Talks

Geoffrey Bawa: Architecture for the Senses
OPENING & TALK (EN) 
Friday, 25 September 2026                                                                                                                
 
Opening Talk 
6 pm, Fire Station 
Guests: Channa Daswatte and Shayari de Silva, Geoffrey Bawa Trust 
Suhanya Raffel and Ikko Yokoyama, M+ 
Moderator: Johan Deurell, Vitra Design Museum                                                    
 
Vernissage 
7 pm, Vitra Design Museum 
 
The opening night of the exhibition »Geoffrey Bawa: Architecture for the Senses« begins with an opening talk at the Zaha Hadid Fire Station, bringing together experts to discuss Bawa’s work, its enduring relevance, and the lessons it offers for contemporary architecture and design. The panelists are Geoffrey Bawa Trust’s Channa Dawatte, Chairperson, and Shayari de Silva, co-curator of the exhibition, and M+’s Suhanya Raffel, Director, and Ikko Yokoyama, co-curator of the exhibition. The talk will be moderated by Vitra Design Museum’s Johan Deurell, co-curator of the exhibition. Drawing on the exhibition and the accompanying publication, the panelists will discuss the role of sustainability and cultural sensitivity in Bawa’s work, as well as his close collaboration with contemporary artists and craftspeople, and his central role in post-colonial Sri Lanka.  

The talk will be followed by the exhibition vernissage. 

Free admission. Please register here.

Barragán Lecture #6: Solitude is good company –
Casa Majahua by Barragán
TALK (EN)
Thursday, 29 October 2026
6:30 pm, Christoph Merian Stiftung, Basel

Guests: Ingrid Moye, Christoph Zeller, Nina Kirste,
and Josef Grillmeier

In cooperation with OPEN HOUSE BASEL

A lecture series presented in cooperation with the Barragan Foundation explores the work of Luis Barragan from various perspectives. This talk focuses on Casa Majahua, a holiday house built by Barragan in the 1950s. Situated on a remote stretch of Mexico’s Pacifi c coast, the dwelling was used only briefly before eventually falling into disrepair within its encroaching natural environment. The urgency of preserving this little-known part of the architect’s legacy led to the first comprehensive documentation of the house through the Architectural Association Summer School Programme, directed by the German-Mexican studio Zeller & Moye. Illustrated with archival and survey materials, their lecture traces the remains of Casa Majahua and refl ects on strategies of reuse, repair and sustainable reactivation in the face of physical decay.

Free admission. Please register here.