An Investigation of Public Art and its Role in Increasing Urban Quality: The Case of Arayampathy Batticaloa, Sri Lanka (original) (raw)

2017, Cities People Places : An International Journal on Urban Environments

In this modern world, urban sculpture is considered as a cultural necessity in contemporary urban planning. Urban sculpture can reaffirm or reveal a sense of place in a symbolic and visually stimulating way of evoking some aspect of social, natural, cultural, physical, political, economic or historical context of the site and its locale. Typically, public artists produce site-specific sculptures and prominent installations that add character and distinction to a development and the surrounding neighborhood. After studying the city planning critiques viewpoints about public art's definition, nature and impact on city, this study evaluates the role of urban sculptures as a type of public art in enhancing public place quality in the case study of Arayampathy town, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. The aim of this research is to explore how urban sculptures play a significant role to enhance the urban quality and urban character. This research was conducted through observations, photographic surveys, activity mapping, cognitive mapping analysis, interviews and discussions with those who live in the selected case study area. What resulted was that through having some possible qualities and public art features, city sculptures Arayampathy have the ability to improve the qualities like legibility, sense of place, and pleasure besides developing local people's social interaction and local cultural identity.