Colombo Urban Lab

24/10/2025

In Colombo’s post-relocation high-rises, parks are not amenities, they are everyday infrastructure for health, safety, social connection, and climate resilience. This long read follows four Wanathamulla parks to show how proximity, shade, visibility, and community stewardship turn space into belonging.
From temple courtyards to football fields, these parks show that leisure is not a luxury - it is a right that is embedded in care, safety, and belonging.
Have a look at the long read here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/3971fce22dbc47cf8875d79d74e13e00"

02/10/2025

We are excited to share the first edition of the Colombo Urban Lab New Publications Newsletter!

Inside, you’ll find a round-up of our recent publications and research activities.

Read the newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/bdf7f65eef55/colombo-urban-lab-quarterly-newsletter-14176889

Stay updated on our work—subscribe here:
https://mailchi.mp/7befc40b1618/sign-up-for-colombo-urban-labs-quarterly-newsletter

01/10/2025

Meet the Minds Behind the Dialogue ✨️

We are honored to present the distinguished Panelists and Presenters of the National Symposium on Housing in Sri Lanka 2025: Policy, Strategy and Design. 🏠
Join us as thought leaders, policymakers, and experts come together to shape the future of housing and communities in Sri Lanka.

📍 Temple Trees
📅 5th October 2025 | 1.00 PM - 3.30 PM

Online registration is available here:

https://forms.gle/LeUQPbQnYJMJrCQQ6

Kindly note that only pre-registrations are allowed for participation in the event. Please be sure to register here at the earliest to ensure a smooth entry and comfortable experience.

01/10/2025

CSF Director Iromi Perera will be a panelist at this year’s National Symposium on Housing in Sri Lanka to be held at Temple Trees. Organised by the Ministry of Urban Development, Construction and Housing parallel to World Habitat Day 2025, this symposium aims to discuss the potential housing policies, strategies and designs for Sri Lanka, with a focus on inclusivity and sustainability.

25/09/2025

CUL researcher Meghal Perera shares her insights in on how Colombo’s urban planning imagines only men — leaving women without basic facilities like toilets and safe transport. This failure “shortens” their geography, limiting mobility and opportunity.
Read the full article here:

For Chamari, a lottery booth doubles as a changing room. Like her, thousands of women powering Colombo’s economy struggle for dignity in a city that forgets a basic need: toilets.

22/09/2025

Colombo’s urban renewal was enforced through militarised planning — treating homes as battlegrounds.

With the Urban Development Authority under the Ministry of Defence, military forces carried out demolitions, evictions, and relocations with little oversight. Armed soldiers removed residents, sometimes overnight, sometimes without compensation.

To learn more about how poverty was policed through planning in Colombo, read our article on the Criminalisation of Poverty.
Read it here: https://www.csf-asia.org/criminalisation-of-poverty-in-colombo/

19/09/2025

In Colombo, the poor were criminalised not only through eviction and relocation, but through stories that cast them as a threat.Through state-controlled media and official language, poor communities were depicted as “slum dwellers,” “illegal squatters,” and the “underserved.” Their everyday survival strategies — informal labour, public presence, cooking or bathing outdoors — were aestheticised as unclean or unruly.

Relocation was framed as liberation. The poor were promised a “better society,” a “permanent address,” and “recognition” — even as their displacement served Colombo’s "regeneration".

To learn how stories were used as a strategy to criminalise Colombo's urban poor, read our full article here: https://www.csf-asia.org/criminalisation-of-poverty-in-colombo/

18/09/2025

Colombo’s wattes are not slums. They are long-standing, self-built neighbourhoods where over 68,000 families have lived for decades — upgraded by residents themselves into permanent, rooted communities.

Yet, in the name of becoming a “world-class city,” these neighbourhoods were recast as disorderly and threatening.

Colombo’s wattes tell a story of resilience and belonging — but are recast as obstacles to a “world-class” city. Discover how urban planning itself has become a tool of criminalisation.
Link to the full article: https://www.csf-asia.org/criminalisation-of-poverty-in-colombo/

17/09/2025

What does it mean when informality is treated as a crime?

In Colombo, criminalisation is not just about what happens after an arrest. It is built into laws, planning, and design that determine who belongs in the city and who is seen as “out of place.”

Everyday practices of the working class poor — from selling food on the street, to resting in public, to finding shelter where they can — are labelled unlawful. This shifts poverty from being a question of inequality to being a question of deviance.

Learn how Colombo’s poor are criminalised beyond courts and prisons.
Link to the full article: https://www.csf-asia.org/criminalisation-of-poverty-in-colombo/

16/09/2025

What does it mean to criminalise poverty? It is not only about police, courts, or prisons. It is about how laws are written, whose bodies are deemed “out of place,” and how entire communities are disciplined through infrastructure, planning, and design.

From forced evictions to high-rise “solutions” that feel more like prisons, Colombo’s Urban Regeneration Project shows how poverty is punished instead of being addressed as structural inequality.

Our latest article traces how narratives, aesthetics, and militarisation in Colombo have reshaped the city and how the lives of tens of thousands of people have been criminalised in the process.
Read it here:

Criminalisation is often understood narrowly—as something that happens after a crime, involving police, courts, and prisons. But we argue that criminalisation is not only about breaking laws; it is about how laws are written, where suspicion is cast, and which bodies are deemed out of place. A cri...

11/09/2025

Across Colombo, public spaces are increasingly shaped by exclusionary design. From benches divided by separators to ledges lined with stones, these features — often called hostile architecture — restrict how people sit, rest, or gather. While such design is often justified as “urban improvement,” its impact is far from neutral. It disproportionately affects communities who rely on public space the most: informal workers, the homeless, couples, young people, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Instead of fostering inclusivity, these spaces reinforce exclusion. As Colombo invests in tourism and “world-class” aesthetics, urban design risks prioritising visitors over citizens. But a slum-free city is not the same as a poverty-free city. True progress comes from policies and designs that are accessible, equitable, and inclusive.
Our latest story map highlights examples of hostile architecture in Colombo.
Read it here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/a277fd30920c423188d80b0832310b25 "

03/09/2025

NEW POLICY REPORT: Sri Lanka is a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), obligated to progressively realise rights such as adequate food, housing, health, education, and social security. Yet Sri Lanka’s polycrisis–of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis have laid bare how these commitments have faltered. The working class poor in Colombo—many of whom had not recovered from pandemic lockdowns—were hit by skyrocketing living costs, job losses, and a breakdown in public services. The result has been a dramatic retrogression in basic rights: families reducing meals, children dropping out of school, worsening maternal health, and a social protection system that failed to catch those falling through the cracks.

Sri Lanka is a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), obligated to progressively realise rights such as adequate food, housing, health, education, and social security. Despite clear obligations, Sri Lanka’s track record shows a persistent gap be...