When it comes to the City of Colombo, Chartered Architect, Urban Designer, Partner, Design Plan Associates (DPA), Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), Archt. Dr Jeeva Wijesundara, believes that there are good signs for 2022 and beyond, to develop the qualitative aspects of city environs and to improve its peoples’ quality of life. ArchWorld speaks to Archt. Wijesundara who believes that the challenges that we face are actually opportunities to create something really great.
Looking back at the past of our capital city, Colombo, its planning history has its roots related to British Town Planning systems. Conceptually, it is to preserve the existing rustic spirit of the town and to make Colombo a Garden City. In the later developments, the focus is largely centered on its physical development. Therefore, in some instances, its environmental, social, economic or other qualitative issues that were correspondingly important in developing a comprehensive plan, were not sufficiently addressed.
“Consequently, the city of Colombo experienced a critical set of issues in its past. Some are associated with inadequate infrastructure facilities. Others are urban environmental issues; pollution of noise, air and water, traffic congestion, urban sprawl and inappropriate land use distribution within the city, which directly affects the city’s sustainability. However, the City of Colombo Development Plan of 1999, and its later amendments aim at timely and necessary improvements on zoning and planning regulations with the aim of creating a sustainable city. These interventions primarily act as mechanisms for development control within the city of Colombo. Today, the city needs comprehensive urban design approaches, looking at its overall development potential as a South Asian Metro city. The relevant authorities have now understood the necessity of the professional input of planning, urban design and architecture in the current development proposals. These are good signs for 2022 and beyond, to develop the qualitative aspects of city environs and to improve its peoples’ quality of life,” explained Archt. Wijesundara
Outstanding opportunity
She added that the recent crisis of COVID-19 entails an outstanding opportunity for designers, planners as well as policy makers to consider transformative actions in the direction of creating cities and neighborhoods that are more resilient and sustainable. It has enabled us to rethink our approach to community living, public places, workplaces, educational and religious edifices and even personalized housing in order to withstand pandemic situations.
“This approach can be designated as successful when it is able to adapt, strengthen the functioning of urban systems, consume resources sustainably and deliver a comprehensive economic base enabling a ‘good quality of life’ for all citizens. This is simply what we call as ‘long lasting’, or sustainable. It must be essentially environmentally bearable and environment friendly. For this objective, sustainable design concepts and construction strategies are to be employed. The built environment has to be designed as an integrated part of the existing environment. That is the ‘magic’ -creative design thinking & innovative building technology for a sustainable built environment.”
Archt. Wijesundara added that staying indoors is not a typical behavior pattern for Sri Lankans. We as people from tropical climates are used to living with nature. We don’t use much heating or cooling against climatic variations like people in some other countries do. During past stay-home periods, we all realized the importance of that ‘connectivity’. It is for example the ability to open your window to the greenery outside, see the sky and that sense of touch. This all made a big difference in the minds of people. It gave us peace of mind. That made a remarkable difference in both our physical and mental comfort. People even in the most developed parts of the world suffered due to long stays indoors during lockdown. Outdoor living is a need. That adds quality to life.
Natural environment
“It was very unfortunate that humans were ‘imprisoned’ by nature for nearly two years. There is only a certain limit the natural environment can take when it comes to the activities and the abuse of humans. There comes a time when the natural environment defends itself or fights back. This is very important in shaping and reshaping the built environment. As much as possible try and limit the harm you do to nature,” said Archt. Wijesundara.
Human-to-urban space relationship is complex and interdependent. It explores the physical as well as the psychological correlation of the human being to the living environment at its different scales. As she explained earlier, during this pandemic we realized the human need of socializing, outdoor entertainment, recreation, and interaction. They are significant in enhancing the quality of life for urban people. During these covid19 times, when designing places for people, we must take the utmost care especially at gatherings. Social distancing needs to be maintained and personal hygiene must be given priority. ‘Maintainability’ of public places is fundamental in terms of cleaning and maintaining.
“Our transportation network is currently at a very low level. We have not yet addressed the city’s need of convenient public transportation. We spend a lot of our time travelling to the workplace. Time and facility issues have a negative impact when it comes to our efficiency. In that sense, work from home is a favorable solution. It has many positive effects in terms of time, work efficiency, convenience, energy efficiency, traffic, and pollution.
But the system must be on par with technology. In some developing countries, suburban housing is an alternative. You do not have to reside in the city. You can stay in a suburban area with better spaciousness, work from home in full capacity and travel to office maybe two days a week, for example. But of course, this does not include all professions and occupations. In Canada and the US too most of the offices are still functioning in the work from home mode. This is not new to us now.
We have practiced this for about two years. But as I said, it depends on the type of service provided. For an Architect, this is not 100% practical in quality assurance specially during construction. The construction industry is quite different. It’s an ‘onsite’ business,” pointed out Archt. Wijesundara
Living standards
She further explained that creating quality places for people uplifts the people’s quality of life and the living standards. The living standards of the people indicates the development of a country. This must be taken into consideration by the design and planning related professionals as well as policy making state bodies.
Policies in the national context must be given serious thought, because they play a vital role in improving the conditions of current urban living and in future development planning proposals/ the physical development of the built environment. In order to achieve the objectives of 2022 and beyond, all aspects of inclusive governance need to be considered - managerial dimension, establishment of policies, their proper implementation and continuous monitoring is essential. Devoted leadership and engaged citizens will be real blessing in this process.
“This pandemic situation is a natural disaster, same as tsunamis, earthquakes, fires and floods. History tells us that there have been similar pandemics such as the Spanish flu and SAAS. Disasters come and go. But we humans remain. Not the strongest of us but the most adaptive. Even with this pandemic situation we have now started living the ‘new normal’. We as humans must withstand and overcome this catastrophic situation. We need to find new ways to function and live. We must think positively. Functioning with less capacity would obviously make the profits go down, but still functioning without idling makes a difference. Finding ways to overcome the worst situation is what is needed. But these situations will not remain forever. They will change. We need to be ready for that change,” explained Archt. Wijesundara.
Travel quality
Archt. Wijesundara concluded by saying that she thinks that in 2022, we should have a vision. We need to improve the travel quality and travel behavior of people. This will be very important for young and old alike. In our country the traffic and the quality of public transportation has become serious issues. Compared to many developed countries the standard of our public transportation is poor. It needs improvement.
“Public transportation is very important when it comes to life in a city like Colombo. Private vehicles entering the city should be minimized and the use of public transit is to be optimized. I feel that public transportation must be given high priority in the development proposals of 2022 and beyond.
Recently developed proposals of Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Kelaniya Valley Railway are good signs. Along with this development there needs to be walk-ability and related pedestrian facilities. Sustainable urban design principles of cityscape should be adopted, such as shady streets, paved and safe pedestrian pathways and public transit-oriented developments. There are many lessons to learn from other societies throughout the world, societies where the quality of travel is high.
The whole system has to be studied comprehensively for the benefit of all citizens. It will lift both the quality of the city environs and the quality of life. If we can do this, then it will provide so many advantages - in terms of energy efficiency, time efficiency, traffic congestion, urban sprawl, environmental pollution, city character and quality living.”
Guidelines for best practices in 2022 - City
Considering the city in its micro scale, the city core areas and different types of other developments including residential neighborhood developments are to be given priority. Most obviously, urban land use, as the heart of extremely important decisions of allocating functions within the city is important.
The urban land use development determines the appropriate land use patterns to achieve the most competitive support to the city and its people. To perform diverse activities in different locations, people must travel between them. Thus, land use and transport are intimately connected. This connectivity should be thoroughly considered when it comes to the successful functioning of the city’s activities. Hence transportation (public transport and pedestrian facilities) needs to be given top priority.
Designation for different activities including residential use based on these land use applications will have to be in line with that connectivity and the movement system in the city. This also affects the resources devoted to commercial establishments, open spaces, community facilities and proximate transport. Therefore, for in any type of development, the appropriate location is primarily important. In other words, the designation of sites for different activities must be performed with utmost care.
Guidelines for best practices in 2022 - personal housing
Mostly in our country context, housing can be identified as planned, subdivisions or piecemeal developments. Apart from the planning and building regulations, strict design guidelines are to be initiated as a national policy for any type of housing to maintain the place character.
Master plans can be worked out for different urban localities to control and regulate the development under the authority of the relevant local government. Strict design guidelines for different urbanities in local contexts are to be formulated to enhance and maintain a character unique to the area. This does not mean that the creative façade designs are discouraged.
Maintaining a unified quality or character in the urban locality must be the intension. This needs a strong urban design input in overall planning, so that the personal house designs can also be integrated into the bigger picture, fitting to the context.
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