Oral Histories: David Robson

British architect and educator David Robson authored a number of publications on Geoffrey Bawa and he has also been documenting the architectural landscape in Sri Lanka and southeast Asia. David recalls meeting Geoffrey for the first time at the age of 25, when he came to Sri Lanka from England as a lecturer for the Department of Architecture, which was under the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Colombo. I met him at the guest suite at Number 11, Geoffrey Bawa’s residence in Colombo, where David himself had spent many days while working on his books. He discussed how his first publication titled Geoffrey Bawa: the Complete Works came into being, and how Geoffrey and his work have continued to fascinate him over the many years of his research. David remains amazed at the fact that Geoffrey Bawa took up architecture relatively late in life; having qualified as an architect at the age of 38, after first qualifying and practising as a lawyer. He describes the unique style of architectural drawing that comes of Geoffrey’s practice and their continued influence. David also acknowledges the many engineers and architects that were an integral component of Geoffrey’s practice and were in fact the reason some of the bigger projects like the Parliament, Ruhunu University and Kandalama Hotel could be realised. The Oral Histories Project is an ongoing endeavour that will continue after the centenary year celebrations, and the Trust encourages submissions of potential historians and anecdotes to [email protected].