8 . Fig 3-3 
9 Fig 3-4 
10 Fig 3-5 
Description page no. 
Art is comprehended #4 
has vertical and horizontal 
measures. 
Chart - to show creative \Q 
genius in Architecture. 
Detail of stone figure. £0 
Carved wooden mask from 20 
Africa. 
Adoration of the shepherds 2\ 
by Bosch. 
Section of Lunuganga House. j-b 
Section of Integoal Education Centre. /cj 
at Piiiyandala. 
Plan of Upali de Silva's House 44 
By Geometric Plan form , created an % 
unlimited specs inside. 
Simple Details of Johnson Residence. 5^