Browse Exhibits (3 total)

Ashra Wickramathilaka | Techniques for Mapping People’s Spaces

Land-use mapping is said to be the most popular among the spatial mapping techniques, as it visualizes the land-use pattern over the ground. However, four or five highly generalized large-scale land-uses determined by planners are unable to capture most urban activities of the ordinary people. This study employs new spatial mapping techniques to produce new spatial narratives.

Faculty Mentor: Nihal Perera

Department of Urban Planning

Graduate

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Christian Terrell | Delaware County Incarceration

The current prison system in America was put in place in 1891 under the Three Prisons Act. Jail and prison designs have historically been meant to keep those on the inside in and those on the outside out. Jails have many design flaws that are detrimental to a prisoner’s health. They tend to be overcrowded, offer poor healthcare, lack privacy, and deprive people from stimulation which can exacerbate mental health problems. According to The Star Press, the Delaware County Justice Center in downtown Muncie experienced overcrowding. The facility had a maximum capacity of 220 inmates, but frequently housed over 300 inmates. A new jail in the former Wilson Middle School is expected to house 500-750 inmates. This stopgap solution to overcrowding solves some of the community problems of incarceration but does not go far enough to address other areas of incarceration in America. A solution to the current American prison design is what people are calling “humane prisons.” This design philosophy believes that American prisons could build more respect for their inmates by incorporating design elements that mimic daily life.

This presentation incorporates design ideas for the “new” jail facility of Delaware County with depictions of what sorts of features might make it more humane. Since it is already in use visits to the site may not be possible however, artist’s sketches can show features that may be possible and benefit the larger community through a change in incarceration philosophy as opposed to the current utilitarian approach.

Faculty Mentor: Gerald Waite

Department of Urban Planning

Undergraduate

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Dinushi Samarasekara | The Production of Vishuddhi Spaces and their Subjects: Identity, Meaning, and Space of the ‘Ritigala Vishuddhi Haramba’ Process and Establishment based in Ritigala, Sri Lanka

The Production of Vishuddhi Spaces and their Subjects_Symposium.pdf

This is an ethnographic study centered around the community and space of the subjects known as the Ritigala Vishuddhi community, the bearers of indigenous combat art, Ritigala Vishuddhi Haramba, which originated and evolved in the countryside of Ritigala, Sri Lanka. Despite the ancient lineage of attending national security, what they practice today is contemporary. The Shilpa bearers’ culture and the way of life are thoroughly enriched with the Vishuddhi Haramba teachings. While it creates a new meaning, identity, and sense of place, the Vishuddhi Haramba education is strongly tied to their history.

As Henri Lefebvre (1991) points out space is socially produced: Every social practice creates space and space affects practices. Specific communities in specific cultures give different meanings to their space.

Apparently, the Vishuddhi Shilpis are a unique community with a unique practice, culture, and identity. They are the creators of their unique space. 

The study brings about the worldviews, perceptions, and aspirations of this community, expressing who they are, what they do, their knowledge, what spaces they make, through what practices, and why these spaces are important to them, and how they produce their spaces to function on daily basis creating the identity and sense of place.

Faculty Mentor: Nihal Perera

Urban and Regional Planning

Graduate

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