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Geoffrey Bawa: It is Essential to be There is the first major exhibition which draws from the archives to look at Bawa’s practice. Organised in four thematic sections, exploring relationships between ideas, drawings, buildings and places, the exhibition explores the different ways in which images were used in Bawa’s practice.

Over 120 documents from the Bawa archives, most of which have never been shown publicly previously, will be on view, including a section on unbuilt work and Bawa’s own photographs from his travels.




“The site gives the most powerful push to a design along with the brief. Without seeing the site I cannot work.
It is essential to be there. After two hours on the site, I have a mental picture of what will be there and
how the site will change and the picture does not change.”


Geoffrey Bawa,
 Interview with Channa Daswatte. Colombo, October 1998.


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