Our story & concept

First came the forest.
Then came the paper.

Kadadasi wasn't founded in a boardroom. It grew, literally, out of forty years of patience in a village backyard in Bollatha.

A shaded path through the lush Kadadasi forest, with the workshop visible between the trees
the forest Vijitha grew, one tree at a time
The architect

Vijitha planted a forest.

Around forty years ago, architect Vijitha Basnayaka began gradually greening the family's ancestral land, about seven acres in all, growing a two-acre forest with an organic permaculture backyard flourishing around it. He believed that "architecture and nature should have a very close affinity, that the closer we are to nature, the less complicated our lifestyles will be."

What was once bare land became a lush forest of high biodiversity, peace and tranquillity, with waterways, birdlife, and one very shaded little workshop.

A woman pouring pulp at the manual paper machine under the open workshop roof
the workshop Ira built in her backyard
The naturalist

Ira made it breathe.

Vijitha's wife Ira, naturalist, homemaker and birder, watched industrialisation creep into the village, and with it, the waste. Instead of looking away, she travelled to India to learn the craft of handmade recycled paper.

Back home, she set up a small papermaking workshop in her backyard, blending materials from the forest with reclaimed industrial waste to create textured, uniquely designed papers. Then she did something bigger: she began training the women of the village.

waste in. wonder out. ~

Forty years, four chapters

One Forest, Many Stories

the next chapter

Hands passing hands

The next generation takes root. Young artisans bring new ideas to the craft while honoring the forest tradition that began with their parents and grandparents.

growing together

Roots and renewal

Kadadasi partners with villagers to plant trees, establish reuse programs, and teach recycling. The forest grows—and so does the community's investment in it.

visit the forest

Where paper meets trees

Experience the backyard forest firsthand. Forest walks, homestays, birdwatching, and immersive forest experiences connect people to the land that inspires every sheet of paper.

today

Papers with first names

Village women run the craft, invent new textures, and sign them with their own names. The forest keeps growing.

The concept

Reuse! Recycle! Repurpose!

An environmentally sustainable enterprise with a deliberately tiny footprint:

Manual machinery

No high electricity consumption, pulp is beaten and pressed by hand-powered machines.

Light & air from the forest

The workshop is naturally lit and ventilated, designed by an architect who grew the shade himself.

Water goes back to the backyard

Non-toxic wastewater is recycled into a permaculture backyard beside the workshop.

Zero trees cut

Unlike conventional papermaking, no tree is ever felled, the forest is the point, not the resource.

Design something from this paper →