Dairy small farmers cooperative hub in digana

SLIIT

Project idea

INTRODUCTION
Digana is a beautiful village in Sri Lanka. It is located in Central
Province, between Kandy and Teldeniya on A26 road. After
submerging Teldeniya, Digana became the popular alternative town
in all neighborhoods. The population is around 2000 families living in
a multi-ethnic community. It is a place which is much fertile back in
the day. While it is known for its dolomite mineral consisting of
dolomite industries in Digana it was also popular in agriculture
and was known as the Kandy forest garden. The agriculture industry
covers a vast variety specifically cocoa, tea, coffee, coconut,
spices, pepper, and vegetables. With the establishment of the Victoria
damp, the fertile area was covered with a flood. Due to this the self-sufficient economical development was downgraded due to the loss of
land and the descent of small-scale livelihoods.
Due to this the enriched culture and lifestyles were taking a drastic
turn degrading the social and economical values in Digana. Lack of
social knowledge, human skills, and competencies, unemployment led
the youth to seek temporary comforts. Drug addictions and news of
theft were increasing in the area. Digana needed a meaningful
strategy in order to take its significance back to life. As a sensitive
designer, a certain number of urban strategies were proposed in order
to uplift the economical, social, and contextual elements. From the
proposed urban master plan there were few schemes that highlighted
meaningful intervention which can serve the mentioned goals.
The report conveys an elaborative approach that ultimately serves
Diagana will bring back the lost essence it had. The selected
design proposal which is developed as a thesis project is a Dairy small
farming cooperative hub. The proposed scheme will enrich milk
production and bring back the villager's livelihood through education,
marketing, the introduction of value addition, and providing interactive
platforms to meet the local farmers and the investors. The idea was to
make milk production in an extensive manner via creating a portal
that serves the local farmers to reach the number of businesses with the
buyers without any intervention of a third party. The thesis project will
be an ultimate bridge to invite the local farming and cultural and economical
values that once served as the identity of Digana.

Project description

PLAN FORMATION
Contextually the plan formation is designed in
accordance with the regional architecture. The
orientation of the blocks was set responding
to the sun and wind paths. The long facades
were assigned in the north direction to avoid
direct sunlight and also to face the main
building façades in the direction of the
Digana town forms a welcoming element.
Camouflaging the rural architecture the
the building was placed and designed maintaining
a contextual relevance.
The layout is intentionally shattered to unite
reminiscing the typical village-like formation to
avoid compact arrangements rather than making a
walkable atmosphere to the users.

BUILDING ESSENCE
Building formation is also inspired
by the typical village farmhouse
shapes and proportion ethics. The
tropical identity is maintained and
developed into a large-scale
building units. The upper zone is
much more filled with building
mass while the lower level is quite
transparent which symbolizes a
simple yet an elegant form of
architecture.

TROPICAL ELEMENTS
The elements, colors, proportions
and a mix of elements is allocated
referring to an overall balanced
way. Tropical modernism is
referred in order to create a
contextual identity while selection
of material are assigned to
strengthen the particular concept.
Openings and shelters are used to
create a comfortable visual and
thermal balance. The use of
central courtyards and louvered
windows were adopted to achieve
this goal.

QUALITY OF EXTERIOR
The milk products are available as outdoor
outlet units and served to the visitors for
wholesale price. It will add a creative essence
to the exterior area and serve with a sweet
vibrance to the space. Apart from this ‘Hela
bojun” is served to the visitors decorating the
space with a cultural vibe while giving the
well-needed food experience. The dining
spaces will be in outdoor yet sheltered units.

QUALITY OF INTERIOR
Concrete frame structure act as an elegant
element throughout the spaces. It gives an
aesthetical outlook while signifying a strong
the form which reminisces the strength of an
agricultural livelihood and an exaggerated
the simple shape of a farmhouse. Bricks were
used to give an essence of a down to earth
villager and showcase a simple form of
construction ion. Timber louvered panels
were functionally used to maintain a good
thermal comfort while also achieving shading
devices to the interior. This will give a tropical
essence to the building while getting
the maximum potential of the contextual
elements. The flags were used to represent
the cultural strength and create an
empowering effect on villagers and their
livelihoods.

Technical information

included in the panels.
Considerable factors when planning the building structure
* Mainly, the structural part of the building was decided according to the architectural essence and contextual analysis.
* According to the current status, this area is fulfilled with simple rural poor people. Therefore, a simple structure was decided since it should be sensitive to the villagers.
* Since that rural people are the users of this building, a small-scale and simple building formation was planned to apply to the overall structure without using alien type formation.
* Expose bricks are suggested to apply for the interior walls and exterior walls.
* The material will be helpful to reduce the heat and maintain the coldness at the inside of the building.
* In addition to that, rubble filling cages and timber louver panels are applied to easily cross the air for the building.

Documentation

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