Still Life

Designed by the late Geoffrey Bawa after a period of frenetic work on large-scale projects, Claughton House in Sri Lanka embodies a sense of calm—mirroring, perhaps, how its architect felt building it.

- Smriti Daniel

Time had stopped in Sri Lanka, financial executive Brian Brille remembers thinking. In the aftermath of a long war, many parts of the country remained undeveloped, their pristine beauty undisturbed by the frenetic development he was used to seeing elsewhere in the region. Something about this country drew Brille in. The American decided to find a home here.

In 2010, he began to scour the country, looking for just the right property. “We circled the entire island, by car and by helicopter,” he says. “We saw Kalpitiya before anybody had started developing there; we slept in military barracks in Jaffna.”

Brille knew what he was looking for. “What appealed to me were properties with elevation, and with natural beauty.” When he saw Claughton House, he knew he had found both. “It was perhaps the most beautiful view I had ever seen.”

HIGH ON A HILL

Perched on the headland of Dickwella, the villa overlooks the wide sweep of the Indian Ocean. At one edge of the property, a steep set of stairs flanked by coconut trees leads down to a narrow gate, which opens onto a secluded beach. At your feet, the ocean is emerald and turquoise, its surface broken by the lazy roll of waves edged in white froth.

Along with the property, Brille inherited a dog named Rocky. He and Rocky would wake early to watch the sunrise from the living room. They were surrounded by life: peacocks strutted across the sloping grounds, fish eagles glided along the cliffs, and monkeys chattered in the trees bordering the house.