Abstract:
Although highly populated districts like Colombo, suffer from decrement of
open public spaces, there are many unused areas within the city which has
not considered for its full potential. It’s observed that most of them are
generated due to traffic related issues. The attention given to revitalize
them is questionable. Therefore the study aims to identify the possibilities of
traffic related urban residual spaces being reclaimed for public use. The
study will explore most suitable reclaiming possibilities in selected urban
residual spaces. Usage qualities, spatial qualities of existing residual spaces
and revitalization possibilities were tested in this study. Data collection was
done via questionnaires, interviews and systematic observations. Four cases
were selected with variation in its physical layouts and locations in order to
represent the traffic related urban residual spaces in Colombo.
The study reveals spatial and usage qualities of traffic related residual
spaces which vary, mainly due to location type and size of the site; people
feel insecure in residual spaces due to vehicular movement and that feeling
could be mitigated by physical separations and strategies. Lack of
accessibility affects the users to be limited in to a particular category based
on gender and age. With reducing the size of the residual space, the reclaim
possibility is being changed. Due to traffic movement, most of traffic related
spaces has higher visibility, defined site boundaries and it’s a potential for
reclaiming. Lack of management and control is the main reasons behind the
residual symptoms. Although the traffic related residual spaces have
residual symptoms, respondents believed that there is a possibility to
reclaiming those spaces for public use. Every residual space has unique
appropriation /intervention by users. By evaluating these appropriations it’s
possible to select most suitable reclaiming possibility for residual space. Well
organized public-private partnerships will help to evade residual symptoms
and allow better management and control of reclaimed public spaces
Citation:
Weththasinghe, A,, & Wijesundara, J., (2016). Reclaiming traffic influenced urban residual spaces for the public: special reference to Colombo. In J. Wijesundara, & R. Dayaratne,(Eds.). Proceedings of the International Conference on Cities, People and Places ICCPP 2016. (pp. 198-225). Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa.