Architect

Geoffrey Bawa

1919–2003 · Sri Lankan · 8 buildings on the wall

Geoffrey Bawa (1919–2003) was a Sri Lankan architect whose buildings joined modern design to local materials, crafts and landscape. Born in Colombo, he studied English and law at Cambridge before training at the Architectural Association in London, where he earned his diploma in 1956. With artists such as Ena de Silva, Barbara Sansoni and Laki Senanayake he helped spark a new interest in indigenous materials and crafts.

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At Lunuganga, an abandoned rubber estate on the south-west coast that he bought for himself, he set out to make an Italian garden out of a tropical wilderness. The Bentota Beach Hotel (1969) joined modern rooms to forms and materials of its setting and influenced later resorts in the country. Seema Malaka in Colombo (1976), a temple rebuilt on three platforms in Beira Lake joined by pontoon bridges, draws on the ancient forest monasteries of Anuradhapura and Ritigala. The Parliament of Sri Lanka (1982) stands on an island in a lake at Kotte, and Heritance Kandalama (1994) wraps a hotel around a cliff, entered through a cave-like porch. Geoffrey Bawa's buildings are studied for their response to climate, landscape and craft.

See the 8 buildings ↓