Geoffrey Bawa and Sustainability
Last year on my visit to Srilanka, I had the chance of witnessing the work of the great Geoffrey Bawa. It was one thing to read about his architectural aptitude (and see his work on paper) and quite another to actually see what it means to tie modernity within the roots of a rich architectural culture. Unique to his work, one of his earliest buildings, a courtyard house built in Colombo for Ena De Silva in 1961 is an excellent example of this merger. Bawa has fused elements of Sinhalese domestic architecture and effortlessly blended it with concepts of open planning, indicating that an outdoor life and outdoor furniture can be equally viable on a tight urban plot.
Some of his prominent buildings include the Bentota Beach Hotel of 1968 which was Sri Lanka’s first function-based modern resort hotel that looks into the needs of tourist with a rare sense of place and continuity. And it’s awesome! The hotel has some of teh most eco friendly outdoor wood furniture. The Kandalama, another unique hotel amidst austere jungle around a rocky outcrop was amazing; and so was the Lighthouse at Galle which got destroyed in Tsunami 2004. Lighthouse had all its outdoor furniture built from sustainable materials.
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