007.Geoffrey Bawa 02.Bentota Beach Hotel (Sri Lanka)

2021-03-20

The Bentota Beach Hotel is a hotel representing Bentota, which was developed as a resort by the Sri Lankan government in the 1960s.

See the exterior appearance from the beach.

バワのビーチリゾートとして、近年人気の、新しいブルーウォーターホテルやライトハウスホテルは、明快すぎて、ちょっと物足りなかったのですが、他のホテルにはない「どこか違う」空気が魅力だったのが、このベントタビーチホテル。1969年開業です。

オランダのつくった砦を基壇に利用し、その形に合わせた建物のプラン。世界遺産ダンブッラ寺院を初めとする石窟の天井画を連想させる、フォークロア風テキスタイルの色鮮やかな天井。上階が飛び出した外観は古い寺院の引用で、木々を植えた島と池のある中庭は、修道院やコロニアル建築につながります。そういう細部の積み重ねが、「どこか違う」空気の源。歴史や地域主義への接近は、モダニズム華やかな建設当時、後退的だったかもしれませんが、スリランカを回ってこのホテルに着くと、スリランカのエッセンスを蒸留した特別な場所であることに気付きます。同じ頃できた、ローカリティーから距離を置いた近代的ホテルの多くが、時代遅れになったのとは対照的。

客室は少し小さめですが、テラス側の壁にジグザグを付けて、内外につくった可愛らしいベンチは、バワの多くの建築で繰り返し現れる「小さな居場所づくり」の好例。

The Bentota Beach Hotel opened in 1969, it seemed to be a little eclipsed by the newer Blue Water Hotel or Lighthouse Hotel among the Bawa's beach resorts. However, this hotel has a "something different" sense which doesn't dwell in other hotels. It is the attraction.

The Dutch fort used as a base of the hotel decided the building plan. The colorful folkloric textiles on the ceiling of the reception associate the world heritage site Dambulla Temple and others with a cave ceiling painting. The protruding upper floor is a quote from an old temple, and a cloister-shaped courtyard with a pond and tree-planted islands leads to monasteries and colonial architecture. The accumulation of details was the source of "something different". The approach to history and regionalism may have seemed regressive at the time when modernism flourished, but when I arrived at this hotel after having traveled around Sri Lanka, I realized it was a special place full of various awareness by the essence of Sri Lanka, in contrast with the modernism hotels built in the same era that has become old-fashioned.

The rooms are a bit small, but the lovely benches, both indoors and outdoors, with zigzags on the terrace walls, are a good example of "a small comfortable place" observed in many Bawa's works.