If gardens are self-portraits of people who shape them, then Geoffrey Bawa’s home and garden, Lunuganga, was his memoir. For Sri Lanka’s best-known architect, it was as much a personal space as it was a statement to the world of what he thought architecture should be. One of the pioneers of ‘tropical modernism’, which honoured the culture and nature of the environs long before sustainability became a buzzword, Bawa’s imprint on Sri Lanka and his contribution to urbanism cannot be ignored. The exhibition, ‘Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There’, is a celebration of these ideas .

This is the first time that Bawa’s archives will be presented in India by the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA); the Ministry of Culture, Government of India; the High Commission of Sri Lanka, New Delhi; with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust, Colombo. This event is also a celebration of the 75th anniversary of Indo-Lanka Diplomatic Relations.

With over 120 documents from the Bawa archives, the exhibition will showcase his unbuilt work and photographs from his travels. It opens at NGMA on Friday and will explore the relationship between ideas, drawings, buildings and places, and the different ways in which images were used in Bawa’s practice.

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