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Tuesday 2 December 2008

Beyond Bawa: Modern Masterworks of Monsoon Asia

Modern fusion architecture

Christopher Ondaatje reviews David Robson's book on the architect Geoffrey Bawa

Bawa’s education and career had an unlikely beginning. At Cambridge his good looks and easy charm allowed him to cut a dashing figure, striding around in a long black cloak with a gold-topped cane. He made quite a name for himself as a witty conversationalist and raconteur. Having finished his Cambridge degree in 1942, he began reading for the Bar at the Inner Temple. Two years later, having finished his studies, he reluctantly embarked on a career as a lawyer. He remained in England. It was only on his mother’s death in 1946 and the realisation that her debt-ridden estate would not allow either brother to continue their life of profligacy, that Geoffrey Bawa returned to Colombo and tried to continue his law practice albeit sporadically. He purchased an old rubber estate, Lunuganga, in the south-west of the island and this act marked a pivotal point in Bawa’s life and career. ‘He was now 30 years old and had devoted ten of these to futile study and aimless travel. He was a qualified lawyer with no interest in law, a dilettante with little money.’ Lunuganga fired his imagination. It became the centre of his world and he committed himself to a newly independent Ceylon and ‘to the idea of a new country that would bring together the different ethnic strands and histories of Sinhalese, Tamil, Moor and European.’ In 1951 Bawa worked (unpaid) for the architect H. H. Reid and then briefly for Neville Wynne-Jones, the chief architect of the Public Works Department, who urged him to study architecture seriously in England which he did at the Architectural Association School. Thus started one of the most peculiarly creative careers in architecture which coincided with an interesting decade in the development of world architecture. David Robson skillfully leads us through the development of the architect’s peerless skills and influence, and his legacy, where he passed on his pleasurable fusions of local building traditions with modern forms to a wide range of contemporary architects.

The book, amply illustrated by Richard Powers’ photographs, is divided into two sections: the first examines Bawa’s singular contribution to contemporary architecture, while the second presents 24 contemporary architects and the works they have created over the past ten years using Bawa’s uniquely sensitive approach to building and the landscape. It is difficult not to be convinced that Bawa’s influence will remain a vital source of inspiration for future generations of contemporary architects.

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