Well if they wanted to go further into this mythical world of rubber trees, jungle, crazy giant finger-like ferns reaching out to you and scary creepers that look almost human in attire as they drape themselves round various garden sculptures.
At twenty years of age, Bevis, unlike his younger brother Geoffrey who was sent to England to study law, was packed off to look after the family rubber plantations around Kalawao Village in Aluthgama and it was here that he discovered his love of creating tropical landscaped gardens. Using hidden spaces and inside-outside experiences he takes you through one doorway into another area, never allowing you to leave nature behind. Inspired by the jungle, he created his own style of landscaping tropical garden designs that were later adopted by his brother, Geoffrey Bawa, one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. Ten years his brother’s junior, they worked together on many projects, and Bevis’ fame quietly spread among the dilettantes, movers and shakers and even the Hollywood movie stars. As a renowned landscape architect, Bevis served as the Aide–de-camp to four governors of Ceylon, designed many embassy gardens and left behind one of the island’s most controversial private art collections and ways of provocative thinking that pioneered the concept of wellness through being at one with nature.
Bequeathing his home and estate in 1992 when he passed away, to his charming and incredibly bright manager and landscape designer, Dooland de Silva, so future generations could learn from his decades of designs that highlight the beauty of the natural world, was another indicator of his quietly brilliant philosophical thinking. Dooland says, as he shows me around Bevis’ house, that this was an incredible honour for him, after forty fascinating years of working for Bevis, who he says was also a prolific reader and incredibly kind man. Bevis taught him the power of green fingers and the thinking behind every aspect of garden design and changing weather patterns. Dooland learnt the importance of studying the seasons and the clever way he would use greenery to keep the place cool in the heat of the day, only punctuating the canopy from time to time with small splashes of colourful flowers, like a bird of paradise plant. Using small leaves in the mix was key in this thinking, so the wind could move through them, giving natural ventilation to the garden and house and so that they would not be burnt by the hot sun, making the garden look ugly and dry in the warmer months. He learnt the importance of the different perfumes the plants give off, like Jasmine, so, Dooland planted these around the bedrooms, since they smell sweet at night and the aroma helps guests get a good night’s sleep, something he replicated at Calamansi Cove Villas’ magnificent garden, which he was responsible for designing and then creating from scratch. Those that have stayed at Calamansi have also felt this total oneness with nature and wanted to go on a tour of Brief with the General Manager Shalini, whose entire career it seems was inspired from Bevis unique house and garden. The place makes her eyes light up as she talks about the medicinal importance of the different plants and flowers.
Dooland, over time, became an incredible garden architectural guru in his own right, and, seeing his raw talents, Geoffrey Bawa appointed him to work on one of his greatest hotel projects of all time, Kandalama. His mission was to reveal the allure and mystique of the ancient rocks and jungle spirit around the Dambulla tank. Dooland responded to the challenge by clearing the plants and weeds around the thousand-year-old stones that hid the hotel building behind a veil of jungle creepers.
Unperturbed by Donald Friend’s daring stare, we trundle on in our car through the main gate, past two statues overgrown with plants, adding to their wild hairstyles; it is as if they are guardians of the estate, watching over all who enter this tropical fantasy world. A place where you can bathe under the stars in the garden, listening to the sound of fountain water, gargling its way through the mouth of a open mouth, at the same time as looking at yourself in the cracked blackish mirror on the opposite garden wall. Bevis carefully curated each space with a sense of fun or the unexpected explains Dooland. Bevis wanted to feel at peace with the elements, so he could enjoy each period of the day and for his guests to position themselves to also be at one with the sun as it rises and sets. Each part of the property is so linked to nature that you can’t see the dividing line between the garden and the house. You feel the magic even in the monsoon rain as it waterfalls off the roof, sipping tea with Dooland, where Bevis once sat every night watching the sunset. Calamansi Cove Villas garden uses these ideas from a kaleidoscope of doorways as you enter the coastal cover property, with paths surrounded by rich vegetation and villas named after fruits highlighting the co-habitation with nature we all yearn so much to get back to and be a part of.
People say you can judge a person by their garden and it is hard to see where Bevis’ garden ends and the house starts, as there is no real back area for the rubbish or single entrance point for important guests. Every side is vibrating with nature and Bevis eclectic choices in art lead you on a merry dance through these very different spaces. Poetry on paintings if read aloud bring this lost Bevis period back to life, as do the variety of sculptures and even the world, in the shape of a tea cadet, reminds us of our humble existence. Dooland on his amazing tour of Bevis home makes us laugh, as we see the naughty boy sculpture peeing into the garden pool, as we all know at some point we secretly did the same as small children. Each space talks to you about the reality of life and the importance of continual learning and recycling whether they are bottles of wine or old wooden crates. Everything can be used again and in the case of the bottle wall only adds to our experience of the voodoo of the location, which no brief trip can start to cover ones understanding of the brilliant thinking behind Brief.
At the arrival entrance up the spiral stairs, Donald Friend captures, in a mural, the hugely different sides of the country in a humorous, slightly irreverent way including not only the great sites, but also the human elements such as a thief trying to run off with some ones bag. Originally planning to spend a week here, Friend loved Sri Lanka so much he stayed for six years at Brief.
One will understand how easy it is to be bewitched by this place sitting in Bevis’ garden house, whether watching the sunset or a sudden storm, is a joy, with its artistic terracotta tiles on one side of the veranda, which were created by Barbara Samson, Donald Friend, Laki Senanayake and Bevis. Bevis even had a blue and white pottery footbath for his guests to wash their feet on entering the house. He also played host to the glitterati of stars who visited Sri Lanka, like Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, the Duke of Windsor, and Agatha Christie. Although accused of Vivien Leigh’s breakdown over her unrequited love for him, the stunning truth, one learns, looking through the gallery of black and white framed photos, is that she wanted to see a ‘devil dance’ exorcism in Kandy and the bad spirit entered into her when it came out of the victim, causing her to collapse.
Brief is full of extraordinary stories like this and poetry on the paintings that will both amuse and make you think about a man who gave away everything before the end of his life, as he knew the real secret to longevity is in one’s ideas and ideals being carried on, which, if passed on to future generations, can benefit everyone, through their wisdom. Calamansi Cove Villas is one such place that has had its entire gardens landscaped around the Brief philosophy of supernatural garden designs, something everyone feels from the moment they enter the hotel complex.