Lunuganga Country Estate

The water garden of Lunuganga Estate
A weekend retreat designed by Geoffrey Bawa

Lunuganga is the 40-year labor of love by Sri Lanka’s legendary architect Geoffrey Bawa, who developed and experimented with the estate during his lifetime.

Having purchased a rubber plantation in 1948 intending to convert it to a country home and a weekend retreat that resembled a European renaissance garden Bawa returned from his architectural studies in England, and continued to develop and recreate spaces in this 15 acres of sprawling land until his death in 2003.

Located beside the Dedduwa Lake leading to the Bentota River, the garden sits astride two low lying hills on a promontory. The creation of Lunuganga has been a slow and steady process of moving mountains, replanting of woods and cutting of terraces to open new vistas and views.

The old bungalow which originally stood amidst the rubber plantations still stands today, wrapped in a layer of verandahs and courtyards added by the maestro himself. The buildings on the estate including the entrance court, the portico and glass room, the cinnamon hill house, and the gatehouse were mainly used as experiments to many of Bawa’s creation.