Queer Places:
Agrarian Research and Training Institute, 114 Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
ASH de Silva House, Eliot Rd, Galle 80000, Sri Lanka
Automobile Association of Ceylon, 40 Sir Mohamed Macan Markar Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Banque Indosuez Offices, 69 Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colombo 00100
Bartholomeusz House (now The Gallery Café), 2 Alfred House Rd, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Bashir Currimjee House, Port Louis, Mauritius
Bentota Beach Hotel, Bentota, Sri Lanka
Bentota Resort, Bentara - Uragaha - Elpitiya Rd, Sri Lanka
Blue Water Hotel, Thalpitiya, Wadduwa 12560, Sri Lanka
Cecil and Chloe de Soysa House, Srimath Anagarika Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
Ceylon Steel Corporation, Oruwala 10150, Sri Lanka
Chris and Carmen Raffel House, 57 Ward Pl, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
Claughton House (aka Richard Fitzherbert-Brockholes House), Nilwella Road, Dikwella South, 81200
Coral Gardens Hotel, Hikkaduwa 80250, Sri Lanka
David Spencer House, Rosmead Pl, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
Deraniyagala House, 26 Guildford Cres, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
Geoffrey Bawa House, 11 33rd Lane, Bagatelle Road, Colombo 3 00300
Grand Oriental Hotel, 2 York St, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Heritage Madurai, 11 Melakkal Rd, Kochadai, Madurai, Tamil Nadu 625016, India
Heritance Kandalama Hotel, 11 Dambulla, Dambulla 21106, Sri Lanka
Hilton Hotel, 2 Sir Chittampalam A Gardiner Mawatha, Colombo 00200, Sri Lanka
Hotel Connamara, Binny Road, Anna Salai, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600002, India
Institute for Integral Education (aka The Subodhi Centre), Waliwita Lane, Wewala, Piliyandala, Sri Lanka
Institute of Engineering Technology, Temple Rd, Katunayake 11410, Sri Lanka
Kani Lanka Resort & Spa, St Sebastian Rd, Kalutara 12000, Sri Lanka
Ladies' College, 66 Sir Ernest de Silva Mawatha, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
Leela Dias Bandaranayake House, Hotel Rd, Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka
Lighthouse Hotel, Dadella, Galle 80000, Sri Lanka
Lunuganga Garden, Dedduwa, Bentota 32350, Sri Lanka
Martenstyn House, aka Pin and Pam Fernando House, 47 C W W Kannangara Mawatha, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
Montessori School, St. Bridget’s Convent, Maitland Cres, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
National Institute of Business Management, Vidya Mawatha, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
Nazareth Chapel for Good Shepherd Convent, Rasintha Wimalasena Road, Bandarawela
Neptune Hotel, Beruwala 12070, Sri Lanka
Office, Beach Rd Matara, Matara, Sri Lanka
Osmund and Ena de Silva House, 5 Alfred Pl, Colombo 00300, Sri Lanka
P.C. de Saram Terrace House, 5th Ln, Colombo 00300, Sri Lanka
Pallakele Industrial Estate, Pallekele 20186, Sri Lanka
Peter Keuneman House, 27th Ln, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
Peter White House (now Moulin Casse gallery), Route Old Mille, Riviere Du Rempart, Mauritius
Pilgrims’ Rest House, 90 Jayanthi Mawatha, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Polontalawa Estate, Nikaweratiya, Sri Lanka
Public Library, Galle Main Rd, Kalutara, Sri Lanka
Red Cliffs (aka Pradeep Jayawardene House), Red Cliffs , off main road Mirissa, Weligama, Sri Lanka
Rohan and Dulanjalee Jayakody House, Park St, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Ruhunu University Campus, A2, Matara, Sri Lanka
Sarabhai House, 28 Jain Colony, Shahibag, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380004, India
Science Block, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka
Seema Malaka, Sir James Pieris Mawatha, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Serendib Hotel, Hotel Road, Bentota, Bentota 80500, Sri Lanka
Sinbad Hotel (now Anantara Kalutara Resort), St Sebastian Rd, Kalutara 12000, Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan Parliament Building, Parliament Approach Rd, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, Sri Lanka
St. Thomas' Preparatory School, 98 Colombo - Galle Main Rd, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Stanley de Saram House, Cambridge Pl, Colombo 00700, Sri Lanka
State Mortgage Bank (Mahaweli), 500 T B Jayah Mawatha, Colombo 01000, Sri Lanka
Strathspey Estate, Upcot Rd, Maskeliya, Sri Lanka
Tourist Police Station, Galle Road, Beruwala, Sri Lanka
Triton Hotel (aka Heritance), Galle Road, Ahungalla 80562, Sri Lanka
University of Cambridge, 4 Mill Ln, Cambridge CB2 1RZ
Yahapath Endera Farm School, Hanwella 10650, Sri Lanka
Yala Beach Hotel, Palatupana, Kirinda 82614, Sri Lanka
YWCA Building, Rotunda Gardens, Colombo 00300, Sri Lanka
Geoffrey Manning Bawa, FRIBA (23 July 1919 – 27 May 2003) was a Sri Lankan
architect. He was among the most influential Asian architects of his
generation. He is the principal force behind what is today known globally as
"tropical modernism".[1][2][3]
Geoffrey Bawa was born on 23 July 1919. His father was Justice B. W. Bawa a wealthy and successful lawyer, of Muslim and English parentage, and his mother, Bertha Marianne Schrader, was of mixed German, Scottish and Sinhalese descent. He had one older brother Bevis Bawa who became a renowned landscape architect.
He was educated at Royal College, Colombo after which he studied English and Law, 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. 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.[4] 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, planning to create an Italian garden from a tropical wilderness. 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. 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. There he gained a Diploma in Architecture by 1956 and in the following year he became an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. To this day he is remembered as the tallest, oldest, and most outspoken student of his generation at AA. In 1957, at the age of 38 he returned to Sri Lanka qualified as an architect to take over what was left of Reid's practice.[5]
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 in their distinct style, sometimes called "tropical modernism."
Geoffrey and his brother Bevis were part of a milieu of sophisticated homosexuals who were drawn to the idea of Ceylon as a place of beauty, sensuality and escape. Like the Maurice Talvande, Count de Mauny Talvande at Taprobane Island, the impetus for much of their work was the desire to create private arcadias within it.[6] Bawa's architecture is at one with the land: inside and outside blend seamlessly, and it is designed for the maximum pleasure of its inhabitants. He 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.[7]
Plesner left the island in 1967.[8] 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.
My published books:
