An Empirical approach to study streetscapes of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Streets have been providing a theme for many studies, symposiums and planning and design studios all over the world for last few decades. Research interests on streets cut across many aspects including the physical elements, visual qualities, activity patterns and inhabitants behaviour. These works, with no debate, will contribute to bring about better quality, usable, livable and functional environments in our cities. Still, the accomplishment of better streets necessitates following a study of the existing situations in them, as experienced by their inhabitants. Literature in the areas of planning, urban design and architecture reveal that research perceived environmental qualities and the physical attributes that cause them are not rare, but wider applications of their finding in urban planning and design practices is limited due to a variety of reasons. One of the most felt reason is that the attributes discussed in these works are highly abstract in nature and therefore, demand some extra efforts for them to be developed into specific units of application. Another reason is the subjective approaches and speculative methods adopted in most of those studies, for which their outcomes can be contested under alternative social and geographic settings. Hence, there is a need for more empirically tested criteria to study environmental characteristics and robust methods evolved for such. Establishing criteria for streetscape studies that can be generalized to any socio economic context needs a full scale research with a wider participation of different users, planning & design related professionals, and a variety of other stakeholders. Yet, in order to achieve cities with livable, sustainable and pleasing characteristics, there must be some initiatives towards that. On this background, this research aims to initiate an empirical method to study the streetscapes based on Alan Jacob’s (1996) seminal work ‘Great Streets’. on Great Streets has been a recommended reading in many architecture and urban design schools around the world for many years by now. This study has premised on Alan Jacob s list of requirements for a great street, because of the comprehensive nature of the list compared to the alternatives available. The analysis was supported by the also by the other relevant literature, widely used in this area of study