philosophy

Geoffrey Bawa shied from discussing his work, preferring it to be experienced instead. Fundamental to his approach was an empathy for place and a direct interaction on site. Both life and training shaped his ideas. A love of natural form, the discipline he learnt in England tempered by conviviality in elegant surroundings, his cosmopolitanism and a sense of culture and the past were essential components. Bawa’s attitude to life imbued his work with a sybaritic ethos, which is ubiquitous in his designs. The existing potential of the natural landscape was always accommodated within and around Bawa’s spaces. He blended them so beautifully that ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ became a continuum. Quintessentially, Geoffrey Bawa’s architecture produced canvasses for the art of living so unobtrusive that his forms became props which ‘respect, enhance and celebrate the environment’ and are above all, to be enjoyed.