22nd Annual Geoffrey Bawa Memorial Lecture by Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena

July 14, 2025: The Geoffrey Bawa Trust is pleased to announce that this year’s Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Los Angeles-based architects Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena. The annual Memorial Lecture commemorates Geoffrey Bawa’s birthday and celebrates impactful architecture from around the world.

The speakers’ architecture firm, Escher GuneWardena Architecture, established in 2015,  includes projects ranging from custom homes and housing, preservation of work of iconic buildings and collaborations with artists, art galleries, and exhibitions around the world.  This breadth of experience across diverse projects will bring a multi-disciplinary focus to this year’s much anticipated lecture: Clocks and Clouds.

Known for their preservation of work by notable twentieth-century architects, the duo will discuss how immersion in the principles, philosophies, and attitudes that go into making great spaces enhances their own practice. Their restoration of iconic works include the Eames House (built in 1949),  John Lautner’s Chemosphere (1960), Gregory Ain’s Greene Residence (1962), Paul R. William’s Residence (1952), and the recently completed Lovell Health House by Richard Neutra (1929). 

To explore how preservation work influences and enhances contemporary practice further, Escher and GuneWardena will host a workshop for architecture students and young architects during their visit to Sri Lanka. The workshop will look at how practitioners and students can explore the architectural histories and social movements that shaped particular projects while also developing work of their own.

In addition to preservation work, Escher and GuneWardena regularly design new houses and commercial projects in the Los Angeles area, including a 100-acre meditation center campus for California’s Sri Lankan community in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. The duo also work on installation and exhibition design for museums around the world. In 2018, Escher and GuneWardena were exhibition designers and curatorial advisors for The Jeweled Isle: Art from Sri Lanka at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The 2025 Geoffrey Bawa Memorial Lecture will be held on Thursday, 24 July 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in Colombo 07. Escher and GuneWardena will also host a workshop for architecture students and young architects titled Historic Preservation / A Role for Contemporary Architects on Friday, 25 July, from 5:00–7:00 p.m. at the De Saram House in Colombo 07. 

Admission to both events is free, but registration is required. For registration and more information, visit: geoffreybawa.com/events. The Geoffrey Bawa Memorial Lecture and workshop is supported by Miles Young and exclusive media partners Sunday Times, Daily Mirror, Tamil Mirror and Lankadeepa.