Archipelago of illusions

KU Leuven Maig.24 Design Studio Tutor | Martine De Maeseneer

Archipelago of Illusions M a l a y s i a B i e n n a l 1 0 0 YC : M e d i n i 2 0 1 7

Alexander Halabi, Claudia Diana, Giulia Azaria, Toufic Jreije

Archipelago of Illusions Malaysia Biennal 100YC: Medini 2017

University of KU Leuven LUCA School of Arts Architecture Department Campus St-Lucas [June 2017]

Tutor: Students:

Maig.24 Design Studio Martine De Maeseneer Giulia Azaria Claudia Diana Alexandre Halabi Toufic K. Jreije

Table of Contents

The crisis of contemporary cities

pag. 1

Pop-up cities

pag. 2

The Ideal City

pag. 3

Elastic deformation & Hyper archeology

pag. 7

The river

pag. 12

De-densification

pag. 16

Archipelago

pag. 17

The illusion

pag. 21

Absolute Architecture

pag. 23

The illusion and its forms

pag. 24

Catalog of illusions

pag. 30

Conclusion

pag. 50

Research

pag. 51

Bibliography

pag. 78

The crisis of contemporary cities When you think about your favourite places, most of us come up with places rich in history - pre-automobile cities with charm and sense of memory gave by time like Venice, Paris, Amsterdam, or London.

Yet the “ideal city� cannot just be a museum piece, a throwback to the past, as enjoyable as it might be. It must be a vital, contemporary city, one that combines history with an energy and vitality. A city that has a combination of history, vital cultural life, endowed with exciting physical features, such as great rivers, bays and harbours, mountain ranges, with at least one season with a gentle and comfortable climate.

Nowadays the contemporary city falls into a current self-absorbed performances of iconic buildings, parametric designs, or redundant mappings of every possible complexity and contradiction of the urban world. The crisis of the contemporary city is made by generic landscapes and lack of meanings.

The growing popularity of architecture is inversely proportional to the increasing sense of political powerlessness and cultural disillusionment many architects feel about their effective contribution to the built world.

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Pop-up cities “The confluence of capital produces generic landscapes that no longer find a local cultural affinity but instead dissolve into an oblivious spatial blur.�

Vittorio Aureli

MBR City, United Arab Emirates Lanzhou, China

Amavarati, India

Forest City, Malaysia

Eko Atlantic, Nigeria

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Appolonia City, Ghana

The Ideal City During the Roman Times the rational city planning was based on the practical criteria and functionality, which provided a standardization of Roman settlement pattern on a checkerboard planimetry.

Starting from V-VI century there was a real philosophical reflection about city planning, inspired by Plato and his Republic and Laws, where the philosopher theorized the ideal polis: albeit from theories of a political nature, Plato came to assume an architectural design capable of implement their content.

The new centrality reached by the mankind triggered a transformation process of the city from a simple settlement of monumental function, to an identification function, dividing id the political and social expression of a distinct cultural and historical era, transforming the architecture in an instrument of mankind centralization, aided by the study of perspective.

Starting from the XV century an interest for an architectural approach able to translate the political theory of that era began to grow: the ideal city answered to a functional needs by extremely rational and ordered solutions, planning into the urban fabric, with a careful analysis of the position and perspective, the key points of the political and social life, which public buildings, squares and fortifications.

The Ideal city of the XV century transformed the city from a simple settlement of monumental function, to an identification function, transforming the architecture in an instrument of mankind centralization, with a careful analysis of the position and perspective, highlighting the key points of the political and social life, with public buildings, squares and fortifications.

Ideal City, Anonymous, XV century

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City size analysis:

Medini

Gent center

Beirut center

Manhattan

Malaysia

Belgium

Lebanon

USA

7.6 km/sq

21 km/sq

59 km/sq

1,600/km2

2,800/km2

27,812/km2

Area 9.3 km/sq

Population density

3,100/k2

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City grid analysis: Medini city block: 70x130 m (to increase high density and mixed use)

Manhattan

size block: 80 x 274 m

Paris

size block: 35 x 115 m flexible

Barcelona

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size block: 113 x 113 m

Elastic deformation & Hyper archeology Deformation is identified as a form of transition between geometric and organic forms.

Here there is a contradiction between the topography and the formal model or grid.

A series of deformation occur which enable the grid to adapt to the hills.

The grid functions as a supple mesh that adheres to the land contours. Its weave is distorted vertically without any alteration to the basic geometry. When applied to the terrain this translates as the alteration of uphill and downhill slopes crossing over the hills. These variations can be bound in both orthogonal street directions. The grid crosses hills without being particularly affected by them. This is adaptation by elastic deformation.

Vertical elastic deformation is the basic grid deformation in Medini.

We implemented the elastic deformation with the concept of hyper-archeology where the levels of the terrain are used as layers in which we implemented a green belt that creates a natural transition between the flats of the city and the hill terrain.

The green belt acts as a natural corridor in which the hills and flats can breathe rather than live in congestion.

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hills grid 70x60 m

green belt

topography

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Our team kept working on Hyper archaeology analyzing the depression sites as well as the hills, and we chose to provide a water collection system for Medini, which could regenerate the water cycle, lower temperature and reduce the pollutants that flow into the rivers and into the sea.

Sustainable water management systems applies where the city’s existing drainage systems and pumping stations has become insufficient.

The aim is to collect rainwater during heavy rainfall, preventing surrounding streets from flooding and provide the city with water of sufficient quality during dry periods.

Evaporation

Infiltration

Inflow

Baseflow

Runoff

Overflow level

Outlet pipe Overflow

Outlet

Extendend

Permanent pool

detention depth

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The river The river works as the main axis in Medini and it offers much more than just a water-cycle.The position of the river is optimized in a way in which it acts as a wind corridor and emphasizes the wind rose effect to compensate for the temperature fluctuations of the humid climate of Malaysia. The linearity of the river and the decreasing of the height of the buildings create a one point perspective view in the city that pulls us closer to nature and dedensification.

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Case study: Cheonggyecheon, Seoul, 2005

Ecological breakover

Mangrove edge

Tidal pool sea wall

Urban promenade

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Section - height decreasing and de-densification

Hill section - systems

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De-densification Declustering a city not only by decreasing building height, but also through de-densifying the city blocks by unpluggings building and introducing green spaces as a collective and water spaces to bring back the small water cycle into the community becoming a cooling factor in the face of the warm climate.

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Archipelago ‘The notion of the Archipelago, originated in a group study lead by German architect Oswald Mathias Ungers titled ‘Berlin as Green Archipelago’ in 1977 (Ungers, Ovaska, Riemann, Kollhoff, Koolhaas), created a reinterpretation of Berlin as a potential ‘city made by islands.’ Berlin’s reality was reinforced through form by making sharp and legible the limits of each ‘island.’ Each island was defined by the compositions of architectural artifacts making a formally defined micro-city. Ungers thought that this approach (singular architectural interventions instead of cohesive spatial designs) would be able to overcome the crisis of the city by turning the crisis itself (the impossibility of planning the city) into the very project of the architecture of the city.’

Starting from the intention of giving the city its identity back (like in the ideal city) we want to use the Archipelago as a tool to invert the criteria in the design process: starting from the small scale and then relate to the city scale. The micro-cities that together compose the Archipelago and the city work on their own thanks to mixed use of the areas.

They oppose to the concept of zoning, working each one regardless their context in the city. These micro cities, each one dominated by a landmark multiply the city centre in 8 different ones, avoiding to congestion excessively one part of Medini.

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illusion

What sort of significant and critical relationship can architecture aspire to in a world that is no longer constituted by the idea and the motivations of the city, but is instead dominated by urbanization and monumental buildings?

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Things in the past were pretty straight forward when it comes to point of views, and perspectives, however, today we live in a world where things are changing so fast, that they can happen right in front of our eyes. Things are never the same and when you look at them from a different angle, you would realise that what is now there, is something totally different than what you initially perceived. In this present day we live with illusions, whether it’s the way we mislead someone or be misled just by speech, things that may be out of perspective. However when you put words into perspective and say things as they are, we would hear and view things more clearly. Optical illusions are sights and visions that mislead the viewer and allow them to see something that is not there and could only be depicted from a certain point of perspective. The introduction of these illusions throughout our city is a way to direct people to and show them what might be hidden in between, while looking at it from a different and certain angle. The illusions would be the main entrances to the “islands� and what defines them.

In this illustration we are trying to show this illusion. What we are seeing is a mass plan of Medini and how we can view different volume perspectives of the same element depending on which mirror we look at. do the illusions work, still remain visible no matter what point in the cities are placed, and that allows to recognise them as landmarks.

In this way we will attempt to invert the paradigm of site by reevaluating the architectural object first, and then its relationship with the city, instead of initializing the process by looking at the context first, creating a renewed relationship with the city and a new urban logic.

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Absolute architecture Archipelago made by Absolute Architecture, meant as architectural projects that conserve the full of power to its essence even when separated from the urban system it has been included in.

In an Archipelago, just like the micro-cities are independent from their context, the landmark that creates the “island� would still be the same regardless of the context it is placed in whether it is, in Paris, or in the desert (example of Eiffel Tower: as an iconic building for Paris, if it is placed outside of its context, it will loose all his meaning).

The buildings we create, our absolute architecture, are of certain significance standing alone, or implemented in our city.

If our building is placed in a desert, we can still see the illusions and different perspectives it provides, and when it is in insert in the context of a city, we can see the full effect of the illusion created by the architecture and the surroundings becoming one entity.

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One - point perspective All elements that are perpendicular to the picture plane converge at a single point (a vanishing point) on the horizon.

Shining, Stanley Kubrick, 1980

2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick, 1968

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Anamorphosis prefix ana-, means “back” or “again” and the word morphe means “shape” or “form”: recomposed form.

By means of a geometric artifice in which a distorted image reassumes meaning just by looking at the subject from a specific vantage point.

The Ambassador, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533

The Assumption, Andrea Pozzo, 1685 (Sant Ignazio Church, Rome)

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Felice Varini “My concern is what happens outside the vantage point of view.�

La Villette En Suites, Felice Verani, 2015

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Jan Dibbets “The camera records something quite different from what we see. There are no rectangular formats in nature, only in art, and only if we choose to look at it that way.�

6 Hour Tide Object With Correction of Perspective, Jan Dibbets, 2009

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Kokichi Sugihara “Impossible objects”. They are considered possible only in a picture, however they can be constructed as 3D objects by a mathematical method. Those 3D objects give us an impression that they are impossible although they are actually in front of us.

“Objects appear to be ordinary, but we can insert motions that appear to be impossible.”

First Generation: Anomalous Objects, Kokichi Sugihara, 1980

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The Ames Room As a result of the optical illusion, a person standing in one corner appears to the observer to be a giant, while a person standing in the other corner appears to be a dwarf.

The Ames Room, Adelbert Ames Jr., 1934

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Catalog of illusions

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The bridges What Felice Varini does with illustrated figures can be transformed into solid volumes and allow us to play with shapes.

The geometry is revealed only by looking at it from a specific selected point of view.

Bridges along the river offer a perfect object to study the rules of Anamorphosys and apply them to our project.

View from vantage point

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Malay pavilion Toufic K. Jreije

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View from vantage point

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The socket building Toufic K. Jreije

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View from vantage point

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A Stack of Cubes Alexandre Halabi

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View from vantage point

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“Two and half columns” building Alexandre Halabi

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View from vantage point

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The elevated square Giulia Azaria

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View from vantage point

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The structure Giulia Azaria

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View from vantage point

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The Ames square Claudia Diana

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View from vantage point

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Gateway harbour Claudia Diana

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View from vantage point

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‘Archipelago of illusions’ achieves to differentiate from pop-up cities and get closer to a way of design adaptable to the city it’s applied to.

The relationship to the geographic, climatic, topographic and cultural context drives the project, and brought us to define the grid, the multy-centric centre, the contour of the green spaces and the water dedicated spaces.

Hyper archeology let us establish a continuous green corridor in the city, opposed to the interrupted green zones as they are designed in the official Medini Iskandar plan.

We also determined the depression sites that would have been compatible to the water management system we applied to prevent from flooding, to regenerate the water cycle and also to lower the temperature.

The zonification planned by our team distinguishes different micro-cities working as multy-funcion areas. Each one of this micro-cities works on its own besides the context it’s placed in, it has it’s own centre, dominated by an illusion building. The illusion buildings work just as the micro-cities but at a different scale: no matter the context, the illusion works on it’s own.

Archipelago of illusions unites in a masterplan meaningful design with a practical strategy.

It creates a new prototype for future cities, applicable everywhere while keeping the particular features and identity of the places where it is applied to.

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Research

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Medini (2016)

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Fisherman village

Vegetations

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Medini surrounding areas

JOHOR BAHRU

EDU CITY

LIN

EA

MEDICAL HUB

RP AR

K

NUSAJAYA RESIDENCES

JOHOR STATE NEW ADMINISTRATIVE CENTER

PINEWOOD ISKANDAR MALAYSIA STUDIOS

LEISURE FARM

PELABUHAN PORT

exclusive residential education and research

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FISHERMAN VILLAGE

government/institute

Existing connections

Singapore Johro Bahru Ringroad

Pasir Gudang Highway

Costal Highway

Kota Tinggi Link

North - South Highway

Singapore MRT - North South Line

Senal - Desaru Highway

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Singapore connections Tuas second link

1. Tuas Second Link checkpoint withwith tool tool charges - -checkpoint charges built to the traf congestion at the Johor–Singapore Causeway - opened in Causeway - -built toreduce reduce thec traffic congestion at the Johor–Singapore 1998 - opened in 1998 lenght: 1,92 km km - -lenght: 1,92

Public/private transport: - Causeway Link from Bukit Indah (Johor Bahru District) to Jurong East Bus Inter Public/private transport: change, Singapore - Causeway Link from Bukit Indah (Johor Bahru District) to Jurong East Bus - Bus 182/182M Singapore (SBS Transit) from Singapore to Tuas Checkpoint Interchange,

- Bus 182/182M (SBS Transit) from Singapore to Tuas Checkpoint

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1

Singapore connections Johor - Singapore Causeway

2. Johor - Singapore Causeway - it serves as road, railway and water pipint into Singapore - checkpoint with tool charges

- it serves - openedas in road, 1923 railway and water pipint into Singapore - checkpoint with tool charges - lenght: 1 km - opened 1923 Publicin transport: - lenght: km from Johor Bahru Sentral to Woodlands CIQ - Train1 (KTM)

- Bus from Larkin Bus Terminal (Johor Bahru) to Juron East MRT Station, Singapore

Public transport: - Train (KTM) from Johor Bahru Sentral to Woodlands CIQ

- Bus from Larkin Bus Terminal (Johor Bahru) to Juron East MRT Station, Singapore

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Environmental conditiones

Developing country Located in Humid Tropics Temperature: 21°C to 32°C Rainfall 3000 mm Distinct dry and rainy seasons Humidity Ave. 80%

1) Closeness to the Pacific ring of fire:

Earthquekes and tsinamis 2) Dry season

Dry spells 3) Rainy season Floodings 4) Water management issues

Polluted water 5) Fast development

Light and air pollution

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Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Source: USGS National Earthquake information center and Eric Gaba.

Geography: close to the Pacific ring of fire, situated on the Sunda shelf. Malaysia’s location above Indonesia protects the country from most major natural disasters.

Strategic Location: sismically stable, partially protected from tsunamis by surrounding landmasses, and is a rare target to typhoons due to the strategic location outside tropical cyclone basins.

Source: Tsunami-Data and statistics: preventionweb.net

Source: Tsunami2004.net

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Dry season’s consequences

The weather in Malaysia is characterised by two monsoon seasons; namely the Southwest Monsoon from April to September, and the Northeast Monsoon from October to March. The Northeast Monsoon brings heavy rainfall, particularly to the east coast states of Peninsular Malaysia and western Sarawak, whereas the Southwest Monsoon normally signifies relatively drier weather.

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Flood impact

Flooded area- 29,720 Km2 9% of the total land area of Malaysia 4.9 million (20%) people affected Avarage annual flood damage for country is estimated at RM 1 billion (US$ 263 million).

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Water management issues

Water Quality Status of river basins in Peninsular Malaysia 2006

-Lower priority on national Agenda -No national policy of water -Inadecuate financial allocation -Privatization -Lack of comprehensive water law As Malaysia develops, problems relating water and environment are expected to intensify.

Manegement instruments are necessary.

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Light and air pollution

Malaysia biggest problem is the environmental pollution. The three main pollution that happen in Malaysia are air pollution, water pollution and land pollution. Mostly pollution effect by the air conditional that release CFC’s gasses, rubbish that been thrown to the rival and open burning.

Air pollution Datas comparization between Milan, Gent and Johor Bahru

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Economic relationship “The Chinese developers see Iskandar as an opportunity. A lot of them say itis just like Shenzhen was 10 years ago.�

Bloomberg

China investments top foreign money in commercial hub north of Singapore.

Source: Iskandar Regional Development authority, data as of end June 2016

Ongoing construction of the Country Garden Danga Bay project (Johor Bahru) Ongoing construction of the Country Garden Danga Bay project (Johor Bahru)

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Tropical Architecture Achieving thermal comfort through the use of passive design elements like sunshades, cavity walls, light shelves, overhangs, roof and wall insulation insted of use mechanical systems. At the same time provide a confortable and healthy spaces for the users.

Traditional Malay House

- function and social interaction - architectural qualities - construction method - response to climate

Contemporary Architecture

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It has a simple gable roof, supported by kingposts.

2. Bumbung lima •house has a hipped roof,

3. Bumbung perak •House has a Dutch gable roof

4. Bumbung limas Traditional Malay House •House has the pyramidal roof.

s Type of traditional roof forms Source: Redrawn from the book written by Lim Jee Yuan, 1987

Erection of basic traditional Malay house form

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Roof shape and construction

Roof ventilation

Makutl type palm thatch mat - the complete mat is 6000mm long x 500mm wide.

Woven coconut palm thatch mat

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Contemporary Malay Architecture PJ Trade Center

“A new way of conceiving high-rise architecture” Location: Damansara, Malaysia Architect: Kevin Mark Low Function: offices Completed: 2009 Reinterpretation of green high-rise architecture that response to Malaysia’s tropical condition.

- simple construction technique - locally avaiable construction materials - ventilation passive system - strongly connected with the surrounding site context

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Facade: The glass facade of typical high-rise architecture will now work well in Malaysia bacause it will gain a lot of sun glare.

Focused on passive designs, the facade is made up by precast bare concrete with vent blocks that are not plastered or painted, inspired by the traditional sarong cloth.

The concrete vent block is able to block out the direct sun glare yet alow natural lighting to penetrate through the hollow block and also cross ventilation.

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Water sensitive urban design Stormwater is rainwater that has fallen onto roads or roofs and often contains chemicals or pollutants. Water sensitive urban design (WSUD) is an approach to planning and designing urban areas to reduce the pollutants that flow into the rivers and into the sea.

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Water sensitive urban design approach WSUD uses better urban planning and design to reuse stormwater, stopping it from reaching our waterways by mimicking the natural water cycle as closely as possible.

WSUD works at all levels – lot, street and precinct – as well as regional scales.

It includes a range of treatment options:

Rainwater tanks can reduce the harm to our waterways caused by too much stormwater. Tank water can be used to flush toilets, wash clothes, water gardens and wash cars, significantly reducing demand on drinking water.

Small scale: Raingardens are specially-designed garden beds that filter stormwater runoff from surrounding areas or stormwater pipes. Raingardens are also called bioretention systems because they use soil, plants and microbes to biologically treat stormwater.

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Management of stormwater needs to consider the interaction between the amount of rainfall that falls on a city, the existing natural and man-made infrastructure through which it flows, and the water bodies into which it ends up.

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Sediment basins are ponds with open water that capture coarse sediment and litter carried by stormwater. They intercept stormwater before it reaches the waterway, and slow it down to allow the coarse sediment to fall to the bottom.

Swales are linear, depressed channels that collect and transfer stormwater. They can be lined with grass or more densely vegetated and landscaped.

Constructed wetlands are a series of shallow, densely-planted, man-made ponds that help filter water through physical and biological processes. They provide a natural way to treat and remove pollutants from stormwater before it enters our creeks, rivers and oceans.

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Reference: Water Plazas Netherlands has developed sustainable water management systems where the city’s existing drainage systems and pumping stations has become insufficient.

The aim is that even during dry periods the city will have water of a sufficient quality. (capacity:1000 cubic meters of water)

Netherlands has developed sustainable water management systems where the city’s existing drainage systems and pumping stations has become insufficient.

The aim is that even during dry periods the city will have water of a sufficient quality. (capacity:1000 cubic meters of water) These water plazas will fill up in a controlled manner during heavy rainfall, preventing surrounding streets from flooding. In dry periods, these water plazas can be effectively used as open public spaces.

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Reference: Combined system

Reference: Cheong Gye Cheon restoration project, Seoul

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Case study: Cheoggyecheon cooling effect

Thermal image of two areas of Seoul (27 June 2005)

Cheonggyecheon

Nearby street

average 32,7 °C

average 36,3 °C

Mangrove’s growth scheme 76

Transit-oriented development (TOD) Brings compact, mixed-use development within walking distance of high capacity rapid transit. TOD features vibrant streetscapes, pedestrian-oriented built forms, and land use characteristics that make it convenient and safe walk, cycle, and use public transport.

Walk high quality, unbstructed pedestrian footpath provide basic mobility for all.

Furniture, landscaping elements, and active building edges transform walkways into vibrant public spaces.

Cycle street design ensures safety for cyclists.

A complete network with adeguate shading elements, smooth surfaces, and secure cycle parking.

Connect a dense network of walking and cycling routes results in short, varied and direct connections to improve access to services and public transport.

Public transport frequent, fast, and reiable capacity rapid transit reduces dependence on personal motor vehicles.

Shift adequate parking fees and a reduction in the overall supply of parking create incentives for the use of public transport, walking and cycling.

Mix A diverse mix of residential and non-residential land uses reduces the need to travel and ensures activation of public spaces at all hours.

Densify intensification of residential and commercial uses around high capacity rapid transit stations helps ensure that all residents and workers have access to high quality public transport.

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Bibliography

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F. Libsky, San Francisco, la grille sur les collines / the grid meets the hill, Editions Parenthèses, Marseille, 1999 F. Hertweck, S. Marot, The City in the City - Berlin: A Green Archipelago. A manifesto, Lars Muller Publishers, Baden, 2013 O. H. Koenigsberger, T. G. Ingersoll, A. Mayhew, S. V. Szokolay, Manual of Tropical Housing and Building, Universities Press India, 1975 VV. AA., Space Syntax, A Different Urban Perspective, University College, London, 1983 K. Lynch, The Image of the City, The M.I.T Press, 1990 P. T. Mahrotri, E. H. Choong, $100 Billion Chinese-Made City Near Singapore ‘Scares the Hell Out of Everybody’, < https://www. bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-21/-100-billion-chinese-madecity-near-singapore-scares-the-hell-out-of-everybody >, consulted on March 3rd, 2017 P. T. Mahrotri, E. H. Choong, $100 Billion Chinese-Made City Near Singapore ‘Scares the Hell Out of Everybody’, < https://www. bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-21/-100-billion-chinese-madecity-near-singapore-scares-the-hell-out-of-everybody >, consulted on March 3rd, 2017

Città Ideale, < https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Città_ideale >, consulted on April 24th, 2017

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