Environmental Awareness Center for Horton Plains National Park, Sri Lanka

SLIIT

Project idea

The intention of this project is to design an awareness center in Horton Plains National Park. An awareness center in Horton plains will be a place of promoting environmental awareness to public, to protect, respect and preserve the natural heritage since people are generally unaware of natures’ dynamism. It explores the delicate relationship that exists between biodiversity and humans.

Horton Plains National Park

Horton Plains National Park is rich in biodiversity and it is the home for many endemic species. It is fundamentally important to us since it is a world heritage site and a famous tourist destination. Horton plains has a wet montane forest climate which is a cold climate, but dry season occurs from January - March. The proposed site is located in Pattipola entrance which is one of the gateway to Horton plains national park.

Social Context

Surrounding villages near Horton plains are Ohiya, Ambewela and Boralanda. They are small rural villages. Ambewela is a small town and a hill station, located in the Nuwara Eliya District of Sri Lanka. The climatic and economic condition in Ambewela makes it an ideal location for dairy farming. Tea plantation and vegetable cultivation are the main livelihood sources of nearby villages. The cafeteria inside the Horton plains is run by the Ohiya villager’s social welfare society.
Horton plains does not have an on-site population besides the wildlife staff, but local tourists visit the premises very often and most of the foreigners visit Horton plains more than once in their lifetime. Most of the workers and guides are volunteers from neighbouring villages. Since this is a tourist destination, nearby villagers get direct and indirect economic benefits.



PROJECT DETAILS
Project : An awareness center for Horton Plains National Park

Users : Primary users - Tourists
Foreigners
Locals
Researchers
Guides

Secondary users - Staff members
Villagers

Client : Department of Wildlife Conservation

Location : Horton Plains National Park, Pattipola entrance

Project description

Problem Identification

Horton plains is a catchment area of major important rivers in Sri Lanka. It is also renowned for its endemic species. Horton plains is famous for its stunning grasslands and montane forest. ‘Worlds’ end’ and ‘Baker’s Falls’ are among the main tourist attractions, but there is so much beyond that to explore and to understand about this significant natural heritage.
Presently this sensitive environment is being destroyed by human activities. Air pollution has become a serious problem due to vehicle traffic in Horton plains national park. Vehicles increase the levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Littering leads to soil, water and air pollution and this could be identified by the jungle crow population in the park. These adverse effects have direct and indirect consequences on ecosystems and the environment. Such effects can include visible injury on vegetation and adverse impact on growth, changes in productivity, nutritive quality and biological diversity. Each of these present threats can cause major damage to Horton plains. These threats are created because people are unaware of Horton plains’ richness, due to lack of knowledge and peoples’ attitude towards nature.
Nature needs to be protected, admired and understood as a powerful force in this environment. The concept of awareness is lacking in the present community with regard to care and respect towards environment. The engagement of human senses has a key role of understanding our relationship to the environment. Being mindful will wake up these human senses.
An awareness center in Horton place will promote positive impacts on nature and therefore this project will be ideal to reduce environment pollution and support the protection of Horton plains National Park for our future generation.


Awareness Center

Simply an awareness center is built for people in order to strengthen their environmental awareness. It facilitates people physically, mentally and spiritually to experience nature. An awareness center acts as a mentor to search for sense of place and it should cherish sustainable relationship between people and earth.
An awareness center should blend with nature which enhances human dimension in nature.
Human dimension in nature means all experience, observable behavior, and people's values, attitudes, and the basics of human nature that underlie the way people feel, think, behave and relate to the natural world (Adams, 2005).

This is similar to the mindfulness concept. Mindfulness simply means maintaining a moment through awareness.
MIND + BODY + SPACE
Our mind does not have a form, but the physical space can influence our mind. Hence, the mind is a part of our body and the body is a part of physical environment. The body can feel the sensations and communicate with our mind.
Mindfulness can be achieved in quiet, comfortable spaces, by noticing body sensations, emotions, focusing on your breathing and living in the moment.
Our five senses are the windows to our world where we experience life through our senses.
When mindful, the boundary between self and space/ surrounding is blurred. In Zen Buddhism, the definition of true mindfulness is the condition which the space and you are separated but connected at the same time.
Different degrees of light and shadow, changing in spaces, different patterns can create mindfulness.
It is important to fulfill self-realization aspects from an awareness center. From self-realization, people will be aware of how important Horton plains is to them as a natural treasure.

Function

The main function of an awareness center in Horton plains national park could be focused on fostering community understanding, appreciating the natural environment, protecting and to provide interpretive and educational information to the visiting public. The awareness center should convey the sense of importance, significance of natural resources which aims to reduce environment pollution.
When it comes to function, visitors’ perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about nature are different. Some people are not that enthusiastic to visit an awareness center but if we can touch the visitors with a memory and strong advice, that is the path to gain awareness.

Architectural Ambition

The purpose of this project is to provide a sustainable and responsive design solution which provides education and creates awareness of importance of our natural heritage, Horton Plains. It will explore how architecture can exhibit the power of such area creating in depth knowledge and understanding which ultimately change peoples’ attitude.
The project will deliver an effective impact on our human senses, using what we see, hear, smell and touch to understand environmental aspects and their effects on the design.

Conceptual Development
Intertwining human senses and nature……
The concept idea was derived from motion of people when gathering since awareness center is a place where people interact and share their knowledge. Intertwining human senses and nature signifies how mindfulness open doors to understand this sensitive environment.

Inspiration
Trees have formed and adapted to withstand strong winds and cold climate in Horton plains. Therefore, the form of trees in Horton plains has a unique character. Strong wind in the park, cold nights with mist and frost have forced the trees to bend and often result in small trees with twisted trunks. Another characteristic of these trees are small leaves which saves the heat. The cloud forest canopy trees are characteristically twisted like giant bonsai trees.
The vegetation boundaries on site inspired to come up with the form to the design.

The design has main three structures the lobby, exhibition space and the view deck. The most hierarchy goes to the view deck where visitors understand, feel the sensitive environment and get the self realization.

Technical information

Environment awareness is being aware of natural environment and making decisions that benefit the nature without destroying its habitat. As humans we are adapted to certain climate conditions, therefore we design and build to overcome these conditions to fulfill our comforts. As a part of creating awareness, this project aims to educate the society how we can build in a sustainable manner.
These environment factors have influenced the types of building materials in this project. Hence most of the building materials are recyclable and natural resources. The challenge of this design is to construct with less harm to the ground and environment. Therefore, steel structures are used as the main substructure. Prefabricated steel structures will reduce noise pollution and minimize environment pollution. Concrete is only used for the footings. Less concrete usage will reduce carbon footprint.
Passive design strategies are used for heating purposes. The building is oriented as to get the maximum sunlight and south-facing elevations were occupied by large windows (curtain wall). so that the greatest advantage can be taken of the sun’s energy.