1. WORKS OF
GEOFFREY BAWA
By - Aashish Gupta
Diksha Jain

2. INTRODUCTION
• Born in 1919
• Educated at Royal College and Middle Temple, London and became a
Lawyer.
• Studied architecture in Architectural Association, London in 1956
• In 1957, at the age of 38 , returned to Sri Lanka qualified as an architect to
take over Reid's practice.

3. A building can only be understood by moving around and
through it and by experiencing the modulation and feel the
spaces one moves through- from the outside into verandah,
than rooms, passages, courtyards.
Architecture cannot be totally explained but must be
experienced.
Geoffrey Bawa

4. PHILOSOPHY
•Highly personal in his approach, evoking the
pleasures of the senses that go hand in hand
with the climate, landscape, and culture of
ancient Ceylon(Present day Sri Lanka).
•Brings together an appreciation of the
Western humanist tradition in architecture
with needs and lifestyles of his own country.
•The principal force behind TROPICAL
MODERNISM.

5. PHILOSOPHY
1.RESPECTED THE SITE AND CONTEXT
2.BUILDINGS HAD A PLAY OF LIGHT AND SHADE.
3.FLOW OF SPACES
4.FUSED VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE WITH THE MODERN
CONCEPTS TO SATIATE THE NEEDS OF THE URBAN POPULATION
5.USED SALVAGED ARTIFACTS
6. ROOF FORMS AS ELEMENTS
7. WATERBODY –AN ESSENTIAL PART OF BAWA’S ARCHITECTURE

6. Street Address Dedduwa Lake
Location Bentota, Sri Lanka
Architect/Planner Geoffrey Bawa
Date 1949-1998
Building Types
landscape,
residential
Building Usage
garden,
private residence
THE GARDEN LUNUGANGA

7. •A small rubber plantation consisting of
a house and 25 acres of land.
•A low hill planted with rubber and fruit
trees and coconut palms with rice fields.
AT THE BEGINNING NOW
• The Italian inspired garden with
spectacular views over lakes and
tropical jungle
• The original bungalow survive within
its cocoon of added verandas ,
courtyards and loggias.

8. •Juts out into a brackish lagoon lying off the estuary of the Bentota River.
Planofthehouse&gardenin1985

9. PLANTATION HOUSE
•A collection of courtyards, verandahs and loggias create a
haven of peace and inspiration.
•Suites are individual and beautifully decorated to provide a
relaxing and memorable environment.
•Set at the edge of a cinnamon plantation
•high on the hill overlooking the lake to the south thus giving the privacy.
STUDIO

10. Sectional elevation of the house
South facade of the house Drawing room

11. Exterior view of entrance to foyer Exterior view through oversized door-
frames reinforced and supported by
central columns

12. Exterior detail showing lattice windows Interior view showing rustic seating
area with views to garden

13. Exterior view showing
a sculpture
Mask of Hindu PanArecanut palms, Jars
& pool
Statue of leopard Mouth of hell, villa park, Italy

14. The entry steps up to the south terrace
View from the sitting room across the
north terrace
Aerial view showing retaining wall's
scalloped layout design

15. 2 substantial tree grow within house
"houses are inseparable from trees”
Open-to-sky bathroom with a tree
“we have traditionally lived outdoors”
Furnished in natural timber, simple white fabric, sturdy wrougt iron lighting
fittings.
“A HOUSE IS A GARDEN”

16. • This is not a garden of colorful flowers , neat borders and curling
fountains –
1. it is a civilized wilderness
2. an assemblage of tropical plants of different scale and texture
3. a composition of green on green
4. an ever changing play of light and shade
5. a succession of hidden surprises and vistas
6. a landscape of memories and ideas

17. In 1948, a young man dreamt of making a garden. Today
the garden is in its prime but, after the passage of over fifty
monsoons, the young man has grown old. As he sits in his
wheelchair on the terrace and watches the sun setting
across the lake it may be that he reflects on his
achievement.

18. A.S.H DE SILVA HOUSE, Galle
Variant Names Geoffrey Bawa's House
Location Colombo, Sri Lanka
Architect/Planner Geoffrey Bawa
Date 1960
Building Type Residential
Building Usage Private residence
Keywords courtyard house

19. PLAN
SECTION
• House for a doctor in
galle, on a sloping site,
with the house in the
upper part of the site,
with a corridor leading
down to the dispensary
by the roadside.
• The house is modernist &
traditional at the same
time.
• At the very heart of the
house is a planted court,
fountain and pool

20. CENTRAL COURT AND LIVING ROOM

21. APPROACH DRIVEWAY
ENTRANCE WITH REFLECTING POOL CENTRAL POOL COURT

22. PLAN OF A.S.H. DE SILVA HOUSE, 1960
• In plan the Plan of De silva house recalls the pin-wheel layout of Rohe’s
brick country house (1923)
• At the very heart where Bawa has placed a planted court, fountain
and pool, Wright would have put the chimney there
PLAN OF COUNTRY HOUSE. MIES VAN
DER ROHE, ARCHITECT, 1923

23. 33RD
LANE HOUSE, COLOMBO
Variant Names Geoffrey Bawa's House
Street Address
33rd lane, Bagatelle
Road
Location Colombo, Sri Lanka
Architect/Planner Geoffrey Bawa
Date 1960-1998
Building Type Residential
Building Usage Private residence
Keywords
Adaptive re-use;
courtyard house

24. •The house in 33rd Lane is an essay in
architectural bricolage.
Elements salvaged from old buildings in
Sri Lanka and South India were artfully
incorporated into the evolving
composition.
Main entrance to the house
Columns at the end of the hallway.
Door painted by D. Friend

25. •1958 Bawa bought the third house in
a row of four small houses.
•He converted it into a pied-à-terre
(lodging for occasional use) with
living room, bedroom, tiny kitchen
and room for a servant.
•After some time he bought the
fourth and this was colonized to serve
as dining room and second living
room.
•Ten years later the remaining
bungalows were acquired and
added into the composition and the
first in the row was converted into a
four-storey tower.
Patio with bench adjacent
to central seating room

26. •Over a period of forty years the houses
were subjected to continual change.
•Although the plan form of the whole
might at each stage have been
thought to be simply the result of an
arbitrary process of stripping away and
adding, any accidental or picturesque
quality has always been tempered by a
strong sense of order and composition.
• It was here that Bawa developed his
interest in architectural bricolage.
Roof terrace

27. Ground floor plan
The final result is an introspective labyrinth of rooms and garden courts
which together create the illusion of limitless space. Words like inside and
outside lose all meaning: here are rooms without roofs and roofs without
walls, all connected by a complex matrix of axes and internal vistas.

28. FIRST FLOOR PLAN SECOND FLOOR PLAN

29. SECTION
View from the garage down
the entrance hallway
Lobby

30. Courtyard in lobby area 2nd
Courtyard in lobby area

31. Dinning area

32. Room on Ground Floor View from bedroom towards the garden

33. Upstairs seating roomDecorated door to upstairs seating room

34. TRITON HOTEL ,AHUNGALLA,1979
THE TRITON HOTEL WAS COMMISSIONED BY HOTEL DEVELOPMENT FIRM AITKEN SPENCE IN
1979.

35. AERIAL VIEW OF THE ENTIRE HOTEL AND BEACHSCAPE

36. MAIN ENTRANCE FROM
COLOMBO–GALLE ROAD
•LONG APPROACH DRAMATIZING
THE ARRIVAL
ENTRANCE
THROUGHT THE
COCONUT
TREE POOL

37. THE BASIC UNIT OF THE HOTEL IS A SINGLE-NODED CORRIDOR.
LINKED OPEN PAVILLIONS
GROUND FLOOR PLAN

38. SECOND FLOOR PLAN
FIRST FLOOR PLAN

39. THE TRITON
HOTEL
FEATURES
VERY CLEAN
AND SIMPLE
ARCHITECTUR
AL DETAILING
WITH LITTLE
ORNAMENTAT
ION.
• INTERIOR SPACES ARE LIGHT
AND AIRY, WITH EITHER PALE
TILED FLOORS OR CARPETS IN
NEUTRAL TONES.
•PLANTERS IN THE OPEN-AIR
LOBBIES AND HALLWAYS BLUR
THE LINES BETWEEN
INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR
SPACE
VIEW OF BAR AREA AND POOLVIEW FROM MAIN LOBBY

40. RUHUNU UNIVERSITY, MANTARA

41. Street Address Ruhunu University
Location Matara, Sri Lanka
Architect/Planner Geoffrey Bawa
Client Ministry of Education
Date 1980-1988
Century 20th
Decade 1980s
Building Type Educational
Building Usage University

42. SITE PLAN

43. ELEVATIONS

44. BAWA’S DESIGN DEPLOYED
OVER FIFTY SEPARATE PAVILIONS
LINKED BY A SYSTEM OF
COVERED LOGGIAS ON A
PREDOMINANTLY ORTHOGONAL
GRID AND USED A LIMITED
VOCABULARY OF FORMS AND
MATERIALS BORROWED FROM
THE PORTO-SINHALESE BUILDING
TRADITIONS OF THE LATE
MEDIEVAL PERIOD, BUT IT
EXPLOITED THE CHANGING
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE SITE TO
CREATE AN EVER VARYING
SEQUENCE OF COURTS AND
VERANDAHS, VISTAS AND
CLOSURES. THE RESULT WAS A
MODERN CAMPUS, VAST IN SIZE
BUT HUMAN IN SCALE.
DESIGN OF THE UNIVERSITY

45. •BAWA PLACED THE VICE
CHANCELLOR'S LODGE AND A
GUEST HOUSE ON THE WESTERN
HILL AND FLOODED THE
INTERVENING VALLEY TO CREATE A
BUFFER BETWEEN THE ROAD AND
THE MAIN CAMPUS.
•WRAPPED THE BUILDINGS OF THE
SCIENCE FACULTY AROUND THE
NORTHERN HILL AND THOSE OF THE
ARTS FACULTY AROUND THE
SOUTHERN HILL, USING THE
DEPRESSION BETWEEN THEM FOR
THE LIBRARY AND OTHER CENTRAL
FACILITIES.
MASSING
Central valley with library

46. •BUILDINGS WERE PLANNED
ORTHOGONALLY ON A NORTH-
SOUTH GRID BUT WERE
ALLOWED TO 'RUN WITH SITE'.
•NATURAL FEATURES SUCH AS
ROCKY OUTCROPS WERE
INCORPORATED INTO THE
BASES OF BUILDINGS OR
BECAME FOCAL FEATURES OF
THE OPEN SPACES.
•THE LIMITED ARCHITECTURAL
VOCABULARY CLEARLY
DERIVES FROM PORTO-
SINHALESE TRADITIONS
Exterior view showing terraces and
juxtaposition of buildings with each other
and landscape

47. •PAVILIONS, VARYING IN SCALE
AND EXTENT, ARE CONNECTED BY
COVERED LINKS AND SEPARATED
BY AN EVER-CHANGING
SUCCESSION OF GARDEN
COURTS.
•EVERYWHERE THERE ARE PLACES
TO PAUSE AND CONSIDER, TO SIT
AND CONTEMPLATE, TO GATHER
AND DISCUSS.
•THE MAIN ROUTES EITHER CUT
UNCOMPROMISINGLY ACROSS
THE CONTOURS OR MEANDER
HORIZONTALLY ALONG THEM.
EXTERIOR VIEW FROM STREET LEVEL
SHOWING USE OF STONE AND
CONCRETE IN FAÇADE

48. BUILDINGS ARE ALIGNED
CAREFULLY TO MINIMIZE
SOLAR INTRUSION AND
MITIGATE THE EFFECTS OF THE
SOUTH-WEST MONSOON.
FEW OF THE SPACES ARE AIR-
CONDITIONED AND THE
BUILDINGS RELY FOR THE MOST
PART ON NATURAL
VENTILATION.

49. EXTERIOR VIEW SHOWING LARGE
DIMENSIONS AND TRIPLE STORY
COVERED ENTRANCE PORTICO
EXTERIOR DETAIL SHOWING
PASSAGE TO PLANTED
COURTYARD

50. EXTERIOR VIEW SHOWING
BUILDING'S WRAPPING
TERRACES AND POSITION ON A
HILL
EXTERIOR VIEW OF FAÇADE
SHOWING STILT SUPPORT FRAME

51. SRI LANKAN PARLIAMENT,KOTTE,1979

52. SECTION
PLAN

53. ARIEL VIEW OF THE ISLAND SITE
DETAILING OF EXTERNAL FACADE

54. FIRST SKETCH OF MAIN CHAMBERS MAIN CHAMBERS
ELEVATION MEMBER’S GARDEN

55. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Geoffrey Bawa by Taylor, B. B.
www.geoffreybawa.com