Blue Water Hotel is a 5-star boutique hotel in
Wadduwa, Sri Lanka. It is notable for being
Geoffrey Bawa’s last hotel project and the last project he supervised on site before succumbing to illness.
Geography
The hotel is situated in
Wadduwa, a small coastal town located ( south of
Colombo. The site originally was a
coconut
The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family ( Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the ...
plantation, situated between the beach and the
coastal railway line.
History
The hotel was commissioned by Ajit Wijesekera of Union Apparel (a garment manufacturer) in 1994, the design of which was a collaboration between
Geoffrey Bawa and Milroy Perera. Work on the project commenced in 1996 and was completed in 1998. The hotel suffered damage to sixteen ground floor rooms as a result of the
2004 Boxing Day tsunami
An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+07:00, UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of no ...
but there were no deaths. The hotel was initially managed by
Jetwing Hotels
Jetwing Hotels Limited is a Sri Lankan hotel chain. Jetwing was founded in the 1970s by Herbert Cooray when he purchased the Blue Oceanic Hotel in Negombo from its Swedish owner Vingressor and renamed it Jetwing. Cooray founded Jetwing Travels in 1 ...
until 2008 when it was taken over by Union Resorts, who renovated it and added a reception room/banquet room.
Architecture
The hotel was one of Geoffrey Bawa's last major projects,
which Patrick Kunkel of
ArchDaily believes "represents a slightly more minimalistic approach to his architectural design informed by his earlier work." Australian architect,
Ceridwen Owen
Ceridwen or Cerridwen ( ''Ke-RID-wen'') was an enchantress in Welsh medieval legend. She was the mother of a hideous son, Afagddu, and a beautiful daughter, Creirwy. Her husband was Tegid Foel and they lived near Bala Lake () in north Wales. Med ...
, describes it as "exhibiting a carefully orchestrated sequence of spaces between land and ocean."
For the building design Bawa returned to a simple rest house layout, which he first used in 1967 for the Serendib Hotel, but reinterpreted on a grand scale with expansive courtyards and limitless vistas. The main entrance is a lofty
porch, with an enclosing wall which screens the hotel from the adjacent railway line. The entrance doors open out to a long
axial
Axial may refer to:
* one of the anatomical directions describing relationships in an animal body
* In geometry:
:* a geometric term of location
:* an axis of rotation
* In chemistry, referring to an axial bond
* a type of modal frame, in music
* ...
arcade running across a large garden court, past the hotel lobby and out through the coconut grove towards the sea and the horizon. David Robson in his book, '' Geoffrey Bawa: The Complete Works'', states "the sequence of spaces is formal and controlled; the materials highly polished, light in tone and muted in colour and the architecture restrained but monumental."
The hotel is an example of Bawa’s minimalist style, use of space, lengthy corridors, open views, water, terracotta tiles and frangipani trees.
Facilities
The hotel has 100 rooms, two restaurants, three bars, an outdoor pool, and a spa.
References
External links
Official site*
{{Hotels in Sri Lanka
Hotels in Kalutara District
Hotels established in 1998
Geoffrey Bawa buildings