International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract— Sustainable strategies in traditional tropical buildings were found deliberated in respond to its’ users and the climate of the context. An assessment was performed on material usage in Bio Climatic Designs, focusing on Ambalam; a well-preserved heritage structures found in tropics, Sri Lanka. Literature evident that few researches were conducted on ‘Ambalam’ within the South Asian region, even within that lesser research have been focused on sustainable material usage and user comfort aspects. The study therefore fills the research gap intends to evaluate the design aspects and unleash on construction material utilization under traditional technology, material Compositions and their combinations along with the building orientations which affected on user comforts. Ambalam(s) have self-survived for decades with passive means with no consumption of energy. Location, the orientation and the designs are well planned making lesser impact on the existing environmental and social setting. Thus, it has been socially sustainable for ages by being a public community place with no conditions applied for its users, encouraging the social harmony and hospitality characteristics of Sri Lankan culture.

Index Terms— Ambalam, building orientation, bio climatic architecture, timber.

M. S. Mendis and R. U. Halwatura are with the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka (e-mail: malsharesearch@gmail.com, rangikauh@gmail.com). M. Rajapaksha was with Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka (e-mail: malthidzn@gmail.com).

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Cite: Malsha S. Mendis, Malthi Rajapaksha, and Rangika U. Halwatura, " Unleashing the Potentials of Traditional Construction Technique in Bio-climatic Building Designs: A Case of Ambalam&mdash, Sri Lanka," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 298-304, 2020.

Copyright © 2020 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).