In a country that has been colonized by the Dutch and the British, ravaged by civil war and devastated by natural disaster, one man has had the single greatest impact on independent Sri Lanka’s landscape: Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka’s most prolific and important architect.
Lunuganga Estate | Courtesy of Geoffrey Bawa Trust
Geoffrey Bawa (1919 – 2003) was born of Sri Lanka’s multi-ethnic, colonial heritage, with Arab and British paternal lineage, and Dutch Burgher and Sinhalese maternal lineage. Like his grandfather, Amaduwa Bawa, and his father, Benjamin Bawa, Geoffrey traveled to Britain for a prestigious university education, and, following the family tradition, qualified as lawyer in 1944. He returned to Colombo to work briefly in a law firm, but soon tired of the profession and, having lost both his parents at a tragically young age, used his inheritance to travel across the Far East, the United States and Europe. Although almost seduced by the prospect of settling down in an Italian lakeside villa, he instead returned to Ceylon and threw himself into a new initiative – turning his recently purchased Lunuganga Estate into a tropical paradise that would evoke the Mediterranean attitude with which he felt such affinity.
This personal project, combined with Bawa’s perpetual feeling of being torn between his Asian and European cultural identity, ultimately gave rise to Sri Lanka’s unique style of modern architecture, of which Bawa was the pioneer. His experience at Lunuganga propelled him into the world of imaginative and inventive design, but also revealed his lack of technical training. After a short architectural apprenticeship in Colombo, Bawa traveled again to London, where he qualified as an architect in 1957, aged 38.
Lunuganga Estate | Courtesy of Geoffrey Bawa Trust
For the next 32 years, Bawa worked under the auspices of Colombo firm Edwards Reid and Begg, hardly leaving any area of the country untouched by his distinctively spirited mark. At first, his commissions were predominantly urban houses, offices and public buildings in Colombo, including ‘deconstructed colonial bungalows’ – a radical departure from the inappropriately stuffy British architecture. The ‘tropical modernist’ style would become a fundamental part of the evolving identity of a newly independent Sri Lanka. Bawa was instrumental in presenting innovative ways to use light, space and materials to create dynamic designs that worked with, not against, challenging environments.
By 1960, Bawa, who had always been a member of an elite class in Sri Lanka, was moving in a social circle of artists, and his work was highly sought-after by influential cultural figures, from hoteliers and European plantation owners, to the Catholic Church and charitable foundations. The celebrated batik artist, Ena de Silva, a close friend of Bawa, brought him on board her project to create an airy and modern suburban house in Colombo that still retained the atmosphere of the traditional homes she grew up in. Here Bawa produced an early example of his experimentations with open space, creating a free flow of movement inside the building by carefully emphasizing the voids between mazes of whitewashed structures.
Geoffrey Bawa | Courtesy of Geoffrey Bawa Trust
A year later, Bawa, now in frequent collaboration with Danish architect Ulrik Plesner, built a new office for himself on Alfred House Road in Colombo, which has now been transformed into the elegantly rustic The Gallery Café, owned by Shanth Fernando of the Paradise Road group of properties. Inside, Bawa’s influence, if not his artifacts, can still be appreciated. Past the exhibited art hangings on the entrance corridor, visitors emerge into an unexpectedly expansive and bright space, where lounging areas and striking sculptures frame a tranquil open courtyard, which, by Bawa’s masterful trickery, somehow captures the essence of an Italian summer, all year round.
In the early 1970s, Sri Lanka was already coming into its own as a tourist destination, and Bawa was the obvious, if not the only, choice to design the first purpose-built holiday resort, the Bentota Beach Hotel, and neighboring Serendib Hotel. Bentota Beach was sophisticated in its subtlety, with hidden hints of ancient palaces, medieval forts, and colonial manors, whilst the Serendib provided a modest resthouse, and appeared to naturally coexist with the local environment. Bawa’s impact on the burgeoning luxury travel scene was unprecedented, and has since been unrivaled: he designed 35 hotels between 1965 and 1997, of which 13 were built in Sri Lanka. Only five, all from his later period – The Triton, The Neptune, The Kandalama, The Lighthouse and Blue Water – survive in their original architectural form.
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