The founder and principal architect of Archt-X, Mr. Ratnasiri Jayasinghe, is a chartered architect and a fellow member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects.
He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Built Environment (Honours Second Upper) in 1983 from the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka. He then trained under master architect, SLIA gold medalist Archt. Valentine Gunasekara for a period of one and half years, and later completed the Master’s degree in Architecture in 1986.
Jayasinghe then worked for a brief period at Suchith Mohotti Associates and later joined Design Consortium Limited, where he had the opportunity to get first-hand site experience in organic structures using modified clay adobe and FRC structures. He spent the following two years at the Central Cultural Fund, under the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, working in the Cultural Triangle Project, where he received a fellowship training program on heritage presentation in the UK. Then he joined Ranjan Nadesapillai Associates and worked with his close friend Ranjan until leaving the island in 1993. During this time, he also served as an assistant lecturer in the Town Planning Department of the University of Moratuwa, and as a visiting design tutor in the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Moratuwa for six years.
From 1993 to 1997, Jayasinghe served as the chief architect at Al Hatmy Design and Engineering Consultancy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he received exposure to a variety of projects ranging from residential apartment blocks, commercial shopping centers, to industrial factories and warehouses. The work included designing buildings in the UAE, Tanzania and Zanzibar. In 1998, he moved to the Sultanate of Oman to serve at COWI & Partners LLC, a Danish engineering consultancy. In the six years at COWI, he was involved in designing automobile showrooms for Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Nissan, and luxury villas for high profile families, in the capacities of senior architect, project architect and project manager as well. In 2004, he returned to Sri Lanka and founded Archt-X. From 2005 onwards, the practice is based on his extensive traveling between Colombo and Muscat.
In 2005, Larsen A&CE, a Danish architectural practice based in Muscat invited him to join their team for the design of two airports in Oman. The following 7 years were spent serving as the concept design architect, detail design architect, and the lead architect of the supervision team of the Muscat and Salalah International Airport projects. There, he had the opportunity to formulate the concept designs and details of all key architectural features, and to coordinate with a multi-disciplinary team of consultants of over 450 personnel designing the terminal buildings, two air traffic control towers, multi-storey car parks, ancillary buildings, and landscape designs including highway interchange bridges. While at Larsen A&CE, he also did concept designs of high-security complexes for RGO Oman and DHQC Sri Lanka.
In 2013, he lead the detail design package at CorduffOman Architects, for a holiday palace in Muscat for a GCC State Head. From 2013 to date, Jayasinghe serves as a Director at Al Saraya Architectural & Engineering Consultancy in Oman, and is involved in the capacity of client’s representative/project coordinator for a number of commercial shopping mall development projects.
Meanwhile in Colombo, Archt-X continues to sail smoothly, while its principal architect shuttles between the cities, keeping up with time, sharing knowledge and technical know-how across borders.