Architect Carl Pruscha's work across Nepal and Sri Lanka explored in Wallpaper* tour

A writer and photographer traces the career of Austrian architect Carl Pruscha (born 1936 in Innsbruck), who studied in Vienna and Harvard, and was appointed by the UN in 1964 as a planning expert to Nepal. His buildings in Nepal include the Taragaon Next complex (originally a women's hostel, now a gallery), the CEDA campus at Tribhuvan University (1969-1971), and private homes like Bansbari House (now a restaurant). Pruscha's master plan for the Kathmandu Valley was rejected by elites; many of his Nepali works are decaying or demolished. Since 2005, he has worked in Sri Lanka for the One World Foundation (OWF), designing the House Above Trees guesthouse, Lagoon Bungalow, Palmgrove Bungalow, and a school for over 1,000 students. The school was destroyed by the 2004 tsunami; Pruscha's wife Eva Schlegel raised €250,000 via an art auction for its replacement. The Sri Lankan minister endorsed the design but no copies were built. Pruscha now lives in Vienna and refuses to return to Nepal, preferring to remember it as a 'paradise in the 1960s'.