Discover Sri Lanka through the lens of its most famous architect, Geoffrey Bawa

 

 

Geoffrey Bawa was a Sri Lankan architect. Often referred to as the leader of the Tropical Modernist movement, he was among the most influential Asian architects of his generation

Geoffrey Bawa was born in Colombo on 23 July 1919, the youngest of two sons to Major Benjamin Bawa, a Sri Lankan lawyer who was partly of European parentage, and Bertha Marianne née Schrader, a Burgher of mixed Sinhalese, German and Scottish descent. His older brother, Bevis, became a landscape architect.

Bawa was educated at Royal College, Colombo after which he studied English and Law in 1938 at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, gaining a BA (English Literature Tripos) and went on to study law at Middle Temple, London, becoming a barrister in 1944.

Returning to Ceylon after World War II, he worked for a Colombo law firm. After the death of his mother, he left the profession and soon left in 1946 to travel for two years, going to the Far East, across the United States, and finally to Europe and almost settling in Italy.  By the time he was 28 years old, he had spent a third of his life away from Sri Lanka. During his time in Italy, he planned to buy a villa and settle down, but that did not happen, and by 1948 he had returned to Sri Lanka.

Bawa bought an abandoned rubber estate on the south-west coast of the island between Colombo and Galle at Lunuganga, planning to create an Italian garden from a tropical wilderness. However, he soon found that his ideas were compromised by his lack of technical knowledge. In 1951, he was apprenticed to H. H. Reid, the sole surviving partner of the Colombo architectural practice Edwards, Reid and Begg.

In 1952 Reid died, but Bawa still aspired to a career in architecture, so he returned to England. After spending a year at Cambridge, he enrolled as a student at the Architectural Association in London, where he earned a Diploma in Architecture by 1956 and in the following year, he became an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1957, at the age of 38 he returned to Sri Lanka as a qualified architect to take over what was left of Reid's practice.

Returning to Ceylon, he became a partner of Messrs. Edwards, Reid and Begg, Colombo in 1958. In 1959, Danish architect Ulrik Plesner joined the firm, and the two designed many buildings together.

Bawa was influenced by colonial and traditional Ceylonese architecture, and the role of water in it, but rejected both the idea of regionalism and the imposition of preconceived forms onto a site.

Plesner left the island in 1967. Bawa became an Associate of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects in 1960. An ensuing close association with a coterie of like-minded artists and designers, including Ena de Silva, Barbara Sansoni and Laki Senanayake, produced a new awareness of indigenous materials and crafts, leading to a post-colonial renaissance of culture. In 1979, President J. R. Jayewardene invited Bawa to design Sri Lanka's new Parliament building at Kotte. The project was completed in 1982 with the help of a firm of Japanese contractors, Mitsui.

In 1982, Bawa established the Geoffrey Bawa Trust with the aim of furthering the fields of architecture, fine arts and environmental studies. In the early 1990s, Bawa suffered a series of strokes that left him ill.

Bawa died on 27 May 2003 at the age of 83.

Geoffrey Bawa influenced a generation of architects in Sri Lanka after him, but his legacy was also embraced in Asia and around the world.

Bawa's work was mainly in Sri Lanka, but included several other countries as well: nine times in India, three times in Indonesia, twice in Mauritius and once in Fiji, and Singapore. His works include houses, hotels, schools, clubs, offices and government buildings, most notably the Sri Lankan Parliament Building. Today, the Gallery Café on Paradise Road in Colombo is located in Bawa's former office building.

 

A List of the works of Geoffrey Bawa

Lunuganga                 Bentota 1948 - 1998

S. Thomas' Preparatory School Colombo 1957 - 1964

Carmen Gunasekera House Colombo 1958

Kanangara House Colombo 1959

Club House Ratnapura 1959

Deraniyagala House Colombo 1959

Wimal Fernando House Colombo 1959

Jayawardena House Colombo 1959 - 1960

Ekala Industrial Estate Ja Ela 1959 - 1960

A. S. H. De Silva House Galle 1959 - 1960

Manager's Bungalow     Maskeliya 1959 - 1960

Turin Koralage House Elpitiya 1959 - 1960

Wijewardene House Colombo 1959 - 1964

Osmund and Ena De Silva House Colombo 1960 - 1962

Bishop's College Colombo 1960 - 1963

33rd Lane Colombo 1960 - 1998 (Bawa's Colombo residence)

Nazareth Chapel, Good Shepherd Convent Bandarawela 1961 - 1962

House for Dr. Bartholomeusz Colombo 1961 - 1963

House for Chris and Carmel Raffel Colombo 1962 - 1964

Pim and Pam Fernando House Colombo 1963

St. Bridget's Convent Montessori School Colombo 1963 - 1964

Polontalawa Estate Bungalow Polontalawa 1963 - 1965

Hilton Colombo Colombo 1965

Madurai Boys' Town Madurai, India 1965 - 1967

Yahapath Endera Farm School Hanwella 1965 - 1971

Coral Garden Hotel Hikkaduwa 1966 Additions and renovations

Grand Oriental Hotel Colombo 1966 (Additions and renovations Formerly known as the Taprobane Hotel)

Steel Corporation Offices Oruwala 1966 - 1969

Bentota Beach Hotel Bentota 1967 - 1969

Pieter Keuneman House Colombo 1967 - 1969

Serendib Hotel Bentota 1967 - 1970

Yala Beach Hotel Yala 1968

Mahahalpe Farm Kandy 1969

Ceylon Pavilion at the 1970 World's Fair Osaka, Japan 1969 - 1970

The Villa Bentota by KK Collection Bentota 1970 - 1971

Pallakele Industrial Estate Pallekele 1970 - 1971

P.C. de Saram Terrace Houses Colombo 1970 - 1973

Science Block Nugegoda 1971

Madurai Club Madurai, India 1971 - 1974 (Has been renamed as Heritage Madurai.)

Hotel Connemara Chennai, India 1971 - 1976 (Remodeled by Bawa, it's now known as the Taj Connemara)

Club Mediterranee Nilaveli 1972

Stanley de Saram House Colombo 1972

Batujimbar Pavilions Sanur, Indonesia.1972 - 1975

Peter White House Pereybere, Mauritius 1973 - 1974

Heritance Ayurveda Maha Gedara Beruwela 1973 - 1976 (Formerly the Neptune Hotel)

Agrarian Research and Training Institute Colombo 1974 - 1976

Hotel at Pondicherry Puducherry, India 1975

Seema Malaka Colombo 1976 - 1978

State Mortgage Bank Colombo 1976 - 1978

Candoline Hotel Goa, India 1977

Panama Hotel Panama 1977

Martenstyn House Colombo 1977 - 1979

Meena Muttiah Hospital for the Kumarni of Chettinad Chennai, India 1978

House for Lidia Gunasekera Bentota 1978 - 1980

Institute for Integral Education Piliyandala 1978 - 1981

Club Villa Hotel Bentota 1979

Heritance Ahungalla Ahungalla 1979 - 1981 (Formerly the Triton Hotel)

Sri Lankan Parliament Building Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte 1979 - 1982

University of Ruhuna Matara 1980 - 1988

Sunethra Bandaranaike House Horagolla 1984 - 1986

Offices for Banque Indosuez Colombo 1985

Institute of Engineering Technology Katunayake 1985

Fitzherbert House Tangalle 1985 - 1986

De Soysa House Colombo 1985 - 1991

Bashir Currimjee House Port Louis, Mauritius 1986 - 1994

Hyatt Hotel Sanur, Indonesia 1989

Larry Gordon House Wakaya, Fiji 1989

Singapore Cloud Centre Singapore 1989

Banyan Tree Hotel Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia 1991

Heritance Kandalama Dambulla 1991 - 1994 (Formerly the Kandalama Hotel The first LEED-certified green hotel in the world)

Jayakody House Colombo Colombo 1991 - 1996

Sarabhai House Ahmedabad, India 1992

Modi House Delhi, India 1992

Jayakody House Bentota Bentota 1993

Poddar House Bangalore, India 1994

Avani Kalutara Resort Kalutara 1994 - 1996 (Formerly the Kani Lanka Resort & Spa)

Lighthouse Hotel Galle 1995 - 1997

Blue Water Hotel Wadduwa 1996 - 1998

Official Residence of the President Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte 1997 -

Pradeep Jayewardene House Mirissa 1997 - 1998

Spencer House Colombo 1998

Jacobsen House Tangalle

The Last House Tangalle 1997