Nela De Zoysa, Hon. FAIA, FIA (SL), FRIBA, FRAIA, lnt'I Assoc RAIC, IIID, PG Dip Acomas
AIA International Country Representative - Sri Lanka
Nela De Zoysa Design Corporation
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NELA DE ZOYSA is a practicing architect from Sri Lanka , an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (Hon. FAIA), a Fellow of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (FIA (SL)), of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) & of the Royal Institute of Australian Architects (FRAIA). An International Associate of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (lnt'I. Assoc. RAIC), a Life Member of Indian Institute of Interior Designers (IIID) & holder of a Post Graduate Diploma in Architectural Conservation of Monuments & Sites: PG Dip Acomas.
She has the distinction of being the only living Architect in Sri Lanka to be a Hon. FAIA and FRIBA, the first Sri Lankan to win the ARCASIA Gold Medal in 2000 and also the First Woman in Sri Lanka to win the South Asian Architects Award in the same year. She won the Geoffrey Bawa Commendation Award for Excellence in Architecture in 2008.
Apart from the International Awards mentioned, she has won 18 National Awards from the SLIA under the categories of Excellence in Architecture, Merit, Honorable Mention and Color.
She was Awarded the Gold Award in 2016 for Best International Woman Leadership from IFC and Women in Management, a Platinum Award in 2009 for Architecture and the Zonta Int’l Woman of Achievement Award in the Category of Architecture in 1993.
She is the first Sri Lankan to be elected to the RIBA Council, which she served from 2011 to 2017. She initiated the RIBA Members Sri Lanka of which she is the Founder Chair since 2015 to date.
She has served on the Council of ARCASIA as an Office Bearer for 4 years.
Currently, she is the first Sri Lankan to be elected to the Strategic Council of the AIA (2019-2021). She is also a Council Member & Chair of the Board of Architectural Education of the SLIA. Previously, she has served in Council for 3 years, 2 of which she served as Assistant Secretary.
Nela has Presented Papers at ARCASIA Forum 19 in Jaipur, India in May 2017 and at ARCASIA Forum 10 in Seoul, Korea in 1999.
She was invited to present the Keynote Address at the Green Building Conference in Pretoria in 2016 & at the WADe (Women in Architecture and Design) Conference in Delhi in 2017.
She presented the L. M. Chitale Memorial Lecture on invitation of the Indian Institute of Architects (IIA). She has spoken at the SAARCH Conference in 2004 in Karachi, Pakistan on invitation of the Institute of Architects Pakistan (IAP) and in Bangalore and Pune in 2003 and 2004 respectively on invitation of the Indian Institute of Interior Designers (IIID).
In Sri Lanka, she has Presented Papers at the First National Archaeology Conference in 1987 and at the International Seminar on "Town Planning of the Dutch Period Outside Europe".
Served on Jury at the Torsanlorenzo International Prize in 2005 in Rome, Italy invited by the International Union of Architects (UIA), at the "Ice Today" in 2009 in Dhaka on invitation of the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB), at the South Asian Architect of the Year Award/ AYA 2009 in Mangalore, India and at the WADe Delhi in the years 2017, 2018 & 2019.
