6 Mixed-Development This medium height, mixed-use building is devised as an ideal-typical urban
model, exploring energy efficiency, contextual viability, and alternative material and labour relations for the city, while responding to a cultural programme impinged on a functional mix of residential and commercial uses.
Spatially, multiple volumes have been composed within an interplay of four vertical building blocks, out of which one contains public circulation and amenities organised around a six-storey-high atrium space, which in turn is conceptualised as a vertical extension of the narrow street outside. The social spaces at lower levels open out to an urban courtyard in the rear, while a ‘perforated’ brick envelope generates a strategic dialogue with the street in terms of being pervious and impervious as and when required by the internal cultural programme. The double-level residential units with mezzanine decks are located in the top-most floor wrapped by gable-shaped roof forms, which internally heightens the domestic feel of the apartments while externally scaling down the building form to suit the predominantly residential use and feel of the street.
Tectonically, the project investigates a probable equilibrium between the
industry- and craft-organised construction practices as a means of economising the production process as well as restructuring the future technological base of an urbanising city. In such light, the structural steel skeleton, corrugated steel façade cladding, the renewable internal lining/partitioning panels manufactured locally using rice paddy straw (Durra board), etc., are all supplied and erected via industrially-organised processes and networks. On the other hand, brick masonry, carpentry work, cement casting and a plethora of steel-welded ancillary components—such as handrails, stairs, balcony uprights, fenestrations, shading devices, washroom partitions, door handles, etc.—are pursued as opportunities to bring in craft to the city. Subsequently, a combination of the industry- and craft-based labour—supported by a corresponding mix of capital and labour-intensive processes—has been used and trained during the building process, thereby evaluating an optimal socio-technical base for urban constructions in a transitional economy.
These spatial and technical ambitions of the building design are well complemented by a robust environmental response in both form-making and mechanical efficiency, as reflected in its Platinum-rated LEED certification, the
56 FUTURARC
first of its kind for a mixed-development project in Sri Lanka. For example, the building has naturally-ventilated public areas with air circulated by mechanical fans; a staggered building form with projected tops shading the levels below; reduced use of glazing in the façade with strategically-placed windows providing natural light and cross ventilation to all office spaces if desired; a rear courtyard providing an ecological and social refuge; a brick thermal mass at street level to absorb heat (no glass or cladding at pedestrian level, or concrete to avoid heat islands); vertical fins and turned windows to cut off western light; planting to shade glazing; balconies and maintenance catwalks to provide additional shading for the façade; and the integration of mechanical solutions such as solar-powered electricity, rainwater harvesting, grey water recycling and sewage treatment.
Collectively, the objective here has been to explore an urban building proposition, which consolidates its type, tectonics and scholarly values on a coherent organisation of spaces, strategic use of resources and an efficient application of environmental control, thereby targeting a new ‘tradition’ of city building to resist the commonplace, exploitative and culturally meaningless forms of development propagating in the urbanising, transitional economies.
PROJECT DATA Project Name Mixed-Development Location
Colombo, Sri Lanka Completion Date 2021 Site Area
1,645 square metres (66 P) Gross Floor Area 5,490 square metres Building Height Six storeys Client/Owner
Case Development (Pvt) Ltd Architecture Firm Robust Architecture Workshop
Principal Architects
Milinda Pathiraja; Ganga Ratnayake; Kolitha Perera Main Contractor ICDL
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer Co-Energi (Pvt) Ltd
Civil & Structural Engineer Ranmal Fernando Associates Images/Photo Kolitha Perera
6 Multiple volumes have been composed within four vertical building blocks 7 Double-level residential units with mezzanine decks wrapped by gable- shaped roof forms
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