From horizontal to vertical: habitus transformation in resettlement of underserved communities to high rise buildings

Abstract

Housing… amongst the many discussions of architecture and sociology, there isn’t a topic more timely and relevant. A main concern in the discussion, the urban poor living in long established underserved settlements, grow and spread by the day. To provide better living conditions and claim valuable real estate, many governments including Sri Lanka commonly adopt resettling the people to high-rise social housing. The success of this solution however is still debated upon. The process of resettlement involves changing the environment of the people from horizontally spread neighborhoods to the vertical towers. Social implications of the process could be observed in many precedents, yet the understanding about the transformation is limited. The study intends to critically look in to the social life of resettlers and see how the transformation happens. The broad concept of social life is narrowed down and analyzed through the concept of “habitus” and related theories. Mihidusenpura social housing in city of Colombo was selected as the case study to explore the transformation over 10 years. The study explores how each aspect is affected with time, what needs to be preserved and in conclusion how habitus can be manipulated using architecture and proper planning to create successful social housing.