Seating culture with Sri Lankan landscape

Abstract

Our seating culture acts as one of the factors that helps to establish the Sri Lankan identity. Cultural, religious, social, political and geographical features entwined with the life style of the people have made a lasting impression on the seating culture of Sri Lanka. This is not one that was introduced or extracted from the foreign lands, but one that was born and stabilized in this country it self. The first chapter discusses about the day to day life of the people and its relationship to the life style. Further it touches upon the way how power religion and respect at different social levels have molded our seating culture. The second chapter focuses on how, anthropometries and ergonomics have affected the seating culture of Sri Lanka and the physiologically aspect and the materials used for seats. The seating systems and postures are adapted in populated areas and the way these changed according to the rural and urban environmental situations, will be discussed in the third chapter. The fourth chapter discusses the positive and negative aspects observed in the case study areas and the response of people to variations in seating. The most suitable seating for a country like Sri Lanka with different urban situations and different life styles are discussed in the conclusion with the necessary actions and perspectives to make the seating culture of Sri Lanka one of our own again