Wanathamulla slums are mostly disconnected from the urban management and planning systems that govern Colombo district. Slum dwellers remain spatially and socially segregated by large. When compared to the rest of the Borelle city, these settlements often remain as unplanned enclaves that are poorly serviced by basic infrastructure, lacking streets, access to clean water, sanitation, ventilation, health, and environmental sustainability and open spaces, and compelled to the adversities derived from the lack of connectivity with the city’s urban fabric.

Street-led approach sees streets not only as a vehicular road but as a route for incremental urban transformation that aim at integrating slums spatially, physically, socially, juridically and economically into the overall city development strategy. Such approach highlights the social and economic dimension of streets as a public domain. A street-led approach to citywide slum upgrading can do programme scale upgrading of quality of life of slum dwellers and provide secure livelihoods with keeping their preferred sense of community, social solidarity, coexistence and belonging that slums provide. Community-based entrepreneurship is considered to be an important instrument for the realization of potential among marginal and deprived communities isolated from the mainstream economy and is important in bringing social upliftment. Therefore, the social housing needs to connect slum dwellers to the city and public through accompanied streets network and Community-based entrepreneurship to support them becoming a citizens and slum settlements becoming a sustainable urban neighborhood.

The whole building design is formed by the concept, “Enlivening the streets-Freeing the lives”. There are key built spaces in the design to facilitate residential, educational, cultural, environmental, commercial, services and sports fields. The housing and the spaces have been designed to uplift the quality of life of slum dwellers and provide secure livelihoods with keeping their preferred sense of community, social solidarity, coexistence and belonging that slums provide. The quality of life improved with the right blend of spatial planning, passive environmental strategies, technology, interior and lighting, aesthetics, construction methods and materials.

The environmental ambition is to create a optimum environmental conditions for the user comfort and avoid negative impact to the existing environment. The structural and facade is a durable and easy structure which can be built from the community engagement under the supervision of architects and engineers. Interior and lighting incorporate slum dwellers belongings into reusable interiors to create sense of belonging and create unique views and lighting experiences in every household. To celebrate the uniqueness of slum architecture and slum dwellers emotions aesthetically, existing building materials, patterns and characteristics of the slum architecture included in this social housing.