Roofing in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, the tropical island off the southern tip of India, has a long and well-recorded building tradition centred on timber-framed, tiled or thatched pitched roofs with generous overhangs. Its ancient capital at Anuradhapura had a nine-storey monastic hall roofed in bronze tiles, and the Kandyan kingdom of the central hills developed distinctive tiled image houses. Today most homes are roofed with corrugated asbestos-cement sheet or clay tiles.

Climate and hazards

The island has a tropical climate with two monsoons: the south-west monsoon in the middle of the year and the north-east monsoon around the turn of the year, giving heavy rainfall, especially in the south-west and the central hills. Roofs must shed intense rain and resist strong winds. Sri Lanka also faces floods, landslides in the hill country, storms and cyclones, and the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 devastated much of its coast.

Roofing history

Anuradhapura period. The Mahavihara monastery at Anuradhapura contained the Lovamahapaya (Lohaprasada, "Brazen Palace"), a nine-storey hall attributed to King Dutugemunu, standing on 1,600 stone pillars in 40 rows of 40, with a side about 120 m (400 ft) long. Its roof was covered with bronze tiles, which gave the building its name. It was destroyed in antiquity; a small modern building now stands on the site. Early rock-cut cave temples, such as those at Mihintale, had a carved drip ledge along the rock overhang to keep rainwater out of the cave.

Kandyan period. In the hill kingdom of Kandy (16th to early 19th centuries), Buddhist image houses called tampita vihara were raised on stone pillars and roofed with two-pitched timber roofs covered with flat clay tiles; most surviving examples date from the 16th and 17th centuries. Village houses of the period, such as the courtyard house hatara-endi-ge, had timber roofs thatched with straw, and commoners' huts had overhanging thatched roofs over a front verandah (pila).

Colonial and modern. Portuguese, Dutch and British rule over almost five centuries introduced European building types on the coast and in Colombo. In the 20th century the architect Geoffrey Bawa became known for combining traditional elements, including terracotta-tiled pitched roofs, with modernist design.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Tampita vihara: image house on stone pillars with a two-pitched, flat-tile-covered timber roof.
• Hatara-endi-ge: square courtyard house with blank outer walls and a straw-thatched timber roof.
• Wallauwe: larger manor house of the rural elite, with several courtyards.
• Thatched huts: overhanging thatched roofs on simple timber frames, an image of the village that began to vanish after the Gam Udava village programme of the 1980s.

Roofing today

Preliminary results of the 2024 Census of Population and Housing show that 53.2% of housing units are roofed with asbestos sheets and 33.7% with tiles. Roofing varies by district: in Mannar 87.3% of roofs are tiled, the highest share in the country, while Polonnaruwa has the highest share of asbestos roofs at 75.5%. In Badulla 5.7% of units have roofs of non-durable materials.

Codes, standards and regulation

Agencies involved in building regulation include the Ministry responsible for housing and construction, the Urban Development Authority (UDA), the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO), the Construction Industry Development Authority (CIDA) and local authorities such as the Colombo Municipal Council. A World Bank-supported assessment in 2019 recommended a new Sri Lanka building code adapted to local hazards, and reducing gaps and overlaps between existing laws and institutions.

Notable roofs

• Lovamahapaya, Anuradhapura: ancient nine-storey hall famous for its bronze-tiled roof.
• Tampita viharas of the Kandyan region (16th-17th centuries): tiled image houses on stone pillars.

Local roofing terms

• tampita vihara (Sinhala): image house raised on pillars
• hatara-endi-ge (Sinhala): courtyard house
• pila (Sinhala): front verandah
• wallauwe (Sinhala): manor house

Sources and gaps

Information on individual domestic roofing manufacturers and on hazard requirements for roofs was not found in published sources; the 2024 census figures are preliminary.