With a career spanning five decades and over 200 projects, Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003) counts as one of the most influential 20th-century architects in Asia. His work blends the principles of Modernism with vernacular and traditional elements to form a distinctive architectural language that responds sensitively to context, local materials, and cultural identities. Bawa’s remarkable oeuvre shaped the architecture of postcolonial Sri Lanka and includes hotels, private residences, schools, universities, factories, office buildings, and the country’s parliament. Today, his approach is being rediscovered worldwide as a guiding inspiration for socially and ecologically sustainable building practice.
In 2026, the Vitra Design Museum and M+ Hong Kong in collaboration with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust, will present the first major retrospective on Bawa in two decades. The opening night features a talk at the museum’s Zaha Hadid Fire Station, bringing together experts to discuss Bawa’s work, its enduring relevance, and the lessons it offers for contemporary architecture and design. The panelists are Chairperson Channa Dawatte and Shayari de Silva, co-curator of the exhibition from the Geoffrey Bawa Trust; and Director Suhanya Raffel and Ikko Yokoyama, co-curator of the exhibition from M+. The talk will be moderated by Vitra Design Museum’s Johan Deurell, who is also a co-curator of the exhibition. Drawing on the exhibition and the accompanying publication, the panelists will discuss the role of sustainability and cultural sensitivity in Bawa’s work, as well as his close collaboration with contemporary artists and craftspeople, and his central role in post-colonial Sri Lanka. The English-language talk will be followed by the exhibition vernissage.
Admission is free; register at https://www.invitation.design-museum.de/event/~n3NQZx/open.ek#card.

Website
design-museum.de/en/information/calendar/events/talks.html

Where
Vitra Design Museum
Charles-Eames-Strasse 2
79576 Weil am Rhein
Germany

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