Sri Lanka: AD takes an exclusive first look at Geoffrey Bawa's restored De Saram House
Art, music and the architect's signature style come together in the De Saram house, recently revamped by architect Amila de Mel, on behalf of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust
Ishanthi Gunawardana
Published: Jul 14, 2019 | 07:00:03 IST
Ashish Sahi
The restored De Saram house is an ensemble of five linked pavilions separated by courtyards, arranged spatially in a quincunx. All photos courtesy Ashish Sahi
Pianist Druvi de Saram is among the few people who can say they have known Geoffrey Bawa almost all their lives. Their ties run deep. Druvi's parents were old friends of Bawa, as were his uncle and aunt, Paul Deraniyagala—director of the Museum of Colombo—and his wife Prini, whose house was Bawa's first independent commission as an architect in 1952. Bawa was a well-known art and music connoisseur, and moved in the same circles as Druvi, among Colombo's artistic and social elite, often designing their houses along the way.
So, when Druvi and Sharmini de Saram approached Geoffrey Bawa in 1986 to help with the renovations to their eventual home, they didn't anticipate the great man's response: "No, I don't want to do it".
A round stone carpet strategically placed at the main entrance appears to offer options for navigating the house; the entrance itself is aligned with a series of doorways and pavilions that present a clear line of sight all the way to the back courtyard
De Saram House, Sri Lanka: The Backstory
Perhaps Bawa was just fatigued. By 1986, he was nearly at the end of seven gruelling years of simultaneously designing two of the biggest projects of his career: the Sri Lankan Parliament Complex and the Ruhuna University campus. These were nation-building projects, both set on challenging landscapes and built during Sri Lanka's early years of civil turmoil, which would last 25 long years. Unperturbed, the gentle Druvi persisted and asked Bawa to visit his site.
What eventually became Druvi and Sharmini's house exists on a battle-axe plot hidden away from the hustle and bustle of Ward Place, in the exclusive Colombo 7 area. It was part of a grander block, originally owned by Druvi's parents, and included a few outhouses previously let out by Druvi's mother. But it was what lay at the end of the long pathway that captured Bawa's imagination that day—a surprisingly large, tranquil private space in the middle of central Colombo. "He came to the setting," said Druvi, "and he changed his mind."
The entrance to the home of Druvi and Sharmini de Saram. This courtyard, dotted with fallen bougainvillea flowers, is at the end of a long driveway. The main entrance and garage—the latter has a mezzanine guest room above it—are adjacent to the orange perimeter wall
De Saram House, Sri Lanka: A Quiet Place
Bawa was a master of space. He knew how to bring simple lines and fluid movement into a building, and to carefully emphasise voids between mazes, creating dramatic vistas in the process. He applied that ingenuity to the De Saram house by cordoning off and remodelling the rear part of the original house belonging to Druvi's parents, and then added links between the outhouses and the old garage to create a separate dwelling. The resulting "house" was an ensemble of five linked pavilions separated by courtyards, arranged spatially in a quincunx. The configuration appears simple but establishes a powerful dialogue between the inside and outside, and private and public spaces.
The courtyard adjacent to the dining room frames a whimsical minstrel's gallery (hiding a water tank tower) flanked by orange jasmine and frangipani trees
De Saram House, Sri Lanka: Intricate Planning
"Geoffrey always discussed everything with us," Sharmini remembers, "He was so generous with his ideas. But we argued. I wasn't happy about the open dining room, however, he insisted it would become a mere corridor if we closed it. He put some temporary walls around it to prove his point. And he was right."
That open dining room at the centre of the quincunx became the most lyrical space in the De Saram house. Its handsome proportions give it the grandeur of a ballroom, whose walls are painterly courtyards framed by frangipani and orange jasmine trees on one side, and a series of Dutch doors running along the length of the room and overlooking a reflective pond on the other. The white plastered walls serve to intensify the perspectives created by the space. On one such wall hung the imposing modernist painting titled Fruit Seller, by Justin Deraniyagala, a renowned Sri Lankan artist and Druvi's uncle.
Shuttered Dutch doors span the length of the open dining room and open to a reflective pond
De Saram House, Sri Lanka: Charming Spaces
The De Sarams cemented their friendship with Bawa following the building of their home. During the day, Druvi would practise in the pavilion designed to be a music room next to the entrance courtyard, and in the evenings, Bawa would drop by for a tipple in the serene open veranda. This "room" was part of another inspired pavilion in the quincunx, created by simply extending the old garage and lifting the roof. This allowed for a mezzanine guest room to be created directly above that garage and left the remaining space as an airy, double-height, open-sitting veranda.
The saffron orange wall of the small courtyard is adjacent to their daughter Mandhira's bedroom; it is not an original feature of the house but was created by architect Amila de Mel during the restoration in the spirit of Bawa's outdoor shower in the main bedroom
De Saram House, Sri Lanka: Amusing Anecdotes
Drinks would soon become dinner in the dining room, where Bawa had an almost comic ritual of seating himself wherever he couldn't see the Deraniyagala painting, which he loathed. "It was hilarious watching him avoid it every time," recounts Sharmini, "but Geoffrey had a wonderful sense of humour so he saw the funny side of it too."
Three idyllic years passed by in that house, but the civil war loomed large. The De Sarams discussed joining Druvi's brother (and celebrated cellist) Rohan de Saram in the United Kingdom. "Geoffrey begged us not to go," said Druvi. Then, when a bomb exploded near their children's school it became a fait accompli. The De Sarams shut the doors to their treasured home and left, closing a chapter in their lives and, in many ways, the Ceylon of yesteryear.
These elongated corridors set against the property's boundary allow natural light and ventilation into either side of the narrow outdoor shower in the main bedroom en suite
De Saram House, Sri Lanka: An Inspired Vision
Amila de Mel, architect and Bawa protégé, oversaw the restoration of the De Saram house on behalf of the Geoffrey Bawa Trust. With the approval of the De Sarams, the restored property is now a boutique accommodation and music venue managed by the trust, to coincide with the centenary celebration of Bawa's birth this year.
The De Sarams own significant pieces of art, which are mostly curated on the walls of the music room. Clockwise from top left are the ancestral portrait of Christo el Henricus de Saram, 4th Mahamudaliyar of the Governor's Gate; Justin Deraniyagala's Nedra, Fruit Seller and Musician; Ivan Peries's Family on the Beach; and Richard Gabriel's Boy with Bull (from the Geoffrey Bawa collection)
"It's only when you start pulling it all apart that you see Mr Bawa's genius," says Amila as she shows me around. In a time of import restrictions during the war, Bawa turned inventor. Amila shows me the elegant brass brackets he had created from door hinges to rest the rolled-up bamboo blinds, which neatly hinges inwards when the blinds are down. They are a perfect balance between the decorative and the functional. And then there are the flush bolts he created by sawing brass handles o their doorknobs and welding those handles back onto the reverse side of the door knobs. Refitted vertically onto timber window frames, these "reverse doorknobs" now effectively operated as flush bolts. Even in the bedrooms, there are antique painted columns in otherwise functional spaces to beguile your eyes. It's a virtuoso performance by any measure.
Druvi's grand piano still stands in the music room where he practised long ago. The room also houses part of a collection of Sri Lankan masks belonging to the De Sarams, the remainder of which is at London's Victoria & Albert Museum
This restoration brought the de Sarams an avalanche of memories. "We were thinking of how much we missed Geoffrey," they say, misty-eyed, "and what an inspired vision of life he gave us. We feel so privileged to have known him."
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