The Contribution of temporary assemblage towards sense of place: a study in Aluth Nuwara sacred area, Sri Lanka

Abstract

‘Sense of place’ is a complex phenomenon emerging from the associations of the inhabitants, the values they attribute on the built environment, and the manner in which they behave in that place. Every built environment gets its form and character out of a composite of both the permanent structures and temporary assemblage. This is mostly evident in living sacred built environments where impermanent and ‘supposed to be non-lasting’ structures assembled for temporal benefits, amidst formally arranged permanent spaces, play a significant role in making them functional places. However, the existence of temporary physical assemblage has throughout been considered as ‘problematic’ in formal institutional planning, in spite of the utility, character and the sense of place that they add to day-to-day lived-in environments. In a context, where the available studies are limited, this paper discusses on these temporary interventions and their impact in experiencing of places, in-order to widen the awareness and in-depth understanding of planners, urban designers and the authorities, who are responsible for the making of sustainable built environments. The paper first presents a review of the existing literature in order to identify a suitable theoretical framework to study the impacts of temporal assemblage on sense of place. Second, employing the conceptual framework profound in ‘Bennett’s six triads’, it presents the study on the mutual transactive relationships between the activity spaces and the behavior patterns of the inhabitants, as observed by the authors, in Aluth Nuwara Devala sacred area in Sri Lanka. It emphasizes the manner in which the temporary assemblage, within the formal built environment, impacts the settings, values and the behaviors of the inhabitants and thereby form the sense of place. The study highlights that temporary assemblage adds sense to places not only by their presence but also by changing people’s behaviors.