Southern Angling Club – A Wetland Conservation center

Liverpool John Moores University, Faculty of Media, Arts and Social Science Liverpool

Project idea

I would like to start with the below statement,

Why can’t we give a value to a place in human minds and make that place protected or conserved? Do we always have to create a place and tell them that its valuable and we have to protect it? Environment can’t be protected that way. People often try to protect what belongs to them. They do not have environment in that list.

For an example, a bunch of village kids will try to protect the place where they play cricket. They won’t let anyone to build something or throw waste at it, only because they find a belongness in that place. That’s their playground even if it’s not proper one. They don’t care.

A space become a place to someone when that someone a find value or a belongness interrelated to him/her in it.

Architecture has that power. It has the power of converting a space to a place.
“Why can’t we change the Formal Function of a place to an interesting one?

Why can’t we convert a Formal wetland center to a Recreational fishing Club which serves the same function so that people will connect to the place?
Do we always need a wetland awareness center to conserve a wetland and does it actually conserve it in the long run?

So, simply the idea is to Design a Recreational fishing club in order to protect a wetland rather than building a usual wetland center.
Sometimes changing the value of a place make a difference.

Recreational fishing clubs for wetland conservation.

Who knows there will be music centers designed in future in order to heal people as hospitals. Music centers for hospitals. Serving the same functionality but much more facinating.Music has that power!

So does Architecture!

Project description

Wetlands are one of the marvelous creations of Mother Nature. But now in present, all around the world wetlands are at risk. With the social and economic development, the lack of sensitivity towards the natural environment leads to the unbalance of the ecological system. wetlands affect the natural balance playing a major role.

The wetland we are looking at is located in Dondra ,Sri Lanka in the southern coastal belt of the country. It is named as the wellammadama Lagoon. According to the present condition the following problems were profoundly noticed, which lead to the fact that the lagoon is in risk of getting degraded,

Local people and villagers don’t see a value of the lagoon since they don’t get benefit out of it.

Earlier the people around were making their livelihood out of the lagoon into some extent by doing fisheries. It seems that by time the lagoon was not used for that purpose since the harvest was not enough for them and also the commercial fishers were gradually more oriented to the harbour and started to follow the traditional and the systematic flow of commercial fishing and trading which is identical to that particular area.

Law impact of education about wetlands and public awareness

The community of local people around the lagoon do not possess enough knowledge regarding the value of wetlands in order to be sensitive enough to protect it. Lack of awareness and

Abandonment of the lagoon.

According to the present condition wellammadama lagoon is a place which is somewhat abundant by the local people and the villagers around it. The clear reason analyzed was that the people are not dependent on the lagoon in anyway and left it to be polluted. Lately the lagoon was left out to be degraded due to the effects of pollution and mainly the increase of population which gradually will be expanding as residential communities towards the lagoon. Currently there are new buildings proposed under the expansion project of the existing school Mahinda Rajapaksa which is already under construction adjacent to the lagoon.

Lack of a responsibility towards protecting the wetland.

Since the lagoon is abundant there is no responsible community to collaborate in conserving the lagoon. The need of connecting people to the lagoon is an immediate and an essential action to be taken in order to bring value to the place.
In order to develop the existing condition of wellammadama the area should be oriented towards the economic, social and cultural enrichments. The general way of a wetland Centre focuses on awareness and educating people in order to conserve it. But through observation it was analyzed that specifically a place like this should be conserve through a different method. A method which incorporates an activity where people will build an unbreakable bond with the lagoon. Through that this specific lagoon will be conserved.

Analyzing these issues regarding the present condition lagoon should be conserve under a proper management. For that it is essential to introduce a new community who value the existence of the lagoon and gain benefit out of it. The idea of creating an activity which is not yet promoted in Sri Lanka emerged directing mainly foreign community in the region promoting local heritage. An activity which will bring back the urge of local tourists to come to Matara while developing foreign attraction at the same time. This way of thinking as country wise and contextual wise, made it stop at a concept of introducing recreational fishing to the lagoon premises through a proper management system. Through this a community will benefit from the lagoon while involve in maintaining the health of the lagoon.

When considering future development plans in Matara, tourism, recreation & leisure is highlighted in the category of potential industries. The fishing club is mainly targeting the community of foreigners in Matara to be involved in recreational fishing. The centre will be promoting different methods of fishing including local methods which may gain foreign attraction. A foreigner may get a membership to the fishing club willingly. The activity may gain an extra income to conserve the wetland through rehabilitation. Sothern province of Sri Lanka is famous iconic recipes such as AMBUL THIYAL .Promoting this, features of recreational fishing may expand in such a way where foreigners can have their harvest as a traditionally Cooked meal in the restaurant connected to the centre and have an authentic Sri Lankan food experience.

How recreational fishing conserves the wetland?

Creating a sense of place to a new community

Introducing a responsible recreational activity in the lagoon may attract local tourists and foreigners. It will contribute to build a community which will be self-realized to protect and preserve the place as their own through recreational fishing. Acting as members of the recreational fishing club the new atmosphere will give them a unique purpose to conserve the lagoon while taking it as their responsibility. Giving value to the lagoon was sensitively looked at in this aspect. By standing at that sensitive point of view, it was realized that, People will only protect something which they feel as their own place, affecting their way of living. Recreational fishing may create that purpose to conserve the wetland. Hence architecture is creating a sense of place out of a dead space. Bringing up communities in order to give life to an abundant environment is an essential part of it.

How does the project deviate from a tradition wetland conservation centre?

In order to develop the existing condition of wellammadama the area should be oriented towards the economic, social and cultural enrichments. The general way of a wetland centre focuses on awareness and educating people in order to conserve it. But through observation it was analysed that specifically a place like this should be conserve through a different method. A method which incorporates an activity where people will build an unbreakable bond with the lagoon. Through that this specific lagoon will be conserved.

Need of introducing a new community

Analysing these issues regarding the present condition lagoon should be conserve under a proper management. For that it is essential to introduce a new community who value the existence of the lagoon and gain benefit out of it. The idea of creating an activity which is not yet promoted in Sri Lanka emerged directing mainly foreign community in the region promoting local heritage. An activity which will bring back the urge of local tourists to come to Matara while developing foreign attraction at the same time. This way of thinking as country wise and contextual wise, made it stop at a concept of introducing recreational fishing to the lagoon premises through a proper management system. Through this a community will benefit from the lagoon while involve in maintaining the health of the lagoon.

Foreign involvement

When considering future development plans in Matara, tourism, recreation & leisure is highlighted in the category of potential industries .The fishing club is mainly targeting the community of foreigners in Matara to be involved in recreational fishing. The centre will be promoting different methods of fishing including local methods which may gain foreign attraction. A foreigner may get a membership to the fishing club willingly. The activity may gain an extra income to conserve the wetland through rehabilitation. Sothern province of Sri lanka is famous iconic recipes such as AMBUL THIYAL .Promoting this, features of recreational fishing may expand in such a way where foreigners can have their harvest as a traditionally Cooked meal in the restaurant connected to the centre and have an authentic Sri Lankan food experience.

Technical information

The Design proposal is consisting of the conceptual drawings which describe and elaborate the shape and the structure of the architectural elements along with the environmental responding methods.

The design is explained with following technical Drawings,

1. Master Plan
2. Upper Level Plan
3 .Lower Level Plan
4. Two Sections Through the Club
5.One Longitudanal Section covering the lake and the human scale interaction.

The overall design is consisting of two designed spaces in the Lagoon location.

1. Boat House - The main Entrance port to the Angling club.
2. Angling Club House - The Recreational fishing Club

Club House contains following spaces,

- Administration shelter
- Club Meeting Room
- Angling educational center
- Restaurant
- fish therapy unit
- watch Tower
-Public Toilets

From the Boat House the visitor may get into a boat and conducted by the boat service he/she will be brought to the Angling Club House Tunnels through the lagoon. It will be a mesmerizing experience to a visitor to take a good view of the wetland environment.
Angling Club House will be designed in two levels with unique shaped architecture consisting above mentioned spaces.


Concept

In the particular angling club, the main quality to be achieved was the internal openness, giving a visitor an enclosure while let them being connected to nature at the same time.
The form of the building was inspired by the tradition bullock cart shelter used by Sri Lankan people in early ages. The essence someone feels inside a bullock cart shelter was sensitively analyzed. The spatial quality which should be achieved was an essence of a shelter that opened to the natural environment with both sides but at the same time provide someone an isolated atmosphere where the visitor may connect with the nature calm and quietly.

Site

Site selection and layout is one of the most important aspects of architectural planning which will affect thermal and energy performance of buildings. Wetlands, both natural and man-made, were the focuses of Sri Lanka's old water-powered human advancement, which flourished in the island for more than 2000 years and shaped the center of its social, financial and social development. A significant number of local people in Sri Lanka are today being perceived as critical, both regionally and all around the world. The wide cluster of common and manmade wetlands in the island has added to a rich biodiversity which possesses a specific ecological balance that should not be negatively affected by any cause.
From all the sites surrounding the wetland the selected site was already cleared for some reason. By considering the minimum impact in wetland environment it was the ideal site to build the design. Avoiding construction on a natural site enriched with habitats of flora and fauna was used as a strategical environmental consideration.

Foundations

When we take a sensitive look at the site it is enriched with a unique biodiversity containing a variety of flora and fauna habitats.AS designer it is essential to look at the aspect of how can we do a minimum impact to the wetland environment and the ecosystem when constructing the building. The strategy used in establishing the foundation of the building is driving towards a method of decreasing the size of the constant footprint touching the ground so that the average impact in a 1 square meter is less. So the whole floor is not touching the ground but rather balanced on piles on the wetland. All the Piles may connect to a beam structure which will bear the load of the where the floors of the buildings will be positioned.

Considering this particular design and the context, the structure is spreading organically in an area and has an asymmetrical floor plan. To carry the complete weights of live loads and dead loads it needs to have a deep foundation. Since the adjacent soil is weak, end bearing pile foundation is ideal in every aspect. As the bamboo structure needs to be renovated from period to period, it needs to have a strong foundation. In this type of foundations the load of the building transmitted to the layer of more solid soil below the weak layer. Avoiding the materials such as steel is for the best in this kind of an environment because it may lead to corrosion since the piles are exposed to brackish water.

Natural Ventilation

Generally, in Sri Lanka architecture, there can be seen environmentally friendly buildings from the earliest times. In ancient periods, they have used different air cooling methods such as using dried buffalo skin fixed above the roof of the building , providing effective ventilation by adding many voids of the building and raising houses on stilts to catch wind of higher velocity.

The placement of windows, doors, ventilation grilles and panels help control to follow on the quality of natural ventilation. Large sized and operable voids make paths to winds to come in and flow through the building.
As a strategy to get most of the natural air inside the particular angling club the main buildings were oriented according to the direction of Natural wind path to get the maximum ventilation inside .

The recreational shelters are oriented according to the site allocation. Generally, the shape of the buildings are designed in such a way that makes them always acting as a wind tunnel which will help to maintain a constant natural air flow leads to thermal comfort inside spaces. Cross-ventilation is a particularly valuable means of cooling during warm periods because it not only removes heat from the space but also increases the sensation of cooling by increasing people’s rate of evaporation.

Orientation of Spaces

In order to take advantage of the position of the specific site it is important to study and respond to the directions of sun and wind path. The design has to respond to the west and east elevation to avoid direct solar gain. In this case looking at the visual pleasure and the value of the function the spatial orientation is planned in such way where people can focus their feeling more towards the lake since the design is directly interconnected with the activities taken place in the lake.

By thinking of the context the linear sides of the main building spaces are oriented towards the lake to get the maximum view of the lake. The main buildings contain liner openings acting as windows along the surfaces of the bamboo walls which helps to cross ventilate the air inside the building.
If we consider a main space it is always fully open at least in one side directing towards the outer environment making it completely connected building with the outer environment.

Building Materials

Building materials are one of the most important factors in a building which should consider as it bare the whole structure as well as it helps to control the thermal comfort of the building. According to this design bamboo is the main building material. As a building material, treated bamboo is natural composite material which has a high strength to weight ratio. It also has a good compressive strength than wood, brick or concrete. Bamboo has been used since early times as a low cost, environmental friendly and aesthetically pleasing building material. To increase a lifetime of a bamboo structure there are different types of preservation treatments such as borax- boric acid preservation treatment and Neem seed oil treatment. Bamboo is considered be a renewable material as it is a fast growing plant showing a growth rate of 1-4 inch of growth a day also possess a quick regrowth after getting the harvest every three years.

A Material like steel is used in a law percentage in construction thinking towards the sustainable issues such as corrosion in an environment with brackish water and the additional effort to introduce methods to avoid that. Due to these reasons foundation was done with concrete as permanent structure.
The building will be constructed thinking of the durability and can be reestablished on the same foundation simply replacing the bamboo structure and timber decks if needed.

Thermal Comfort

Use of lightweight construction materials, high insulation materials and design with minimum mass and many void elements are basic strategies for thermal resistance. As a building material bamboo have good insulation qualities and they hold back little heat into the building. The Building walls and roof both are acting in a one membrane which contains two layers of treated bamboo that capture the additional heat preventing it entering the interior spaces. An insulation liquid is filled between in the inner bamboo layer to prevent water draining inside and let it flow through the layers until it meet the water duct. Because of the water flow between layers it gets cool additionally. Furthermore the strategy used in maintaining a constant heat inside is that the decrease of the solar heat by the cross air flow through the space.

Lighting

Natural daylight was considered as a valuable resource from the past in terms of aesthetic possibilities and its ability to satisfy biological and human needs. The spatial design of the project was achieved targeting the fact that how it can gain maximum natural daylight inside the building during the day.
About half of all the electricity consumed by buildings could be saved by daylighting. Daylighting can also reduce the heating and cooling energy consumption because it can be cooler than electric lighting in the summer, and it can passively heat a building in the winter.

As a Design strategy, the natural daylight was taken inside the building from the wide openings in either side to an extent which is enough to light up space during the day. The linear opening on the walls is contributing towards getting additional daylight inside the space.

Because of the usefulness of direct sunlight, the best orientation is the south side for daylighting because throughout the day and the year consistently the building gets daylight from the south side The second best orientation for daylighting is north because of the constancy of the light. Even though the quantity of light coming from the north is rather low, the quality is high if a cool white light is acceptable.

There is also a little problem with glare from the direct sun. In very hot climates, the north orientation might even be preferable to the south orientation. The worst orientations are east and west which was avoided by the design to have its main spaces completely oriented towards that direction for the reason that not only do these orientations receive sunlight for only half of each day, but the sunlight is at a maximum during summer instead of winter.

Lighting of the building at night is done in a way that will produce law energy waste considering the aspects such as heat gain of lights, cost-effectiveness when choosing appropriate light sources. In order to reduce the energy wastage, the efficiency and durability of lights were analyzed.

Garbage Disposal

Garbage disposal and the wastewater management might be an irritating fact when handling a building design unless it is done in a more innovating way which will help towards uplifting the function. In this case, the environmental strategy thought for garbage and wastewater management is that converting those into biogas. Biogas is a methane-rich byproduct that can be used for energy generation. The waste should be properly extracted from the areas where the sensitive water body is located, which was in design achieved by establishing a biogas plant in the land near to the building. All the food and human waste which are also known as the organic biosolids used to create biogas with help of a digester and turn into renewable energy. The renewable energy may serve the building in the form of electricity.