Geoffrey Bawa: Architecture for the Senses
Geoffrey Bawa: Architecture for the Senses
26.09.2026 – 28.02.2027
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
Sleep: A Parallel Universe
Sleep: A Parallel Universe
20.03.2027 – 05.09.2027
An exhibition by the Vitra Design Museum and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona.
In spring 2027, the Vitra Design Museum will explore the timeless and highly relevant subject of human sleep. Taking as its point of departure the ways in which sleep is shaped by cultural, design, economic, and technological forces the exhibition examines its role in contemporary society. How have artificial lighting and modern working environments transformed our sleeping habits? What impact do digitalisation and constant connectivity have today? And how can design improve sleep?
Focusing on changing human sleep patterns, the evolution of beds and sleeping environments, and cultural ideas of the body, intimacy, and dreams, the show also casts a critical eye on the socio-political conditions shaping our access to sleep and rest. Bringing together works from design, art, architecture, literature, and film with insights from sleep research, it offers a compelling perspective on that third of our lives we spend asleep—an essential yet still largely enigmatic realm.
Image: Hella Jongerius, Bed in Business, 2001
