Geoffrey Bawa....
Finding the architecture of the land
"Architecture cannot be totally explained but must be experienced . . ." - Geoffrey Bawa
Houses are a collection of memories; often bearing the markings of many of our important passages in life. Each house is unique, the windows, sills and staircases of my house will never be the same as my friends'. It helped me lock so many of my childhood memories to them and they rush back to me whenever I see them again. Regardless of its size, everyone takes pride in their own house being unique. As times change so do our houses, but one still expects the warmth and feel of the traditional houses he is accustomed to regardless how modern his new house is.
We still want our house to connect us to our culture and memories in one way or the other. This dream is increasingly becoming the point of conflict for many of the new age architects; who armed with international exposure and modern training finds their clients penchant for ornamentation and craftwork at conflict with his puritanical lines he wants his design to carry. Many are at odds to explain this conflict; often dismissing these as cultural gaps of generations or the more popular reason of the clients failing to explain that what they really want is that experience and not the particular detail in itself. This problem is not unique to India and is shared by architects all around the world; from Bangalore to Bogota or Kolkata to Calgary.
It is in these contexts that architect Geoffrey Manning Bawa (23 July 1919 - 27 May 2003) and his works attains significance. Widely considered to be the master builder of Sri Lanka, he is an influential figure in architecture in not only his home country but across South East Asia. To understand his works better, one needs to put them in context of the complex cultural landscape of Sri Lanka, whose cultural and architectural history is both multi layered and rich in heritage. Its architectural history is built upon the influences from Dravidian, Arab, Dutch, and Portuguese and British construction styles. His contributions to establishing a Sri Lankan architecture through his multitude of works has played a tremendous role in the construction of a cultural paradigm in the post independent history of his country.
When a newly independent Sri Lanka faced the question of charting a new path for cultural and architectural identity, it found the answer in Bawa’s odd mix of modern planning and traditional craftsmanship.The houses and resorts designed by Bawa dotting the landscape of Sri Lanka is modern even in its purest sense of planning and spatial organisation and at the same time as Sri Lankan as any traditional building can come.His immediate social circle in Colombo consisted of artists and craftsmen, and he often took suggestions from them and even included some of their works as part of his design. This practice continued and as his office grew, he gave more space to craftsmen and artists in his buildings. Most of these craftsmen had a trade lineage which extended to the Dutch and Portuguese times and carried influences handed over through generations. They were given a free hand by Bawa and these insertions of rich craftsmanship ranging from windows, roof works, doors and furniture gave a distinctive character to his houses. His practice not only pleased his clients, but also managed to provide employment to a large number of craftsmen and artists who had fallen in distress with their traditional patrons leaving for England after Sri Lanka’s independence.
His buildings are widely celebrated as the harbinger of modern Sri Lankan architecture with a language original to the land. Critics might question the presence of extensive arts, crafts and salvaged elements from old buildings and claim their use for creating architecture as not sustainable and practical. But it can be said with surety that his buildings, from houses to resorts and universities reinvigorated an interest in traditional arts and artists in the minds of larger public of Sri Lanka and ensured their survival in a very difficult time. His houses manage to remain Sri Lankan, uses Sri Lankan crafts and techniques to supplement his modern designs and his bold departure from the international style without compromising the core ideals of progress and modernity, helped inject confidence in the minds of the next generation of Sri Lankan architects and encouraged them to chart their own path from where he stopped to find an architecture for modern Sri Lanka.
The young architects in Sri Lanka who followed his style like Anjalendran and Channa Daswatte have managed to design buildings which are cost effective but at the same time provide a platform for the exhibiting the skills for people who work on them reflecting the spirit of Bawa's architecture, of bringing together the formal and the indigenous. Bawa's true legacy and relevance lies in laying the foundation for a locally rooted inclusive architecture which brings together the training of an architect along with the skills of local craftsman and builders.
Architects in India can borrow a leaf from this master's architectural book as we share many social and cultural backgrounds with Sri Lank. If our architects give greater freedom for traditional crafts and carpentry works, without diluting any of their design principles and spatial layouts, we can create a truly modern architecture rooted to our context and at the same time prevent many of our traditions from dying.
About Geoffery Bawa
Geoffery Bawa was born in 1919 at the British colony of Ceylon, Sri Lanka. Even though, he is regarded as the most prolific and respected architect Sri Lanka has ever produced, he originally trained as a lawyer in England. He even became a Barrister during his law tenure in England. Returning to Ceylon, after World War II, he started working for a Colombo Law firm. A shift in the profession took place when he bought an abandoned rubber estate at Lunuganga on the south-west coast of island between Colombo and Galle. When he planned to create an Italian garden from a tropical wilderness, he soon realized his lack of technical knowledge. This triggered Bawa to apprentice to H. H. Reid, the sole surviving partner of the Colombo architectural practice Edwards, Reid and Begg. Later, Bawa enrolled as a student at the Architectural Association in London. At the age of 38, he returned to Sri Lanka qualified as an architect to take over what was left of Reid's practice. He became an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects whereupon he returned to Ceylon becoming a partner of Messrs. Edwards, Reid and Begg, Colombo in 1958. 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.
Geoffrey Bawa's work range mainly in Sri Lanka, however he has worked in several other countries as well: nine times in India, three times in Indonesia, twice in Mauritius and once in Japan, Pakistan, Fiji, Egypt and Singapore. His works include houses, hotels, schools, clubs, offices and government buildings, most notably the Sri Lankan Parliament Building.