The Sunethra Bandaranaike House or Horagolla Stables is the country house of Sunethra Bandaranaike, renovated in the 1980s by the renowned architect Geoffrey Bawa. [1] [2]
Sunethra Bandaranaike is a Sri Lankan philanthropist and a socialite.
Geoffrey Manning Bawa, FRIBA was a Sri Lankan architect. He was among the most influential Asian architects of his generation. He is the principal force behind what is today known globally as "tropical modernism".
"It's no exaggeration to say that architect Geoffrey Bawa transformed the look of South-East Asia. And yet what he did is so subtle that we almost take it for granted today. In short, Bawa-tailored modern buildings to a specific environment. It hardly seems revolutionary and yet no one else had done anything like it in the region."
The house was the original walauwa of Horagolla, the home of Sunethra Bandaranaike's great-grandfather Gate Mudaliyar Don Christoffel Henricus Dias Abeywickrema Jayatilake Seneviratne Bandaranaike. [3] It was converted to a stable by Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, who after his appointment as Maha Mudaliyar (Head Mudaliyar) at the turn of the twentieth century built the Horagolla Walauwa as his stately home in close proximity to the older walauw. A walauwa is the traditional name for a headman's house.
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals. There are many different types of stables in use today; the American-style barn, for instance, is a large barn with a door at each end and individual stalls inside or free-standing stables with top and bottom-opening doors. The term "stable" is also used to describe a group of animals kept by one owner, regardless of housing or location.
Sir is a formal English honorific address for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Traditionally, as governed by law and custom, Sir is used for men titled knights i.e. of orders of chivalry, and later also to baronets, and other offices. As the female equivalent for knighthood is damehood, the suo jure female equivalent term is typically Dame. The wife of a knight or baronet tends to be addressed Lady, although a few exceptions and interchanges of these uses exist.
Sir Solomon Dias Abeywickrema Jayatilleke Senewiratna Rajakumaruna Kadukeralu Bandaranaike, KCMG, Maha Mudaliyar, JP was a Ceylonese colonial-era headmen. He was appointed as Head Mudaliyar and the aide-de-camp to the British Governor of Ceylon, therefore he was one of the most powerful personalities in British colonial Ceylon.
In the 1980s the deteriorated stable building was renovated and redesigned by Geoffrey Bawa into a house for Sunethra Bandaranaike and her then husband Udaya Nanayakara. Construction commenced on 1 April 1983 and was completed 25 November 1987. [4] The building consists of two sections; the original stables and the new wing, with these two sections forming an 'L' shape. [5] The original building had one large arched entrance and enclosures for the six horses. Openings were introduced in the form of doors and windows and an internal mezzanine floor separates this space into a ground floor and upper gallery. The main sitting room is on the ground floor while the upper gallery provides an additional lounge/sitting area. The name boards of the horses that were kept here have been retained over their former stalls. [5] The stable hands quarters have been converted into three bedrooms, with attached bathrooms and a library. The new wing contains an additional bedroom, with attached bathroom, dining area, pantry and open kitchen. The material used for the construction were recycled material sourced from either the original building or old demolished homes. [5]
