Fitzherbert House

Tangalle, Sri Lanka

Richard Fitzherbert Brockholes was an estate agent from the north of England who had bought a piece of land next to the sea  at Dodampahala near Tangalla to build a holiday villa. Bawa designed the house as a mini-Triton Hotel with three suites of rooms, each with its own bathroom and private courtyard, attached like satellites to a double-height loggia that served as the main dining room and lounge. A paved staircase wound its way down through the coconut palms to a small swimming pool perched on a headland above the sea. Like the Triton Hotel, the house responds dramatically to changes in climate and during the monsoon resembles a windjammer rounding Cape Horn.