Evolution of the Sri Lankan Shophouse: Reconsidering Shophouses for Urban Areas

Abstract

The very fact that shophouses and their proportions contribute to the growth of the evolution of tropical architecture is a phenomenal feature. Most of the shophouses in Ambalangoda and the down South have been destroyed due to street widening as people cannot afford to live in a house at such an edge of the street due to skyrocketed land prices, people prefer modern buildings with concrete and glass as they believe that owning a traditional dwelling as being a symbol of poverty these days. This fact could be justified as Hasan Fathy discovered the clay arch in Egypt pre-dating the Romans; he discovered that the normal village people instead wanted the glamour associated with materials such as marble and steel. People thought that using the traditional form would put them into the poverty stricken bracket. If these shophouses are completely destroyed, we would not have a gene pool. We need an area in which these shophouses thrive, posterity would be understood. Thus there is continuity from the past to the present. Although there are rules in the breach to protect these traditional buildings some of them are on the verge of being demolished. Although the shophouses have been` demolished there are sights of evolution of it into the contemporary world as these shophouses yield a sustainable way of building town dwellings with relation to the urban fabric.