by Varuna de Silva
Chartered Architect
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Architecture
University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
Chartered Architect
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Architecture
University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
This is an excerpt from the introduction to the paper.
Introduction
Housing in the context of Environmental Science can be defined as “The placing of the individual family within an environment which is ideal for their well being and to which they creatively respond.” For every individual alone or as part of a family unit, a house, be it a hut or or a cave it is more than shelter. It is a place in which to fulfil the fundamental purpose of human society and live a content life. It provides a necessary fundamental sense of security. It also gives a sense of belonging to a certain community. This emphasises the fact that only satisfying quantitative requirements of a house does not create the necessary physical environment which makes the user most comfortable and it is necessary to fulfil qualitative aspects too. As far as qualitative aspects of housing are concerned, a satisfactory residential environment is expressed in terms of both physiological needs such as comfort, protection from elements etc. and psychological needs such as community and family life. This is a universal phenomenon and Sri Lanka is no exception......... Download the full paper