Spend the night at architect Geoffrey Bawa’s former home in Colombo

At the end of a quiet cul-de-sac just off Bagatalle Road in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, sits Number 11, the late Geoffrey Bawa’s city residence that, until now, has remained unchanged for over a decade.

Geoffrey Bawa’s Number 11 just had a monumental upgrade

A mecca for Bawa fans, admirers of Tropical Modernism, and anyone with a penchant for well-designed spaces, Number 11 began welcoming overnight guests in 2010, seven years after Bawa’s passing. Previously, housing just one guest suite hidden behind a hammered aluminium door on the first floor, securing a stay could be hard to come by. But now, the Geoffrey Bawa Trust has unveiled a second bookable space mere footsteps from his beloved customised 1934 Rolls-Royce 20/25 Connaught drophead Coupé – making it even easier to delight in Bawa’s interiors.

Overseen by Channa Daswatte, the Bawa Trust’s chairperson and ex-student of Geoffrey Bawa himself, the new suite features all the trademarks of the architect’s design philosophy: clean minimalist lines, natural ventilation and spaces from where the outdoors are invited in.

It is, in fact, the third transformation the space has seen since Bawa purchased and re-invented the original property in 1958. Initially an annexe with a kitchenette, bedroom and living area, it was transformed into Bawa’s office in 1985 when Bawa, for ‘all intents and purposes, left his office at Alfred House Road and started working from home,’ Daswatte tells Wallpaper*.

It’s this very space that plays host to the newly opened suite, which has been meticulously brought back to life with utmost care by Daswatte and his team. Since it was initially designed by Bawa as an annexe for guests and long-term visitors, Daswatte reveals that they had ‘very few issues with the project’ since it was simply a question of ‘returning it to the original intended use.’

‘Much of the built-in furniture was already in place, and drawings, as well as mentoring from the last visitor, fellow trustee Ward Beling, made the reworking reasonably easy. What we have as a final interior is as close to the way it was originally used when Bawa had it as guest accommodation,’ he shares.

Adorned with artefacts and artworks, including sketches by Geoffrey’s brother Bevis and a full-scale stone rubbing of one of the highly ornate moonstone carvings from the ancient city of Anuradapura, the suite feels like delving into an intimate, highly personal dream world. And like all of Bawa’s projects, it needs to be witnessed firsthand to be fully appreciated since his buildings are highly emotional and morph throughout the day with the changing of the light.

Playing with these light and tight vistas, the eye is drawn to well-placed windows and doors where gnarled grey branches of frangipani trees (Bawa’s favourite) play to his love of bringing the outdoors inside. Underfoot, parquet leads to a broad living area where cupboards and chests have remained in situ since the office period, along with mismatched furniture, including rattan chairs and a couple of new creations imagined from Bawa’s designs.

Vintage propeller fans, religious statuettes atop colossal chests and black and white photographs of his parents add interest, as well as a round table and a glass Golo lamp, both of which survived the office period. Daswatte ensured many of the paintings were hung as Bawa originally placed them when it ran as an office. ‘The two filing cabinets with a slab of marble across the top are from the office era, too,’ he reveals.

A meditation on space and light, guests are pulled through to the ensuite double bedroom, today furnished with monochrome textiles purchased from Barefoot Gallery, a Colombo institution founded by one of Bawa’s close friends, Barbara Sansoni.

Here, just a few pieces of curated furniture, low-light hangings and a line illustration by the Sri Lankan artist, George Keyt, allow Bawa’s architecture to be appreciated without distraction.

Number 11’s newly opened guest suite is available to book now, from £309 per night including breakfast. It is located at 11, 33rd Lane, Bagatalle Rd, Colombo 00300, Sri Lanka.