ETHICS IN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN: 4 ELEMENTS OF ARCHTECTURE: 12 12 SENSES AND EXPERIENCE-FIELD: 20 COMMUNITY KITCHEN: 26 SENSE OF SCALE: 32 INTANGIBLE CITY: 42 EXPLORING THE POSSIBILITY OF MATERIAL: 48 GEOMETRY AND COMPOSITION IN STRUCTURE: 54 TROPICAL PARADIGM: 62
ETHICS IN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN: THIEVES’ MARKET HOUSING
ETHICS IN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN We started off the semester learning about the ethics of architecture. Ethical conflicts present itself around every corner in the design process, and as architects, we need to learn to empathise and address these issues. Martin Bartel presented a list of ethical conflicts that we may face in architecture, ranging from macro level ones to some on a more micro scale. We were encouraged to find an ethical conflict in our local context and subsequently develop an architectural solution for it. In 2017, Thieves’ Market in Sungei Road was closed down following the government taking the land around Laut Road and Pitt Street for “Future housing development”. The ethical conflict identified here was that “Was it ethical to use the land to provide housing for Singappore’s growing population than keep the land for Thieves’ Market to preserve the cultural presence of such a historic market and help maintain the livelihood of the vendors who still depend on it
PROLOGUE ETHICS CONCERNS A CRUCIAL CATEGORY OF DESIGN THAT IS REDUCIBLE NEITHER TO AESTHETICS NOR TECHNOLOGY. HOWEVER, ETHICS PRECEDES THE JUDGMENT OF BEAUTY AND THE QUESTION OF ‘HOW TO DO’ (OR KNOW-HOW)—ONLY IF BECAUSE ETHICS IS FIRST NECESSARY TO DEFINE OUR POSITION AND APPROACH TO ANY DESIGN PROBLEM AND THIS POSITION NEITHER PRESUMES THE AESTHETIC NOR THE TECHNOLOGICAL. AND TO KNOW WHERE TO STAND ON THIS ISSUE THEN REQUIRES THE DESIGNER TO BE MORALLY SENSITIVE, AWARE, AND FINALLY, ABLE TO REASON ETHICALLY. IN DESIGN, WE WOULD CALL THESE CONSIDERATIONS KNOWLEDGE OF ‘DESIGN ETHICS’.
for income?”. Our solution chose not to side with either sides of the arguement, but provide a possible solution that allows stakeholders on both sides of the arguement to coexist.
THIEVES’
’ MARKET
PROJECT: THIEVES’ MARKET CONTEXT: JALAN BESAR PHOTOS: RUTH CHONG
WEEK 2
We designed a mix development on the site of thieves’ market according to the barricades the government has put up around the old site of Thieves’ Market. It combined two 40-story high residential blocks with a large mall below it. The mall opens up to a large open space meant for a new “Thieves’ Market” - a unregulated space concept where vendors from any part of singapore can come and set up their makeshift stores. Thieves’ Market in the past had been the ground zero of many successful businesses, and recreating a space like this for Singaporeans can help foster and bring back the entrepreneurial sprirt to the site. To homogenise the development with the streets of Jalan Besar, shophouses wil be built along the perimeter. They will feature a porous facade with alleys leading into the open space inside, allowing an inflow of human traffic into the site.
PROJECT: THIEVES’ MARKET CONTEXT: JALAN BESAR PHOTOS: RUTH CHONG
THIEVES’ MARKET
WEEK 2
THIEVES’ MARKET
PROJECT: THIEVES’ MARKET CONTEXT: JALAN BESAR PHOTOS: RUTH CHONG
WEEK 2
A secondary effect of our design is to promote social cohesion. Since the housing project is in the central area near the MRT, the cost of each unit will is projected to be quite expensive. Thus, the residents of the housing project will likely be wealthier than the people who depend on Thieves’ Market for a living. Integrating them in one space can promote better social integration and promote greater empathy and lead to a more considerate society. This not only solves the ethical conflict arising from the need for optimisation of land in Singapore, but also solves a secondary ethical issue in our society. However, there may be other ethical conflicts that exist in groups of people who may not have the platform to voice their views. This exercise thus highlights to us as architecture students about how important it was to analyse and study the people we design for, and think about how our decisions will affect their lives.
ELEMENTS OF ARCHTECTURE: NEW TIONG BAHRU
NEW TIONG BA
ELEMENTS OF ARCHTECTURE PROLOGUE: GOTTFRIED SEMPER USED A CARIBBEAN HUT AS A THEORETICAL MODEL FOR HIS “FOUR ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE”: THE HEARTH, THE ROOF, THE ENCLOSURE, AND THE MOUND. THE EDUCATION IN ÉCOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS IN THE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES WAS BASED ON THE ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS. SIGNIFICANTLY, AS REYNER BANHAM POINTED OUT, THIS ELEMENTALISM BECAME THE BACKDROP OF THE MODERN PARADIGM OF FUNCTIONALISM. CLAIMING THAT “A HOUSE IS A MACHINE FOR LIVING IN”, LE CORBUSIER TRIED TO UPDATE ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS AS IF THEY WERE MECHANICAL PARTS. IN THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT, REM KOOLHAAS AND HIS COLLABORATORS TRACED THE EVOLUTIONS OF 15 ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS AT VENICE BIENNALE 2014, REVEALING THE PROCESS OF THEIR DE-MATERIALISATION AND INFORMATISATION.
AHRU WEEK 3
The elements of architecture was something conceptualised by Gottfried Semper and later added onto by Le Corbusier. Understanding the basic elements of architecture can help you have more clarity when doing architectural design, and helps remind yourself to design on a more human scale. We were asked to choose a Hawker Centre to study about and study the different elements of it, and address issues where different elements have not been implemented well enough or identify other elements that will benefit the hawker centre, then redesign a new hawker centre that addresses all issues. We picked Tiong Bahru Market after going around a few to observe and interview users of the hawker centre. During the interview, we realised that there were many issues that affected the usability of the space as a hawker centre like the trapping of heat due to the design and layout of the ‘enclosure’ and ‘roof’, the breaking up of the ‘hearth’ due to the creation of a void for trees in the middle and also the visibility of the hawker centre to the outside due to a non-porous enclosure.
ART: YIP FENG LOCATION: WAI HING SHOP KUCHING, SARAWAK
PROJECT: NEW TIONG BAHRU PHOTOGRAPHY: YIP FENG CONTEXT: TIONG BAHRU MARKET
To address issues with the enclosure and the roof, we decided to open up the back of the hawker stores by not having walls surrounding the compound, but use louves and beams to create a porous facade. This allows for cross ventillation and allows the smell of the food to seep onto the outside, giving the passerbys a waft of the delicacies from within. The roof nolonger features a void, but has alternating triangular spikes that has random opaque and transparent faces. This allows for the filtering of sunlight and creates a Komorebi effect on the dining level. The old Tiong Bahru Market employed an extensive use of artificial lighting which cost a lot to operate and added to the heat problem. The issue with the hearth is fixed as we closed up the large central void, and brought the seats closer together. The patrons also now have a clear visual corridor to the stores on all sides and with each other, creating a warmer and more personal eating space.
NEW TIONG BAHRU WEEK 3 POROUS FACADE A POROUS FACADE WITH TRANSPARENT LOUVRES
AND
UNRESTRICTING
COLUMNS
AND
BEAMS ALLOWS FOR BETTER VENTILATION AND BETTER VISIBILITY.
NEW TIONG BAHRU WEEK 3
PROJECT: NEW TIONG BAHRU PHOTOGRAPHY: YIP FENG CONTEXT: TIONG BAHRU MARKET
The Tiong Bahru Market would not be complete without the wet market, and the double level layout allows for it to continue to thrive. The market has also become more porous due to the new facade and there is a stairs leading up to the hawker centre directly from the wet market. The breakdown of the various architectural elements can be seen here, the current Tiong Bahru Market compared to our proposal.
12 SENSES AND EXPERIENCE-FIELD: THOUGHT
12 SENSES AND EXPERIENCE-FIELD The 12 senses of the human being is part of the WALDORF education, which is based on the philosophy of Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner. Understanding the human senses is important in architecture, as you always design to appeal to the people that will use your space. For the week’s project, I was given the sense of thought. The sense of thought refers to the ability of a person to percieve thought. When I was given the sense of thought, I decided I was going to create a playground structure that would challenge the people that come to play in it. Inspired by Escher’s Impossible Staircase, I tried to recreate it, but with a twist. Escher’s impossible staircase was possible in 2D, but creating a 3D structure proved difficult. I ended up with a maze that had hint’s of Escher’s idea from a far, but worked as a maze when you’re inside. Basically, there was
PROLOGUE ARCHITECTURE IS AN ART AND SYNTHESIS OF ALL THOSE CAPACITIES. TO BECOME ARCHITECTS WITH SUCH MYRIAD CAPACITIES, IT ISESSENTIAL THAT WE BE ABLE TO OBSERVE, FEEL WITH DEEP SINCERITY, AND BE EMPATHETIC TO THE PEOPLE WHOM WE SERVE AS DESIGNERS OF THEIR HOME AND CITY. ONLY WITH SUCH STRONG FOUNDATIONS AND VALUES CAN ARCHITECTS DEPLOY THEIR SKILL AND TECHNOLOGY FOR THE BETTERMENT OF OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT.
one start point and one end point, and climbing up and down staircases and ladders will only bring you from one dead end to another. It forces the user to perservere to find the one way to the end point.
THE THOUGHT
T BOX
PROJECT: THE THOUGHT BOX PHOTOGRAPHY: YIP FENG CONTEXT: 12 SENSES PLAYGROUND
WEEK 4
PROJECT: THE THOUGHT BOX PHOTOGRAPHY: YIP FENG CONTEXT: 12 SENSES PLAYGROUND
THE THOUGHT BOX
WEEK 4
Here comes the twist, the only way of reaching the exit of the Thought Box was to think outside the box, literally. All the staircases inside lead to a dead end, where there is no choice but to turn around back into the atrium of the playground. One has to walk out of the box to find the hidden staircase on the side wall to climb up to the top, where they can finally find their way to the end point. This exercise teaches the user one important thing, that problems can be solved when you look at the big picture. Sometimes, creative approaches are the only way out of dead end problems, and one must take a step back to see a way around any “impossible” problems in life.
DEAD END THE ONLY WAY TO GET TO THE END PICTURED ON THE RIGHT, IS TO CLIMB THE LADDER, PICTURED ON THE LEFT.
COMMUNITY KITCHEN: AKITCHEN
COMMUNITY KITCHEN The project of designing a community kitchen is centered around the concept of participatory design. Participatory design is the idea of involving your stakeholders in the design process, adding a more empathetic side to the architectural process. Architecture is often seen as a very topdown system, where the owner of the land works with the architect to dictatorially design a space for people to use. Participatory design teaches us to look at how the space influences the daily lives of every end user and helps us shape our design to better suit and fufil their needs. When we were given this project, we wanted to create a framework that weaves the practice of participatory design into every form of architecture design. This framework is a process that is flexible and simple enough to help all architects to follow a more involving design process. We used this opportunity to test out our process in an accessible and more familiar context - our architectural studio.
AKITCHEN
WEEK 5
PROJECT: AKITCHEN CONTEXT: NUS ARCH STUDIOS PHOTOS: NIL
PROJECT: AKITCHEN CONTEXT: NUS ARCH STUDIOS PHOTOS: NIL
AKITCHEN
WEEK 5
We created a number of steps as a guide to follow after testing the system out on our stakeholders - the architecture students meant to use the space. We started off with a round table discussion which included random members of the community. We got together to discuss and pool together ideas for the community kitchen for the survey we were going to distribute to the masses. The onine survey was then conducted and the data collected was then analysed. In conjunction with this, we also went around to the stakeholders for an interactive design process. We conceptualised a way to obtain a “wisdom of the crowd” result. We attached a piece of transparency to an acrylic board with the site plan, and gave people different coloured markers to draw on the transparencies, with each colour representing furniture, appliances and recreational items. We would then stack the transparencies together and be able to collate where most of each colour were at. This helped create a rough layout how the “wisdom of the crowd” kitchen looked like. Architectural intervention came after. Architectural intervention was still key in this design process, as it is the architect’s duty to understand and refine the needs and wants of the people. After the final design is conceptualised, The final step was to get the approval of the end users. This last step gives the architect an evaluation of their work and also closes the loop, making the end users feel much happier about the end design, having been a part of it.
SENSE OF SCALE: KUCHING, SARAWAK
KUCHING, SARAWAK
K
A SENSE OF SCALE A sense of scale is part and parcel of every PROLOGUE: A SENSE OF SCALE IS INDISPENSABLE IN UNDERSTANDING ARCHITECTURE AND DRAWING. WHEN WE SAY A SPACE IS ‘TIGHT’, ‘COSY’, OR ‘OVERSIZED’ OR OVERWHELMING FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WE ARE REFERRING TO A SENSE OF ‘HUMAN SCALE’ OR THE MEASURE OF SPACE REQUIRED FOR HUMAN ACTIVITY. THE FINE-SCALE MEASURE OF SPACE AND FORM FOR BODILY MOVEMENTS FOR VARIOUS TASKS REQUIRES FAMILIARITY WITH THE DOMAIN OF STUDY NAMED ANTHROPOMETRY. AN AWARENESS OF THE HUMAN BODY’S DIMENSIONS ALSO SERVES AS A MEASURE FOR ESTIMATION. A SENSE FOR PROPORTION REFERS TO DIMENSIONS OF PARTS IN RELATION TO THE WHOLE AND IS ESSENTIAL IN VISUAL ESTIMATION WHEN DOCUMENTING WHAT YOU SEE. FAMILIARITY WITH DIF ERENT SCALES AND THE REQUIRED LEVEL OF DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION IS ALSO FUNDAMENTAL TO ARCHITECTURAL DRAWING.
architect’s daily life. Architecture would be impossible without a sense of scale, everyone would spend their day trying to reach for the biscuit tin on the kitchen island or bumping their heads on door frames if we built things based on estimation. The exericse helps us understand both scales ranging from macro
ones
like 1:10000,
1:1000 and micro ones like 1:50, 1:20. This project helps us put into perspective why scale matters in architecture.
WEEK 6 - 8 ART: GROUP DESCRIPTION: 1/10000 SCALE MAP CONTEXT: KUCHING, SARAWAK
ART: YIP FENG DESCRIPTION: SKETCHES CONTEXT:: KUCHING, SARAWAK
For this week’s project, we went to Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak. Sarawak is one of the states in Malaysia, located in the Borneo region.In Kuching, we first had to study the overall map of the city, in 1:10000 scale. After we touched down and exploed the city in more detail, we, in our respective groups picked a neighbourhood to focus on. A neighbourhood map is then drawn in 1:1000 scale. We found the urban grain of Kuching to be very interesting, as Kuching was a city not land scarce, but we found that the area around carpenter street was much denser than any other area in the city.
STREET PERSPECTIVE The streetscape of the connecting street to Carpenter Street - China Street. Drawn in perspective, it
KUCHING, SARAWAK
helps you contextualise the space, and how people
WEEK 6 - 8
lived, worked and play in Kuching
ART: YIP FENG DESCRIPTION: SKETCHES CONTEXT: KUCHING, SARAWAK
KUCHING
As this exercise was on the exploration of different scales, it was important that we were able to understand elevation and section in scale. I brought my tape measure on this trip to Kuching and tried to measure as many things as I could, from height of ceiling to the ground to the widths of the columns holding the shophouses up. Using inking techniques, textures were added in to show the materiality of different surfaces and show as much depth as possible in the elevation drawing. I added perspective to the five-foot way as it reflected the context of the space much better. The frame beside the scale bar was to 1:20 scale. The elevation drawing of the shophouses are to the right.
G, SARAWAK
WEEK 6 - 8
Part of the exercise was to get to know Kuching on a more personal level. I took my time to talke to various shop owners to figure out which shop I would like to focus my presentation on. Mdm Auyong’s shop stood out to me. She was a gentle old lady who never hesistated for a moment to tell me more about her stories as a resident of Kuching. She told me how her parents started the shop back in colonial days, and how the business have survived through so much of Kuching’s history to get to where it was today. Today, it is already a 3rd generation business for her family, and she still fondly keeps the shop as it was almost 50 years ago despite having expanded the business.
ART: YIP FENG DESCRIPTION: SKETCHES CONTEXT: KUCHING, SARAWAK
INTANGIBLE CITY: /
PROJECT: / CONTEXT: HIROSHI HARA 50CM X 50CM PHOTOS: YIP FENG
INTANGIBLE CITY PROLOGUE
Marginalisation of people in society is an ever-prevalent problem in the world we live in. The ‘Intangible City’ project asks us to represent this issue in an abstract model representation, with collage or bricollage and using the techniques of print making. The concept behind the design of our 50cm x 50cm 1:10 scale cube was the showcase of resistance. We wanted to show that while people live in difference classes in society today, they could still enjoy happiness by making the best of their situation and embracing the other aspects of life. Therefore, we see in the model that there are two ends of the cube, a rich end and a poorer end. The rich looks down to the poor while the poor looks up at the rich. This is a representation of human nature and the idea of pride and greed. The rich is potrayed to be in their “happy place” where they go to enjoy and is surrounded by grandiose. However, we mirrored the happy place of the rich onto the ‘poor’ side to show the idea of resistance, where the marginalised can have a happy place too, within their own means.
ARCHITECTURE IS AN ART AND SYNTHESIS OF ALL THOSE CAPACITIES. TO BECOME ARCHITECTS WITH SUCH MYRIAD CAPACITIES, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE BE ABLE TO OBSERVE, FEEL WITH DEEP SINCERITY, AND BE EMPATHETIC TO THE PEOPLE WHOM WE SERVE AS DESIGNERS OF THEIR HOME AND CITY. ONLY WITH SUCH STRONG FOUNDATIONS AND VALUES CAN ARCHITECTS DEPLOY THEIR SKILL AND TECHNOLOGY FOR THE BETTERMENT OF OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT
/
WEEK 9
/
PROJECT: / CONTEXT: HIROSHI HARA 50CM X 50CM PHOTOS: YIP FENG
WEEK 9
Happiness is subjective, having less material wealth doesn’t mean that you lose the right to happiness. The sun represents the warmth that the rich enjoy in their warmth, it symbolises wealth and the ability to get their hands on anything they want. On the other hand, the marginalised still enjoy their warmth too, symbolised by the campfire. While they can’t summon the sun or the moon, they still are able to enjoy the warmth being in their happy place gives them.
EXPLORING THE POSSIBILITY OF MATE HAWKER REJECTS
ERIAL:
EXPLORING THE POSSIBILITY OF MATERIAL This assignment asks us to question materiality in architecture. One question that spoke to me in the readings was “why do we use materials that can last 100 years for a building that will only be around for 50?”. I found this very relevant to the world we live in today, as sustainablity has become a key issue in the architectural world. We kept this question close as we started working on this project. A close-loop system was also a key focus for us, as we wanted to make use of recycled materials. Recycling materials by getting users involved in the process helps create awareness of the cost savings and need for sustainablity in the world we live in. We focused on the context of a hawker centre, were waste is created by the ton everyday. We looked at various materials that were produced, like sugar cane pulp, which could offer ten-
PROLOGUE THE PROBLEM OF SUSTAINABLE USE OF RESOURCES IN CONSTRUCTION AS WELL AS IN ALL OTHER INDUSTRIES IS NOT ISOLATED NOR RESTRICTED TO ONE MATERIAL: ENERGY, SPACE, TIME, HUMAN CAPITAL, ECO-SYSTEM SERVICES ETC. CAN ALL BE CONSIDERED RESOURCES AND IN A CIRCULAR ECONOMY WHERE NOTHING WOULD GO TO WASTE. THE CHALLENGE OF THIS WORKSHOP IS TO IDENTIFY SUCH A RESOURCE AND RETURN IT TO A CIRCULAR SYSTEM BY POSSIBLY UP-CYCLING IT.
sile strength, egg shells, which when powdered can add material stiffness and also chicken bones, which can be used to manufacture glue, a binding agent.
HAWKER REJECT
WEEK 10
PROJECT: SOMETHING CONTEXT: NIL PHOTOS: YIP FENG
PROJECT: SOMETHING CONTEXT: NIL PHOTOS: YIP FENG
HAWKER REJECT
WEEK 10
To fufill the idea that materials should last as long as the lifetime of the object it makes, we decided we wanted to replace the plastic bits on an everyday stool with something more biodegradable. As stools are usually extremely cheap, the constuction of one is not great, they will end up falling apart after a couple of years and can be cheaply replaced. Therefore, we hoped to create a material that can last just as long as that. We created a mould of the seat deck of the stool and stacked sheets of woven sugarcane pulp, known as bagasse, on each other and layered egg shell bits between the layers of bagasse. The chicken bone glue acted as the binding agent for all the different layers and held them together. The mixture was then baked in an industrial oven which hardens it into its final form.
GEOMETRY AND COMPOSITION IN S TETRA BRIDGE / TETRA DOME
STRUCTURE:
TETRA BRIDGE
PROJECT: TETRA BRIDGE CONTEXT: NIL PHOTO: YIP FENG
WEEK 11
GEOMETRY AND COMPOSITION IN STRUCTURE For week 11, Design AR1101 collaborated with Structural Principles AR1327 for the week’s project. The idea was that we were supposed to design a bridge and dome that has the best weight efficiency to the specification of being able to support the weight of 2 cans. We trialed and error models upon models before finally ending up with our final design, inspired by the tetrahedral structure of the carbon compound that exists as diamond. Through this process, we learnt about how best to streamline materials used in construction and find the right balance between streamlining and maintaining structural rigidity.
PROLOGUE ARCHITECTS AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS WORK HAND IN HAND TO COME TO ARTISTIC SOLUTIONS AND INNOVATIONS THAT RECONCILE HUMANITY AND NATURE, AESTHETICS AND FUNCTION, MATERIAL USAGE AND MULTIPLE USAGES OF SPACES. WITH THESE CONSIDERATIONS IN MIND, HOW CAN WE GENERATE A UNIQUE STRUCTURE AND ENVELOPE THAT SUITS PEOPLE, NATURE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE TROPICS?
PROJECT: TETRA DOME CONTEXT: NIL PHOTO: YIP FENG
TETRA DOME
WEEK 11
The final result of the construction of the dome resulted in a much stronger than spec structure. Our tutor reminded us that we should always design to spec as it was an exercise on streamlining. While we did not have the opportunity to amend the design in the timeframe we had, we did computer simulations to figure out how much material we could cut down. In the end, we concluded that while we might have been able to streamline our current design by reducing width and using lighter wood, our design was always going to be strong enough to handle more than spec due to the strong nature of the tetrahedral structure.
ACCIDENTAL DOME THE DOME WAS FORMED BY FAILURE. WE TRIED TO BUILD A GEODISIC DOME THAT WAS ARCHITECTURALLY INNOVATIVE, BUT WAS NEVER TO BE. SO WE SCRAPED IT AND LOOKED ELSEWHERE
Both the bridge and the dome were formed out of a common module. This module as described previously was obtained from the deconstruction of The dome is made out of the same module the bridge is built out of. However, the dome employed a second module as a joint. The second module is a recycled part originally meant to be used to connect beams in a geodesic dome. After giving up on the grodesic dome, we tried our best to recreate a dome using the parts we started with, so as to reduce material wastage. We played around with different parts until we arrived at this design - which employed the tetrahedral sturcture of the carbon compound in diamond.
PROJECT: TETRA BRIDGE AND DOME CONTEXT: NIL PHOTO: YIP FENG
MODULARITY BEING ABLE TO CREATE A DOME AND BRIDGE WITH ONLY 2 MODULES HELPS REDUCE COST AND SIMPLIFIES CONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS. WHILE ITS EFFECTS MAY NOT BE APPARENT AT THIS SCALE, IT IS USEFUL TO CONSIDER MODULRITY IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
TETRA BRIDGE & DOME
WEEK 11
TROPICAL PARADIGM: DAUN
DAUN WEEK
K 12
TROPICAL PARADIGM PROLOGUE: “ARE THOSE INVOLVED AWARE THAT THEY HAVE PERHAPS UNWITTINGLY LEGITIMISED THE PRIMACY OF THE CUBE AND THE SURFACE PLANE AS THE LANGUAGE OF FORM AND SPACE APPLIED TO THE PROBLEM OF TROPICAL AESTHETICS NOTWITHSTANDING THE PHYSICS OF TROPICAL DESIGN?” TAY KHENG SOON “‘NEO-TROPICAL’ HAD THE MOTIVE NOT ONLY TO RESTORE BUT ALSO TO CHALLENGE THE CURRENT STATUS OF TOPICALITY. WE ARE, IN NO WAY, CLAIMING HIGHER OR A TOTALLY NEW GROUND. HOWEVER, IT IS TIMELY TO CHALLENGE CERTAIN COMFORTABLE NOTIONS OF THE ALL-IMPORTANT ISSUE OF IDENTITY USUALLY TIED TO THE VERNACULAR. WHAT IS SINGAPORE’S VERNACULAR ANYWAY?” CHAN SOO KHIAN
The project originated from an debate between Tay Kheng Soon and Chia Soo Khian. Tay asserts that we in Singapore with a tropical climate, have our own tropical design language instead of adopting western architectural principles we have followed for a long time, while Chan argues that trying to do will just result in a superficial natural identity. Our studio split into two groups and each took a side of the arguement. We were on Chan’s side. After a debate in studio, with each group trying to embody the believe that led our group to realise that there should not be who is right or wrong situation, and architecture can benefit from having a balance of having both sides of their respective views. We set ourselves a limitation of Chan’s design maxim - modernist and rectillinear, in coming up with our own tropical solution architecture. The deliverables was a 60cm x 60cm model that embodied tropical architecture. It had to allow for cross ventillation, good rain protection by having a gapless roof looking top down and finally good protection from the strong tropical sunlight.
PROJECT: DAUN LOCATION: ULUWATU BALI, INDONESIA
DAUN WEEK 12
As we had the freedom to choose our own context and scale, we agreed as a team on a 1:10 scale and that we wanted to design a pavilion atop the cliffs of Uluwatu, a coastal region in the small island of Bali, Indonesia. I came up with an idea that started as a square, made of a 10 x 10 grid of smaller squares - like a chess board. Then I thought about what if we kept them in a grid, but exploded them in the vertical axis. A groupmate saw my concept and realised that the original model looked like a leaf, and our design took off from there. Other elements were added for practicality, but turned out to add to the tropicality of the whole design. Light permeable screens were added to the sunset facing facade of the pavilion, and a gradient of fading square holes were added on them as a modern take on the holes atop shop house. This allowed for cross ventilation even at night when occupants may want privacy. PROJECT: DAUN LOCATION: ULUWATU BALI, INDONESIA
DAUN
WEEK 12
PROJECT: DAUN LOCATION: ULUWATU BALI, INDONESIA
A project requirement was that our tutor had to be able to stick his head into the structure to experience how windy it is and how much light is allowed into the structure. The stucture is designed according to the movement of the sun in the tropical climate. In the morning and afternoon, when the sun is at its strongest, the cascading screens filter out most of the sunlight, only letting in some rays of light through the tiny squares of the screens. The filtered light will fall onto the interior of the pavilion, giving a “komorebi” effect to the interior space (Komorebi is the Japanese word for light that filters through the canopy of leaves on the trees in a forest and scatters on the forest ground). Since the time of sunrise and time of sunset does not change in the tropics unlike countries outside the tropic of cancer and tropic of capricorn. Therefore, we think that architecture in the tropics can take advantage of this characteristic of the climate to break down walls and open up more spaces. Our design therefore concedes to Tan’s assertion that we can embrace a tropical design principle, while using modernist and rectilinear design principles that have proven to be efficient in construction and maintenance that Chan feels we should not reject to use.
AR1101 YEAR 1 SEM 1 PORTFOLIO BY YIP FENG SPECIAL THANKS TO: RYAN CHIAM, EUGENE SIM, WAN NABILAH, KELLY TAN, LIM WEN JIE, KOH ZHE WEI, RUTH CHONG, HAZEL PHUA, ABIGAIL LEONG, MICHELLE VANIA, ZHANG JING HAN AND PROF TOMOHISA MIYAUCHI