An Examination of the manifestation of Islamic culture in the built environment : case of Kathankudy, Batticalo

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the reflections of Islamic culture in the built environment of Kathankudy City Area of Batticaloa District. Culture of people strongly influences the living environment and the way ft is created, organized and transformed. Accordingly, a place has culture. This understanding is extremely important for town planners and urban designers to contribute to such processes of building and rebuilding of cultural communities. This research is an attempt to make a closer observation of how an Islamic community in the case study area has created its living environment which very strongly reflects the Islamic culture. In order to carry out the study, four major segments of the built environment are explored such as Settlement Pattern, Street Pattern, Design of House and Landmarks. The findings of the research show that these four segments very clearly bring out the manifestation of Islamic beliefs, values and traditions in its characteristics. This study has used field observations, informal interviews and photographs ·to investigate the Islamic cultural values and symbols appear in a residential neighborhood in Kathankudy area in Sri Lanka.