Urban retreat

“Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you. Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours.” — Marcus Aurelius

Life is fleeting, so we must make the most of it. There is good stress and bad stress. A little bit of stress is inevitable in life. In fact, a little bit of stress motivates you to reach your goal. However, good stress can become bad for you if you experience too much of it. Of course, all of this depends on that wonderful organ we call our brain. However what if our environment can be designed in such a way that it could help our brains? ArchWorld speaks to Managing Director and Co-Founder of JAN Merkaba Architects, Head of School at the SLIIT School of Architecture, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT), Archt. Aishani Jayasinghe on how we can design cities in such a way where good stress does not become bad, and in doing so make the most of life.

Archt. Aishani Jayasinghe

One of the strategies followed in most of the developed countries is to restrict vehicle movement to main roads and pedestrianize entire parts of cities with trams. We know that traffic congestion can be extremely frustrating. However, Archt. Jayasinghe points out that though Colombo traffic is definitely a problem, it is much better than cities like Beijing, Paris or Mumbai. There you are at a standstill for hours, trapped in your vehicle, boxed in from all four sides with barely 4 to 6 inches between the neighbouring vehicles.

Tropical climate

Experts around the world are now looking at ways to mitigate traffic congestion. The problem in Sri Lanka is that we are in a hot tropical climate. Making people walk long distances dressed in office clothes in this hot and humid weather is not something that is practical, although it works well in colder dryer countries.

“I feel that the Covid19 situation has allowed us to explore different options when it comes to the workplace arrangement. It has provided us with a solution to traffic congestion. It is clear that a lot of the jobs we perform do not require our physical presence. We have managed to run a lot of businesses in distant mode and it has not mattered much. If companies and organizations look at the possibility of a hybrid working model for its employees, it can not only help reduce traffic, carbon emission and the time wasted by the employees on the road, it can also reduce the building area they consume to run the office operation. Maybe have a time-sharing plug-in workstation kind of arrangement for people who turn up for work on their assigned days. This will not just save rent money it will reduce the building floor area requirement of the city on the whole and that in turn will help reduce the carbon footprint of the city as well. If you really think about it, each person has a designated space both at their homes and at the office where one of the spaces is definitely idling at any given time since you can’t be in two places at the same time. Why not try to optimize it as much as possible?,” explained Archt. Jayasinghe

Important experience

A good design will enrich and enhance your life both physically and mentally. This experience is more important than just making a building to live in. That’s where architects will differ. Humans are part of nature. But we think we are not most of the time, laments Archt. Jayasinghe. She puts things in perspective when she asks - why do we go to the beach, to nature reserves and to beautiful natural places to relax and have vacations? Because when you are connected with nature it has an unbelievable power to calm you down, relax your mind and heal your soul.

“Presently, we have trapped ourselves in a concrete jungle working in a mechanized and artificial environment. We need to find a way to reconnect with nature without compromising our present living standards. My professional opinion is that we need to adopt a way to design our homes and cities in a way that the natural environment is incorporated and not completely wiped out in the process of development. It is not something new. Sri Lankans are the ones who have done it the best if you look at our historic cities, architecture and design strategies. Personally, our practice (JAN Merkaba Architects) has started looking at a ‘Live and Let Live’ approach in architectural design sprouting out from biophilic architecture but in a contemporary manner. We think this is the future of architecture.”

They have experimented with several projects and all have turned out to be extremely successful. Their own home is one example where they have allowed existing natural elements to exist as they did and designed around it without compromising any of the luxuries we required.

“Trees are allowed to go through the house both vertically and horizontally. The air and light are allowed to flow through. The birds, chipmunks and the urban wildlife were not ripped off their habitat. The house has embraced nature and nature has reciprocated in the same way. This is on an urban plot 500m away from the main bustling Nugegoda town. But it feels like you are in a relaxing luxury nature resort. Nature buffers most of the negative elements from the city as sound, heat and dust. Before building this house we had to pay a massive electricity bill in our previous rented house and now our power consumption is one-tenth of it without compromising any aspect of lifestyle. The trees going through the house has a cooling effect which reduces the temperature by about 3 to 4 degree than a normal house at any given time.

Greenery and wildlife

In Sri Lanka, we are blessed with a good climate and fertile soil everywhere. We still have lots of urban greenery and urban wildlife that coexist with us in the city. Of course, it’s fast reducing, but this is something you need to consciously nurture and hold on to if you need any sort of relief from the stressful unhappy lives that might eat up the sanity of our society in times to come. Even if it’s not for the trees and animals, at least for yourself people should consider this important.

“This in no way means you need to compromise on your living standards or luxuries. Incorporating nature and facilitating the coexistence of nature with the built environment should be seen as and promoted as a super luxury!!

What more wealth can you want than the addition of mental relaxation and psychological wellbeing to your own homes?! The most privileged should strive for more nature within and around their homes. That the biggest luxury of the 21st century,” pointed out Archt. Jayasinghe

Environmental pollution is a huge factor when it comes to stress. But it is all about the vision, attitude and approach of planners and decision making authorities. Having a vision on what the city eventually needs to be, strategizing policies to direct development in that direction and executing it is what is most important if we need to achieve this.

“I am sure Sri Lanka should be having a record for the most number of development plans a country has had during the last 50 years. All plans that were done were always nipped at the bud before they could be executed and a new one brought in by each of the incoming governments. Of course, trees are important. Greenery is important. Both urban flora and fauna in fact are important. Water and drainage are important. The policymakers should understand that trees give oxygen, clean our polluted air, buffer sound, provide shade, contribute to the psychological wellbeing of city folk and help create a more sustainable and livable environment. These need to be considered when planning cities. The thing is, Sri Lanka has not yet reached the point of no return, so there is a ray of hope. But unfortunately, our approach here is very narrow-minded, so the trend in development is towards what has proved to be disastrous in other cities that took this same approach,” added Archt. Jayasinghe.

Energetic design

Ideally, one should try to minimize energy usage and incorporate as much renewable energy as possible through the design itself, then look for plaster solutions thereafter. This in fact is a professional responsibility of an architect in a way to optimize and reduce energy consumption.

“This in a way is the result of importing foreign architects and designs without understanding what we need here and how our climate and environment can be used for better efficiency. You can’t really blame them since they actually don’t know the micro contextual positives and negatives here and would only see it through their own experience and what they can read up on. But we need to think about the effect of some of the large scale towers on our environment and whether we actually need this to start with. Development, modernizing and globalizing is not about mimicking or becoming like some other city. It’s about using the technology in the best way to more efficiently design and operate this city, providing better opportunities for its people and mitigating as much of the negative effects as possible,” said Archt. Jayasinghe

Doing away with fossil fuel would only be as practical as Sri Lanka trying to switch to organic fertilizer overnight. It’s a good idea to do away with fossil fuel, but there are a lot of connected issues that need to be worked out gradually to reach such a point. Cities can certainly plan and envision this as a long term goal, but must slowly include benefits and policies that direct towards this goal. The best we can do at the moment is to promote better practices and alternatives where the use of fossil fuel can be reduced initially and then maybe with better research and development, look at better solutions.

If this was so simple, it would be done in many parts of the world by now.

“If you need to give people a good and positive vibe you need to retain its identity while modernizing for the future. That is when people develop a bond with the city and take pride in it. We need to design cities for Sri Lankans or for the Sri Lankans we want to be. Which means it should be based on our strengths. It should be relatable but convenient and modern. One of the key strengths we have in Sri Lanka which most other cities lack in different ways is a favourable climate, good environment and fertile soil. We have the luxury of having greenery in our cities. We must capitalize on these strengths.”

Public spaces

Meditation is now a concept that is popular even in the West. It is not uncommon to see groups of people meditating in public spaces. This reduces a lot of the stress. Can’t we create public spaces in Colombo where people can get together and do yoga and meditation?

“As I explained before, nature and greenery are essential for a healthier life. It gives us so much more than the oxygen we breathe. It helps to heal us both mentally and physically. So incorporating trees and greenery in city design is something good and will be very much suitable for the Sri Lankan climate and contextual character. Since the lack of physical exercise and unhealthy lifestyles have become something we need to deal with nowadays even in Colombo, parks and spaces for people to exercise and carry out wellness activities will certainly be welcomed by the people,” she concluded.