Third Geoffrey Bawa Cycle of Awards for Excellence in Architecture 2013/14:

Focus on built environment

By Anuradha Kodagoda

We shape our building; thereafter they shape us.
- Winston Churchill.

Architecture is the art we live in. Waking, sleeping, recreating, loving and living, we spend so much time at home and it seems a shame not to make your place of residence both functional and radical. However nowadays people are more keen to get ideas from the professionals when building their houses. Modern architectural structure can be seen from individual houses, apartments and condos to the broader urban context, skyscrapers and parks of the cities around us.

Recently The Geoffrey Bawa Trust announced the shortlisted architects for the third Geoffrey Bawa Cycle of Awards 2013/14, for Excellence in Architecture in Sri Lanka. Nine shortlisted dwelling designs of Sri Lankan architects that featured at the ceremony was amazing, intriguing and inspiring. These nine projects were shortlisted out of 53 entries that the Geoffrey Bawa Trust received and the selected projects were unique and different to one another.

The third cycle of the Geoffrey Bawa Awards was launched on July 23 last year and the panel of judges were Architect Ashok B. Lall Architect specialising in sustainable design based in New Delhi), Eugenie Mack, Trustee, Geoffrey Bawa Trust, Prof. Chitra Weddikkara, President, Sri Lanka Institute of Architects and Managing Director, Chartered Architect/Quantity Surveyor Qserve (Pvt) Ltd., Deshamanya Prof. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Former Under Secretary General of the United Nations and Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict. Also Archt. Channa Daswatte and Archt. C. Anjalendran joined them to help facilitate effective on-site Technical Review.

“The Geoffrey Bawa Awards is held every three years and for this third cycle of 2013/14, there was such a range of submissions that the judges finally decided to shortlist a total of nine. The next step for the 9 short-listed submissions is an on-site technical review, followed by a final judging session which will be held on the July 23 2014 coincide with Geoffrey Bawa’s 95th birth anniversary,” said Archt. Channa Daswatte, trustee, Geoffrey Bawa Trust.

Quality

“We are quite pleased and the Trust was heartened by the response and the quality of work that was submitted for this cycle. The variety of projects that made the shortlist is innovative and this no doubt would have pleased Geoffrey Bawa. The Trust wishes to promote the idea that good design is important both to the well-being of the people of Sri Lanka and to the image which their country projects to the rest of the world. It hopes to bring awareness of good design not just to architects, but to all those who are involved in the landscape of Sri Lanka. Perhaps, the award process will raise the ambitions of all those who participate and that will confer a special status on those who are celebrated,” said Archt. Daswatte.

“Encompassing current concepts such as contemporary design, restoration, re-use and area conservation, the Geoffrey Bawa Award 2013/14 for Excellence in Architecture will adhere to principles similar to those of the world-renowned Aga Khan Award for Architecture, organised by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Geneva. As such, the Geoffrey Bawa Award for Architecture will recognise and reward only the most superior examples of architecture, with the end objective being the encouragement of excellence in this field and the increasing awareness of the importance of the built environment,” he said.

Deshamanya Geoffrey Bawa was Sri Lanka’s most influential and prolific architect and South Asia’s leading guru of tropical architecture. He is the principal force behind what is today known globally as ‘tropical modernism’. An oeuvre spanning almost 50 years encompassed a wide range of work, mostly in south-west Sri Lanka. Bawa has also built in other countries including India, Indonesia and Mauritius.

The Geoffrey Bawa Trust was set up in 1982 to support education and the advancement of knowledge in the field of architecture and related arts. Over the past three decades it has successfully curated exhibitions, organised lectures, published books and awarded travel scholarships. Today the Geoffrey Bawa Trust is administrated by a common board of trustees which comprises Sunethra Bandaranaike, Ward Beling, Channa Daswatte, Suhanya Raffel and Eugenie Mack.

Achievement

In November 2001, Geoffrey Bawa became only the third person in twenty four years to receive the Aga Khan Award ‘Chairman’s Award’ for a lifetime’s achievement. Inspired by the Aga Khan’s system of awards, the Trust decided to set up a similar award process in Sri Lanka to encourage a new generation of Sri Lankan architects. A prize of one million rupees was offered to the architect of the most outstanding building.

The first Geoffrey Bawa Award 1st Cycle was held in 2008 and out of nine shortlisted projects the first prize was shared between Archt. Llalyn Collure for his Boulder Garden Hotel and Archt. Shyamika de Silva for her Nalin Indrasena House.

The Geoffrey Bawa Awards second cycle was held in 2011 and out of eight outstanding architectural works the winner was Archt. Thisara Thanapathy for his work on Sarath Abeyratne’s House in Colombo 5.