An Object-bias design practice and its implication to the place: a case study of Nawam Mawatha development

Abstract

Architecture is believed to have such profound effect on the human being on place, on human consciousness and ultimately on the world. It is no great secret that it could make place of heaven, which is life filled and where human heart can sing resonate with them. But on contradictory architecture could also be life suppressing or even cruising not only to our finer sensitive, but to our feeling of freedom thus creating places which have lost it's sense as place. A lot of people complain about modern architecture. They complain about performance aspects of old buildings, but about environment aspects on new ones or too much though on building consciousness. More often than not it could be observed that a greater emphasis is laid on refinement and decorations of building as dramatic architectural objects. In fact the emphasis on place does not exist. This has greatly implicated to the places in the city creating 'loss of sense of place'. Therefore it Inessential to focus our attention to such profound effects, which ill fame the pleasure generated by architecture. Recently an opportunity existed in the city of Colombo for the generation, as an urban place with all good opportunities seems to be failed in achieving a meaningful place. Here the land was available, investors were ready, finance forthcoming ,architects were involving. However it's regrettable to note that what has been constructed at Nawam Mawatha has failed to generate a good "Sense of Place". In other words a fruitful chance of an opportunity of making a meaningful place in the city has been lost. This dissertation attempts to study such a place that has lost its opportunity to make a meaningful place due to object bias design practice