Architecture & interiors · Est. 2022 · Homagama & London
Brick-Cell Labs is an independent architecture practice. We design houses, interiors and workplace fit-outs, and we stay with each project from the first meeting to the day the keys are handed over.
01 — Practice
Brick-Cell Labs was founded in July 2022 by Sankalpa Karunagoda, a RIBA Part 2 qualified architectural designer with an MArch from Liverpool John Moores University.
The practice now works between Sri Lanka and the UK. We take on projects in both countries, and can work remotely for clients anywhere else.
The practice works at a scale where one designer holds the whole project: the brief, the concept, the technical package, consultant coordination and the site visits. Our interest is in climate-led, vernacular ways of building, and in working with what a site and an existing structure already give us.
02 — Services
Private homes designed around the plot, the climate and the way a family actually lives. Concept through to council approval and construction drawings.
Additions that keep what is worth keeping. We work around existing structure and retain original facades where they carry the character of a place.
Offices and homes planned to the square metre, with schedules of materials and finishes that contractors can price and build from.
Small built things with a big presence, such as mobile food units, designed with their branding, technical detailing and 3D visuals together.
03 — Work
Workplace fit-out · World Trade Centre, Colombo
Three office suites planned and delivered for an Australia-based engineering client, run remotely across time zones through every RIBA stage from briefing to handover.
Bespoke design · Mobile food unit
A food truck designed as one piece, from the serving hatch and fit-out details to the branding on its sides and the 3D visuals used to sell it.
Residential · Weligama
A house with a proposed extension, designed through to council approval. The scheme keeps the existing column-and-beam frame and preserves the original street facade.
Residential · Homagama
A new private house in Homagama, and a second family home now in its final interior design stage after a year of design development.
Also: Jayasanka Batiks
04 — Process
Is a building the right answer? We test the idea first.
Site, budget, programme and the brief, written down together.
Options in sketch, plan and 3D, narrowed to one direction.
Structure and services fitted in. Planning submission.
Construction drawings, details and finishes schedules.
Site visits and answers to the builder's questions.
Snagging, completion and the keys.
A check-in once you have lived or worked in it.
We follow the RIBA Plan of Work. You can engage us for the full sequence or for specific stages, such as concept design and planning only.
05 — Research
We run research alongside practice. Most of it asks one question: how did buildings keep people comfortable before machines did it for them, and how much of that can new buildings still use?
A comparison of thermal comfort in vernacular and contemporary school buildings at Royal College and CMS Sri Jayawardhanapura College, using site surveys, temperature and humidity measurements, and interviews with staff and students. The vernacular buildings stayed cooler and more comfortable. The paper argues that vernacular passive cooling principles can make new tropical schools more comfortable while using less energy.
Read the paper on archscience.org ↗Deep eaves and verandahs are one of the oldest climate tools in Sri Lankan building. Choose a place, the direction a wall faces and a time of day, then change the overhang to see how much of the window it keeps out of direct sun.
Simplified model: clear sky, solar time, a 1.2 m high window (sill 0.9 m, head 2.1 m) under a 2.7 m eave, shown in section. A teaching sketch, not a design calculation.
06 — Play
Tap to set each brick. Anything hanging over the course below gets cut off, so every course gets harder. Land one dead on the joint and it keeps its full length. How high can you build?
07 — Contact
Homagama, Sri Lanka and London, UK
Location of the site, a rough budget, and any photos or survey drawings you have.
