Personalization of the dwelling : a study of the transformation of the generic form, with special reference to the re-forming of houses for internally displaced communities affected by flood in Baddegama, Galle District

Abstract

Over many thousands of years, human societies have tackled the basic problem of providing shelter in a wide variety of ways, adapting to the natural environment and making use of the materials it provides for the construction (or adaptation) of sheltered space. The most basic motive for building has been to provide shelter for a defined Kinship group, often within a clearly marked, protected area. The shelter always had two purposes. That is qualitative aspect and the quantitative aspects. Privacy, Identity,9 Territoriality and Sense of belongingness are considered as some of those qualitative aspects of a shelter. The meaning of shelter varies from, the single housing unit to a settlement which is the manifestation of self to community level. As a result of social hierarchies, cultural beliefs, and economic and political aspirations, such communities being segregated and that has resulted in so many settlement patterns within one community itself. The settlement patterns exist, as a result of socio-spatial organizations which co-existed within a- society, and to establish one's reaction to a specific place, which one refers to. When someone become place or location specific, he has to be in a two-way conversation with the particular place, in order to make his roots to that place. Human, place relationships carry opportunities as well as threats to its inhabitants, which some may be avoidable or unavoidable. Opportunities, no doom, may result for the upliftment of a society, But threats would come in the guise of natural and man-made disasters, which cause numerous harm to the society. Most instances "displacement" being the ultimate result of a disaster, it uproots people from their original places, with severe physical, social and psychological losses, which may reflect throughout many generations. This losses, the very communal base of a society and make them placeless. Even though, these threats does occur changes, long term or short term, in the society, but the society has to exist some how, somewhere in the world. Also life has to be continued. To keep this process in motion people "re-built" and "re-place" themselves either in the same locality or in a nearby area. By doing so, people generally "re-align" themselves for the continuous process of place making. Nevertheless, the act of dwelling may happen, based on social, cultural, political and economical aspects, in varying degrees. To understand these varying aspects, one has to have a deeper understanding and experience regarding certain characteristics of a particular society. This study thus, unravels the spatial experiences of the individuals and in communal level, in their re-making or re-forming of places, after being suddenly displaced by different disaster situations.