You can now escape from the bustle of the world at Lunuganga, once the home of acclaimed Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa and now a stunning none-room retreat.
When we think of architects, we tend to think of towering commercial blocks, world-famous arts centres, and icons on the modern cityscapes of the world. However, even architects need to live somewhere, and often their home ends up being a legacy to their individual style and passion for design.
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So it was with Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003), whose Lunuganga estate on Sri Lanka’s southwest coast has been lovingly restored in a partnership between The Geoffrey Bawa Trust and Teardrop Hotels. Lunuganga was one of Bawa’s first projects and he worked tirelessly to transform the property from a derelict rubber estate into a home wreathed by gardens with elements of Italian Renaissance design, English landscaping, Japanese karesansui garden art, and ancient Sri Lankan water gardens.
Today, the nine-bedroom property includes Bawa’s original home, a 1930s plantation bungalow with six guest rooms in a tropical modernism style, and a three-bedroom house he designed and built in Colombo for friends and artists Ena and Osmund de Silva that has been painstakingly moved and reconstructed brick by brick in the sprawling grounds.
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The move, led by architect Amila de Mel and conservation specialist Nilan Cooray, took six years to complete and included everything from the frangipani tree in the front courtyard to the slabs of river stone remains just as it was in the original house.
The Geoffrey Bawa Trust and Teardrop Hotels have made sure to keep changes to the house to an absolute minimum, allowing guests to enjoy the space exactly as Bawa intended his guests to experience it.
We think he would approve.
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