Blue Water Hotel
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| Blue Water Hotel | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Location within Sri Lanka | |
| General information | |
| Location | Wadduwa, Sri Lanka |
| Coordinates | 6°40′40″N 79°55′14″E / 6.67778°N 79.92056°E |
| Opening | 1998 |
| Owner | Union Resorts |
| Management | Union Resorts |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 3 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Geoffrey Bawa |
| Developer | Ajit Wijesekera |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 100 |
| Number of suites | 5 |
| Number of restaurants | 3 |
| Website | |
| Official site | |
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.[1]
The hotel is situated in Wadduwa, a small coastal town located (27 km (17 mi) south of Colombo. The site originally was a coconut plantation, situated between the beach and the coastal railway line.[2]
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.[3] Work on the project commenced in 1996 and was completed in 1998.[4][5] The hotel suffered damage to sixteen ground floor rooms as a result of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami[6] but there were no deaths. The hotel was initially managed by Jetwing Hotels until 2008 when it was taken over by Union Resorts, who renovated it and added a reception room/banquet room.[7]
Architecture
The hotel was one of Geoffrey Bawa's last major projects,[8] which Patrick Kunkel of ArchDaily believes "represents a slightly more minimalistic approach to his architectural design informed by his earlier work."[9] Australian architect, Ceridwen Owen, describes it as "exhibiting a carefully orchestrated sequence of spaces between land and ocean."[10]
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 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."[11] The hotel is an example of Bawa’s minimalist style, use of space, lengthy corridors, open views, water, terracotta tiles and frangipani trees.
