The
Galle Fort which is located in the Southern region of Sri Lanka is one of the
few living forts in the world. It was initially built by Portuguese, later
expanded by Dutch and subsequently rehabilitated by British.Many studies have
being under gone with respect to architectural point of view. However attention
for the work of engineering is very poor. In this research, the evolution of
engineering and aesthetic aspects of the Galle Fort over three colonial eras
was studied in detail.
Initially
Portuguese started the fortification in the northern section of a rocky
peninsula. They built three bastions named Sun, Moon and Star. Later Dutch had
extended this fortification up to 14 bastions with connected ramparts around
the peninsula. They have added a berm to the Northern ramparts to enhance the
strength. Further, they have
constructed weep holes and sloping top surface on the rampart walls to reduce
the rainfall infiltration to the soil structure. These findings illustrate
their engineering knowledge and expertise in fortifications.
Dutch have constructed a
sewer and waste water disposal drainage system with a proper flushing
mechanism. Pumped up sea water by a windmill, was used to flush the system.
British have seen the inflexibility of this method and facilitate a storage
facility close to windmill to store excess water.
There is a wide spread belief, that Dutch had used tidal movements to flush the
drainage system, which has been proven wrong during the study.
The Galle Fort road
network was designed according to a grid pattern. The city was planned with
public spaces and churches. Colonial rulers valued the beautiful landscapes
around and have preserved them. The study identified many interesting
landscapes which was emerged after the fortifications.
The
data collected during the research were preserved in a relational database for
future references. A three dimensional interactive map was developed to
resembling Galle Fort. This map can be used as an alternative method to access
stored data. The development process of this map itself bears a very
significant alteration. The development process was done automatically using a
machine code rather than doing it manually. During the research a new, easy to
use, robust concept was introduced to develop 3D interactive maps. The
Rubyclasses were used in conjunction with MySQL databases to develop 3D
interactive map. This method grossly eliminates the cumbersome
manual process of Development of three dimensional models.
Full report available on request.