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Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa is one of the most influential Asian architects of the 20th century. Venerated as the father of the tropical modernist movement, he created a new vernacular style of architecture suited to the hot, humid climate of Sri Lanka (and most of Asia). Bawa’s influences were varied: his mother was of German, Scottish and Sinhalese descent; his father had Sri Lankan, French and Muslim antecedents. He followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, studying law at Cambridge, but quit his job and travelled across Asia, Europe and the US after his parents passed away.

In 1948, on the cusp of his 30th birthday and Sri Lanka’s Independence, he bought 25 acres to create a weekend home, sited in a tropical version of a European renaissance garden.

On a walking tour of Lunuganga, that very estate in Bentota, the tour guide tells me that Bawa was interested in design but was aware that he had no professional qualifications. “He apprenticed himself to an architectural firm in Colombo, but decided to head back to England to study at the Architectural Association. He was 38 years old when he graduated in 1957; there was no looking back,” Sanjaya says.

Bawa, who won the Aga Khan Special Chairman’s Award for Architecture in 2001, was awarded the title of Deshamanya, the second highest civilian honour in the country, by the Sri Lankan government. He is best known for his pioneering tropical modernism style climate-responsive design: integration of buildings with their natural surroundings, a connect between the indoors and the outdoors, and the use of local materials.

Bawa’s architectural philosophy is best explored by visiting the many hotels that he designed across Sri Lanka. At a time when hotels were being designed in cookie-cutter style to fit anywhere in the world, the master architect’s varied designs stood out with their location-specific ethos.

Bawa famously said the site gives the most powerful push to a design, along with the brief. Nowhere is his site-focused design process more visible than at Heritance Kandalama, commissioned by the Aitken Spence Hotel Group to tap tourists visiting Sigiriya. The structure, built in 1994, is located 11 km southeast of the historic city, a distance that protects the immediate surroundings and offers picturesque views across the Kandalama Lake. Seamlessly integrating into the rocky terrain and dense foliage, the design prioritises harmony with nature, with the innovative use of space and materials showcasing a commitment to sustainable architecture, when it was not a buzzword.

Each of Bawa’s hotels differs in design typology but they share a commonality: a symbiotic relationship between the built environment and its surroundings. Cinnamon Bentota Beach, constructed between 1967 and 1969, was Sri Lanka’s first resort hotel. Set on a beautiful stretch between Bentara river and Bentota beach, the hotel showcases his languid style with flowing spaces, local materials and craftsmanship, and lush greenery. Painstakingly renovated a couple of years back by Bawa’s protege, Channa Daswatte, the hotel seems more like a work of art. Apart from the architecture, it spotlights batik-covered ceilings by textile designers Ena de Silva and Barbara Sansoni, drawings by Ismeth Raheem, and a peacock sculpture by Laki Senanayake.

Daswatte also took up the luxurious Anantara Kalutara Resort, which was commissioned in 1995 but sat idle for 15 years after Bawa’s death. The hotel houses the Geoffrey Bawa Library, which is modelled on the architect’s study and showcases his architectural drawings, along with furnishings designed or owned by him.

In 1966, Bawa got an assignment to revamp the Grand Oriental Hotel, a historic colonial-era hotel built in 1837 and located near Colombo’s bustling harbour. The new design saw the addition of the beautiful Harbour Room restaurant.

Bluewater Hotel and Spa, located in Wadduwa, a small coastal town near Colombo, offers stunning views of the ocean. Bawa reinterpreted the simple guest house layout that he used in 1967 for the Serendib Hotel on a grand scale.

The Jetwing Lighthouse Hotel, located on a rocky promontory about a mile to the north of Galle, was one of Bawa’s last major projects. The post-modern minimalist hotel blends colonial charm with modern luxury, showcasing located materials and Sri Lankan architectural elements.

Since his death in 2003, Bawa’s most monumental works have been repurposed for tourism, including his home Lunuganga, beach villa Claughton House, and his final project, The Last House. Bawa believed that each of his projects was “a very particular response to a culture it’s in — particularly in respect to the materials”.

“Design encompasses a cultural sensitivity. I respond to it through the site. Any other response is bogus to me,” he famously said.

Bawa’s many hotels, scattered across the length and breadth of Sri Lanka, offer one of the most unusual lenses to view the country’s architecture and his tropical modernism style.

— The writer is a freelance contributor

FACT FILE

Getting there: Sri Lankan Airlines flies from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. The airline also offers a ‘Ramayana Trail’ package, which allows Indian travellers to explore 20 sacred sites associated with the Ramayana.

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