The Shadow & The Light: Bawa's Country Estates

Geoffrey Bawa did not just build structures; he framed landscapes. His country seat at Lunuganga is a testament to fifty years of gardening, where every tree was planted with intention and every terrace ends exactly where the eye wants it to.

An hour south lies Brief Garden, the estate of his brother Bevis — wilder, stranger, and unapologetically theatrical. Taken together, the two gardens are a conversation between brothers conducted in frangipani and stone.

Our pilgrimage ends with lunch on Lunuganga's Cinnamon Hill terrace — the table Bawa kept for his own guests — arranged privately, after the day's visitors have gone. Tropical modernism is not a style here. It is a way of ending an afternoon.