Velayu Kandavel is recorded as gaining an architecture degree at the University of Melbourne, Australia in 1956 and then enrolling in 1958, on the six-month postgraduate course at the Architectural Association’s Department of Tropical Architecture, in London. Following graduation, he moved to Colombo and by late 1959 was working as an Assistant Architect within the Building Division of the Public Works Department. By 1967 he had been appointed Deputy Chief Architect, rising to the position of Chief Architect for the Department of Buildings by 1970. Amongst his most significant projects is the astonishing Colombo Planetarium, designed with A.N.S. Kulasinghe (1965) and the Ceylon Pavilion for the 1967 International Expo at Montreal, Canada. Alongside his design work, Kandavel was also a part-time faculty member at the Institute of Practical Technology, at Katubedda, from the early days of its founding in 1961. When this course was restructured and transferred to the University of Ceylon in 1968, Kandavel was responsible for the design of a new hall at its premises at 18 Ward Place, Colombo.

Sources

• Architectural Association Council Minutes Books, 23rd February, 1959, p317, AA Archives
• Architectural Association Membership List, 1961
• The Educand, No. 3, 1956, University of Western Australia, p73
• The Argus (Melbourne), 7th August, 1956, p11
• Ferguson’s Ceylon Directory, 1959, The Ceylon Observer Press, 1959, p.237
• Ceylon Today, Vol. 16, 1967, p19
• Milne, C. Expo 67: Guide official/official 28 Avril – 27 Octobre, 1967, Maclean-Hunter Limitée, 1967p131
  Survey of China Mainland Press, United States. Consulate General (Hong Kong, China), 1970, p188
• 1972-2022, 50th Anniversary, University of Moratuwa: Publication to commemorate University of Moratuwa’s 50 years of Excellence in Higher Education, University of Moratuwa, 2022, pp25-34    https://uom.lk/pdf/golden-jubilee-publication.html
• Pieris, A. Imagining Modernity: The Architecture of Valentine Gunasekara, Stamford Lake, 2007, p32