A Design-Led Movement to Celebrate the City Through Its Stories
Colombo, the beating heart of Sri Lanka, is more than its skyline or its coastline. It’s a city that exists in layers; in the memories of its people, in the rhythm of its streets, in the art and architecture that mark its growth, and in the countless untold stories that give it life. Yet, for all its richness, Colombo has often lacked a collective narrative that captures its essence. Now, a new design-led initiative seeks to change that.
“What’s Your Colombo?”, a two-year creative movement conceptualised by the Academy of Design (AOD) and presented through the Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF), aims to rediscover and redefine the city through design, storytelling, and collaboration. In partnership with Cinnamon Life: City of Dreams, Colombo’s most dynamic hub for culture, business, and leisure, this initiative calls upon citizens, communities, and brands to share their own versions of Colombo; to collectively create a living, breathing story of the city.
At its core, “What’s Your Colombo?” is not merely a campaign but a movement, a call to view design not as an abstract discipline, but as a lens through which we understand the world around us. By placing design at the intersection of urban life, creativity, and community, AOD aims to demonstrate how cities can be shaped not only by architecture and planning but by the people who live, love, and dream within them.
Reimagining the City Through Design and Story
The initiative is part of AOD’s long-standing mission to take design thinking beyond industries, into education, governance, and now, into the very fabric of everyday life. For AOD, design is a tool for dialogue: a way to connect people with their environments, to spark empathy, and to shape futures built on creativity and collaboration. As the driving force behind the Sri Lanka Design Festival, AOD has spent years building bridges between education, industry, and government, using creativity as a catalyst for innovation. With “What’s Your Colombo?”, this approach takes a new, public form, transforming the city itself into a canvas of stories and experiences. Linda Speldewinde, Founder and Chairperson of AOD, describes the initiative’s origins with characteristic passion: “What’s Your Colombo? began as an idea, a question, really. For too long, people have passed through Colombo without really seeing it, perhaps because we haven’t yet found the words to describe what our city truly is. Colombo isn’t one city; it’s many Colombo’s, yours, mine, ours, each with its own rhythm and soul. Through the Sri Lanka Design Festival, we want to reimagine how both we and our visitors see our city. We’re doing this through the lens of design, but also through the power of storytelling, inviting everyone to share their Colombo: their words, moments, memories, and emotions, expressed however they wish. Our city is too precious to be left without its own narration.”
For Linda, design is as much about emotion as it is about function. It helps us see the unseen, to find meaning in the ordinary, beauty in the overlooked, and connection in diversity. “What’s Your Colombo?” becomes an act of collective storytelling, celebrating the city not as a static place, but as an ever-evolving experience shaped by its people.
Cinnamon Life: The City’s Living Room
To bring this vision to life, AOD partnered with Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams, a destination that embodies Colombo’s contemporary identity. A symbol of the city’s creative energy and global outlook, Cinnamon Life has become a gathering place for artists, entrepreneurs, and dreamers, a modern-day “living room” for the city. Sanjiv Hullugalle, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Cinnamon Life, sees the collaboration as a natural extension of the brand’s philosophy. “Colombo is more than a capital, it’s a living story,” he says. “At Cinnamon Life, we see ourselves as the city’s living room; a place where creativity, culture, and community come together. What’s Your Colombo? is our way of opening those doors even wider, to celebrate the city’s vibrant energy and the people who define its spirit.” Sanjiv adds that Cinnamon Life’s partnership with AOD is grounded in a shared belief that design, culture, and hospitality have the power to shape not only how people experience a city, but how that city sees itself. Through “What’s Your Colombo?”, both partners aim to inspire residents and visitors alike to rediscover Colombo as a creative capital of South Asia; a city defined by diversity, innovation, and imagination.
Phase One: Seeing the City Through New Eyes
The first phase of “What’s Your Colombo?” sets out to build an emotional connection between people and the city through storytelling and design-led experiences. Launched at Cinnamon Life, Phase One brings together Colombo’s most recognisable voices, designers, entrepreneurs, artists, community leaders, and everyday citizens, each sharing their own interpretation of what the city means to them. Through a series of short films, photographs, essays, and digital stories, these reflections capture Colombo in all its contrasts: the quiet beauty of old neighbourhoods, the dynamic pulse of creative hubs, the timeless rituals of its food and fashion, and the fluid mix of tradition and modernity that defines the city’s character. Together, these narratives create a collective portrait; not of a single Colombo, but of many. The stories will be shared across media platforms and culminate in a public showcase at Sri Lanka Design Festival 2025, allowing citizens to experience the city through new perspectives and reconnect with the places and people that make it unique.
Experience Colombo: Trails, Passports, and Discovery
Beyond digital storytelling, “What’s Your Colombo?” extends into the streets through Experience Colombo Trails, a series of curated routes developed by SLDF that invite participants to explore intersections of fashion, food, art, design, and architecture. Each trail is designed as a sensorial journey through the city, revealing hidden gems, independent boutiques, galleries, and culinary experiences that together form Colombo’s creative heartbeat. To enhance engagement, AOD has introduced the Experience Colombo Passport, a playful and participatory way for people to immerse themselves in the campaign. Participants collect stamps by completing creative activities, dining at featured venues, or visiting design-led spaces. Those who complete a full trail gain exclusive access to events such as Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Sri Lanka, symbolically linking design exploration with community celebration. These experiences transform the city into a participatory exhibition, one where every citizen becomes both audience and storyteller. The initiative encourages people to slow down, to look closer, and to appreciate the city as a living, evolving design project.
From Storytelling to City-Making: What’s Next
The first phase of “What’s Your Colombo?” will culminate in a special showcase at Sri Lanka Design Festival 2025, hosted at Cinnamon Life. The event will not only celebrate the stories collected throughout the year but will also set the stage for Phase Two of the initiative; a bold step from storytelling to co-creation. Phase Two, set for rollout in 2026, will involve a series of collaborations with schools, universities, civic bodies, and creative institutions to embed design thinking into Colombo’s urban and cultural development. The goal is to make design a strategic driver of the city’s identity, sustainability, and innovation. Monthly thematic programmes will unite citizens, policymakers, and designers around shared goals, from urban green spaces to creative entrepreneurship, inclusive city planning, and cultural preservation. By integrating design into everyday decision-making, “What’s Your Colombo?” aims to shape a more inclusive, resilient, and expressive city. By the close of 2026, the initiative hopes to have positioned Colombo as South Asia’s emerging creative capital, a city that defines itself not just through infrastructure, but through imagination. SLDF 2026 will serve as the grand culmination of this journey, presenting how design and storytelling have redefined Colombo’s evolving identity on both a local and international stage.
A Living Narrative
At its heart, “What’s Your Colombo?” is a movement about belonging. It reminds us that cities are not built only from concrete or commerce, but from stories, from the countless personal experiences that together form a collective identity. Every lane, market, beach, or café holds a memory that contributes to the city’s narrative. Every voice, whether of an artist, student, or street vendor, adds texture to Colombo’s design. As Linda Speldewinde beautifully puts it: “Design gives us the ability to see what’s special about our city and to share it with the world. Colombo is a city of a million stories, and through design, we’re learning to tell them together.” The call to action is simple but profound: Join the movement. Experience the city through new eyes. Walk its trails. Share your story. Because the Colombo of tomorrow will be shaped not by a single vision, but by the mosaic of voices that choose to speak up today. “What’s Your Colombo?” isn’t just about celebrating the city, it’s about claiming ownership of it. It’s about rediscovering the ordinary and making it extraordinary through design, dialogue, and collective imagination. In doing so, AOD and Cinnamon Life are not only defining what Colombo is but reimagining what it can become: a city that tells its own story, one voice at a time.
Join the movement.
Explore the trails, capture your moments, and share your Colombo. Together, let’s design the story of our city; one experience at a time.
