Page 11 - U4SSC Case study: Affordable housing and social inclusion, June 2020

Case Study 2 – Kirinda, Sri Lanka: wild coast tented lodge

Author:

Louis Thomson

Reviewer and editor:

Gamze Hakli Geray

Introduction

Sustainability, community and heritage were intertwined in the design of the Wild Coast Tented Lodge,
located on the edge of Yala National Park in the south of Sri Lanka. A multidisciplinary design team,
consisting of Nomadic Resorts (architecture and landscape design) and Bo Reudler Studio (interior
design), created the award-winning safari camp for Resplendent Ceylon, a subsidiary of Dilmah Tea.

The project was designed using a combination of local materials like bamboo shingles for the main area
buildings such as the welcome area, bar, and restaurant, and sophisticated, tensioned architectural
fabrics for the 36 tented accommodation units. The project was built in close cooperation with the
local community.

Background

Kirinda is a small village in the south-east of Sri Lanka on the edge of Yala National Park (the largest
and oldest national park in Sri Lanka). The village was originally founded as a shrine dedicated to
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Queen Viharamahadevi, who lived in the 2 century BC. The temple is at the heart of a local legend:
when raging waters threatened Ceylon, King Kelanitissa ordered his youngest daughter into a boat as
a sacrifice. The waters were calmed and the princess miraculously survived.

In the 18 Century, when the British built salt flats in the area, they imported a community of Malay
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Muslims into the region and they have lived and worked in the village ever since, side by side with the
existing Buddhist fishermen and farmers.

The village is extremely poor – essentially the population survives from fishing activities on the Basses
reef complex off the coast, working in the saltpans and taking part in some minor tourist activities.

Over recent decades, fish stocks have been in decline and, as a result, many of the young men from
the village have left to seek their fortune in the capital, Colombo.

In many ways, this rural village is an isolated enclave in one of the remotest corners of the country,
which has been forgotten as the Rajapaksa Government has focused its attention on the mega projects
planned in the Hambantota.

Case study: Affordable housing and social inclusion, June 2020 5