GEOFFREY BAWA

Intro……
 Geoffrey Manning Bawa
 Born in 1919
 In 1938 Geoffrey went to Cambridge to read English and later studied Law
in London.
 worked for some time in a Colombo law firm.
 Soon tired from the legal profession
 1948 he came to a temporary halt in Italy where, seduced by its
Renaissance gardens
 He returned to Ceylon where he bought Lunuganga.
 Wanted to make Lunuganga an Italian garden but laid bare his lack of
technical knowledge
 1951 he began a trial apprenticeship with Edwards, Reid and Begg.

 1953 he applied to the Architectural Association School in London.

 Finally qualified as an ARCHITECT in 1957 at the age of 38.

 Geoffrey Bawa started in the firm of Edwards Reid and Begg.

 His fellow partners from 1959 to 1967 were Jimmy Nilgiria and Valentine
Gunesekera.

 The Danish architect Ulrik Plesner joined the practice in 1959 and worked
as a close collaborator with Bawa until the end of 1966.


 After 1967 Bawa’s sole partner was Dr. K. Poologasundram who acted as
engineer and office manager until the partnership was dissolved in 1989.

 In 1990 Bawa founded ‘Geoffrey Bawa Associates’.

 Channa Daswatte acted as his principal associate from 1993 until

1998.
 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.