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| Wednesday, 19 December 2001 |
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Geoffrey Bawa presented World's Top Architectural honour
The Chairman's Award, one of the highlights of the world's largest architectural award program, represents the pinnacle of global appreciation of the four decades long career of the man who has come to be regarded as the sage of Sri Lankan architecture. Bawa, now 82 and semi-paralysed, is recognized as the most prolific and influential architect Sri Lanka has produced. The Chairman's Award, presented by His Highness the Aga Khan, the 49th hereditary Iman of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, was received on his behalf by Bawa's colleagues Channa Daswatte and Chelvadurai Anjalendran at the 2001 Awards Ceremony in Aleppo, Syria last month. The Chairman's Award was established to honour achievements that fall outside the scope of the mandate of the international master jury that selects the nine recipients of the Aga Khan award every three years. It has been awarded on only two previous occasions, in 1980 to the Egyptian architect and urban planer Hassan Fathy and in 1986 to Rifat Chadirji, Iraqi architect and educator.
"The Aga Khan Award is a great honour, not just for Geoffrey Bawa but for Sri Lanka and its architectural tradition," Daswatte said. "It is a global acknowledgement at the highest level, of the profound impact of Bawa's work upon architecture throughout Asia, and the acclamation he has received from connoisseurs worldwide." Further international attention will follow through a feature essay on the work of Geoffrey Bawa by David Robson, with photographic portfolios of the master's work by Helene Binet and Christian Richters in a monograph published by Thames and Hudson in November on the 2001 Aga Khan Awards. "Bawa's approach to architecture has always been a direct experience and sensuousness," Daswatte explained. "His architecture essentially engages what already exists in either the natural landscape of a site or a functional necessity of accommodating needed social events in a building with an aesthetic intent which may be enjoyed by the user." Born in 1919, Geoffrey Bawa began his career as an architect at the relatively late age of 37. His best known works include Lunuganga, the garden in Bentota that he has nurtured over the past 40 years, the House of Parliament in Kotte, the Kandalama Hotel, the Blue Water Hotel in Wadduwa, the Ruhunu University Campus, the "Yahapath Endera" Farm School at Hanwella, and the Madurai Club in India. |
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Produced by Lake House |
Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa has become only the third recipient
in the world to date to be honoured with the celebrated Chairman's Award
for lifetime achievement at The Triennial Aga Khan Awards for
Architecture.
