CONCEPTS-SRI LANKA -2020

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Sustainable Living - "Thought of, but couldn't do much"

Talks from 2007 for Sustainable Environments

“Lifestyle development has to be sustainable and environment friendly, and is of critical importance and urgent as well,” stated Rukshan Widyalankara, President of the SLIA, going on to add that the design community had a large part to play in arresting the progress of environmental deterioration.

A Sustainable Construction

Seventy percent use of recyclable materials in a building

“We have used almost 70 per cent of recycled building materials, traditional clay apart from limited concrete usage on essential points. Timber, door frames, windows and most of the furniture are made from recycled materials, saving the limited resources we have on this planet,” Maulie explained.
Solid Waste Management

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Project-Bamboo Cafe Monaragala-Published in SLIA Magazine 2008 July Volume


PRK Jayasene/Sampath Jayasekere
M.Sc. Year 11
Faculty of Architecture
University of Moratuwa
Sri Lanka
Project time duration 1 month
Requirement
Dining area for 20 people at any given time
Space for the displaying food
Cooking facilities
Outside verandah with sitting area
Washing area
Toilets

Design
The structure and more appliances and elements in the design are made out of bamboo in various shapes and lengths. Lamp shades stools worktops and even door panels are such.Careful detailing is improved to use bamboo in various compositions with special thought given to fix details and methods.
This is done while not compromising on the distinct of the quality of bamboo and its surface textures. Hence every attempt is made to expose bamboo in its pure, natural form.The structure exudes openness around the spaces; expect for a few cubicles for the service areas such as toilet and kitchen.

Those areas too are designed with air gaps on the top to facilitate unobstructed air flow. Monaragala has an arid hot climate and ample air movement through space is most welcome.The entire structure is raised above ground. These allows for minimum intervention on ground water floor and other vegetation and in addition, keeps away the creepy crawlies abundant in the area, from entering the cafe's interior.

The roof, also made of bamboo has a slight slope to allow rainwater to drain off effectively.The service areas are the only areas lined with cement and they are built to prevent prolonged moisture from coming in to direct contact with bamboo.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Sustainable Living- Living Yourself

Sustainable living is the process of being less dependent on irreversible natural resources. Rather it can be explained as living as a part of the natural process than making the nature a part of the human process.

Nature is everything in this physical world and the natural process makes the people and all the creatures living on this earth, healthy and a safe. Our anatomy is also derived from the nature with the evolution of the activity, environmental changes and so on. But today we see human mind is quite confident to overcome the natural barriers with technology. But in the same time the power is generated for such is with very toxic ways similar to consuming fuel which emits a huge bunch of green house gases which destroys the balance of the natural process. Directly and in directly this affects the well being of all the living creatures and it make instant and long-term consequences, because the anotomy is not in an evolusion but in a revolution.

Today after the industrial revolution western part of the world has reached the top in technology. Therefore their economy is well dependent on the industrial processes. though this is the truth, today they are very aware and sensitive to the environmental changes. The results seems irreversible today.

The truth is that the world is already polluted. There are very less virgin places left. Further people should understand by now that the consequences are coming very soon today as the tolerance level of the nature on human activities has reached its maximum. This is a very dangerous situation for the well being of the earth from the next millisecond.

Though there was an another G8 summit inviting India and the China as external parties to it couldn’t take a proper challenging decision on emission of green house gases and on other pollutants from their own countries. This is because no country was brave enough to change its trend of the economy which produces toxic gases to atmosphere.

Yes, it is a great challenge to convince people for a greater scarification to save the earth. But without the people who are the activist and the visionary leaders of the virtual world that the humans have already created, it is impossible to save the real world as it is now though it is polluted.

So everyone today is having great responsibilities towards a better world in the future years. The emission of the green house gases should be avoided as much as possible and reuse of the materials to be promoted. These strategies should be reflected in every move that the man would make.

There is a responsibility for all the professionals engaged in all fields to think creatively and move forward for a healthy and a safe world. Though the actions that we could make are less and small the effect of such can be out of your imagination.

Everyone can start contributing to this movement, which is for them. Though the method is simple one should always keep in mind that whatever you do to understand the natural process that much they will get benefitted and all the actions which is supporting the natural process can make the world a better place from tomorrow’s first sunlight.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

RECYCLING OF TRACING PAPERS from architects offices

Archi_Bag

FROM HISTORY


http://images.google.lk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lakehouse.lk/Mihintalava/images/art-02-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lakehouse.lk/Mihintalava/art-02.htm&h=376&w=307&sz=71&hl=en&start=57&um=1&tbnid=psXm8DLF8AuD-M:&tbnh=122&tbnw=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtraditional%2Bsri%2Blanka%2Barchitecture%26start%3D54%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

BRIEF GARDEN

GROW YOUR OWN HOUSE


A concept by Laki Senanayake.
Tyre foundations.. and so many innovative designs.
Search on web for Laki Senanayake

Flyovers and Urban Landscape - ABSTRACT FOR SLAAS 2008-By Suresh, E.A.T.

Introduction
Today with the development there is a huge demand for making better cityscapes which functions well. Functioning of the city is not merely the traffic on roads, but it means lot to the functioning of the urban landscape where every activity is taking place. Eventually with the development the number of vehicles added to the existing road network is getting more and more and traffic has become a huge problem in the cities with the growing population and the activities.
It is vital to solve the traffic in a proper way as well as to create proper spaces for people to live. Here more focus is on the effect of the flyovers towards the urban landscape as a flyover comes merely as a traffic solution.

Hypothesis
When a flyover is placed merely to solve the traffic issues, it is true the vehicles could use it effectively. But when it comes to the place where it stands and it is surrounding, it is just a new structure placed and it can have many effects visually, physically and psychologically to the life under it. Therefore the solution given through a flyover should improve the ground context as well as its own purpose.

Method

The analysis can be performed by photographic studies physical surveys and observations regarding the visual and the physical effects of a flyover but the psychological effect can be understand by analyzing them on a basis created with the selected scholars’ ideas.

Results
It is quite evident that the effects of these anonymous structures in a cityscape is very critical and it creates more and more lost spaces, meaning less spaces which are defective in terms of a better habitation.

Discussion
The analysis will leads to solutions or otherwise to forming of the strategies in terms of the better urban environments

Conclusion
As this is becoming a common scenario in every place where we are going to have them it is always better to design the space where it stands responding to the ground level as well. Such solutions would enhance the functionality of all the layers of the city sensitively.