People's Contribution to URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT THROUGH PLACE MAKING PROCESS A Study With special reference to Housing Environments.

Transcription

1 People's Contribution to URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT THROUGH PLACE MAKING PROCESS A Study With special reference to Housing Environments. A Dissertation presented to the University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka for the M.Sc.(Architecture) Examination 1998 and Part Two of the C.A. Upul Dalpathado. Faculty of Architecture. University of Moratuwa. Sri Lanka. June 1998.

2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere gratitude to each and every person for their involvement to make this dissertation a reality. Dr. L.S.R. Perera, senior lecturer, Department of Architecture for his advise to select the dissertation topic and continuous guidance and advice given throughout the study. Dr. Ranjith Dayaratne, senior lecturer and course coordinator of M.Sc. final year, Dept. of Architecture, who has been a source of inspiration to me providing valuable criticism and patience guidance. Archt. Vidura Sri Nammuni, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Architecture for his advise given at the initial stages of the study. Dr. Waduge and Dr. Emmanuel, Lecturers of Dept. of Architecture for their incisive comments and valuable discussions on the subject. Archt. Kapila Dharmasena, lecturer of Dept. of Architecture for his incisive comments and directing many aspects of the study. Mr. K.D. Fernando, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Town and Country Planning, University of Moratuwa for the many eye opening discussions, for the suggestions, guidance and advice. I wish to express my thanks to all persons who given me valuable comments and discussions in NHDA, Environmental Authority and Urban Development Authority. Manoj de Croos and Dhammika my erstwhile colleagues who wholeheartedly became the source of help, assistance and encouragement which this study originated. I owe my thanks for many contributions made by my friend Dayantha Tissera. I am also greatly indebted to my colleagues Roshini, Lushan, Thamara, Prabath, Lilantha and Priyani for their valuable support in providing me with relevant reference materials. Finally to my parents for this restless support, which was always forthcoming and tolerating all the inconveniences caused.

3 LIST OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION 0.1 Topic Explanation The Problem The Cause 0.2 The Need For The Study 0.3 Scope And Limitations of the Study 0.4 Method of Study CHAPTER ONE - URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 1.1. Introduction to the Urban Environment 1.2. Components of an Urban Environment Natural Environment Built Environment Socio- Economic Environment 1.3. Urban Environmental Management ( UEM ) UEM Makes Space Livable Place 1.4. Policy Frame work for UEM 1.5. Urban Communities and Participation in UEM Need of People's Participation in UEM 1.6. People's Participation in UEM and Place Making Process. CHAPTER TWO - PLACE MAKING IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT Concept of PLACE and it's Constituents Concept of Place Constituents of Place Physical Constituents Psychological Constituents Social constituents 2.2. Urban Environment as a PLACE Need of the Place Making in an Urban Environment 2.4. Significant places, Sense of Place and Placelessness Placemaking 2.6. People's Participation in Place Making Process People's Positive Contribution to the Environment - Making Places People's Negative Contribution to the Environment -PlacelessSpace 2.7. Housing Neighborhoods as Significant Places in the Urban Environment ii

4 CHAPTER THREE - PEOPLE'S CONTRIBUTION OF URBAN MANAGEMENT THROUGH PLACE MAKING PROCESS. ENVIRONMENTAL 3.1. Housing Environment Need of Consideration of Housing Environment Environmental Management through Place Making Process in Housing Environment Managing the Non-physical Environment in Housing (Socio-economic Environment) through Placemaking Process Sociological Environment Psychological factors in Sociological Environment The Family as a Social entity in the Urban Environment The Community Social Life Economic Environment Employment and Income of People Cost of Living and Economic Cost Entreneurship Managing the Physical Environment in Housing through Placemaking Process Natural Environment Space and Resources Environmental Pollution Natural Disasters Built Environment Land Use Pattern Design for the Environment Infrastructure Facilities Building Materials and Construction Technologies Landscaping. 83 CONCLUSION 85 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 87 iii

5 t LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Size or Scale of a urban block Composition or orientation of form Composition of Facades The ratio of built to unbuilt Components of Built Environment People's participation in Urban Environment Management Collaborative Environment Management Window- Genius Loci York Street Colombo Territoriality- Totem poles in front of a house Seasonal event- A prayer at Galle Face Green Colombo City Inappropriate aesthetics appeals monotonous place Placeless Space- Beira lake surrounding Community based housing- Nawakelanipura Variety in dwelling forms Squatter settlement in Colombo Contribution to the environment by high income group People's negative contribution to the environment Housing as a system Components of housing environment Improved settlement foitn The dense housing environment Design for privacy- Majigawatte Transitional space as a barrier Personal identity- Contrast in shaping Lack of Identity Territoriality is deeply rooted man Territoriality - Maligawatte Demarcating territoriality by using physical elements Poor living condition of a family Community interaction Place Lay out plan- Housing units of Maligawatte Near the tap Poverty itself pollute the environment Middle income people rather aware to the environment Well managed urban housing complex in Japan No body's Land, Maligawatte Home operated enterprise- Middle income HOE- low income housing- Keera Kotuwa, Wanathamulla Lay out plan of Nawagampura HOE Diagrammatic presentation of the process of Construction Conserving Canal- Kirulapone Canal, Wellawatte Improper management of canal 61 I IV

6 45. Floods create inhabitable places Discharge of waste into the canal Under a Nuga Tree, a place Conserving tree belt- Kamkarupura Contamination of lands- Wanathamulla Sewerage disposal into the canal Improper management of drains Haphazard Housing development Pollution of visual environment- Maligawatte Recycling of Waste Rains makes inhabitable spaces Unplanned unauthorized housing 73 "'"57. Bandaranayake pura Lay out Wanathamulla- lay out Public and private spaces Personal belonginess of place Soft facades-maligawatte Solid dominating facades- Manning Town 77.' 63. Houses around the central compound Continuity and growth of places Retain the character of the place- Bandaranayakepura Waste as a resource At the well- well interaction Process of community involvement Landscape - Wanathamulla Trees for Recreation Hidden Parking Buffer zone 84 1 V

7 ABSTRACT It can be seen that the urban environments are becoming disordered and meaningless due to lack of Environmental! Management. It is also due to the lack of appropriate regulations for building in urban areas and Man builds more often not to suit his environments but for the personal glory. The people's lack of awareness of the environment is the basic reason of this unmanaged environment. To create an environmental sensitive people, the sense of belonginess of place comes into existence. This study views that people's placemaking process can contribute to the Urban Environmental Management, to achieve a livable place as an ultimate goal. Urban Environmental Management is not only the management of built environment, but also the natural, social and economic environments. The study is engaged in both these components because it seems a single can't be managed without considering others, as all components are intimately tied to each other. The Urban Environmental Management can be done in two ways. By the professionals and the users themselves. It is true that the people are in a better position to do that if the professionals can guide :hem. To see the people's contribution to the urban environmental management in a better way, the best place is their living environment that is housing, rather than concerning their working environments. People make spaces into places. The Urban Environment to be a livable place, therefore Placemaking process plays a great role. Thus the people's participation is essential in the process of Urban Environmental Management. Therefore the study examines the role of Placemaking in urban housing environments from a people's point of view by studying examples, and illustrations using several situations from the existing surroundings in Colombo. The study concludes that for a better UEM people's participation is essential and improving people's sense of belonginess of place leads to better livable environments in the Urban Environment. vi

8 INTRODUCTION

9 INTRODUCTION 0.1. Topic Explanation Over the last few decades Cities and Towns in most countries, the Urban Environments are becoming a terrible condition. It is not unfair to say that today the most urban environments are disordered and meaningless. This has mainly happen due to the Man builds not to suit his environments but for the personal glory. To achieve a better urban environment therefore a proper Management of Urban Environment is necessary. The Urban Environment Management can be done in two ways that is by professional bodies such as Architects, Town planners by the Government and the Local Authorities etc. and the other way is by the users themselves. In most instances it seems that the professionals in Urban Environmental Management have left the human component, which resulted in lot of problems. But the users by themselves are in a better position to manage their environment if the professionals guide them. Therefore it is more important to study the contribution of the people to the UEM. For the purpose of the study, the people's closest environment, the Housing Environment has taken into the consideration. Man not only needs to establish orderly arrangements of parts of his life, but he must also attach to the environment he lives in meaningfully. Emotional attachments thus formed towards environment can be explained by the phenomenon place. And the presence of significant places, it can be stressed, is necessary in any environment, in making them useful and people-friendly. Making significant places is understood as an essential process which promote the emotional attachments of people to any environment, it will be a small individual entity such as a house or a large commercial entity such as a town. Thus the town as well as a home should essentially posses the ability to initiate belonginess of people.

10 Man's physical environment is a major part of his life. This part that is the environment, is heading essentially towards being entirely urban. These urban environments are going to be 'home' for an enormous number of people in the future. Therefore it is important that these environments are developed so that Man might identify himself with it and thereby fulfill a basic need of belonging. Thus the environmental quality should be managed in such places in order that Man might identify himself with that place. Making a place while managing the environment is therefore an essential process to presence a great psychological needs of man, because the man's emotional attachment to the environments, the urban environment is integrated with the entire structure of human existence. To keep the environment effective, the environmental management is essential. So people's contribution to the urban environmental management through their place making process is considerable task as well as the designers involvement in a particular time in the design. Therefore this study is to establish that the environmental management is very important in the urban situation to create emotional attachment to the place with the contribution of the people's participation to the place making process The Problem Today the urban environment is in a terrible condition. Very few of our physical environments have the potential to capture the emotional attachment of the users to them. The user does not feel a sense of belonging to them and nor do they posses a familiarity that could lead to such attachments The Cause The above occurs when environments are created and managed by the designers alone keeping out people, the user, from this process. Designers, Policy makers, and planners must encourage the participation of the users in the environmental

11 management and exploit the potential this process has. This does not seem to happen often enough. The main reason seems to be that the potential it has, is not clearly identified The Need For The Study As we know it, the biggest step in the ascent of man is the change from nomadic to village life, because this was the first step towards urbanity, as we know it now. From this step forward he has toiled to make his environment a better place to live in. One person or a group of people built settlements in the past for a particular purpose. They were generally planned-settlements. As these settlements grew larger, the management over physical and non-physical urban environment became less, and decisions on what and how to build were taken by individuals and used to achieve personal glory. This causes lack of place in the entire urban environment. This trend for building self-expressive triumphs has caused unpleasant human habitations. Man identifies the urban environments by their physical and non-physical aspects according to what is presented to him. This identification of place by its characteristics helps in differentiating the urban from the non-urban environments. Urban environment is a complex phenomenon. It is not only a feature of physical environment, but it is also an essential ingredient of the urban way of life. Inspite of the fact that urban environment has grown to an incomprehensible level, man has embraced it willingly, and allowed to grow unheeded it would grow to the limits of the earth, overwhelming its creators. Therefore there is a current need that the Urban Environment in any place is understood and made to grow in a controlled manner. Thus in order to understand and manage the urban environment in a succesful manner people's participation is very essential to do it successful manner. The Housing situation, as the smallest entity of the urban environment, therefore taken as the most closest environment to the people to see its contribution to the urban environmental management through place making process.

12 Thus the main objective of this study is to establish how people have managed their urban environment to create a place for living or how people's contribution to make their houses livable through place making process. This has become a need that is to understand to use them for the benefit of man, and to integrate them into the new trends in order that we may build better habitations, and do a better urban environmental management Scope and Limitations of the Study. Urban environments are vast and varied. There are many aspects qualitative and quantitative, physical and non-physical, which contribute to make these urban environments. These environments should be such that they are suitable for human habitations and livable. Therefore placemaking is fundamental in any urban environment to make them livable. The scope of this dissertation is to study how people contribute in managing or maintaining the urban environment to achieve a suitable livable environment. The aspect 'placemaking' is taken as one of the factors that is relevant in managing suitable habitations. Urban Environmental Management itself could be studied under a wide spectrum of areas such as built environment, natural environment and socio-economic environment etc.; and it again can be divided into working environments, living environments etc. For the purpose of the study limitations curtails only to the urban living environments that is urban housing environments Method of Study in this dissertation the first chapter endeavors to illustrate the importance of Urban Environmental Management in a city along with the participation of the community in the above aspect. And in the second chapter it discusses about the placemaking process, which relate to the Urban Environmental Management, which contribute to

13 make a livable environment with participation of the people. In the third chapter the consideration is made on the housing environment as a curtail from the urban environment and how people contribute to the UEM through place making process by illustrating some examples in existing surroundings. Keeping in mind the limitations of the study a reasonable number of examples which emphasizes the people's participation in UEM through Place making Process would be discussed. Finally the Strategies, Approaches and Concepts will be discussed in order to achieve a better UEM through Placemaking Process and to making the environment livable.