Awards

UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Merit Award 2001

The UNESCO Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific awarded The Tea Factory, a merit award for the impressive conversion of a dilapidated tea factory into a luxury hotel complex, demonstrating a challenging adaptive reuse project, executed with commendable skill and vision.

All winning entries demonstrated understanding of the issues of conservation in relation to the cultural, social, historical and architectural significance of the building, employment of appropriate building and artisan techniques, use of appropriate materials, and a significant positive impact on the surrounding environment, contributing to the cultural and historical continuum of the community.

South Asian Architecture Award 1996

South Asian architecture awards were initiated in 1995 to recognise the world of architectural excellence in the whole of South Asia. Being the first award of its kind in the SAARC region, it has earned great prestige, status and confidence of the fraternity of Architects in the sub-continent. Mr. Nihal Bodhinayake received a commendation award in 1996 for converting an abandoned tea factory into a unique theme hotel in Nuwara Eliya.

Most Innovative Product 1998

The Tea Factory was awarded the "Most Innovative Product" marketed at the TTF fair in Ahmadabad, India in 1998. This unique accolade was conferred on the hotel after evaluating other unique products featured at the fair from many Asian countries.

The Tea Factory Wins RICS Award 2000

The Tea Factory was awarded the prestigious RICS award conferred by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, London in 2000. This award is presented to encourage and recognize the outstanding achievements and technical ingenuity in the field of conservation and enhancement of the built and natural environment.

In evaluating The Tea Factory against entries from all over the world, the judges were impressed by factors such as utilisation of an abandoned building by putting it to beneficial use at an economic cost, preventing the building from falling into dereliction and decay, and causing damage to the environment, and maintaining the entire façade of the original building as well as retaining numerous other features such as old machinery, driving shafts and pulleys. The improvement of the socio-economic status of thousands of poor villagers living in the vicinity and ingeniously maximizing the use of an existing asset by suitably modifying it for its new role in the tourist industry, and implementing in a coordinated manner, was also taken into account in selecting the Tea Factory for this award.