Colombo Court Blog Sustainability
When Tree of the Year came to the poolside
A competition to find the trees that matter most to Sri Lankan communities needed a venue for its awards. It chose a hotel built around its own old trees.
Tree of the Year Sri Lanka is a competition with a simple brief. People are asked to nominate a tree that matters to them or to their community, and to tell its story: the myths attached to it, the history around it, or simply why the village would feel different without it. The winners go forward to the Asian Tree of the Year award, and the whole thing exists to make people look after the trees they already have.
When the organisers, the Carbon Consulting Company, needed a venue for the awards, they chose us. We were flattered, and we understood why. Colombo Court was built around trees that were already here, some of them eighty or ninety years old, rather than clearing the site. The pool runs between them. The lounge beside Amber Poolside has a trunk growing straight through its roof.
The evening
The ceremony was held in the indoor lounge, and once the prizes had been handed over everyone drifted out to the poolside to compare tree stories under our own. It was a small event, the kind we host best: a few dozen people, a garden, and something worth talking about.
Our own tree with a story
Ours is not a living one. When the hotel was built, an araliya tree in the lobby could not be saved, and rather than leave the space empty the sculptor Prageeth Manohansa was asked to make a new one from bicycle parts. It rises three floors to the glass roof, with metal birds in its branches, and it is on our story page if you would like the longer version.
If you are planning a gathering with a purpose, from an awards evening to a launch, our venues are here, and the garden is always part of the offer.
