The reconstruction of Kirinda village in Sri Lanka is a 1 million USD charity program initiated and primarily financed from within Colliers International. The famous Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, and his company, Shigeru Ban Architects, are donating their time to make this the absolute most professionally run Tsunami project in Sri Lanka.

The project comprises restoring a village – 67 houses for fishing families in Kirinda – that was destroyed by the storm in December 2004. The project is being realized in Kirinda, a small port on the south coast of Sri Lanka. The Colliers team is working very closely with the most senior advisors of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, simply because the project in Kirinda has now become the benchmark that other organizations, such as UN, US Agency for International Development (USAID) and numerous NGOs measure up against. The homes built as part of the Colliers project are not only environmentally friendly, but also are sizeable enough to be comfortably lived in. The construction involves natural materials, which means that the homes breathe and stay cool inside even when temperatures are scorching outside.

One year after the project started in 2006, the founder of the Tsunami project in Kirinda, Philip Bay was appointed by the Government of Sri Lanka to be a developer/advisor for disaster housing and urban renewal in several locations in Sri Lanka  because of the unique design features of construction and local material usage.

The comments made by The President of Sri Lanka.