Many plans have been revealed with regard to the megapolis project that has been headlining mass media since its announcement. From a mega city combining three districts and the creation of special zones for various industries, to the development of a new and efficient transport system, the project certainly seems like a big undertaking. For a country that considers execution as where the fun ends, we can only hope that these plans see the light of day. As Sri Lanka is determined to put itself on the world map as a one-stop, mega city, it may be wise to take a page or two out of countries that have already achieved this.
[pullquote]Quality is not to copy something from elsewhere in the world; you need to form your own identity, and show the difference of your development against the rest of the world[/pullquote]
In this respect, a French delegation recently visited Sri Lanka on the invitation of Dhamith De Silva and Peter Senaviratne with the intention of contributing to the megapolis plans. The delegation, which included renowned French architect Bernard Lamy and French investor Maxime Laurent, was in the island to meet persons involved in Sri Lanka’s megapolis project, and the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development.
Bernard Lamy is an architect and a part of the urban town planning board that assists in development operations in France and other countries. Lamy also helped coordinate and design La Défense, one of France’s top business districts, with elected representatives of Neuilly, Courbevoie, Puteaux and Nanterre, in connection with the General Council, and Public Development and Construction Office, contributing to urban development. He was also appointed architect for the renovation of the Centre of New Industries and Technologies building of La Défense. Maxime Laurent is a French investor who partners with several other big name investors in France. He works with Lamy on most of his projects. According to Lamy, if Laurent recommends that they invest in Sri Lanka, the partner investors would do so.
The team met ministers Patali Champika and Nimal Siripala de Silva, and the megapolis team during the week of their visit. They were also the observers of the Kalutara District Development Council meeting, where the congregation was churning out ideas on how the Kalutara district could be improved and discussing the need for foreign investment. This is where Lamy’s experience and Laurent’s investor backing could help.
Tell us a bit about your experience with La Défense.
Bernard Lamy: La Défense is the major business district of the Paris Metropolitan Area. It’s very scenic and has about four million square metres of office buildings, in addition to hotels, commercial buildings and shopping stores. Since it was built in 1956, we have changed many things in this district. La Défense is one of the more important areas in Europe today. It’s also famous for its transportation system, which ensures that there is no congestion. It has a metro, railways, buses, a tramway and highways all designed to allow seamless transportation. Additionally, people live in this district, and it has many playgrounds and schools. La Défense is one of the main attractions when foreigners visit Paris; after the Eiffel Tower, they come here, because there are many shopping centres and restaurants, etc.
Maxime Laurent: La Défense was created about 50 years back. As Paris was getting crowded, they were looking at having people in offices outside the city. It’s been 40 years now, and La Défense has been expanding and improving, along with ecological development. By this sort of projects, French architects have a lot of experience of this nature. La Défense and Paris are connected with fast-moving and efficient transportation to bring people in so they can contribute to the economy. This city of La Défense is also a window to the city beyond that, because areas outside La Défense have also improved together with its surroundings. Everything inside has been planned, from people living there, to cleaning and dumping of wastage.
What was your impression of Sri Lanka? What is the potential you see here?
Lamy: We are very impressed with your development and the quality of urban planning in the major part of Colombo, so when we go back to France, we will explain all this to the investor, because we see a lot of possibilities and capabilities here. We met Patali Champika Ranawaka, the Minister of Megapolis and Western Development, and he explained that this was a realistic project with a lot of office buildings, lodgings and activities. We were very impressed by that because it’s a huge project and it could be an interesting challenge for this country. We are also interested in leisure development around Sri Lanka. When you design something like a small town, you need to introduce a new vision about ecological life, landscaping, leisure, etc. When you build leisure parks, you also need to appoint permanent people to keep up the activities. It’s the same thing with a new town. That’s our concept.
You are very lucky, because you are the internet generation. The thinking is different today: you are not obliged to follow the same mistakes that have been done before. You have a new vision about the organization of the city, a new vision of the lifestyle, and everything could be better because of new communication by internet. It’s an internet city. It’s important to start something like that, and you have that chance today. Don’t make anything that has been made before, you are not a French organization or another Singapore, you are in Colombo, in Sri Lanka.
When we were building, we built offices in one part and housing in another part. Now is the chance to do all of that together. I’m sure you would need some consulting from people around you, but you have the capacity to develop and sync a new town. I’m very happy to meet the team in charge, they are very good guys and a good organization. We can help by bringing some information for you and working as a consultant.
If you want to keep your country’s fantastic development, you need to keep a high level of quality for landscaping and building, etc. This is the way you can attract investors or important partners. Today, they all want quality, but quality is not to copy something from elsewhere in the world; you need to form your own identity, and show the difference of your development against the rest of the world.
What are some challenges we might face in building this mega city?
Lamy: The first thing you need to do is to understand your country. I’m coming back in two weeks just to travel around and understand the quality of your country, meet the population and see the beaches, because if I want to talk to investors in France, I need to know the country very well. You can’t just say that it’s a nice country, your heart has to be in it.
For that, we need to take time and think about what we can do. After that, we need to meet the relevant people, and organize workshops and partnerships with the architects. You need to connect your vision with what the people really want. That’s the second step. I have 40 years of experience working everywhere in the world and have made many mistakes, but if we can help you a little to not make many mistakes, that’s a good thing. We also need to be careful of people who arrive with a big project made in another country and want to implement here. They don’t know what is needed here. Even us, we can work with you, but not to bring La Défense or something and place it here, but to think together to find your identity and a new image. You don’t want to walk in Colombo and see the same building that you might see in another part of the world. You have Geoffrey Bawa, who was a good architect that focused on tropical modernism, mixing landscaping and building, so you should do that! You are not obliged to have the same building as in Singapore, you can fashion and build your own.
[pullquote]If you want to keep your country’s fantastic development, you need to keep a high level of quality for landscaping and building. This is the way you can attract investors or important partners[/pullquote]
What are some opportunities for investors here?
Lamy: If you maintain the high quality, define the guidelines of the project and introduce some syncing, we are excited to work with you, because we know what other investors would want to see. If you want to increase the value of your country, you have to secure the quality. What we can do for you is to act as a consulting group and bring in some experience. Then we can work with investors, because we will be more secure to speak to the investor and add value to say that their investment will be good. That’s the reason I’m coming back in April, not to work but to go everywhere and get to know the country a little better.