Yasodhara Ranasinghe
Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Architecture, Urban design, Sociology
Biography
Yasodhara is a Chartered Architect and Lecturer in Architecture from Sri Lanka. She graduated with a First Class Degree in Architecture (B. Arch. Honors) from the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka in 2015, and in 2018 she became an Associate Member of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects, receiving the individual practice rights. As a Project Architect in a reputed architecture firm in Sri Lanka and an Individual Practitioner, Yasodhara has experience working on varieties of projects ranging from private residents to mega city developments.
Alongside her practice interest, Yasodhara is passionate about teaching architecture. Accordingly, from 2017 to 2021, she worked full-time as a lecturer at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, where she taught, tutored, supervised, and critiqued the academic work of architecture students.
Her particular design and research interest in community architecture has earned her several local and international recognitions and inspired her to pursue post-graduate studies. She is currently a full-time PhD candidate at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, Australia.
Thesis
Community in disaster recovery: Establishing strategies for user-centered resettlement solutions following landslides in rural Sri Lanka
A resettlement project needs to be planned carefully because a disaster-affected community deserves to be resettled in a well-planned built environment; at the very least, not in a place with lower living conditions than before the disaster. Despite this need, specific contextual constraints (socioeconomics, political, physical and environmental) often inhibit developing countries from initiating resettlement programs and policies that are most suited to disaster victims’ needs.
Arguing that the resettlement problem is qualitative rather than quantitative, and socio-cultural values are just as important as physical and economic values in resettlement tasks, this study aims to understand a landslide-prone marginalized community in Sri Lanka by focusing on people’s specific place sensitivity and conventional know-how. The research also posits that the understanding thus gained can translate into community-inclusive resettlement strategies that meet the living conditions needs of disaster victims. Because landslides and the internal displacements they cause are expected to increase in Sri Lanka, future resettlement programs will require such alternative strategies that are tailored to local conditions rather than adapting Western policies. In terms of its significance, this study will encourage a broader dialogue between disaster risk reduction academics and decision-makers about user-centred resettlement delivery strategies.