Geoffrey Manning Bawa – Decolonizing Architecture
Dr. Shanthi Jayewardene
About the Author(s)
Shanti Jayewardene has a Dip. Arch. and MSc. in the History of Modern Architecture from University College London and a DPhil. in Modern History from the University of Oxford. Her area of interest is the intersection of imperial and South Asian architectural historiography. She has published several articles and the book Imperial Conversations: Indo-Britons and the architecture of South India. She now lives and teaches in Colombo. Principal photographers architects Buddhinie Kaushalya and Ajantha Ranaweera are amateur photographers and practice in Colombo.
About the Book
This publication centres on the work of Geoffrey Manning Bawa (1919-2003), Sri Lanka’s most renowned architect, who received his architectural training in London. His work is enigmatic because it is acclaimed both nationally and internationally for its relationship with the traditions of Sri Lanka’s architecture, although he never studied at home. His work reveals his efforts to engage with Sri Lanka’s design cultures which were inaccessible to him in Europe. And yet, our understanding of his search for indigenous knowledge is constrained by Western intellectual paradigms.
The book approaches Bawa’s complex ambiguous engagement with European and Asian design cultures from a decolonial perspective. And pays tribute to his knowledge which helped reimagine a thousand year old lineage in architecture in the late twentieth century. It is illustrated with over 300 photographs and drawings.