The Ena De Silva House is a home designed by Geoffrey Bawa for the Sri Lankan artist Ena De Silva. She wanted to have a home which would be unique in incorporating Kandyan architectural features, whilst also having a modern approach to it. At the same time, she was relatively simplistic in her brief to Bawa by stating that she wanted a house made of 'Bricks and a roof', but she insisted that she did not want to have a home like the colonial bungalows which were ever present in Colombo around the time.
Bawa observed Buddhist temples, and even incorporated Portugese and Dutch architectural features into his design to create the Ena De Silva house. The building has no glass, and has openings which naturally ventilate the house in a traditional non-mechanical way. It is enclose, with an outer-wall boundary, yet it also feels natural, in having trees and other plans surrounding the building, and paved stones which seamlessly flow through the outside landscape to the interior ground floor. Breaking down the building into the axonometric below helped me to understand how structurally, Bawa kept the large roof forms, in order to deter the rains during monsoon season, whilst also creating an open floor plan system that incorporates the central courtyard almost as another 'room' in the house:
I believe that Bawa successfully managed to create a beautiful modernist home, whilst maintaining a true Sri Lankan identity to the building.
The Ena De Silva House, original plans and section. I particularly admire how Bawa draws his plans and sections. Especially how almost all of his designs have a strong presence of vegetation surrounding his buildings:
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