“Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There” exhibition at Yale Architecture Gallery

The exhibition “Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There” opened at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery. 

Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa’s work has been shown around the world, including in New York in 1986, yet this is the first exhibition to examine the architect’s five-decade practice through an extensive review of the archives from his practice, with particular focus on its drawings. Debuting in Colombo in 2022 at the Park Street Mews, the exhibition then went on to the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi in 2023.

Geoffrey Bawa (1919–2003), once described his approach as follows: “The site gives the most powerful push to a design along with the brief. Without seeing the site, I cannot work. It is essential to be there.” These words served as a point of departure for understanding Bawa’s attitudes to place-making through his archives. 

Over 120 documents are organised across four thematic sections, each exploring a different aspect of Bawa’s exploration of place: “Situating a Practice,” “Searching for a Way of Building,” “Defining New Directions,” and “Places Unbuilt.” Each section features a selection of his projects presented through drawings, photographs, and documents aiming to unpack the collaborative nature of the practice and the specific approaches taken to address each project as a unique place-making exercise. In addition to the archival material, the projects are presented through colour photographs by Sebastian Posingis and Dominic Sansoni and short films by Clara Kraft Isono.

Designed in Colombo in 2022, between the lifting of curfews for the pandemic and the eve of Sri Lanka’s economic collapse, the exhibition forced the Geoffrey Bawa Trust curatorial team to reckon with the logistics of a museum-quality display of fragile archival material in a context where materials were in limited supply. An unforeseen national restriction on imports led the team to take a back-to-basics approach for lighting and framing, inspired by Bawa’s own resourceful use of local materials and fabrication techniques during the 1960s and 70s when Sri Lanka was in a similar situation. This recursive approach afforded by reference to the archives, demonstrated the value of looking at the past to find solutions for the present and future, a frequent practice by Bawa and one that continues to resonate with architects and designers of the present age.

The Gallery at the Yale School of Architecture has been an important venue in bringing architecture and design exhibitions to an East Coast US audience; previous retrospectives of George Nelson, Eero Saarinen, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and others have helped portray a range of architectural practices to audiences which include students and practitioners. Dean Deborah Berke notes: “There is so much for us to learn from Bawa and it is a privilege to display this overview of his built work and design process.” Geoffrey Bawa Trust Chief Curator Shayari de Silva, an alumnus of the school (BA ‘11, M.Arch ‘16), delivered a lecture titled “Drawing from the Archives” at the Hastings Hall to mark the exhibition’s opening on 5 September, following a tour for students and faculty in the gallery. Presenting key projects like the Ena de Silva house (1962), the Kandalama Hotel (1994) and Bawa’s own garden Lunuganga (1948–2003) she explored ways in which understanding these projects through the archives added nuance and complexity to Bawa’s oeuvre, while also suggesting that such an investigation required a redefinition of what constituted the archives, particularly to include Bawa’s garden. 

The gallery’s Director of Exhibitions Andrew Benner commented: “What we do gain with an exhibition of this scope and quality is insight into process and an ability to make connections across projects, attuning us to the underlying ethos that guides the work and gives it a unique heft.”

“Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There” has set a benchmark for presenting architectural work in Sri Lanka, bringing the subject of architecture and its archives to the forefront of cultural discourse. The exhibition has opened avenues for further exploration and dialogue on architectural history, highlighting its critical role in shaping contemporary design and cultural identity.

“Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There” will be on view at the Yale Architecture Gallery until 30 November. For more information, please visit bawaexhibition.com.