Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa and the buildings he created have become legendary in the region and influential around the world. Few architects achieved his harmonious fusion of local building traditions with modern forms and sensibility

Bawa's early works were houses that artfully married vernacular styles and responses to climate and site with a modern architectural vocabulary. Soon his talents were applied on a larger scale, to the Sri Lanka parliament, a number of carefully situated and designed hotels, schools, offices and other public buildings. The summation of his oeuvre is symbolized by his own two residences – a house in Colombo and a residential complex in Lunuganga – whose evolution eloquently reflect Bawa’s career and personality.

This ambitious publication is a comprehensive documentation and appreciation of Geoffrey Bawa and his work and includes a rich portfolio of his most important works, including some rarely published projects. An exhaustive reference section includes a complete chronology.

About the Author:

David Robson is the authority on Bawa, with whom he was close friends for over thirty years. He is Professor of Architecture at the University of Brighton and Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore.

Aimed at architecture students and professionals Bawa Staircases offers the reader a primer of how staircases are often the most dynamic and theatrical spatial elements of a building or landscape.

It is a compelling addition to the literature on Sri Lanka’s preeminent architect, Geoffrey Bawa and showcases his numerous and varied architectural and landscape designs for residential, public works, gardens and hotel architecture, with particular reference to the staircases he created.

Throughout, lush photography by Sebastian Posingis and insightful texts by David Robson are accompanied by contextual shots, plans and illustrations, all illustrating this absorbing island and the work of an architectural master.

About the Authors:

David Robson is an architect, academic and writer and is Geoffrey Bawa’s official biographer.

Sebastian Posingis spent much of his childhood in Sri Lanka and India and gained a degree in anthropology before turning to his first love as an architectural photographer. His work has appeared in many books, newspapers and magazines around the world.

Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa's forty-year career has become legendary. Beyond Bawa considers his continuing influence through the work of contemporary architects working in the region.

Bawa achieved the harmonious and pleasurable fusion of local building traditions with modern forms. Throughout south Asia his legacy lives on in contemporary architectural practice and remains an important source of inspiration for generations of architects.

Bawa was the principal force behind what is today known globally as ‘tropical modernism’, and examples of his ideas can be found in Sri Lanka, Singapore and Bali but also in resorts and residences throughout wider Asia.

An overview of Bawa and his contribution to contemporary architecture is followed by presentations of twenty-four contemporary architects, ranging from well-known practitioners such as Australian Kerry Hill to local talents such as Anjalendran. They reveal the long-lasting significance of Bawa’s uniquely sensitive approach to building and the landscape.