Bawa Garden Sri Lanka

Bawa Garden

This day will introduce you to the life and times of the late Geoffrey Bawa, and his brother Bevis, through visits to their countryside retreats in Bentota.

Geoffrey Bawa was born in 1919 to wealthy parents of mixed European and Ceylonese descent. He was educated at the prestigious Royal College after which he studied English and Law at Cambridge gaining a BA (English Literature Tripos) and went on to read law at Middle Temple, London becoming a Barrister in 1944. Returning to Ceylon after the war he started working for a Colombo Law firm. But soon he left to travel for two years, almost settling in Italy. Only after this did he turn to architecture at the age of 38. Geoffrey Bawa is Sri Lanka’s most prolific and influential architect. His work has had a tremendous impact upon architecture throughout Asia and is unanimously acclaimed by connoisseurs of architecture worldwide.


Today we visit his home, one of the world’s most magical gardens. The beautiful 15 acre estate of Lunuganga, a few kilometers inland from Bentota, was fashioned by Bawa into a place of extraordinary beauty as his tropical vision of an Italian Renaissance garden bordered on two sides by the Deduwa Lake. Featuring rolling lawns, terraces and pavilions set out like a series of spacious outdoor rooms, whose position has been carefully chosen to exploit the fabulous vistas over the lake, tropical jungle and paddy fields. Statues, pavilions, courtyards and lily ponds provide much interest as they flank secret pathways that link gardens characterised by majestic banyans, silvery rubber trees and ageing frangipani.

We also visit Brief, a jardin tranquille near Kalawila. Sculpted over forty years, it was anything but a brief diversion for Capability Bawa- brother of the renowned architect Geoffrey Bawa who designed some of the most enchanting buildings in Asia. Brief has a Japanese garden, a folly, several walled gardens and hidden surprises as well as a private museum of art inside the house and out.

reference:sri lankain style,http://www.srilankainstyle.com/activities/bawa-lunuganga-and-brief/