The problems and prospects of establishing informal economic activities in heritage cities : a study on three historic sites in Sri Lanka

Abstract

When view and experience the historic properties, every one realizes that they dates back to thousands years back. On the other hand by studying the layers as the historical monuments, one can observe the cultural changes occurred in each time period. Due to rapid urbanization these historical sites have been occupied by various categories of people.(Low income, middle income.) Then the population of the historic quarter was increased and deterioration of the historical monument also increased. Mean while history lovers introduced the preservation methods to conserve valuable historical quarters. According to this preservation method, passive conservation caused creating dead cities and active conservation gave the permission to including the living functions. Most of the people prefer the active conservation than passive conservation. These historical quarters do not cater to modern needs and demands. With the increasing demands. and needs in day to day life, money become the major factor governing the human life style. Hence the city became commercialized and people started formal and informal economic activities to earn money. Thus, it introduced commercialized facade to the built environment and this was considered as positive developing phenomena in the world. The occupants have done various changes, modifications, and adaptations to the built environment in these cities to conduct their commercial activities and as a result social and spatial conflicts arose. As a result people lost the historical architectural character in the heritage cities and it was understood the importance of taking immediate action, as situation would become more critical in the future. To solve these critical problems the influence made by the informal economic activities is greater with small-scale self-employment, temporary spaces and minimizing the damages to the natural and built environment. It is found if the original design was flexible it is possible to prevent the problems occurred by the informal economic activities to heritage cities. Thus, it is a great responsibility of the designer to think deeply about the present trends as well as the economic activities to adopt new design criteria for heritage cities in the future which would help both activities to function without a conflict.