We all want to live a good life, don’t we? But don’t people differ from what constitutes a good life? For some, it could be getting married and having children or achieving success at the workplace - for example, in a bank or a business establishment; for others, it could be the accumulation of wealth; for others, it could be pure ambition, for example becoming a great political or military leader while others simply find fulfilment in helping others as a doctor or a spiritual leader.
Whatever our aspirations are, we have to think of the well-being of other citizens and their needs. No matter how noble our aspirations are, we need to understand that others too have to live. ArchWorld speaks to Chartered Architect, Tharinda Dissanayake, on a city built for all.
There needs to be a certain degree of altruism. Otherwise, it will really be chaos.
“We should restructure our entire thinking pattern. Each and every person thinks that ‘driving a vehicle’ is the best option compared to walking. This ultimately results in an increased demand for vehicles and the expansion of roads to cater to the number of vehicles. With the increasing population of a city, do you think that the city roads can accommodate this immense demand for personal vehicles? To accommodate the huge demand for vehicles, there are no other options, but to increase the number of lanes. When there is no way to expand due to private lands, we have to sacrifice our pedestrian pavements,” said Architect Dissanayake.
He points out that the same theory applies to parking spaces. So, do you think that desperately searching for more space to accommodate personal vehicles is sustainable? The answer is actually adopting a very simple approach. And that is increasing and popularising the public transport system.
“Within a city, if you can have an efficient, convenient and powerful public transport system, then you don’t need to worry about parking spaces or the problems mentioned above. If we develop the public transport system, then the number of vehicles on the road will be reduced drastically within the city, making the city more breathable, less noisy and dusty. As I mentioned earlier, we mostly prefer our own vehicles for daily activities. Why is this? The main reason is the unpleasant and unreliable public transport system we have in the country. The time taken to travel even a small distance is unbearable and unreasonable.”
Architect Dissanayake believes we should introduce an efficient and well-integrated transport service. Transport modes such as ferry services should be introduced. Then all services such as rail, ferry, bus and taxi systems shall be integrated with a timetable operating 24x7. Real time location mapping and integration in a single mobile app would create more convenience. A passenger should be able to plan his journey through a single app and then pay one time. Though we have location mapping through Google maps, we should develop it more in the Sri Lankan context. Modern, comfortable vehicles shall be used, where the passengers can travel easily.
For the people who come into the city, we need to introduce efficient Park and Ride systems. We can strategically identify bare lands at the periphery of cities. For that, we can use multi-storeyed fully-automated parking systems which can accommodate more vehicles. The system should be seamless, where a person who parked the vehicle can easily arrange his/her transport mode through the facility and reach his/her destination.
“Introducing more pedestrian/public transport friendly network of roads and utilising bare lands for efficient automated parking systems for Park and Ride services shall therefore be the only ideal solution I see for the overpopulating Colombo,” he added.
He feels that a city’s land use distribution depends on the core activity patterns of the city. “For instance, in the past, our economy was more towards commodity supplies. However, now with the emergence of the Information Era, the trend is more towards the services sector.
The large demand for commodity shops are not there now, and buildings support more for office-based services. Commodities are concentrated into single buildings like shopping malls. I think, the land use pattern will be defined spontaneously as per the demands and trends of the economy and society.
So, the “Survival of the fittest” theory applies here.
A good example I saw is the gradual conversion of Havelock and Bambalapitiya from residential to commercial facilities.
When there is a demand for commercial activities, its impact affects the residential communities, especially the low-income sector. The effect of this demand will eventually lead to houses being converted into commercial entities. This could be seen as the process of gentrification. In my point of view, we should not forcefully plan things, we should follow the natural flows and laws,” he explained.
We are told that the construction of the Roman Baths began in 298 AD and was completed in 306 AD. The structure of the baths was made of bricks, coated in marble and decorated with mosaics and sculptures. The whole complex took up 120,000 square metres and included a gymnasium, a library, and cold, hot and tepid public baths.
“Yes, I like that concept. But will the modern library be a large space with shelves? That’s up to the society and generations to decide. As I stated initially, we should start promoting walking and cycling within cities including public transportation. Walking is a good exercise, especially in the mornings. So, maybe, not only hot baths, if the workplaces can also accommodate shower areas, it will encourage people to cycle to the office, without worrying about sweating. The indoor fitness concept has been around for a while in Sri Lanka, especially Colombo. There are some office employees who visit the gym after work. So, I think if you introduce all in one place, it would create a positive vibe to the City,” added Dissanayake.
He has said before, that we cannot fully control a city’s development. Trying to control the same would create complete chaos in the city’s development. However, a particular development must be thoroughly analysed by considering the history, present and future of the city.
“Since every city has a history of activities, it will help to decide the future of the city together with the global and local economic and social trends. This feasibility study would allow evaluating the pros and cons of the existence of such buildings.
"Generally, investors for large-scale projects would do such feasibility studies. Until the last decade, we didn’t have a national policy for the development of our country. But now, we have the National Physical Plan. Even though I have doubts about it, still it’s a good start to evaluate the proposals of our investors.
This way, we can ‘regulate’ (not control) the development,” said Dissanayake.
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