With architectural traits running in his blood and a deep-end passion for transforming spaces, Ranga Fernando brought to life The Inside Project in 2020. Aiming to be both a realist and a design visionary, The Inside Project focuses a great deal on composing aesthetically pleasing, sustainable, and functional spaces.
Ranga’s progression began with the confidence that reality does not limit one, but rather, it provides a great advantage to turn bland spaces into contemporary interior design havens. Holding qualifications in Interior Architecture from the UK and Australia and owning tremendous interior architectural experience in retail, residential, hospitality, commercial and corporate sectors, he received several wonderful opportunities to create and deliver spaces both locally and globally.
Guided by the belief that the approach one takes plays a significant role in setting a designing firm apart, Ranga and his team specialize in unique out of the box concepts. Seeing design from a creative and engaging context, The Inside Project chooses to tell stories through the beauty of living. “In almost all of our designs, we try to tell a story within the space that we design; whether that space is big or small, we try to create a story for the user.” He also states that their client consistently plays a huge part in creating the said stories to bring the best out of the space.
“We try to give a fresh design concept to clients all the time”, Ranga explains. To ensure that the overall use of repetition in design is avoided, he steers clear of using a constant form of style or material over and over again. Although having a restricted option of materials within the country, he considers coming up with innovative ideas to turn around the available material; as a crucial part of his designing process.
Ranga takes pride in not being categorized as someone who works with a distinct type of space and talks about the need for taking risks in design when it comes to pushing the creative boundaries. Coupled with his attention to detail, these qualities and ideologies give his establishment an eccentric edge. As a whole, Ranga and his team of designers are keen on accentuating a structure’s hidden beauty according to today’s needs, with their creative input.
Holding a sense of confidence that the Sri Lankan Interior Architecture industry is surely headed in the right direction, Ranga remarks, “A Lot of people have realized that interior design and interior architecture is part of a holistic design process, rather than it being an afterthought.” Whilst this is true, Sri Lanka has a great deal to catch up with, primarily due to the presence of certain restrictions. “We’re pretty much two years behind on the latest trends in terms of materials”, he explains, “We can always tap into the latest design trends, but material wise it is an ongoing challenge to get the latest trend into the country.” Due to such obstacles in the industry, Ranga and his team at The Inside Project have learned to improvise when it comes to using material creatively.
When asked if the Covid-19 situation further created a barrier in getting down the necessary materials, Ranga says, “Covid has a tough impact on the supply of the materials, but one silver lining is that it has not affected us in terms of work – as we have come up with ways to tackle the shortcomings”. He stated that following the first wave, the industry had a positive beam to it and the industry is indeed moving steadily ahead, just the way it should.
Looking into a future almost five years ahead, Ranga sees excellent scope for the Sri Lankan Interior Architecture industry, on account of the construction projects that are happening or scheduled to happen in the country. “As we advance, there will be opportunities with all the construction work that is happening eventually. It has to come to a position where we will need an influx of qualified interior architects and designers working in this field”, he voices.
While anyone and everyone can become an Interior Decorator – in their own terms, Ranga believes that a deep sense of specialty encompasses qualified Interior Architects due to their holistic approach towards spaces. In addition, retaining practical knowledge and skills is one of the many things that can set someone apart from being an inaugural to a good designer. “It’s the quality that they come up with, and their end product has to be quite good even at an early stage because the competition would be high going forward”, he explains.
Continuing to edify designs within the construction industry in the country while also providing a fair share of internationally sought expertise into the local market, The Inside Project continues to elevate spaces with innovative design solutions using high standards in design that the team at The Inside Project has to offer.