Decongesting Ella: A transformative railway transit hub for a hill town in Sri Lanka Part 1 Project 2025 Nadil Subasinghe City School of Architecture | Sri Lanka The focus of this design project is the development of a transit square and facility center for Ella, a small hill town in eastern Sri Lanka that has experienced a significant increase in tourism, driven by its various attractions, most notably the Nine Arches Bridge. As tourist numbers continue to grow, there is a pressing need for facilities that can accommodate the increasing influx while maintaining the town’s visual and environmental integrity. With a concept of “Decongesting Ella”, the design seeks to address this challenge by proposing a new building typology suitable to Ella's unique topography and spatial constraints. The final outcome was a transformative design responding to the seasonal rhythms of tourism through spatial adaptability. At its core, the architectural language is influenced by the mechanical concept of “translation” – referring to the movement of rigid architectural elements. This mechanism allows the building to expand and contract based on the user volume, easily responding to the transitions between high and low tourists’ seasons and thereby reducing congestion while maintaining minimal visual clutter within this Ella’s sensitive hillscape. Tutor(s) Nandika Denipitiya Lahiru Dharmasiri