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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kotus" data-source="post: 7335371" data-attributes="member: 243889">Thanks for the absolutely lovely photos.Actually Lunuganga is the former home of Geoffrey Bawa and thats where he lived during holidays when he was working and where he lived all the time after he closed the design office in Colombo. He lived at Lunuganaga till he died. His former design office building (the architect firm Edward Ried and Begg), which he joined first as a junior architect, is where the big Paradise Road shop now is. It's very close to the Colombo Town Hall and the Buddhist Ladies College.Anura Rathnavibhushana worked under Bawa at Edward Ried and Begg. Bawa had 3 big projects going at the same time when he was doing the Parliament, the Ruhna University and the Triton hotel. So he got Anura Ratnavibhushana who had enough experience to handle most of the Ruhuna Uni, and Vasantha (later Upekha Meniyo living in Kandy) to be in charge of the Parliament and Bawa concentrated on Triton. Ofcourse he had  final say on everything <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":-)" />Most of the big architects working now, like Nihal Bodhinayake, Channa Daswatte,  learned their work from him, after passing from Moratuwa Uni. Ulrik Plesner was also a big name those days. He designed the lovely Kandyan style Kotmale New Town. Ulrik Plesner was brought from Holland by late Minette de Silva from Kandy. But because she was a woman ? and ofcourse because she lived quietly in Kandy nobody talks much about her now. But she was famous in UK. Minette worked with the very very famous French Architect Le corbusier when he designed the Chandigarh town in India. Its now a world heritage city I think.Also Vasantha designed the Ampitiye Rahula Hamuduruwos temple in Kandy , Vajiraramaya, and got the land release etc from the givt cos of her contacts to JR those days with parliament work. Her husband, a designer from Demark, came back with her when she returned from her Architecture studies at the Denmark University, and worked with Bawa's projects. He is now a Buddhist monk in Colombo and Polgasduwa. Those days they  had a saffron yellow house along the Highlevel Rd, between Thimbirigasyaya Rd and Havelock Rd, in the '80s. Lots of people still remember that building - just behind the bus stop when going towards Nugegoda...yellow like the 'sivuru' colour...E denna ' dora dan deela' mahana wuna...Geoffrey Bawa's brother Bevis Bawa designed a beautiful garden called "Brief" near Bentota, and gave it to his workers when he died. You can visit it I think. It was beautiful when I visited it in the 80s on our honeymoon with my husband who knew Bevis Bawa. But I haven't been to Lunuganga so Thanks again for the photos.BTW the Bawa's heritage is a truly Sri Lankan mix - father's parents Muslim and Burgher, mothers parents Sinhala, and Bugher. But I think his heart was Sinhala mostly. Atleast it looks like it from his work...Hope the info is useful... interesting...As a small thanks for the lovely photos...</blockquote>

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