As practitioners in the Architectural profession, they are endowed in this noble art of creativity, carving-out and implanting their designs of ‘built structures’ and gently nestling these designs into the natural environment where none existed before. ArchWorld speaks to Chartered Architect, Archt. Rehan Tilakaratna who says that Architecture is an enormous task, due to the permanency of the built forms in the environment - it is a task that has to be handled with care and crafted with much effort, consideration and humility at all times.
Tillakaratne points out that Urban design is the process of instilling ‘discipline amongst chaos’. Urban Design sets out to plan, design and shapes the physical features of cities, towns and villages within a ‘macro-environment’ dealing with the larger scale of groups of buildings. Urban Design is of streets and public spaces, whole neighbourhoods and districts, and entire cities, intending to make urban areas functional, attractive, and sustainable. It is engineered for the mutually beneficial interaction of human beings within the built-up environments and for creating a harmonious relationship between these and other stakeholders; un-built natural forms vs built-up form.
vibrant entity
“The city of Colombo, like other cities in our country has no identity. They are faceless and have no soul or spirit. They are congested, disorderly, haphazard and polluted, filled with belching automobiles, noise, visual pollution, haphazard and un-regulated developments. It is where chaos and the ‘law of the jungle’ rule. Our urban centre like the city of Colombo must be envisioned as clean, green, yet a vibrant entity with a distinctively identifiable image and a charm of its own.
It must be a city that thrives, that pulsates and resonates for its inhabitants and its visitors. In this context, our cities are not those which our citizenry can be proud of,” explained Tilakaratna.
Tillakaratne raises the question - who is responsible for this chaos, the ‘mess’ we find ourselves in? The ‘fault-line’ traverses our collective psyche, although we would be most tempted to point-out the policymakers, the politicians, the administrators, the ordinary citizens and even us professionals. Great Cities throughout the world as Paris, Venice, Geneva, Zurich, Melbourn and Chicago to name a few are cities that are adjacent to water bodies. The City of Colombo with the Beira Lake is no exception. Today this water body is neglected and has become polluted, and unregulated, our proverbial ‘backyard’.
Tillakaratne has a warning! Before it is too late, we must now ‘take-back’ our cities with a sense of urgency, for our next generation of inhabitants, he says.
“Therefore as Urban Designers/Architects, we must be the catalysts for an ‘earth-shaking paradigm shift’, a move towards creating a city which will be the envy of all the cities, its citizenry and its visitors. An absolute oasis! I envision the day our cities of the future move away from ‘motorized accessibility’, within the city centre or ‘core’, where practically possible, and embrace non-motorized transport, ensuring a network of dedicated pedestrian and bicycle tracks. Alternative ‘water-based’ transportation via the ‘Beira Lake’ basin and the numerous water bodies, which like our five fingers, are different from each other, spreading out from the City of Colombo linking its suburbs and onwards throughout the island,” pointed out Tilakaratna.
Tillakaratne further added that in his opinion a comprehensive ‘Traffic Management’ plan has to be implemented across all motorable roadways across all wards of the City. Motorized accessibility should be regulated with ‘permits’, adopting a concept of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) roadway/lane usages at specific times, on these specific days, on specific roads. Moving vehicles along our roadway, without ‘grid-lock’ must be the priority.
‘Connectivity’ between the city centre and the hinterland must be conceived as a robust dependable and efficient, public transportation system. A network consisting of ‘Peak-Time’ high frequency Electrified Railway systems, Light Rail Transit systems (LTR’s) and MASS Rapid Transit systems (MRT’s) that can enter the city regularly must be considered. These ‘systems’ have to ‘bring-in’ and ‘take-out’ commuters to the city centre, as ‘looped- circular transportation network’ to and fro, as a cost-effective, reliable, safe and hygienic alternative.
Tillakaratne further explained that at the city edge, ‘Refuge zones’ with ‘Park and Ride’ facilities must be created encircling immediately outside of the city limits in the hinterland, as ‘multi-modal’ hubs, which will link the outer cities, towns and villages by transportation systems consisting of a network of electrified ‘Inter City-Regional’ trains and shuttle bus systems.
Tillakaratne stated that over the past years, our dazzling island of Sri Lanka, with many UNESCO heritage sites, beaches, wildlife parks and hill country resorts was voted the best holiday destinations waiting to be discovered and celebrated, identified as a global tourism ‘hotspot’, a ‘must-see’ tourist destination, winning accolades from various travel guides and travel magazines including Lonely Planet, Condé Nast and National Geographic Traveller.
global patronage
Politicians, Administrators together with real estate moguls, developers and investors, both local and international, in anticipation of an inflow of Foreign Direct Investments and a vast influx of ‘global patronage’ envisioned the City of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s most populous region, home to almost 6 million people as the next Asian ‘gateway city’, a ‘Megapolis’, like Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and the likes, adopting the Asian developing nations model/concept.
“The Western Region Megapolis Planning Project was initiated, earmarked as a $40 billion redevelopment of the country’s capital and its surrounding districts to be realized over 15 years and comprises 150 smaller projects. Under this project, a trade hub, a high-rise central business district including at least 60 new towers, a science and technology city, and a rapid transit system aimed at reducing traffic congestion were some of its grandiose aspirations. Forging forward multi-functional, multi-national developments, vast inventories of hotel guest rooms of international brands, big and better commercial hubs were gearing-up to encash a windfall. However this was not to be,” added Tilakaratna
He further elaborated that the City of Colombo seems to be grappling with the notion of ‘Urban sprawl’ or the rapid expansion of the geographic extent, whereby we are gradually increasing the physical and environmental footprint of our metropolitan area, as partly in need to accommodate a rising urban population and also for the sake of rapid development.
Conversely, a ‘Green City’ concept is an ‘investment in nature’, where nature matters in our new urban world and is a paradigm for a resilient city, one which is robust, strong and spirited. So where is the balance?
We desperately seek clean air, green spaces, lower densification, and many other markers that exemplify a healthy city. The creation of a green city in the future will become a greater challenge as cities develop deeper indiscriminately into perhaps an irreversible state of chaos.
“A planned green city must be with a wide “breadth of view” and one that has a vision, clearly disseminated as a top-down methodology. All the stakeholders must come together in a singular effort - one where cooperation across the bureaucracy and political divides must surely be the way forward,” said Tilakaratna
For the green city concept to be effective, the decentralization of Colombo must be considered in the vision for the city, together with an effective public transportation network, creating linkages which will ease the burden of mass vehicular movements to and fro. Currently, most public sector administrative functions have been moved to areas that are purpose-built in the suburbs. Hospitality functions are predominantly concentrated at the core, however, small-scale enterprises are now mushrooming in various suburbs, by converting homes and smaller buildings into mixed-usages. These are not purpose-built, but un-planned, and un-regulated, mostly random, without parking, sanitation and other infrastructure amenities which exploit and disrespect the surrounding community.
pedestrianized green city
He stated that in his opinion the City of Colombo must in future development as a pedestrianized green city. The city has a large demand for parking throughout the day and therefore, as reiterated, a robust public transportation system holds the key to all these systematic ailments the city faces. Haphazard construction on our roadways, driving during school hours and peak-hours create numerous traffic snarls and holds the city ransom with unreasonable traffic congestion. The adverse results are unproductive time, air and noise pollution and road rage.
Currently, the public car parking within the city core and outer area of the City of Colombo is not managed well. Park and Ride concepts are non-existent. An integrated on-street parking policy, related to traffic and mobility management must be the priority, where the public-at-large can pay money in exchange for the right to park a vehicle in a particular place for a limited amount of time, safely without having to worry about parking violations. Presently the smart-parking solutions adopted in the City of Colombo operated through purchasing parking tickets at the pay-point machine is a challenge, due to numerous reasons, the least of which is having exact change for the parking ticket.
Curb-side parking with dedicated meters per/car along roadways is a very low-tech simplified solution, adopted in many Western countries for optimum efficiency. However, embracing technology, other viable solutions also to be considered when possible are, High volume, multi-story parking garage or parking buildings which house automated (car) parking system (APS) is a viable option in a selected refuge area throughout the city. Certain parking systems provides parking for cars on multiple levels stacked vertically to maximize the number of parking spaces while minimizing land usage.
Also mobile devices as in-Vehicle Parking Meter (IVPM) (also known as in-vehicle personal meter, in-car parking meter, or personal parking meter) integrated with Banking Institution or Mobile Hand-phone services providers, as a hand-held electronic device similar to the size of a pocket calculator can be used, where drivers would display the device with ‘parking credit’ in their car windows either as a parking permit or as proof of parking payment.
“The spirit of the City of Colombo, if robust and vibrant, will be alive both night and day catering to the aspirations of its citizenry. The pulse of any vibrant city has to always throb - a city which does not sleep for all the right reasons and not those which steal its life force and its soul. When people are at ease, they can go about their commercial activity at night, without congestion and traffic snarls. The City must be able to cater to people’s needs and requirements any time of the day or night but must be safe, clean and well-managed. The City of Colombo must aspire to be the ‘Lion of South Asia’, said Tilakaratna.
The architecture of Sri Lanka displays a rich variety of forms and styles which has progressively evolved with a history over the eras. The Ancient Architecture to the colonial periods, cities and townships have flourished and are well recorded in the annals of global history.
The magnificent edifices of the bye-gone era of ancient monastic complexes, the pleasure garden to ancient cities are few examples of the ‘Golden-era’ of architecture.
“The post-colonial, post-independence era saw a breed of well-versed, internationally exposed breed of Sri Lankan architects at the helm, who were at the forefront of the evolution of an indigenous Tropical Modernism. This movement witnessed a contemporary, modern philosophy respecting the tropical garden/courtyard architecture. Post-2000, to where we are today, Post-Modern architecture is viewed with sustainability being the new ethos. The mimicry of the Western architectural concepts, springing-up in the City of Colombo and its suburbs is a worrying trend which becomes an impediment to the robust evolution of our architecture. However, the resilience of our architectural heritage and our professional practitioners will prevail as we march forward embracing modern technology and grapple with new ideas and concepts,” said Tilakaratna.
