An exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum, M+, and the Wüstenrot Foundation in collaboration with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust.

With a career spanning five decades and over 200 projects, Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003) counts as one of the most influential 20th-century architects in Asia. His work blends the principles of Modernism with vernacular and traditional elements to form a distinctive architectural language that responds sensitively to context, to local materials cultural identities. Bawa’s remarkable oeuvre shaped the architecture of postcolonial Sri Lanka, and includes hotels, private residences, schools, universities, factories, office buildings, and the country’s parliament. Today, his approach is being rediscovered worldwide as a guiding inspiration for socially and ecologically sustainable building practice.

In 2026, the Vitra Design Museum and M+ Hong Kong in collaboration with the Geoffrey Bawa Trust, will present the first major retrospective on Bawa in two decades. The exhibition foregrounds recurring themes in his work from interdisciplinary collaboration and ecological, social and cultural engagement to the formal qualities that define his architecture. Through an unprecedented wealth of drawings, models, furniture, photographs, and films, it brings to life the captivating, sensory quality of Bawa’s enduring legacy.

Image: Geoffrey Bawa Kandalama Hotel, 1991-94 Dambulla, Sri Lanka © Iwan Baan, 2026