The National Trust Sri Lanka, Aitken Spence Printing has sponsored a coffee table book titled ‘Geoffrey Manning Bawa: Decolonizing Architecture, by Shanti Jayewardene’, an important contribution to recognising Sri Lankan Artists.
The publication centres around the work of Geoffrey M. Bawa (1919-2003), that is acclaimed internationally for its relationship with the traditions of Sri Lanka’s architecture. Bawa’s work reveals him discovering the traditions of Sri Lanka’s architecture while reshaping and learning in an effort to engage with European and Asian design cultures from a decolonial perspective. Some of the exceptional architectural work of Bawa have been captured at the Aitken Spence Hotels such as Heritance Kandalama, Heritance Ahungalla and Heritance Ayurveda Maha Gedara. Bawa’s experience of cave monasteries such as Kudumbigala, Dowa and Dambulla have been captured in Heritance Kandalama hotel.
Aitken Spence Printing is the sole sponsor of The National Trust’s book on Geoffrey Bawa, as it is a landmark publication that promotes Sri Lankan heritage on a cultural and aesthetic realm.
We believe that the book is a task of national importance that would showcase a rich aspect of Sri Lanka’s wide heritage, said Prasanna Karunathilake, Managing Director of Aitken Spence Printing. ‘We want the new generation of architecture students to know Bawa’s significant creations, as narrated by Dr. Shanti Jayawardene.
This is the only book that carries multiple architectural view images of his creations’, he said.