Sustaining the Image of the City: What Matters More? An Investigation in the City of Colombo

S N Rathnasekara,J N Munasinghe

doi:10.4038/faruj.v8i1.60

Abstract

How a city is known to its inhabitants is largely impacted by its physical environment and this knowledge in turn, impacts the behavior and the sustainability of the city. From Kevin Lynch’s landmark study in 1960, many studies attempted to explore the ‘image of a city’ and revealed that the image was a collectively held psycho-spatial phenomenon that evolved with the changes take place in its physical environment. Colombo, the primate city of Sri Lanka has experienced a fast growth both internally and externally over the last four decades. A large number of high-rises, modern shopping facilities, etc., have been dramatically changing its physical environment. This study investigated the changes evident in the image of the City of Colombo as a result of ongoing developments through the findings of a survey, carried out during 2019-20 period. Analyzing the free recalling responses of 150 participants from different age and user categories, the study reveals that there is a shift in the constituents of the image of Colombo, and the emerging high-rise developments and modern facilities do have, but only a marginal impact on this shift. What matters more are the spaces and physical elements experienced at the ground level.

Highlights

Cities around the world are in a flux of constant transformation, propelled by the globalizing economies (Ruddock 2009), ever advancing technologies (Atkinson 1998) and ‘urban government strategies’ (Gospodini 2006, p. 311)
The second component is the set of research questions derived out of the said framework in order to examine the impact of the changing built environment: 1. What specific elements in the city of Colombo act as Spatial Reference Points in its Image held by its inhabitants?
This study could reveal that when inhabiting a city, people become more familiar with the spatial elements experienced at the ground level, than the tall structures, much visible, tall and larger they could be

Summary

Introduction

Cities around the world are in a flux of constant transformation, propelled by the globalizing economies (Ruddock 2009), ever advancing technologies (Atkinson 1998) and ‘urban government strategies’ (Gospodini 2006, p. 311). Despite the fact that this shifting image, largely reflective of the apparent transformation in the physical environment has been lightly touched by a few scholarly work (eg: Brohier & Raheem 1984, Perera 2002), no attempts have been made so far to investigate the structural changes that occurred in Colombo’s image and in its inhabitants’ cognition The importance of such investigation is highlighted in two fronts. The psychological connection between the urban environment and its people has been a less researched topic in the field of urban planning and design (Churchman 2001) In this background, this study is an attempt to examine the likely impact of the ongoing physical developments, especially new constructions including high-rise buildings, on the changing pattern of Colombo’s environmental image

Preceding Studies on Environmental Image

The Analysis and Discussion

Findings

Conclusion and Recommendations