An Examination of architectural pollution in historical urban context: an analytical study of architectural appropriateness with special reference to Colombo Fort

Abstract

The Universe and all of its constituents conform to a certain order. Whoever or whatever force may envisage to dispute the said universal order would definitely cause disaster to the whole system and to the whole world. When there is no order, it is disorder. Disorder always leads to pollution. Disorder in the environment means that the environment is polluted. Disorder in music or sound is noise pollution. Disorder in architecture is called architectural pollution. The subsequent colonisation of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) by the Portuguese, the Dtuch and the British, from early years of the Sixteenth Century have left a rich legacy of historic townscape in Colombo. The grandeur of public and commercial architecture of the Fort; the city centre of Colombo, cannot be seen any where else in the Country; the Fort area has a character of its own. The largest part of the townscape, the visual quality of the Fort area is mainly dominated by the building fabric. The building fabric which is present today is the product of the unified whole of buildings built according to the different architectural styles of different periods. Though each type has a character and identity of its own, the unified environment was harmonious and had a distinctive architectural character and townscape value. But most of the buildings which came up in the recent past were design and built regardless to its context or the urban setting resulting the fragmentation to the said harmonious building fabric. Therefore design of infilling as new or replacements should respect the norm or the context, for that to be harmonized into the surrounding. And this Dissertation is based on existing towns, their intrinsic visual qualities and suggests some way and means of maintaining it by suggesting that qualities inherited from the past can become a discipline for the change today, its main theme, is that town's past its present and its future (in terms of the visual qualities and the context) must combine to create a recognizable unit, so that the growth can be seen and felt to be continuous.