重塑东方花园城市：科伦坡当代城市发展分析

作为斯里兰卡商业和政治活动中心城市,科伦坡正经历前所未有的变化,城市一方面是显示出建设雄心和全球化目标,另一方面也希望当代的发展能够延续以往的花园城市规划理念。本文分为3部分内容,第一部分根据科伦坡城市的演变过程,介绍了从霍华德田园城市的乌托邦思想而来的最初的花园城市规划以及经过多次政权交替和历次规划而延续转变的过程;第二部分阐述了2009年之后科伦坡在新的发展战略重点引导下进入新的发展时期;第三部分剖析了科伦坡当代的建设发展为实现具有包容性、竞争力和凝聚力的花园城市所带来的挑战。     

Spatial and temporal changes of hydrogeochemistry in ancient tank cascade systems in Sri Lanka: evidence for a constructed wetland

The tank cascade system (TCS) in Sri Lanka is one of the most advanced water‐conveyance mechanisms among the medieval hydraulic civilizations in the world. In this study, temporal and spatial variations of the hydrogeochemistry of a small cascade system were investigated. A cascade system at Malagane in the Deduru Oya basin, located in the north‐west of Sri Lanka, was selected. Measurements of pH, electrical conductivity (EC), nitrates, nitrites, phosphates, sulphates, alkalinity, chloride, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe and Mn were carried out fortnightly throughout the year, to understand the nutrient dynamics in TCSs. Most parameters show a decreasing trend when water passes through ‘Thaulla’, which is located in the upper peripheral region of the tank. However, phosphate behaves differently, probably due to human activities that dominated along the tank bund. The results suggested that Thaulla, which abounds with numerous hydrophytes, acts as an active ‘constructed wetland’ and efficiently removes pollutants in order to sustain the system. The water quality monitoring described in this paper provides evidence for the wetland function of Thaulla in the ancient irrigation hydraulic system in Sri Lanka.     

Construction linkages in a developing economy: the case of Sri Lanka

The importance of the construction industry stems from its strong linkages with other sectors of the economy. Despite the extensive research on input–output analysis and sectoral linkages of construction, a gap is found in the literature dealing with developing economies. The objective is to study the construction linkages in a developing economy using input–output tables compiled since the 1970s in Sri Lanka. Results show that the share of construction in gross national product and national income is lower in Sri Lanka than in developed countries. In Sri Lanka, the share of manufacturing in GNP declined while the share of services has increased with economic development. The backward linkage indicator ranges between 0.364 and 0.457 during the period of 1970–2000 while output multiplier ranges between 1.496 and 1.641 indicating the ‘pull effect’. The ‘push effect’ is found to be very insignificant. An aggregated sectoral analysis reveals high dependence of construction on manufacturing followed by services. The trend analysis shows an increasing dependence of construction on the services sector. The direct and total inputs from manufacturing and services have increased over time.     

Head Banging: Engineering Neutrality + the Parametric Ceiling

Through the work of Unit 15 at the Architectural Association in London, Francesca Hughes and Noam Andrews have been exploring the limits of parametric systems. Here Francesca Hughes questions whether parametricism has now hit a ‘developmental ceiling’. What are the full cultural implications of the promised instantaneity of completed components in architectural production? Where does the ‘strange engineered neutrality’ of ‘optimisation’ take us? Is there a real danger that an ambivalence to context is returning us to the tabula rasa of Modernism?. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Italian Architecture from the Inside

Fulvio Irace focuses on the internal tendencies of Italian contemporary architecture. In his identification of national characteristics, he recognises the part that a consolidated approach to Modernism has played. Looking backwards as well as forwards, Modernism in Italy, in all its manifestations, has been simultaneously concerned with ‘the exaltation of the new’ and ‘the obsession with memory’. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Selenium and iodine in soil, rice and drinking water in relation to endemic goitre in Sri Lanka

Endemic goitre has been reported in the climatic wet zone of south-west Sri Lanka for the past 50 years, but rarely occurs in the northern dry zone. Despite government-sponsored iodised salt programmes, endemic goitre is still prevalent. In recent years, it has been suggested that Se deficiency may be an important factor in the onset of goitre and other iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). Prior to the present study, environmental concentrations of Se in Sri Lanka and the possible relationships between Se deficiency and endemic goitre had not been investigated. During the present study, chemical differences in the environment (measured in soil, rice and drinking water) and the Se-status of the human population (demonstrated by hair samples from women) were determined for 15 villages. The villages were characterised by low (< 10%), moderate (10-25%) and high (> 25%) goitre incidence (NIDD, MIDD and HIDD, respectively). Results show that concentrations of soil total Se and iodine are highest in the HIDD villages, however, the soil clay and organic matter content appear to inhibit the bioavailability of these elements. Concentrations of iodine in rice are low (< or = 58 ng/g) and rice does not provide a significant source of iodine in the Sri Lankan diet. High concentrations of iodine (up to 84 microg/l) in drinking water in the dry zone may, in part, explain why goitre is uncommon in this area. This study has shown for the first time that significant proportions of the Sri Lankan female population may be Se deficient (24, 24 and 40% in the NIDD, MIDD and HIDD villages, respectively). Although Se deficiency is not restricted to areas where goitre is prevalent, a combination of iodine and Se deficiency could be involved in the pathogenesis of goitre in Sri Lanka. The distribution of red rice cultivation in Sri Lanka is coincident with the HIDD villages. Varieties of red rice grown in other countries contain anthocyanins and procyanidins, compounds which in other foodstuffs are known goitrogens. The potential goitrogenic properties of red rice in Sri Lanka are presently unknown and require further investigation. It is likely that the incidence of goitre in Sri Lanka is multi-factorial, involving trace element deficiencies and other factors such as poor nutrition and goitrogens in foodstuffs.     

Valuing the Cultural Landscapes Past and Present: Tea Plantations in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The study focuses on tea plantation cultural landscapes in Sri Lanka and its historical formation, present issues and future considerations. [Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon before 1972. At present, the country uses Sri Lanka for all related documents.] According to the research, the tea estate is identified as the main building unit of tea heritage. This paper reveals the historical formation of tea heritage and its contribution to the existing landscape. This study focuses on the Nuwara Eliya region, as it is the main area for tea cultivation. The present condition of tea plantations in Sri Lanka is derived through a survey conducted in Labookellie estate, Blue Field estate and Pedro estate. Past and the present circumstances are examined through analysis of literature, topographical maps and site observations, while interviews with outsiders (foreign visitors) were used to strengthen the thoughts on tea plantation landscapes. This paper reveals basic concepts such as agriculture as a heritage, active agriculture and value added through future conservation and development procedure. The paper first discusses the formation of tea estates and governing factors. Second, the paper explains estate settlement as the main building block of tea heritage with researched case studies and explains existing landscape values. Third, the paper explains future thoughts on the tea plantation landscapes in Sri Lanka. Opinions of foreign visitors to the plantation are considered as a valuable contribution to the conclusions. The paper stresses the importance of understanding tea estate cultural landscapes and their heritage value for future planning and the conservation priorities in Sri Lanka.     

The environmental chemistry of rainwater in Sri Lanka

Rainwater samples collected from different parts of Sri Lanka have been analyzed for their chemical constituents. It was observed that except for minor occurrences, “acid‐rain” is still not prevalent in Sri Lanka. Based on the chemical composition, the rainwater of Sri Lanka has been classified chemically into eight different types, the most dominant being Ca/Mg—HCO3, Ca—Cl and non‐dominant cation—HCO3 types. The wet zone of Sri Lanka, particularly the areas around the central highlands, form a special zone in that a number of chemically different rainwater types can be found in these regions. In contrast, the dry zone of Sri Lanka receives four distinct types of rainwater and conform to geographical zones.     

Geochemical provinces and the incidence of dental diseases in Sri Lanka.

A survey carried out on the incidence of dental diseases and the distribution of fluoride in drinking water wells in Sri Lanka shows that 3 areas in particular had abundant fluoride (greater than 2ppm). Dental fluorosis was common in areas with high fluoride content while those areas with very little or no fluoride, such as the central region of Sri Lanka, had a high incidence of dental caries. The intensity of rain fall played a major role in the leaching of fluoride ions from soils and it is perhaps this factor which is responsible for the occurrence of a low fluoride zone in the central part of Sri Lanka. The presence of areas containing high fluoride and hence dental fluorosis coincided with geochemical provinces. In these areas, mineral deposits such as apatite and serpentine and also hot spring regions with exhalations of fluorine are found.     

Kerry Hill Architects

With a practice based in Singapore and an office in Fremantle, Australia, Kerry Hill Architects has committed itself to creating innovative and regionally appropriate architecture and being in the vanguard of what has been considered a pan-Asian tropical Modernism. Hill has emerged as an influential figure in the architectural culture of Southeast Asia, and with a series of impressive awards the practice has produced distinguished resorts and city hotels, schools, recreational facilities and residential projects. According to Hill: ‘The uniqueness of place must be allowed to surface - for architecture involves the actuality of things and speaks to the senses - it cannot rely on image alone.’ Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chemistry of tap water in Sri Lanka‐implications on health

A preliminary survey on the chemical quality of tap water in Sri Lanka has been carried out and has been grouped into three categories depending on the source of the water. It was revealed that in certain parts of Sri Lanka, the tap water does contain excess quantities of lead. The Piper trilinear diagram shows that much of the tap water of Sri Lanka belongs to the Ca#shMg‐HCO₃ type. Low pH values have also been observed in certain areas and could bring out excess dissolved ions into the tap water. In view of the fact, that only a small percentage of the population of Sri Lanka have access to piped water, no serious health hazards due to the poor quality of the tap water have been encountered.     

A comparative input-output analysis of the construction sector in three developing economies of South Asia

Construction is commonly regarded as one of the major industries of an economy that is receiving a significant attention in the developing countries. This paper uses the Asian Development Bank (ADB) input-output database at constant prices for the selected Asian countries, i.e. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal to analyze and compare the performance of the construction sector in these economies. The novelty of this research is the application of multiple linkages methods. First, the standard measures of the backward and forward linkages are used to examine the induced output created by the demand push and supply pull effects of the construction industry. Second, the concept of Hypothetical Extraction Method (HEM) is applied to extract a sector hypothetically from an economic system and then to examine the influence of that extraction on the rest of the economy. The results indicate that the construction sector has a strong backward and weak forward linkages for all the three economies. Furthermore, results reveal that the ‘pull effect’ is very significant in these countries while the ‘push effect is very insignificant. With respect to the identification of the key sectors, the findings of the traditional methods are very different from those of the hypothetical extraction methods.     

Beyond the Flatline

High Post-Modernism with its understanding of the significance of the image anticipated the flattening of culture, first in advertising and the printed media, and more recently online. Sam Jacob of FAT speculates on architecture's relationship with the Internet, ‘a flatland of undifferentiated information’, and how Radical Post-Modernism might be best placed to resist the ubiquity of global culture while reanimating the social and cultural agenda of Modernism and Post-Modernism. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fiat Tagliero Service Station

In 2006, the spotlight has very much been on the Modern Movement, with the major exhibition at the V&A in London - ‘Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1936’. Here, Edward Denison describes how Giuseppe Pettazzi's Fiat Tagliero service station in Asmara in Eritrea, East Africa, epitomised Italy's futuristic ambitions for a new colony. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Terence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research

In 2006, the spotlight has very much been on the Modern Movement, with the major exhibition at the V&A in London - ‘Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1936’. Here, Edward Denison describes how Giuseppe Pettazzi's Fiat Tagliero service station in Asmara in Eritrea, East Africa, epitomised Italy's futuristic ambitions for a new colony. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Creating places through participatory design: psychological techniques to understand people’s conceptions

Place making is fundamental in creating human settlements. It is now understood that wholesome places cannot be created by professionals without the active participation of people who should be able to transform them as their own. Approaches to place making such as the Pattern Language of Christopher Alexander and Supports of Nabeel Hamdi attempted to engage people in the process in a number of ways. Participatory techniques are central to these practices, but there remain a paucity of appropriate techniques that can be adopted in facilitating people to articulate their perceptions useful to create places. This paper examines two psychological techniques; sorting task and location task and their applicability as practiced in a recent housing project implemented in Sri Lanka. The tasks divulged a number of facets of people’s conceptualizations of their settlements; those related to the present setting, the specific places in the existing settlement, those related to the imagined places and finally the desired geographical features of the imagined places. The paper then interprets and discusses how these conceptualizations have been directed towards articulating the spaces in the designed setting so that they could be transformed by the people to become wholesome places. It demonstrates that when the idea of ‘place’ is the focus of participatory practices and by using the techniques described, meaningful places can be effectively created.     

Estimating the environmental suitability of wall materials: preliminary results from Sri Lanka

Despite rapid increases in the building industry's contribution to resource depletion, waste generation and energy consumption, the creation of built environment remains vital to a country's economic development. This makes the building industry a prime candidate for sustainable development. Tools that help estimate the environmental suitability of building products can advance the cause of sustainable development.In this study, we estimate the environmental suitability of five of the most commonly used wall materials in Sri Lanka (brick, cement masonry unit, cabook, rubble AND wattle and daub). An “Environmental Suitability Index” is developed based on three parameters: embodied energy, life-cycle costs and re-usability. The possibility of using similar indices for other materials in Sri Lanka as well as elsewhere are explored.     

Flow of estimating data in Sri Lankan building contractor organizations

When an estimator prices a bill of quantities, s/he collects, generates and assembles data (estimating data) for the purpose of establishing the cost of constructing the project. The data generated could be used by the contractor's subsequent management functions, and the use of estimating data in the contractors' post-tender management worthy of attention. Drawing information from ten case studies of the organization of Sri Lankan building contractors, this paper identifies the contractors': management functions; management tasks; and management groups. It also establishes the flow of estimating data within and between the management functions. These flows highlight the substantial burden of re-work in the post-tender use of data. It is argued that the current format and presentation of estimating data in Sri Lanka are the major causes for such re-work. However, it was found that any revolutionary change to the conventional format would not be welcomed by the industry. Any new proposal should be developed within the limitation of acceptability to conventional practice. The recommendation is that the ‘unit rate’ is broken down to its cost components of material, labour and plant. The breakdown of the unit rate would supply all the necessary data for direct use, thus reducing the re-work. Further research should be addressed to investigate the best format and structure of this breakdown.     

Encounters with the unfamiliar: international planning education

Planning practice and education require consideration of both universal and local norms and methods. It is often firmly embedded in localized issues and practices, yet students need to expand their career horizons and develop more critical, reflective understandings of planning issues in their ‘home’ environment. Internationalized curriculum provides a fertile environment for exploring cross-cultural encounter and reflexive practice using varied planning traditions to situate examples for teaching. The ethical and political implications of working internationally can, however, be masked within the seeming familiarity of shared planning language, concepts and techniques, and the apparent simplicity of comparative frames of reference. Planning is inherently political and contextual, yet the explicit dilemmas of the political and economic setting can, at first, appear hidden during a field project where the apparently universal notions of effective spatial planning are central to the dialogue amongst a diverse student group. Using the example of four joint field/project visits (2010–2014) involving Australian and Sri Lankan planning students in tsunami- and conflict-affected areas of Sri Lanka, this paper draws on student reflections and observations to explore the explicit encounters with ethical dilemmas, political settings, contingent problem-setting and the implications of these for planning practice within the home setting.     

Seismicity and seismotectonics in and around Sri Lanka: a synoptic review

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - Seismicity and seismotectonics in and around Sri Lanka are reviewed, considering the country in both the local and regional contexts. Seismic...