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120

A Lasting Influence

There’s no dispute: Geoffrey Bawa is Sri Lanka’s king of contem-

porary architecture – he has inspired a whole generation of local

architects, and adoring fans come from all over the world to make

pilgrimages to his works. He is, however, not the only lasting impact

on architecture in the former Ceylon. It’s a little-known fact that

Scandinavian aesthetics and design approach have had considerable

effect on Sri Lanka’s architects – including Bawa himself.

At the heart of this sphere of influence is Danish architect Ulrik

Plesner, who now heads up Plesner Architects in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Before this, he lived and worked in Sri Lanka for 16 years, and for

nine of these, he worked with Geoffrey Bawa – as Bawa’s friend,

colleague and mentor.

Plesner encouraged a number of Sri Lanka’s budding students

to take up post-graduate training in Denmark; they went to

Copenhagen and Aarhus in the 1970s. Others went to Helsinki in the

1980s and 90s, to what is now Aalto University. It was here that a

scholarship programme would subliminally instill the architectural

values and inspiration of Scandinavia in the minds of Sri Lanka’s

budding talents. Many returned to Sri Lanka to work and to teach,

taking this ethos with them, thus ensuring its continuity through to

Sri Lankan architecture today.

Architect Anura Ratnavibhushana numbered among those who

did so, studying at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and who

took the Scandinavian ethos east. Having worked closely with both

Plesner and Bawa, he says, “Plesner’s influence was tremendous and

profound: he used extensive Danish skills and a professional rationale

to re-interpret Sri Lankan vernacular architecture, celebrating and

pushing it into modern mode.”

“ Plesner’s influence was tremendous and profound,” says Anura Ratnavibhushana

Sri Lanka’s striking contemporary architecture is partly due to 40 years of Scandinavian

guidance. hj discovers the profound effect Danish architect Ulrik Plesner had on Geoffrey

Bawa and those who have followed | 斯里蘭卡現代建築40年來深受北歐影響，

我們探究丹麥建築師Ulrik Plesner對Geoffrey Bawa等人的意義

by jennifer henricus

除斯里蘭卡現代建築之王Geoffrey

Bawa啟發當地建築一輩外，北歐美學

和設計也影響著該地和Bawa本人。

這股浪潮的中心人物是丹麥建築

師Ulrik Plesner，現領導Plesner Archi-

tects建築公司，曾在斯里蘭卡 (前稱錫

蘭) 度過16年，與亦師亦友的Geoffrey

Bawa合作9年。

Plesner鼓勵斯里蘭卡新生畢業後

到丹麥進修，70至90年代便有多人前往

哥本哈根、奧胡斯和赫爾辛基學習，他

們帶著所學回流返國，故當地建築仍滲

透有關元素。

代表之一的Anura Ratnavibhus-

hana就讀丹麥皇家藝術學院建築學校

並東傳所學，曾與Plesner和Bawa合作：

「Plesner以大量丹麥技巧和原理把斯

里蘭卡建築重新演繹並推至現代。」

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122

“Serial serendipity” is how Plesner describes his coming to what was

then Ceylon in 1957 and the experiences that followed.

Plesner recalls that it was shortly after he graduated from the

Royal Danish Academy’s Architecture School in Copenhagen that he

serendipitously received the invitation from Sri Lanka’s first female

architect, the pioneering and flamboyant Minnette De Silva. “My

photography teacher at the Royal Academy took a job as a stills pho-

tographer on the set of Bridge on the River Kwai, which was being

filmed in Ceylon,” remembers Plesner. “There, she met the extraor-

dinary Minnette, who had just been commissioned to build a public

housing scheme in the old hill capital, Kandy, and needed help. My

friend said she knew just the right guy, so Minnette invited me. I

lived and worked with her in Kandy but she went broke, and then

in another stroke of serendipity I met Geoffrey Bawa who had just

returned from architecture school in London and was working at a

practice in Colombo.”

Ulrik PlesnerPlesner形容自己1957年來到錫蘭的經

歷為「連串意外收穫」。

畢業自丹麥皇家藝術學院建築學

校後，他意外獲斯里蘭卡首位女建築

師Minnette De Silva青睞：「學院的攝

影老師在錫蘭為電影桂河大橋當攝影

師並遇到Minnette，她被委託在山上

城鎮Kandy建公共住宅，急需人手。我

在引薦下獲得錄用。我們在Kandy生活

和工作，但後來她財困破產。機緣巧合

下我遇上Geoffrey Bawa，他那時剛從

倫敦的建築學校回來，在可倫坡一間公

司工作。」

previous pages S. Thomas Preparatory School – building designed by Geoffrey Bawa and Ulrik Plesner; Polontalawa Estate Bungalow, Sri Lanka, built by Geoffrey Bawa and Ulrik Plesner in 1964; Ulrik Plesner in Kandy in 1958

this page Wellingstein House, Tel Aviv, Israel, by Plesner Architects

前頁圖S. Thomas Preparatory School – 大廈由Geoffrey Bawa和Ulrik Plesner設計；

斯里蘭卡的Polontalawa Estate Bungalow由Geoffrey Bawa和Ulrik Plesner於1964年建成；Ulrik Plesner 1958年於Kandy留影

本頁圖建築公司Plesner Architects築出特拉維夫市的Wellings-tein House

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HO≤E JOURNAL | November 2012

124

They immediately became friends and designing and working

with Bawa became an all-consuming passion. “Geoffrey was very

intelligent, tremendously amusing and a great landscape architect:

he saw architecture as an extension of landscaping by other means,

and opened my eyes to a great many things,” says Plesner.

“There was no such thing as ‘my jobs’ or ‘his jobs’ - until many

years later after we separated and the world outside Sri Lanka began

to take an interest in what we had done,” Plesner points out. “Geoffrey

was alone in Sri Lanka, a very visible and impressive personality, and

I was far away and fading.”

The architect clearly has fond memories of his time in Sri Lanka.

“[It] was certainly the happiest years of my life and if I could turn

back the clock I probably would go back – particularly if I could have

stopped the civil war,” he confirms. “But all good things have an end,

and I have had a very happy life altogether.”

二人很快結成好友，並熱衷合作設

計。「聰明有趣的Geoffrey是出色的園

境建築師。他把建築看成美化園境的另

類延伸，讓我大開眼界。」Plesner指出：

「我們從沒區分誰負責哪項工作，直至

分道揚鑣後外界才對我們所做的感興

趣。留在斯里蘭卡的Geoffrey仍廣為人

識，而我就身在他方被遺忘。」

但他在斯里蘭卡也有過美好回憶：

「那是人生中最愉快的時光，要是可以

我會重回過去，如能阻止內戰爆發就更

好。畢竟天下無不散之筵席，我的人生

尚算活得不錯。」

this page Biron House in Tel Aviv, Israel

本頁圖位於以色列特拉維夫

市的Biron House

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126

ContinuityBawa’s biographer, Professor David Robson, says that 21st-century Sri

Lankan architects are “punching way beyond their weight”, creating

a range of interesting and vibrant homes and hotels not only locally,

but also in India, the Maldives and South-east Asia.

We look at some of Sri Lankan architecture’s key players – those

who studied in Copenhagen and Helsinki, and whose unique blend of

East and West is influencing contemporary Sri Lankan architecture.

Bawa的傳記作者David Robson教授

表示，21世 紀的 斯里蘭卡 建 築 師都

在「以有限力量開闢未知道路」，更衝出

斯里蘭卡，遠遍印度、馬爾代夫和東南

亞地區，創建有趣活潑的家居和酒店 。

以下曾留學哥本哈根和赫爾辛基的

關鍵人物仍影響著斯里蘭卡現代建築。

this pagePalinda Kannangara’s design for the dining room of Kadawala Bungalow

本頁圖 Palinda Kannangara的

Kadawala Bungalow飯廳

設計

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Varuna De Silva is, in a sense, of the “second generation” of those who were motivated by Scandinavian architec-ture, having been taught and inspired by architect and lecturer Ranjith Ala-hakoon after he returned from training at Aarhus University in Denmark. De Silva focuses pri-marily on personalised homes, and he has a no-nonsense attitude to architecture that has resulted in simple, open and light spaces. “I do very basic, very simple work: it is all bare bones, I hate ornamentation,” he says. His favourite project is the Cage House, which he built in Colombo 5 for a friend. It is now the home of fashion desi-gner Gihan Nanayakkara, who has personalised the interiors.

這位建築師可算是被北歐建

築觸動的「第二代」，他從

丹麥奧胡斯大學接受培訓後

回國，並深受教導他的建築

師兼講師Ranjith Alahakoon啟發。

De Silva專注於個人化住所，

謝絕胡鬧，追求簡單、開放

和光明的空間：「我的作品

都很簡單，全是基本元素，

很討厭裝飾品。」

他最喜歡自己為友人在可倫

坡5區所建的Cage House，

現已成為時裝設計師Gihan

Nanayakkara的家，更作了

個人化設計。

varuna de silva

Architect Hirante Welandawe studied and worked in Helsinki in the late 1980s. “Finland has influenced me in a subconscious way – par-ticularly the approach to design where everything is resolved in an uncom-plicated way,” says the architect. She says she does not subscribe to any agenda or a style: “Most solutions are developed relating to the nature of the project, the site and the brief.”

hirante welandawe這位建築師於1980年代末

在赫爾辛基讀書和工作。

她表示：「芬蘭對我影響

很大，特別是它傾向簡單

解決問題的設計手法。」

她亦未有局限於單一工序或

風格：「很多方案都因應

項目、選址和概要的性質

而訂。」

“ Finland has influenced me in a subconscious way,” says Hirante Welandawe

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opposite page Cage House in Colombo by Varuna De Silva

left Cage House is De Silva’s favourite project

above Hirante Welandawe’s Tudawe House

對頁圖可倫坡的Cage House出自

Varuna De Silva之手

左圖Cage House是De Silva最喜

愛的項目

上圖Hirante Welandawe的

Tudawe House

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Architect Anura Ratnavibhushana is a trailblazer in contem-porary architecture in Sri Lanka. “The years in Denmark influenced my work tremendously: the clean, simple lines; the beauty of white walls, white floors,” he says. He was the first to paint floors white, suggesting it to Bawa initially at the Ceylon Pavilion at the Japan World Exposition 1970 in Osaka. “Art and craft were at its peak in Denmark in the late 1960s: creativity in all fields from ceramics to furniture, cutlery, fashion, graphics, was flying high and this had a huge impact on my creative thinking, encou-raging experimentation with design including furniture.”

anura ratnavibhushana

這位斯里蘭卡現代建築先驅

表示：「在丹麥的日子對我

影響深遠，好像那些簡約的

線條，和美麗的白牆、白地

板。」他是把地板髹上白色

的先鋒，並曾向Bawa提議

用此手法，修飾1970年在大

阪舉行的日本萬國博覽會的

錫蘭館。

他解說道：「1960年代尾，

丹麥的藝術和手工藝都處於

高峰。陶業、傢具、餐具、

時裝和圖案等行列的創意發

展都非常蓬勃，對創作思維

很有影響，讓我設計時敢於

嘗試。」

Ratnavibhushana had a strong impact on this young rising star. “My principle is simple lines, minimal elements, and designs that are free of clutter,” says Kannanga-ra. He calls it disciplined creativity: “My passion is to design buildings that have clean straight lines, clarity, no clutter and have a feeling of lightness and sense of calm.”

Ratnavibhushana對這

位後起新秀也有長遠影

響。Kananngara表示：「我

講求簡單線條和簡約主義

元素，設計要簡潔。」

他把這稱之為有紀律的創

造力：「我渴望設計出線

條畢直俐落的建築物，簡約

而不雜亂，滲透光明和諧

之感。」

palinda kannangara

left Wijemanne House by Ratnavibhushana

below

Kadawala Bungalow by Kannangara

左圖Ratnavibhushana設計的

Wijemanne House

下圖Kannangara設計的Kadawala Bungalow

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Among the first to benefit from the Helsinki scholarship programme was architect Madhura Prematilleke, who lived and worked there for five years in the late 1980s. He says Finland “synced with, and re-affirmed the qualities of quietness, simplicity, understate-ment and contextua-lity” and taught him the importance of composi-tion of the plan form.He describes his current work as “a kind of tro-pical modernism – one which is trying hard to cope with the robust demands of our culture and climate”. Prema-tilleke has worked on scores of homes and a few boutique hotels in Sri Lanka. He recently won a competition to build an Indian govern-ment-sponsored new cultural centre in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka.

madhura prematilleke

這位建築師是首批受惠赫爾

辛基獎學金課程的學生，於

1980年代末在該處生活和工

作5年。他指芬蘭是個「結

集和重新肯定冷靜、簡約、

保守和建築文脈質素的地

方」，讓他明白外形的規劃

構圖是如何重要。

他形容當下工作是「熱帶現

代主義的其中一種，應付文

化和天氣的需求」。他已在

斯里蘭卡建設多間住宅和

數間精品酒店，最近還贏

得比賽，在北部的Jaffna興

建由印度政府贊助的新文

化中心。

“I treat architecture as an explorative adventure and do not subscribe to a particular style, fashion or architectural idiom,” says architect Philip Weeraratne who worked with Ratnavib-hushana as a student and says he learned a lot from him, especially architectural discipline. Weeraratne’s works include small hotels and houses, the latter including an “artistic refuge” on Duplication Road in Colombo 3, and the Buller’s Lane House, an example of tropical, modern vernacular architecture.

philip weeraratne這位建築師曾以學生身份

與Ratnavibhushana合作，在

建築學原則方面獲益良多：

「我把建築看成不斷探究的

冒險旅程，不規限於單一風

格、時裝或建築慣例。」

Weeraratne的工作項目包括

小型酒店和房屋，後者例子

有位於可倫坡3區Duplication

Road的「藝術庇護所」，而

充滿熱帶氣息的現代建築代

表則有Buller’s Lane House。

above House on Buller’s Lane by Philip Weeraratne

left Long House 1 by Madhura Prematilleke

上圖Philip Weeraratne設計的

Buller’s Lane House

左圖Madhura Prematilleke 設計的Long House 1

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