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Geoffrey Bawa

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Deshamanya
Geoffrey Bawa
FRIBA
Born
Geoffrey Manning Bawa

(1919-07-23)23 July 1919
Colombo, British Ceylon
Died27 May 2003(2003-05-27) (aged 83)
Colombo, Sri Lanka
NationalitySri Lanka
Education
OccupationArchitect
AwardsAga Khan Chairman's Award
Practice
  • Edwards, Reid and Begg
  • Geoffrey Bawa Associates
Buildings

Deshamanya Geoffrey Manning Bawa, FRIBA (23 July 1919 – 27 May 2003) was a Sri Lankan architect. Often referred to as the leader of the Tropical Modernist movement,[1] he was among the most influential Asian architects of his generation.[2][3][4][5]

Early life

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Geoffrey Bawa was born in Colombo on 23 July 1919,[5][6] the youngest of two sons to Major Benjamin Bawa, a Sri Lankan lawyer who was partly of European parentage,[7][8] and Bertha Marianne née Schrader, a Burgher of mixed Sinhalese, German and Scottish descent.[5][9][10] His older brother, Bevis, became a landscape architect.[5]

Education

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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.[6]

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.[11] 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,[5] planning to create an Italian garden from a tropical wilderness.[8][12] 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.[6][8]

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.[8][13]

Career in architecture

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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.[6]

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.[14]

Plesner left the island in 1967.[15] 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.[citation needed] [check quotation syntax] 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.[8]

Later life and death

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Bawa's final resting place on Cinnamon Hill at Lunuganga, his country estate

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.[5]

Bawa died on 27 May 2003 at the age of 83.[8][11]

Influence

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Geoffrey Bawa influenced a generation of architects in Sri Lanka after him, but his legacy was also embraced in Asia and around the world.[16]

List of works

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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.[13] Today, the Gallery Café on Paradise Road in Colombo is located in Bawa's former office building.[17]

A List of the works of Geoffrey Bawa
Work Location Years worked on Notes Image
1940s
Lunuganga Bentota 1948 - 1998 Bawa's country estate
1950s
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
1960s
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
1970s
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 Remodelled 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
1980s
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
1990s
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
2000s
Anantara Kalutara Resort Kalutara Completed in 2016 to Bawa's design
Unbuilt
Galadari Hotel Islamabad, Pakistan 1984
U.N. Headquarters, Malé Malé, Maldives 1985

Awards and fellowships

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  • Pan Pacific Citation, Hawaii Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (1967)
  • President, Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (1969)
  • Inaugural Gold Medal at the Silver Jubilee Celebration of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects (1982)
  • Heritage Award of Recognition, for "Outstanding Architectural Design in the Tradition of Local Vernacular Architecture", for the new Parliamentary Complex at Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte from the Pacific Area Travel Association. (1983)
  • Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects
  • Elected Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (1983)
  • Conferred title of Vidya Jothi (Light of Science) in the Inaugural Honours List of the President of Sri Lanka (1985)[18]
  • Teaching Fellowship at the Aga Khan Programme for Architecture, at MIT, Boston, USA (1986)
  • Conferred title Deshamanya (Pride of the Nation) in the Honours List of the President Sri Lanka (1993)[18]
  • The Grate Master's Award 1996 incorporating South Asian Architecture Award (1996)
  • The Architect of the Year Award, India (1996)[19]
  • Asian Innovations Award, Bronze Award – Architecture, Far Eastern Economic Review (1998)
  • The Chairman's Award of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in recognition of a lifetime's achievement in and contribution to the field of architecture (2001)[20]
  • Awarded Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), University of Ruhuna (14 September 2002)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Commune Design | Commune Post". communedesign.com. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
  2. ^ Aesthetic Recollections Archived 18 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine Newindpress on Sunday
  3. ^ "Beyond vernacular kitsch?". The Sunday Times. 11 November 2007. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Legacy of a master". The Sunday Times. 28 October 2007. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Compston, Harriet (4 December 2021). "The captivating story of one of Sri Lanka's great architects". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d Sennott, Stephen, ed. (2004). Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture – Volume 1. Taylor & Francis. pp. 123–125. ISBN 9781579584337.
  7. ^ Simpson, Joe (5 March 2006). "Preserving the Spirit of a Forgotten World – Anecdotal glimpses of the New Oriental Hotel, Galle Fort". LankaLIbrary.com. Archived from the original on 19 December 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  8. ^ a b c d e f "Geoffrey Bawa". The Times. 29 May 2003. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 30 January 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  9. ^ Bawa, Bevis (1985). Briefly by Bevis. Sapumal Foundation.
  10. ^ Seneviratne, Gamini (26 April 2009). "Bevis Bawa". The Island. Archived from the original on 7 July 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  11. ^ a b Robson, David (29 May 2003). "Geoffrey Bawa Obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 12 August 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  12. ^ Gunawardena, K. R. (2009). Lunuganga, the instance of a dwelling: an analysis considering Heidegger and Jung, University of Bath.
  13. ^ a b "Geoffrey Bawa". ArchNet. Archived from the original on 28 August 2010. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  14. ^ Aldrich, Robert Cultural Encounters and Homoeroticism in Sri Lanka: Sex and Serendipity, Routledge, 2014, pp66-79, 123–134
  15. ^ Ulrik Plesner: In Situ. An architectural memoir from Sri Lanka. Aristo Publishing, 2013, 451 pages, illustrated.
  16. ^ Hunn, Patrick. "The 'Australian architect behind some of Asia's most innovative buildings,' Kerry Hill, dies aged 75". ArchitectureAU. Architecture Media Pty Ltd. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  17. ^ "Paradise Road Gallery Cafe". 2020. Archived from the original on 23 November 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  18. ^ a b "National Awards". President of Sri Lanka Secretariat. Archived from the original on 26 January 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  19. ^ Kumar, S, ed. (1999). "Journal of the Indian Institute of Architects". 64. Indian Institute of Architects: 153. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  20. ^ Bloom, Jonathon, ed. (14 May 2009). The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture. Oxford University Press. p. 28. ISBN 9780195309911.

Further reading

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