Heritance Kandalama

Heritance Kandalama (Sinhala: හෙරිටන්ස් කණ්ඩලම හෝටලය) is a star class luxury hotel located in the vicinity of Kandalama Wewa, Matale District, Sri Lanka. The hotel is popular among the locals and foreigners due to its remarkable Eco-friendly architecture.

History

The hotel was designed in an Eco-friendly manner by the country's most renowned architect, Geoffrey Bawa (Nayomi & Gnanapala, 2015; Owen, 2008). Originally, it was planned to build the hotel near the Sigirya fortress but, Bawa rejected the site and instead opted for a new location with a distant view of Sigirya across the Kandalama Wewa (Owen, 2008). After selecting the present location, the construction of the hotel was initiated in 1992, but the project was heavily objected by local communities (Chandralal, 2010). Active protests and debates were sparked across the country centering on environmental and cultural issues but the hotel builders, the Aitken Spence Hotel Group, with the support of the then Government successfully resolved the problematic situation by doing several modifications in the initial design (Chandralal, 2010; Owen, 2008). The construction work of the hotel was finally finished in 1995.

Hotel

Located within the Cultural Triangle, the hotel site is flanked by two World Heritage Sites: 1st century B.C. Dambulla Viharaya and the 5th century Sigiriya rock fortress. The hotel serves as a convenient stopover for the visitors who come to see these two heritage sites as well as other nearby tourist destinations.

The hotel has nearly 160 rooms categorized as Superior, Panoramic, Luxury, Deluxe, Suite, Luxury Suite, and Royal Suite (Nayomi & Gnanapala, 2015; Owen, 2008).

Accolades
Kandalama has received numerous awards for its environmental initiatives,

The PATA Green Leaf Gold Award for the hotel's Eco-park for its commitment to environmental education and sustainable development (Nayomi & Gnanapala, 2015).
The first hotel in the world and the only building outside North America that received the LEED award by US Green Building Council [(in the year 2000) Nayomi & Gnanapala, 2015].
The first hotel in Asia accredited under the premier international ecotourism standard, Green Globe 21 [(certified in 1999) Nayomi & Gnanapala, 2015].

Attribution

1) Sri Lanka by Sergei Gussev is licensed under CC BY 2.0
2) Sri Lanka by Sergei Gussev is licensed under CC BY 2.0
3) Sri Lanka by Sergei Gussev is licensed under CC BY 2.0
4) Sri Lanka by Sergei Gussev is licensed under CC BY 2.0

References

1) Chandralal, K.P.L., 2010. Impacts of tourism and community attitude towards tourism: A case study in Sri Lanka. South Asian Journal of Tourism and Heritage, 3(2), pp.41-49.
2) Nayomi, G. and Gnanapala, W.A., 2015. Socio-economic impacts on local community through tourism development with special reference to Heritance Kandalama. Tourism, Leisure and Global Change, 2(1), pp.57-73.
3) Owen, C., 2008. Architecture between the culture-nature dualism: a case study of Geoffrey Bawa’s Kandalama hotel. International Journal of Architectural Research, 2(1), pp.40-56.

Location Map

This page was last updated on 16 May 2022
For a complete tourist map follow this link: Lankapradeepa Tourist Map