Living in Sri Lanka
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Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 729.095493
EAN: 9780500512876
ISBN: 0500512876
Label: Thames & Hudson
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 208
Publication Date: 2006-04-24
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Studio: Thames & Hudson
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Editorial Reviews:
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A Dutch colonial villa, a tree house over-looking a riverbank, a renovated manor, a 1930s Art Deco chalet—an enchanting portrait of Sri Lanka's faded grandeur, modern vision, and timeless beauty.
The ancients called it the Island of Serendipity. Since 1972, it has been Sri Lanka, the "auspicious" (Sri) island to which King Lanka eloped with Rama's beautiful wife in the 2000-year-old Hindu epic. Through the centuries, Muslim traders, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British were drawn to rule this magical tropical island just off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent.
Today in Sri Lanka one finds buildings of simple elegance and universal charisma: conversions and developments proud of the past, sensitive to present desires, prepared for the future, and displaying the best of multi-ethnic decoration with statues of the Buddha, Christian tapestries, Islamic footstalls, and Hindu sculpture. The discerning choice of houses is illustrated with over 200 color photographs of their interiors and of the breathtaking landscapes that surround them. Here are colonnaded verandas and wandering balconies, vast double doors, latticed paneling, and high ceilings.
Engaging commentaries explore the dreams behind these homes and the impact they have had on modern architecture throughout the tropics. For those searching for a hidden paradise or seeking to re-create their own, this universal style book reveals the key to designing homes and interiors deeply in harmony with their environment. 250 color illustrations.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Living in Sri Lanka
Comment: Lovely book, wonderful photography, my father in law now living in Australia but Sri Lankan born loved this as a gift.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A very beautiful book
Comment: The only previous review (by Bunbury) is very well worth reading, and I will not repeat what was said there, except for this: "the real usefulness of this book for travellers lies in its coverage of hotels." That is absolutely right, but I would state it differently because the book is not designed to be useful in that sense.
I would say that in addition to being an extraordinary guide to a host of very beautiful houses, the book serves an unexpected function: It can be used as a guide to some of the whackiest places to stay that Sri Lanka has to offer. You will get a far better sense of what the places look like than you will find on a travel site.
That, as I said, is incidental. What this book is really about is showing how a variety of people have converted a variety of structures into places to live in Sri Lanka. Three things about this book are especially noteworthy. First, the quality of the book itself, which was printed in Singapore. It is what I would expect of a book costing twice as much. Second, the technical quality of the photographs, and the printing thereof, which is very high. Third, the sheer beauty of most of the subjects.
There is only one other book which brought the sights and sounds of Sri Lanka rushing back to me the way this one does. That book was all text (Michael Ondaatje's 'Running in the Family'), this one is largely pictures. Anyone who has the slightest interest in the subject ought to buy this book, and anyone who has lived in Sri Lanka, as I have, will be greatly rewarded by this wonderful collection of evocative photos and very interesting accompanying text.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Australian
Comment: Where to live the Sri Lankan dream
THERE are glossy lifestyle books in abundance, luring voyeurs with their perfect depictions of art-directed homes, unblemished gardens and, most inspirational of all, interiors free of any sign of real (read: messy, cluttered) life.
Living in Sri Lanka by James Fennell and Turtle Bunbury (Thames & Hudson, $75) delivers the dream: page after glorious page of airy villas with colonnades and courtyards, rattan furniture, colonial antiques and four-posters festooned with mosquito netting. It's enough to make you wish for instant retirement, defiantly ensconced in a planter's chair waiting for the first G&T of the day.
Fennell is the capable photographer, while the splendidly named Bunbury (who, we must imagine, forever wears a turtleneck jumper, even in the tropics), described as a "traveller in the grand tradition", has penned the words.
And while his text is very good, and the cross-section of featured properties covers many styles of architecture and interior design, the real usefulness of this book for travellers lies in its coverage of hotels.
Nestled between the divine images of private residences lie villas for rent, boutique hotels such as Colombo House in the capital's upmarket Cinnamon Gardens district, and Sri Lanka's best-loved accommodation. In Galle, there's architect Geoffrey Bawa's radical Lighthouse Hotel and the charming Doornberg, a restored 18th-century Dutch homestead. These hotels attract the likes of the Australian cricket team, A-list celebrities such as Sting, and architects and designers galore.
If Fennell and Bunbury had neglected to include the rainbow that is Helga's Folly in the hill station of Kandy, the book would be a lesser publication. This gem of a hotel is, quite simply, the maddest place I have stayed. But here it is, in all its exuberant glory, with red walls, an overload of murals, painted ceilings, the whole bangshoot just bursting at the seams with the bric-a-brac of its owner, Helga de Silva Perera Blow, every inch as aristocratic and eccentric as her name suggests. Not to be missed by anyone hoping for a window into Kandy society.
Susan Kurosawa
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