Abstract:
This paper examines how place emerges by ‘performing place’ in
natural landscape locations, in order to discover relationships between
natural place and cultural place. By examining the issue in new
developments in the case of Kandy city in Sri Lanka, the research discusses
how traditional built forms are shaped by natural features/ locations and
performances and sustains vernacular architecture within this
relationship. The study considers the role of historical, mythical, and
religious narratives in the creation (‘or production’) of place, focusing on
the ‘performance’ of the place through the regular re-enactment of ritual
activities and events that ‘take place’ in Kandy. It is seen that, ‘place’ is
unfolded within a ‘cultural drama’; a ‘performative model’, which
narrates in relation to natural landscape. It takes the position that people
are actors, and by their daily / weekly / annual historical, religious and
mythical ritual processes ‘performing place’ emerges. Cultural place is the
theater created by this performance and people re-experience the place
and its dynamic nature in the natural – cultural setting: both visibly and
invisibly. In Kandy, the vernacular architecture, emerging within this
process in material culture, reflecting sense of self, landscape and cultural
performance is unique. The experience of natural place in Kandy is an
‘intimate inside’, reflected in performances, dwelling patterns, built forms
and in the cultural place.
