Geoffrey Bawa 02 / A symphony with the ocean

In my university days many teachers told us that 

"When you design architecture, you have to make a story. Don't array discrete rooms easily. You have to image what people feel when they walk through your buildings and make stories for the people."

The Lighthouse Hotel perfectly realizes what my teachers were saying.

The Lighthouse Hotel designed by Geoffery Bawa is located in the south part of Sri Lanka. Channa Daswatte who was closely involved with Bawa's project, wrote about the hotel.

"Visiters enter the complex in the cavernous reception lobby at street level and immediately swallowed up a vertical three story drum of space open to the sky through an oculus with a sweeping staircase and balustrade of life size warriors in battle. The distraction of the sculpture takes aways from the 4m climb up to the first floor where the building glare of sea greets the visitor across an expansive verandah lobby. The simple column and beam structure frames a magnificent view of crashing waves, rocks and horizon."

The way from reception lobby to the verandah lobby was so dramatic that it made marvelous a story. I think the plain and dark corridor which connects the staircase to the verandah lobby was the important elements of the story. When I reached the top of the staircase, I saw a small view of the ocean through the corridor. The scene implied the story has moved onto the next chapter and guided me to there. Finally when I was in verandah lobby, there was a great ocean view in front of me. From the entrance to the veranda lobby, I felt like listening to the some kind of symphony as I walk through.  

Bawa used a variety of different types of vertical lines in the hotel. The columns were painted different colors and the walls added vertical lines. Wooden balustrade put some accent on the scene. I felt these vertical lines made some type of rhythm. The rhythm gave guests harmonious sounds and made good harmony with the environment as if it was a living part of nature itself.

If exteriors could take modern light music as an analogy, interior would taken traditional soft music. The room which was consisted of  white walls, was very quiet. The light through thick walls shined soft light into the room. The window made special ocean view only for guests. Bawa have could designed the room for enjoying ocean views.  The bed was leveled the same heigh as the desks, so the guests could see a beautiful ocean from their bed. I thought the Lighthouse Hotel was a symphony playing solemn music with the ocean.

Geoffrey Bawa 01 / Blend architecture with the surroundings

Two months ago I went to Sri Lanka and visited eight buildings designed by Geoffrey Bawa. I arrived at the Airport (Bandaranaike International Airport) in the middle of the night. So,on the first day, I stayed at a hotel near the airport.Next day I moved to the "Cultural Triangle"

 (Sri Lanka’s Cultural triangle is situated in the centre of the island and covers an area which includes the World Heritage cultural sites of the Sacred City of Anuradhapura, the Ancient City of Polonnaruwa, the Ancient City of Sigiriya, the Ancient City of Dambulla and the Sacred City of Kandy.  wikipedia)

I stayed at the Kandalama Hotel designed by Bawa in  the "Cultural Triangle". 

Channa Daswatte who was closely involved with Bawa on the Kandalama Hotel project wrote about the hotel.

 "The building  itself visually disappers into a series of vertical frame and horizontal frames that bring out the best of the views." 

I completely agree with his opinion.

I feel the hotel was designed by a very different process from normal buildings. In many cases, architects design hotel from the exterior. It is almost automatically fixed by cost and building regulations. 

After, architects put guest rooms in the appropriate place in the fixed form 

Then, they decide corridor to efficiently connect each guest room.

However my guess is that Bawa designed the hotel in reverse order. In the design process, what Bawa did first was find the best view points at the site.He made frames to bring out the best view and put guest rooms behind the frames. In the guest rooms, windows were designed not as a  hole in the wall but a frames to bring out the views.

In the Kandalama Hotel, the corridors were designed as not as effective passageways but a enjoyable walking trails in the rainforest. Walking the corridors were interesting. They had many different type of scenes.There were bright corridors like walking in the sky and  dark corridors walking in the cave in other places.The corridors has a sightseeing place, a big sculpture, and small rest stations.

Bawa designed the hotel not influenced by external elements like cost and building regulations, but considering where is the vest view points and how to connect these view points. I guess Bawa didn't design one building, but he carefully put minimum architectural elements to make the most of the site's attractive features 

These days,there are many buildings that have the latest enviromental-frindly features and many companies compete how enviromental-frindly their buildings are. The Kandalama Hotel doesn't have the latest features. I guess energy efficiency for air conditioning is not as good compared to the latest buildings. However I clearly felt closer to nature in the Kandalama hotel than any other luxurious hotel. Bawa attempted to blend the building with the surroundings.

The Kandalama Hotel taught me that 

"There were two aspects in enviromental-frindly features. One was physical capability or efficiency of the building. The other is how comfortable the quests feel being close to the nature. We architect have to care about both aspects."