ICCPP - 2020

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/21890

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8th International Urban Design Conference on Cities, People and Places ICCPP- 2020 (Pre Text)
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Dayaratne, R
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Rural development as a strategy to deter migration in India re-examining the ideology of cluster development
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Mohan, N; Thiruvengadam, RB; Dayaratne, R
Mahatma Gandhi said that the future of India lay in its villages. This has been proven with the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic and the surfacing predicament of our urban centers. Developed on the Industrialization model, the current state of the metropolis is of rampant overcrowding, high rates of unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, and resources to cater to the growing population. 40% of each city’s strength composes of the migrant population, demonstrated through the migrant crisis, a direct repercussion of COVID 19. This paper explores the ideology of how rural development can act as a tactic to counter the high rates of rural-urban migration. It establishes the need for rural push, as India is predominantly an agrarian economy, with the vast disparity between the urban and rural centers due to its urban bias. It seeks to define development in holistic terms. It studies the models of ‘cluster’ as conceptualized by V.K.R.V. Rao, and detailed by Architect Charles Correa through his book, The New Landscape. The paper reexamines the theory of cluster development through existing models proposed by the government of India. Namely, PURA (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas), DRI (Deendayal Research Institute), and Rurban under Shyama Prasad Mukharjee Rurban Mission. It analyses the models, their strengths, weaknesses, and reasons for their failure and success to derive parameters for the ideation of an archetype model. A new model of rural development that talks of the simultaneous development of existing adjacent villages, by the introduction of set unique functions, that may turn into self-sustaining clusters or agglomerations in the future, which could serve as the next step for Indian village development based on the cluster ideology.
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Re-establishing the relationship between urban structure & humanizing aspects of Indian cities after covid-19 pandemic: the case of Delhi, India
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Chandak, NS; Nagpure, HP; Dayaratne, R
Cities are dynamic and liveable places where people experience the phenomenon of life. The essence of Indian cities lies in the interrelationship of its urban structure and human aspirations. Urban structure is not just the sum of development block, built entity, open space, street, landscape, etc. It is a set of socio- cultural integration that their inhabitant develops. COVID-19 capriciously affected urban structures by eliminating humanizing aspects to sustain life. The fundamentals of social integration, place making, flexibility and character, which together shapes up the city are under dilemma. The traces of pandemic have emphasized and questioned the roots of humanizing aspects in shaping the urban structure as the key urban form determinant. Perhaps, depending upon urban ways of life, during the pandemic people have carved their own ways to sustain life. It has sparked a concern about how urban structure will remain humanized by tackling the contradicting values like social disconnection, community disintegration to enrich and enliven the new normal? The paper has address a case of capitol of India, Delhi which has undergone a major shift during pandemic. It intends to decipher the consequences of covid-19 pandemic on humanizing aspects of Delhi by doing comparative analysis between the compact and standard prototype of urban structure. First the study adopts an investigative approach to record, document and analysis the impact on existing urban structure by examining their prototype. Then through physical observations, photographs and documentary evidences it focuses on providing a toolkit useful for re-establishing and shaping the urban structures as humanized urban structure in making of resilient future.
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Travellers’ activities at modern train stations: a study of Kyoto station, Japan
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Phu, BN; Dayaratne, R
Within the existing literature, transportation-related sites as travel and tourism attractions have been a neglected topic. In addition, the activities that travellers do at the starting and ending points of their holiday, such as at train stations, remain largely under-researched. Therefore, this study aims to identify the activities that travellers do at train stations, and the factors that may affect these activities. The setting of this study is Kyoto station, one of the most popular train stations in Japan – a country with a very developed railway system. By thematically analysing 344 reviews posted on an online platform in 2018, this study found that the main activities are sightseeing, eating, and shopping. The factors that can affect travellers’ activities include station architecture, restaurants, stores, signage, navigation, staff, and information centre, among others. Implications for station management are discussed based on these findings.
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An evaluation on national housing policy Sri Lanka related to plantation housing
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Hapuarachchi, SP; Kariyawasam, SS; Dayaratne, R
Sri Lanka provides more than 50% share of the Tea as a beverage in the world market, but tea estate families are some of the poorest in the country. They live in line houses with deteriorated conditions. Providing adequate housing in the urban, rural and estate sectors is a major challenge. The National Housing Policy 2019 (NHP2019) has sought to address this issue based on principles of participatory planning and social inclusion, economic effectiveness, environmental protection, and cultural adequacy. Purpose of this research is to evaluate the NHP2019 in terms of the tea plantation sector and to assess whether the policy successfully addresses housing issues of this sector. The study is based on three case studies of Diagama estate, Thalangaha estate and Gee-Kiyana Kanda estate. Further it evaluates the NHP2019, in terms of appropriateness of the problem identification, developing the solution (policy formulation) and effectiveness on real ground application (policy implementation) using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods. The data collection involved a questionnaire survey with a proportionate sample of 172 households selected from three estates, an expert opinion survey with eight experts, and eight focus group discussions. The qualitative analysis was based on a content analysis using NVivo 11 software, and correlations and descriptive statistics were used for the quantitative analysis. The findings revealed that the NHP has not given due attention to the concerns of tea producers at the problem identification and policy formulation stages. There are also limitations of implementation such as no action on previous line rooms, land tenure, limitation on small loan programmes, productive land use for housing construction, issues in fund allocation and infrastructure provision. This research highlights the importance of policy reviews and revisions, which is rare in the practice of Sri Lanka.
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Bordering processes: the evolution of social borders in the time of pandemic
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Sultan, R; Srinivasan, L; Dayaratne, R
The global pandemic outbreak, due to its nature of being transmitted through physical proximity, has created an immediate need for physical distancing and reinforcement of private and personal spaces of individuals. This need has caused a gigantic ‘kinopolitical’ event that has resulted in a drastic change in social, spatial and virtual borders. However, due to the sudden nature of this re-bordering of space, there has been a movement to virtual spaces to meet the social, emotional, cognitive and economical needs that were left unfulfilled. This has forced a greater permeability to virtual spaces of interaction - a kind of de-bordering. In this paper, we propose to examine the emerging consequences of changing social order in India and Bahrain from the lens of border theory. In the contexts of both countries, border theory has been used to offer insights into the following questions: - How can we analyze pandemic response strategies employed so far and identify the causes for their lack of success? - Who are the re-bordering and de-bordering processes serving and who are they excluding? - What needs to change with individual strategies that can make pandemic planning more inclusive? A qualitative approach has been used to analyze the newspaper coverage and the official announcements during the ongoing pandemic in India and Bahrain dating from March 2020 to September 2020. We shall conclude with the implications that analysis of pandemic response strategies through the lens of border theory, can have on restructuring our planning processes and developing frameworks in both countries
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An approach to optimize the location decisions of public parks in Colombo
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12) Fernando, GS; Kariyawasam, SS; Dayaratne, R
Among the public services offered by the government of Sri Lanka, public parks can be identified as one of the crucial elements. With the increasing trend of building new public parks, it is necessary to identify the factors that may contribute to the optimum usage of parks. Literature on public park usage mostly discusses on impact of non-locational factors such as design elements, behavioral and psychological factors on the functionality. Therefore, this study aims to develop an approach to optimize public park location decisions based on functional efficiency. First, the usage of public parks was determined by standardizing the google visit data based on aggregated and anonymized data from users who have opted to allow access to Google Location History. Second, a questionnaire survey with a total sample of 165 park users was carried out to develop a user profile for parks and to understand its relationship with usage. Then the factors, which correlate with park usage, were used to define the factors of recreational attractiveness. These factors are share of population in the age group of 15 to 24, share of population in the age group of 45 to 65, share of population in the major ethnic group, street connectivity, park size and number of competitors in the neighborhood. In order to calculate the recreational gravity of each public park, data was obtained on defined attractiveness factors from each Grama Niladhari Division in the market range of each park and the distance from each GND to each park. Next, it modeled the gravitation relationship between usage and recreational gravity of each case study. Finally, the applicability of the derived model was tested with three additional cases. Accordingly, the model predicts the functionality with -15% variance for moderate size parks, -25% variance for small parks, and -35% variance for large parks with R2 of 0.66. Therefore, the model needs extension with some additional factors. Importantly, it highlights the importance of considering locational factors along with non-locational factors to optimize the public park location decisions.
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Cohesive threshold spaces as communal anchoring nodes in shaping super diverse communities combating covid19 pandemic: the case of Kumbharwada, Dharavi, Mumbai, India
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Singh, VP; Nagpure, HP; Dayaratne, R
It is Important to Understand how people perceive the world in which we live and imagine. In Indian Cities, organic slum settlement of Dharavi, Mumbai is a great example of spatialities created by people’s need and demand. It has coherence of low rise-high built densities, socio-economic & cultural diversities in shaping the physical setting. Successful urban patterns facilitate cohesiveness in the communities. The impact of pandemic (COVID19) has altered the cohesion at some level. Therefore, practicing social distancing has remained a notional norm. It will be very important to understand how people have adhered to social distancing norms in the organic settlements uplifting the community. The paper is divided into four stages. A theoretical premise is nurtured to understand prerequisite of space today which is the integration of threshold and cohesion. Threshold is defined as "separation" while, cohesion is defined as "Connection", resulting into the formation of Cohesive threshold spaces. Such spaces involve the interpersonal dynamics and sense of connection among people. The idea is to decode cohesive threshold spaces, their character, types and significance. It also intends to focus on types of spatial delimiters pulsating from micro, mesa to macro level. The spatial delimiter is then supported to understand the spatial context of spaces in detail. It also examines neighborhood of Dharavi as communal anchoring node. Cognitive perception is a method adopted possibly to record, map and analyze such spaces. The paper evaluates a case of Kumbharwada model in Dharavi to understand impacts of pandemic. It also highlights how community participation in Dharavi has emerged as a concrete prototype for social distancing and contact tracing to curtail the impacts at a large scale. Lastly, the magnitude of cohesive threshold spaces is understood by virtue of community participation to combat such pandemic today and in future accelerating successful model.
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Are green walls of Colombo meaningfully green? the sincerity of vegetated building facades and their contribution to environmental sustainability
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) De Silva, BC; Perera, N; Denipitiya, N; Dayaratne, R
The number of people who are affected by urbanization has radically increased. However, the economic boom over the past decades has escalated potential environmental problems among other solutions, environmentalists have proposed vertical greening. Vertical greening refers to a structure that allows vegetation to grow on the vertical surface of a building. With other sustainability-oriented strategies, vertical greening is thought to help fight current environmental issues, as well as current health issues. It may prevent the cities from being unbearable during locked downs which impacts human’s mental health due to social distancing measures. Green walls are an option for cities for people to engage with Nature. Known for their pleasantness to the senses and earthy qualities, they boost human health and improve air quality. Plants can thrive on walls, making it a popular trend globally and also welcomes antidotes to stress and isolation. Plants which contain day-to-day supply of nutrition and anti-germ characters, could be incorporated with green walls. However, more knowledge is needed to reap the potential benefits from it. With the demand for sustainability, green walls are increasingly appearing on clients’ requirement lists but mostly as a visual and aesthetic representation of sustainability. This sensibility of clients, what architects provide, and what is eventually built, questions whether the true representation of vertical garden delivers the intended benefits. Are these walls environmentally-friendly or are they just a trend that takes advantage of the concern for the environment and human fondness to Nature? However, there is a gap between what is actually proposed and what is practiced in Colombo in green walls. Certain measurements have been used to assess the above gap. During observation periods, for an example, number of utility bills were gone through and thermometer had been used frequently. Moreover, structured interviews were taken place with list of prewritten questions to learn about these gaps. The study identified The gaps, such as no adaptation to local environment, and what each individual needs to improve to curtail the shortcomings.
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Adaptations to the covid-19 pandemic: open spaces in residential neighbourhoods of Dhaka
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Rahman, AA; Islam, ZH; Dayaratne, R
The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill, affecting every aspect of human life. The impact can be felt more vehemently in cities, where economic activities have slowed down and people are forced to be confined within the four walls of their homes because of prolonged lockdown. The urban open spaces are naturally being underused as they are perceived to be potential hotspots for the outbreak, while the need for open spaces within the houses and the buildings are immensely felt. To cope with this need, people seem to be using the available open spaces within their houses and their buildings like verandahs, roofs, parking spaces etc. In a highly dense and heavily built up city like Dhaka, where open spaces in both house and community scale is already scarce, it is imperative to see how people are fulfilling their needs for open spaces during this pandemic. Dhaka having both planned and organically grown residential neighbourhoods, provides a chance to study whether these two are coping with the pandemic situation similarly or differently. The objective of this paper is to explore the use and the modification of open spaces within the housing units and the buildings during the pandemic. This paper focuses on how the need for the use of open spaces has changed and how people are fulfilling their space-based interactions. To develop a comprehensive understanding, this paper focuses on both formal and organically grown neighbourhoods of Dhaka city. Due to the potential risk inherent in physical survey, primary data was collected through online questionnaires and semi structured interviews.
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The interventions of portable ict devices on socio-spatial practices in Colombo urban public spaces: virtual socializing towards social distancing during covid -19 pandemic
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Silva, KCD; Ilangaratne, A; Senadheera, J; Dayaratne, R
Urban public spaces form an integral part of city life and its built environment, facilitating space for formal and informal social gatherings, relaxation and entertainment. In this digital era, the traditional use of public space as a place of social gathering has been gradually modified due to the development of portable Information & Communication Technology (ICT) devices. Its ability to retain constant connection via digital media has resulted in the creation of virtual public spaces. On the other hand, the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic has changed the initial use of urban public spaces due to physical distancing and other strict guidelines, and has compromised many public interactions we were accustomed to. This study aims to explore the shift in social behaviour and formation of private realms due to the usage of portable ICT devices in public spaces and the physical elements which facilitate these shifts. Further it aims to understand design considerations that could be used to facilitate social distancing practices. In exploring the research question, an ethnographical method has been adopted. The chosen urban public spaces were studied through observational survey, activity mapping, photographic survey, and field interviews. The findings show a distinctive intervention of these devices with social behaviour in public spaces. It shows the importance of addressing the urban public space in terms of these marked shifts based on its typology and functional characteristics. Further, some of the above findings throw light on the future prospects of urban public spaces which are currently in limbo due to social distancing practices. This paper suggests that ICT devices can become a useful tool in maintaining an active public interaction and social inclusion in countering the adversities on society brought upon by drastic preventive regulatory actions in the face of an unprecedented event as experienced presently.
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Rhythm analysis in times of physical distancing: Sri Lankan case studies on covid-19 in brussels
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Wandeler, KD; Mendis, RM; Nanayakkara, SM; Vasudevan, M; Dayaratne, R
This paper presents case studies of Sri Lankans who were confined in lockdown in the Brussels Capital Region (BCR) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It does so through research that Sri Lankan students produced within the framework of an explorative study conducted from March until May 2020. The study revolved around an exercise in rhythmanalysis as part of a course on Urban Anthropology at the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture. It involved 73 Master students as well as the respective respondents that each of them had selected among their countrymen residing in the BCR. The assignment was to document how the COVID-19 pandemic evolved in Belgium and their home country, to observe how that progression affected residents’ behaviour and public life in both contexts, and to record what usage the respondents made of social media to stay in touch with people back home. The first section of this paper reviews Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis theory and various ways in which it has been interpreted over the years. The second section describes how the theory was applied within the said Urban Anthropology course, how the methodology of the 2020 assignment was adapted to the COVID-19 context and what contextual information emerged from the amalgamated research outputs. The next three sections specify how the three Sri Lankan students handled the assignment. One reiterates the progression of the COVID-19 situation in the BCR and Colombo based on media reports and the students’ participant observation in public life. The next presents the students’ observations ‘as seen from the window’ i.e., from the limited perspective they had left on neighbourly life amidst lockdown. A third one details observations derived in collaboration with their respective respondents from recording and examining the respondent’s online behaviour over 72 hours. The last section of the paper assesses how the Sri Lankan observations mesh with overall outcomes of the study and what the research revealed about the level of adaptation that voluntary migrants achieved amidst confinement in the BCR. As part of their final reflections, the authors appraise the added value of the exercise as a whole and of rhytmanalysis as a research tool in particular.
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Do the surrounding conditions of jogging tracks create stress in joggers? a case study of jogging tracks in suburban Sri Lanka
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Fernando, C; Dayaratne, R
Urbanization has brought half of the world’s population into urban areas while transforming the way people live, work, travel and building network. Similarly, the urbanization made a significant impact on lifestyles in urban and sub-urban Sri Lanka. However, urbanization often brings stress to people's lives, and jogging has been found as one way of avoiding such busy environments. In Sri Lanka, there are few dedicated tracks for jogging in urban and suburban areas. Unfortunately, the absence of proper design and surroundings of a jogging track may result in increased stress of its users, i.e., joggers. This study examines the impact of design conditions and landscape features of jogging tracks in Sri Lanka towards the level of stress of joggers. We selected two jogging tracks in the capital of Sri Lanka, Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte as our case study. Further, we used online surveys and face to face interviews with joggers as data collection methods. We triangulated our data with experts’ opinions that are gathered from park managers and landscape architects in government authorities. Mixed methods are used to analyse the collected data. Our results identify six main factors that increase the level of stress of joggers, namely, temperature, seeing amphibians in the surrounding, excessive traffic noise, vehicle smoke, dust particles in the atmosphere, and level differences of the jogging tracks. This research further presents a set of recommendations for maintaining, restructuring, and developing jogging tracks in Sri Lanka in order to reduce the stress of joggers.
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Tourists’ experiences and references of cultural heritage landscapes: a study of Galle world heritage site
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Madhushani, IADM; Chandrasekara, DP; Dayaratne, R
Cultural Heritage Landscapes resulting from the conservation of the unique physical characteristics and the place identity, have become major tourist attractions all over the world. The consumption of a landscape by visitors alter and disturb the significant features of such landscapes. The objective of this paper is to present the importance of cultural heritage landscapes in experiencing places by tourists. The paper is based on the Galle world heritage site, Sri Lanka; a landscape initially consumed by tourists due to its natural components which creates a product of tourist consumption landscape at present. The theoretical frameworks of information processing theory, tourists’ authenticity & gaze and performativity were applied to comprehend the process of experiencing and the altering the cultural landscape in reference to tourist-host social relationships. A study was conducted through the investigation, of experiences based on questionnaires with a sample of randomly selected foreign and local tourists (30 nos. each), who have visited Galle in 2019. Data was classified under three variables; tangible, social intangible and symbolic intangible components. The analysis reveals that cultural heritage components create positive attributes in destination branding and on visitor satisfaction. The tourist activity creates both positive and negative attributes in altering the cultural heritage characteristics and the pattern of living of the community. This paper argues for the host communities to be engaged in place making while preserving the identity of the cultural heritage for the development of tourism and destination branding.
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impact of green spaces on workplace stress; insights from software companies in Sri Lanka
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2020-12-15) Galappaththi, S; Hettiarachchi, A; Dayaratne, R
Workplace stress is a common issue that can cause a range of debilitating health outcomes including depression, anxiety, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal problems, or alcohol dependence of workers affecting their satisfaction, work efficiency and productivity. It was hypothetically assumed that exposure to green spaces can reduce stress levels leading to workplace satisfaction due to the restorative effects of nature. The literature establishes with a strong base of evidence that the regular touch with nature is required to reduce workplace stress while maintaining a balanced mental health. Exposure to nature as a strategy to reduce stress levels at the workplace was tested by this preliminary field investigation with reference to three software companies in Sri Lanka. The cases (C1, C2, C3) were selected based on the existing levels of greenery; C1, C2, and C3 with high density, moderate density, and low density of greenery, respectively. An online questionnaire survey was adopted with three volunteer groups of employees (n = 60, 20 per case) to test the level of nature-contact, perceived stress, and satisfaction of employees. Aligning with literature the study revealed a direct association between the density of greenery vs stress levels and satisfaction of employees. Respondents of C1 were found to be less stressed (88%) and more satisfied (80%) with their job compared to the other two cases while respondents of C3 were the most stressed (57%) and least satisfied (71%). 94% out of the total respondents, perceived that exposure to green spaces increased perceived work efficiency via maintaining mental health (27% agreed, 67% strongly agreed). Considering the revealed positive impacts on mental health, the study recommends increasing the level of exposure to nature in order to boost satisfaction and work efficiency of employees in software companies of Sri Lanka.

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