Geoffrey Bawa turned an abandoned horse stable into one of the most studied residential conversions in Asian architecture. This is how. The Horagolla House began as an abandoned horse stable on a family property. Bawa visited the site, stood and studied it, then agreed to convert it. Over four years in the 1980s, he remodelled the stables with restraint into a double height living space. The stable hall became the living room. Verandas looked out over garden courts. Trees were planted around the perimeter on Bawa’s advice, Hora, Kotang and Kohombo. Burma teak sourced from old houses across the island. Clay pots. A salvaged Dutch door that Sunethra and Bawa famously competed over at the same antique dealer. Bawa rejected the imposition of preconceived forms onto a site. Every project began with the land; its trees, its light and its climate. The building followed. That philosophy produced homes that feel inevitable rather than imposed. He is widely regarded as the father of tropical modernism in Sri Lanka and the Horagolla House is one of the clearest examples of why. Horagolla House, Sri Lanka. Geoffrey Bawa. 📷 Ashish Sahi