Akmal Azhar Unit 22 Design tutor: Izaskun Chinchilla & Carlos Jimenez Thesis tutor: Tania Sengupta
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De-crystallizing the ‘frozen’ vernacular architecture through new invention. Reinvigorating vernacular architecture; room for innovation for the future 2050 (thesis as a test to see the appropriateness of new invention in vernacular). The house of the future in Malaysia 2050; critical analysis from the house of the past. A new meaning of vernacular architecture; inventing for the future 2050. The future of vernacular architecture; what will happen to the scenario of Malaysia 2050? Keywords; future, cultural, vernacular, 2050, Malaysia, ethnic, innovation, adaptation, mobility, migration.
Thread 1; Vernacular Architecture. o o o o
How the vernacular architecture changes? ‘Frozen’ idea of vernacular architecture. Not just from one place but by itself. Reading list by Paul Oliver (Oxford Brookes Uni). Books on ‘changes’ and ‘dynamic’ vernacular architecture. Vernacular can be problematic. Separated from technology, fix to a place to a particular community (yours is about dynamic idea of vernacular). Definition, term and ‘dynamic’ idea with few case studies.
Thread 2; Origin & Culture (the idea of ‘dynamic’ culture). o o o o o o o
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The notion of rooted culture. How culture could becomes more dynamic. The culture itself is not static. Culture becomes a fragment. Culture that is carried and left behind. People moves but always carry the idea of culture. Culture is continuously changed but the origin remains static. Each place has different influence. All of it is part of the so-called ‘origin’. But it filtered by the present. Traces of earlier lifestyle should be there but transformed into a more dynamic and active behaviour. The idea of identity. The notion of trace. Inheritance from the past. What the site has been left behind (*include this in design). Design the site that they have left, it leaves some traces as well. Sense of origins. Tribal. The dynamic idea of origin. More than origin. The idea of traces. Traces as mutual relationship. A trace is not just carried by one person but is the stuff that he leaves behind. Food culture etc. Locality and place has got something to do with ‘place based’. Vernacular etc. Designing assemblages for the new places. Collecting influences while moving and carrying traces of the past. People take place from locality.
Thread 3; The Idea of Mobility, Movements and Migration. o o
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Mapping of movements. Actual mapping. Relate to your personal design process (how you incorporate the cultural influence and the type of transportation). Design dynamic and mobile architecture. Huge type of possible scenarios of movements. Mobility. Why? Because of the globalisation and industrialisation which had cultured the big city. Globalisation. Metropolitan. Ignored movement about localisation. Local to local. Cultural transfer. Translocality by Ulrich Freitag. Globalisation studies by David Harvey and Saskia Sassen. The more globalised the world get, individual locality will face the threat. The value of the local culture will be more. Value of place becomes higher. We need to reinforce the culture. Idea of place is tied to a culture. Notion of place is not from site but from the places you have visited. Good to discuss about Saskia and Harvey’s idea but ‘however my thesis would be coming from…’. People carry more culture with them. Rooted culture & mobility & nomadism. Nomadism by Rosi Braidotti. Vision of the future. Future will be nomad. Projection of the future 2050. Nodes, not very hierarchical and linear. Village becomes a bit like a city, city a bit like a village, ambiguous. Community rooted in one places. In 2050 population will all be in urban areas? Extreme scenarios of the future. Nomadism. No hierarchy of big city and small city. Different nodes and specific? Nodes (idealised modern) (globalisation). Traditional way of movement from rural to urban to seek better life. Conservative. Linear. In India people will move from village to small town to big town. Resulted to a small town becomes more prominent and important.
Thread 4; Globalisation and Translocation. o o o o
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The notion of traces by Derrida. Traces (philosophical notion). Ecology networking by Jon Goodbun. Diagrammatic idea of less hierarchical type of settlements. Network ideas. Bruno Latour (network theory, actor, network, theory, non-human agents, things that are non-human has a major impact to human). Transnational migrants. World citizen. Localisation (domestic migrations). Internet (affecting the local area. Small town has internet. Global impact to local area). Translocality (connect point of local area). A lot of non-human shapes our life therefore they have power call ‘agents’. Read about the non-human agents (food, performance, etc). Material cultures. Other kind of thing that creates human culture. Te more ecological way of living (migration from urban to village giving disaster that damages the ecology). Less hierarchical is a bit better. Globalisation. Translocality. Movement within a country from locality to another locality. Within locality. Relationship of globalisation to locality. How globalisation affects locality. How Delhi architecture is related to America. How Delhi related to small town. Connection between local areas has been ignored. Species translocation.
Essay Structure. Abstract (500 words) Thread 1; Vernacular Architecture (1000-1500 words) Thread 2; Origins and Culture (1000-1500 words) Thread 3; The Idea of Mobility, Movements and Migration (1000-1500 words) Thread 4; Globalisation and Translocation (1000-1500 words) Thread 5; ? (1000-1500 words) Closure (100 words)