Sustaining The Image Of The City: What Matters More? An Investigation In The City Of Colombo

Abstract

How a city is known to its inhabitants is largely impacted by its physical environment and this knowledge in turn, impacts the behavior and the sustainability of the city. From Kevin Lynch's landmark study in 1960, many studies attempted to explore the 'image of a city' and revealed that the image was a collectively held psycho-spatial phenomenon that evolved with the changes take place in its physical environment. Colombo, the primate city of Sri Lanka has experienced a fast growth both internally and externally over the last four decades. A large number of highrises, modern shopping facilities, etc., have been dramatically changing its physical environment. This study investigated the changes evident in the image of the City of Colombo as a result of ongoing developments through the Findings of a survey, carried out during 2019-20 period. Analyzing the free recalling responses of 150 participants from different age and user categories, the study reveals that there is a shift in the constituents of the image of Colombo, and the emerging high-rise developments and modern facilities do have, but only a marginal impact on this shift. What matters more are the spaces and physical elements experienced at the ground level.