Usage of contemporary public bathing spaces and community behaviour: a case study of Gunasinghepura Housing Scheme, Colombo

Abstract

Historically rooted in collective cultural practices, public bathing in dense urban settlements has evolved into a complex social phenomenon, intersecting with issues of space, identity, and community interaction. Most of the public bathing spaces including Gunasinghepura were built in the nineteen hundreds during British period. This study investigates community behaviour associated with contemporary public bathing spaces, with reference to public bathing spaces in Gunasinghepura housing scheme in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The research was developed with an extensive literature review on public bathing places and community usage. Through the literature review, location, spatial layout, materials, and other physical elements were selected as physical factors that affect the usage of public bathing spaces. Types of users with reference to gender and age, time of usage of the facility, and users’ residential locations were selected as the parameters to clarify user behaviour types. Spatial and physical data of public bathing spaces were collected via onsite measuring, observations and photographic recordings. User behaviour and spatial usage data were collected via observations, semi-structured interviews and photographic and video recordings. A spatial analysis and a user behaviour analysis were adopted to identify the usage of public bathing spaces and user behaviour to examine how these spaces are occupied, navigated, and transformed by daily communal activities. Findings reveal that public bathing spaces continue to serve not only as functional spaces for hygiene but also as informal arenas for social exchange and community cohesion, where users adopted diverse behaviours. The study concludes that public bathing spaces play an important role in creating social interactions in specific contemporary urban contexts and emphasizes the need for preserving and developing them with a careful design framework.