Further Research: Geoffery Bawa

 From the moment, I decided to use the architectural theme " tropical modernism" for my project, Geoffery Bawa came to my mind as he was most renowned and famous architect who was a pioneer of Tropical Modernism. Geoffery Bawa is renowned as one of the most influential architects in twentieth century. Geoffery Manning Bawa was his full name and he was born in Sri Lanka who later enrolled to London's Architectural Association School of Architecture. He is still remains as one of the most remarkable and memorable architects in Sri Lanka(“Geoffrey Bawa”).

" The house is extremely spare in its articulation"  (“Pradeep Jayewardene House | Architectuul”). Among the best works of Bawa , " Pradeep Jayawardene House" is  depicted as the development of spatial ideas of his earlier ideas. This house is designed according to a request by his family friend Jayawardene to design his informal vacation house in Mirissa. This location was destroyed by a fire and Bawa redesigned this house and made it into simple house with dramatic topographical view which has a cliff top view. To access to this site , the private road takes 375 meters long which directly connects to the Colombo Galle Highway road. Bawa has designed two gates in west as well as in east . The west gate allows to a small walking path which leads to the main house while the double east gate allows to a continuation road. Then the driveway terminates near at the garage which is eighty five meters away from the south. However, Bawa has designed the main house in rectangular shape with thirty four meters long and twelve meters wide and ten meters away from the west of garage.(“Pradeep Jayewardene House | Architectuul”). Thus, Geoffery Bawa has shown how he redesigned this destructed place into an unique and spectacular vacation house. He perfectly balanced the site with perfect measurements and placed them. He specifically designed the house which has a picturesque view of the sea and beach as the houes is located on a cliff. However, the way he used the rectangular shape for the house made me inspired and I utilized this idea for my project too.

                                                               Jayawardene House 

A.S.H. De Silva House

" A.S.H.de Silva a young doctor setting up a practice in Galle, wanted to build a house and surgery on a steeply sloping site on the northern edge of the town and picked Bawa's name out of the local telephone book" ( Robson and Hudson.G,2004). According to a request of a young doctor, Bawa  designed a house which resembles the colonial bungalow which has pavilions trapping small gardens and courts between them. Even though the separate elements are unfettered by a boundary but joined by a long, single roof plane and a long wall. Here, the roof resembles to a design that Bawa used for a clubhouse at Rathnapura Tennis club which is also situated on steeply slopping site. Moreover, at the foot of the slope, the doctor's consulting room and the patients waiting room are placed and connected the house with a long staicase. Furthermore, the main hose appears to be a small rectangle  in the plan which is arranged around a central courtyard. Thus, Geoffery Bawa showcases his architectural talent thriugh the designing process of this house. 

References

JRジャヤワルダナさんの物語 〜もうひとつのJR〜. (2017). 【バワ建築】ジャヤワルダナハウス（Jayewardene house）. [online] Available at: https://srilanka-jr-japan.hatenablog.com/entry/2017/03/20/000000 [Accessed 12 May 2025].

Architectuul. (2017). Pradeep Jayewardene House | Architectuul. [online] Available at: https://architectuul.com/architecture/pradeep-jayewardene-house.

geoffreybawa. (n.d.). Geoffrey Bawa. [online] Available at: https://geoffreybawa.com/geoffrey-bawa.

‌Robson and G, D. (2004). Geoffery Bawa : the complete works. London: Thames and Hudson.

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