Square of Art & Youth

University of Moratuwa (UoM), Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture, Moratuwa

Project idea

My design is named as "Square of Art at Youth", I wanted to educate the youth, the future of Sri Lanka and incentivize contemporary art though my design. Few years back with the trend of wall arts among youth I was somewhat disappointed because of most of them were just imitations. The world is ahead of us and I thought that we should catch up. So my idea was to bring contemporary art to the society rather than forcing to turn the heads of the society towards contemporary art. As a tribute to positive youth development. I believe that a large scaled introverted building with a huge footprint simply wont work. So my initial idea was to create a welcoming and engaging contemporary landmark which people could come and spend time with.

Project description

Although the site is located in the city center of Nugegoda town currently it is functioning as a car park and it’s a dead space. So I wanted to give a solution for that through my design, by incorporating natural shading, seating, recreational activities and spaces which incentivize contemporary art to make it a proper city square. My approach for the design was to sink this area and make it a large sunken plaza. By doing so I was able to reduce the visual disturbances & sound pollution from the urban traffic and create a somewhat isolated space. Also I was able to make use of below ground spaces and floating spaces which couldn’t be incorporated before. By doing so I was able to keep my building footprint less than 8% of the given site area. Because of that the plaza feels undisturbed, open and free.

Technical information

Old Rustic railway bridge and three old railway carriages are used for accommodation part. Two towers give the impression of bridge supporters. Structural integrity is formed by large concrete walls and in-between structural decks as floors. Whole structure acts as a modern contemporary landmark. With a minimum building footprint.