NAME : POOJA. DHANIKCODE : 0905.SUB. : HISTORY – VI

TOPIC: CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE - FOREIGN

GUIDED BY: AR. ADITI JOSHI

THE KANDALAMA HOTEL.

INTRODUCTION.

The Kandalama Hotel, designed by Geoffrey Bawa, was constructed between 1992 and 1995 on the outskirts of Dambulla, Sri Lanka. The Kandalama Hotel is a

nine-kilometer drive east of the small town of Dambulla.

The main entrance lobby is located at the end of a ramped 2.7-kilometer-long private road that branches north from a secondary arterial leading back to the center of town.

From the earliest development phase of the project, Bawa was interested in developing a spatial and visual sequence of entry that culminated in the revelation of the distant view of the monument of Sigiriya only after entry to the hotel lobby.

The Kandalama Hotel is located in the central dry zone of Sri

Lanka, unlike many of Bawa's other buildings on humid oceanfront sites, and thus its design must adapt to a different climate.

While pitched roofs are a necessity in coastal areas that receive heavy rain, the flat roofs at Kandalama function well in a dry climate and are less material-intensive.

CLIMATE.

ELEMENTS. The Kandalama Hotel follows the

model of his later projects, in which the majority of the ornamentation comes from sculptures and artworks by other artists distributed around the building.

In this project, architect has not used traditional ornamentation such as floral patterns and carving but has used sculptures of animals and birds as we can see in picture below.

In the area of staircase, sculpture of a bird is used.

In the entrance also, near the reception and passage, Bawa has created a tunnel-like passage by not replacing the original mountains giving the cave-like view.

MATERIAL AND TECHNOLOGY. One of the most beautiful features of the hotel's design is the large,

cave-like porte cochère abutting the western side of the cliff around which the hotel wraps.

Guests enter the hotel under this huge slanted canopy that angles down towards the entrance to a compressed, enclosed walkway. The visitor winds through the confined tunnel-like passage.

Bawa thoughtfully choreographed this process of arrival in order to prolong and dramatize the threshold between the tree-shielded entrance drive and the spectacular views that the hotel lobby skillfully frames.

• The final hotel design thus consists of three primary sections within a complex multi-story building. In all, the irregularly-shaped building is approximately 430 meters in length, measured along the center of its curved plan, and between 4 and 55 meters in width.

Shared facilities such as the lobby, restaurants, and pools are located in a series of broad terraced spaces at the center of the complex, while narrow extensions to the east and southwest of the public core contain the guest rooms.

The east rooms are also known as the Sigiriya wing, and they provide a distant view of the Sigiriya rock across the horizon of the Kandalama Tank. This wing stretches 100 meters towards the east of the lobby and includes four stories of guest rooms.

The Kandalama Hotel is considered one of Bawa's most important works as it showcases so clearly Bawa's talent for creating affective spatial sequences and architectural narrative.

Political pressures influenced the plan of the project after the schematic design phase, as it became public knowledge that portions of the east wing of the hotel were planned to encroach upon lands belonging to an old Buddhist monastic precinct.

The plan was restructured to reduce the size of the eastern guest wing, which necessitated the construction of a second guest wing to the southwest of the entrance lobby.

Though the west wing is visible from the entrance road, it was heavily camouflaged by planting in order to minimize its visual impact on the arriving guest.

The detailing of the architecture itself remains plainly yet harmoniously articulated in neutral tones and natural materials, including white concrete walls, black painted concrete columns, and wood or iron railings and millwork. 

The Kandalama Hotel is a shock when one first visits. From the approach it looks abandoned, just some panes of glass overgrown with vegetation.

It is not until one drives up the paved path to the hotel that one realizes this was the intent--to build a hotel into a mountainside and let the vegetation overrun the exterior.

The Kandalama is the brainchild of Sri Lanka's premier architect, Geoffrey Bawa. His vision was to create a living space that existed harmoniously with the natural world around it.

The hotel is built around a rock face, and is nearly invisible from the small water tank below; Sigiriya is off in the distance.

The entrance to the hotel is on a lower level, and guests follow a corridor from the drop-off area up to the main lobby.

As one critic has observed, the idea of Kandalama is not to draw attention to itself, but to provide a veranda from which guests can observe the area.

In vision and execution, Kandalama is a unique hotel.

Exterior view of the Kandalama Hotel

Corridor leading to the main lobby area

The main lobby is basically an open area with marble floors washed in sunlight.

To the side of the lobby is a small patio/restaurant area where guests are taken upon arrival. The photo to the right shows the patio area, which is flanked by the natural mountain stone on its left side.

MATERIAL OF INTERIOR OF THE KANDALAMA.

Main lobby Restaurant

Skirting the stone area is a cobra sculpture. Directly in front of the patio area is the beautiful infinity pool

When sitting at pool level, the water of the pool seems to blend it with the water in the man-made tank below. (There are no natural lakes here in the dry zone).

Because the hotel is literally built into the side of the mountain, it is alive with the sounds of chirping birds and monkeys moving about in the trees.

This theme of blending in with the environment is also reflected in the services offered by the hotel.

While many stay here while visiting the nearby ruins at Dambulla and Sigiriya, a considerable number of the hotel guests come there for nature visits.

The hotel offers a number of daily trips into the nearby forests to learn about the birds, plants, animals and their ecosystem.

Lake view

From the main lobby area, the Kandalama splits into two levels and two wings, which literally hug the side of the mountain on which it is constructed.

The upper level adjacent to the lobby features the fine dining area, shown in the photo. Like the lobby it is an open design that features the nearby tank and vegetation, much like an aviary with human occupants.

The stairwells and halls in the Kandalama are open and offer spectacular vistas, as shown in the stairway leading to the dining hall.

Leading to dining area

Continuing down the Dambulla wing, the open hallways create a path that followed the contour of the mountain.

These hallways and outdoor living spaces (like the one shown at the photo to the left) are very similar in design and feel to the halls at the Lighthouse in Galle, another Geoffrey Bawa design.

The photo to the right shows the intimate connection between the hotel architecture and the surrounding environment. The first floor walkway abuts the base of the mountain, while risers anchored on the rock support the second story roof.

The rooms in the Kandalama is like the rest of the hotel decor, the rooms are tastefully Spartan.

It is light and airy, just like the rooms at the Lighthouse. Each room offers a scheduled balcony, and it is not unusual to

see wildlife running across the balcony floor! entryway area. Above the bed is a huge map of the Kandalama layout. Everything in the room is either black or a deep brown,

including the bathroom, shown below. It has a large shower area that looks out over the surrounding

woods, giving the feeling of being in an isolated retreat rather than a large hotel.

View of the room from the entryway

Entryway area Bathroom