Outdoing Bawa

Geoffrey Bawa was undoubtedly a genius and it is only to be expected that he will have many followers. Unfortunately it seems to me that some of his ideas are becoming rather overused.

I have just seen some pictures of the former Villa Mohotti and they have left me rather uneasy. The Villa had been redone and it was perfect, needing nothing more than a little maintenance. I believe it was a ruin that was restored by Bawa himself.

However the new owners have gone and added new buildings and crammed the place with furniture, leaving it looking rather overcrowded.

None of the buildings can be described as ugly but I think it is important to retain a certain amount of empty space-both within and without a building.

The same mistake is evident in the other property recently renovated by the same owners - Tintagel on Rosmead Place. The building looks very nice from the outside, but step inside and one finds the place chock-a-block with ultra modern furniture that simply does not go with the main building. Step outside into the terrace (it used to be a lawn) and one meets another concrete jungle of paving stones and concrete tables under umbrellas with scarcely any space to move.

I have once visited Tintagel in its previous state and rather liked the lawn and the blue cement floors, both of which have now gone. I think the lawn at the back was sacrificed for part of the swimming pool, which I think was unnecessary.

Fitting in the maximum number of tables in a given space might sound sensible from a business point of view but it takes away from atmosphere of the place, which is what true boutique hotels are all about.

Presumably the new owners are awaiting a huge tourism boom and have added enough capacity to make the most of it but they may have inadvertently ended up taking their properties downmarket, rather than upmarket.

I don't see myself visiting either of the places.