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DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE
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/ WWW.DESIGNANDARCHITECTURE.COM / / ISSUE 111. 2019 • S$8 /
UCCA DUNE ART MUSEUM
OPEN ARCHITECTURE
FUNAN
WOODS BAGOT
PLANTERS’ HAVEN BUNGALOW MJKANNY ARCHITECT
COR JESU ORATORY
ZUBU DESIGN ASSOCIATES & KENNETH COBONPUE
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
HOW ARCHITECTURE SHOULD HELP
/ MOOD BOARD /
/ PHOTOGRAPHY MARC CRAMER
/ WORDS LOW SHI PING /
SUITED FOR SENIORS This house in Canada is a good model to mimic for societies facing an aging population.
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nsure me freedom in my advanced years.� This was the brief given to Gary Conrath, founder of Indesign Inc. / Conrath Architecte, an architecture firm based in Montreal, Canada. The client, an elderly lady, wanted a home where she could live on the ground floor and that would meet her anticipated future needs. In response, Conrath designed Ice Shore House in the borough of Verdun in
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Montreal with open, flat spaces on both levels that are wheelchair-friendly. This continues outside in the paths leading from the entrance to the carpark and sidewalk. The upper level can either be rented
out or double up as living quarters for a caregiver. A private entrance is provided, giving direct access to the stairs. Using cantilevered brick masses, Conrath chose to maintain a strong connection between inside and out using dematerialised surfaces. Light, the landscaping and the city life is brought in through large glazed windows, mitigating the challenges seniors face when they are no longer mobile. Indoors, a central vertical window projecting 30ft above the roofline becomes a skylight feature. Further leveraging this, a middle section of the upper floor plate is transparent flooding the centre of the ground floor with light in the afternoon.
/ MOOD BOARD /
/ WORDS JASMINE ONG /
STUNNING SURFACES Three new designs have been introduced to Caesarstone’s various collections.
4044 AIRY CONCRETE
4023 TOPUS CONCRETE
6338 WOODLANDS
aesarstone has launched three new designs to join its collection of high-quality quartz surfaces. The Metropolitan Collection welcomes 4023 Topus Concrete and 4044 Airy Concrete. The former is inspired by fossilised textures that have built up over time in veiled layers. Underscored with blush
tones, it is ideal to pair with stained parquet or grey tiles, or for use as a countertop. The latter evokes a richness that only minimalism can achieve, allowing for the authentic rough concrete finish to be refined at the same time. Its light grey colour creates a versatility for the surface to accompany all shades of timber, slate or black oiled oak.
6338 Woodlands joins the marbleinspired Supernatural Collection, itself characterised by a symphony of intricate veins, bold colours and textures. The new textured design has a harmonious light grey base that varies in thickness and reflects the uniqueness of natural stone, enhanced by rich, warm lines.
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/ SPECIAL REPORT /
DISCOURSE, DIVERSITY, DESIGN SIGN UP FOR THE JUNG ARCHITECTURE TALK IN SINGAPORE THIS AUGUST.
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Built heritage personifies our origins and
discourse on topics that moved the world of
informs our understanding of who we are today. It
architecture, reaching as far as Asia, and taking
helps define a sense of place, creating an identity
JUNG’s key idea of “Progress as Tradition” to a
for a community.
broader audience.
This is the starting point of the 14th JUNG
Among its aspirations is to inspire the next
Architecture Talk that will take place in Singapore
generation. With the Architecture Talks, JUNG
on 28 August at the Asian Civilisations Museum.
is keen to open up a door for young architects
Entitled PAST.PRESENT.FUTURE. The importance
to use this public discourse as a way to keep
of diversity in design, it seeks to examine what is
themselves updated with the industry.
the most sensitive and responsible way to manage
To a medium-sized, traditional company like JUNG, its relationship with architecture is
historical buildings. At the same time, the Talk will also cast its
made through elements like colour, shape, style,
gaze towards today and tomorrow, examining the
materiality, taste, direction and encounter. It is
present context of climate change, urbanisation
also about sustainability and issues that arise in
and demographic change, and how it will fit into a
the daily construction business
framework for the future that is surely structured
These with
upon technology.
its
and
more
expert-only
make format
up
the
that
is
Talks, also
Singapore is one of 12 cities around the world
synonymous with lively discussions about the
that JUNG is bringing its Architecture Talk to, and
latest topics in architecture and networking in a
the only Asian city to host it. Marking its 14th
relaxed setting.
year, the platform offers architects and planners
After 13 years and almost 100 events, it has
an opportunity for a public and controversial
hosted more than 150 top-class speakers and
discourse on current issues in architecture.
more than 22,000 guests, making it an established
The format originated from the idea of the Hamburg Architectural Summer. Initially realised
part of the architectural scene, both in Germany and abroad.
in a small group, the conversation focusing
For JUNG, direct exchange with architects
on themes in the urban development of, and
is essential and is a topical, trend-setting driver
the building industry in, Hamburg, took place at
for the company’s innovative strength. So lock in
the Architekturbox.
the Singapore event in your calendar and we look
Gradually,
it
became
a
more
dynamic
forward to seeing you there.
www.jung-group.com/architecture-talks
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/ FEATURE /
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/ WORDS DAVID HO
ARCHITECTURE AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING With careful planning and sustainable means, designing homes at reasonable prices can be realised and offered to the masses.
/ 1-2 Hayball’s CRT+YRD is located at the heart of Nightingale Village, a collective of six buildings, designed by six award-winning architecture firms, located on Duckett Street in Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia.
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s residential property prices increase across the world, architectural firms are coming up with innovative solutions to bring affordability to the market. Asian cities (namely Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai) made the top three in a list of the world’s most expensive cities to buy a house, according to a report by real estate investment company CBRE Group released in April this year. The report lists the average property price in Singapore as US$874,372. CBRE expects price growth to increase or at least stay, citing “high land prices and healthy demand” as drivers. Skyrocketing prices are a global issue. From Australia to India, home ownership is an issue for many and governments are now examining the challenge on their hands. “Affordable housing is a complex issue with many layers. We’re starting to see more government budgets and policies that attempt to improve affordability,” says Bianca Hung, Director of Australian architectural firm Hayball. Hung believes architects and designers have the skills to deliver housing that addresses these critical issues of affordability, sustainable design and urban density. “This has taken the form of architect led development models such as Nightingale Housing and build-to-rent or rent-tobuy concepts like the Assemble Model – essentially bridging the gap between renting and owning your own home,” says Hung. Nightingale Village is a collaborative project led by Nightingale Housing and includes the work of Hayball and five other Melbourne architects (Architecture Architecture, Austin Maynard Architects, Breathe Architecture, Clare Cousins Architects and Kennedy Nolan), aimed at providing exceptionally designed homes at cost.
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The Nightingale Model eliminates the traditional developer and property agent roles, caps project profits paid to investors and does away with unnecessary inputs, such as marketing activities and display units to ensure a lower apartment price for the resident. This housing model also requires homebuyers to be owner-occupiers and they must agree to certain limitations regarding on-selling their apartment in the future. These measures are intended to help build strong communities, deter speculative investment and ensure affordability is passed onto the next resident. Hayball’s seven-story building, CRT+YRD, keeps the focus on a verdant and communal residential experience through the use of a large central courtyard.
Bianca Hung, Director of Australian architectural firm Hayball
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/ MIXED-USE /
/1 The main entrance along North Bridge Road is distinct for its abstracted arch.
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/ PHOTOGRAPHY CAPITALAND
1 / WORDS LOW SHI PING
DENSE AND COMPLEX Funan, designed by Woods Bagot, is a project rich in texture, symbology and community spirit.
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fter 27 months of construction, Funan has reopened. In place of its previous incarnate as a mall with a strong tech focus is a mixed-use lifestyle destination with retail, office and residential components. Woods Bagot was commissioned by CapitaLand to take on the masterplan, architecture and interior design of the project. Sensitive to the communities that had sprung up from its previous iteration, the team held collaborative design charrettes with key stakeholders, including current and future tenants, potential shoppers and investors. “We were interested to explore how Funan could connect to people’s lives; to break down the scale of this large project into something granular and integrated into the community,” says Stephen Jones, a Director at Woods Bagot and the lead architect on the
project, referencing the firm’s usercentric approach to all its projects. The outcome was the discovery that people are “really passionate about their hobbies”, and different community groups should be represented in the final design of the development to be able to engage with them. At the same time, the solution had to include a public space that complements the retail typology, while being accessible and transparent at the same time – similar to the idea of a marketplace or town square. AN ICONIC TOTEM These concepts crystallised into what is known as the 25m-tall Tree of Life, “growing” in the centre of the linear atrium of Funan that runs from basement two right up to the roof, and links North Bridge Road and Hill Street. Dubbed by Jones as “an iconic
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/ COMMERCIAL /
/1 The low-slung, fluid roof provides a modern touch to the clubhouse, while blending harmoniously with the existing buildings.
/ WORDS PRAISE POH
GREEN FLUIDITY The newly-revealed Golf Clubhouse at Tanah Merah Country Club breathes modernity into its surroundings.
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RBNarc, a boutique design practice headquartered in Singapore, has redesigned the two-storey clubhouse at Tanah Merah Country Club. It sits harmoniously with its immediate and surrounding landscape, exuding an air of timeless elegance. An Additions and Alterations (A&A) project, it was formed with the key objective to integrate the new build with the existing buildings and golf course. “The clubhouse is designed to engage within its setting with a harmonious choice of building materials, subdued colour selection and a design where transition spaces between built form and the exterior environment is seamless,” says Gaurang Khemka, founder of URBNarc. As Khemka and his team did not have the luxury of designing the building from scratch, they had to work around the
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legacy architecture and infrastructure, which proved to be rather challenging as many unforeseen circumstances sprang up on them during construction. As a result, they had to recalibrate the design and reorganise the construction sequence with the contractor on the fly. “We found a telecom manhole during the excavation in a key public area, that was not on any as-built drawings. We had to seek permission from Singtel and the Ministry of Transport [to ask] if we could relocate or abandon it. It took six weeks to get approval to abandon it as we were laying new telephone lines anyway. “This impacted the project construction sequence, but we were able to advise the contractor to work around the situation by focusing on other areas and creating a phasing diagram for them.” In addition, while the changing rooms in a nearby existing building were completely
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/ PHOTOGRAPHY AARON POCOCK, RORY DANIELS
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/ INSTITUTIONAL /
/ WORDS MICHELE KOH MOROLLO
MEDIATING LAND AND SEA Submerged within the sand dunes of a beach resort community in Hebei, China, UCCA Dune Art Museum by OPEN Architecture encourages the appreciation of both art and nature.
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n Hebei, China, Beijing-based OPEN Architecture has built an art museum that serves as the cultural and social core of the Aranya beachside resort community in Qinhuangdao’s Bohai Bay. Named UCCA Dune Art Museum, the building, which sits along a quiet beach, is partially submerged beneath natural sand dunes and composed of organicallyshaped, interconnected, grotto and cavelike segments that mediate the space between land and sea. When the project’s lead architects Li Hu and Huang Wenjiang first visited the site,
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they were awed by the surreal beauty of the wind-carved dunes. DUNES AND CELLS Such dunes play an important role in the coastal ecosystem, but with the growth of the seaside tourism industry in China, many of them have been leveled off to make room for ocean-view real estate developments. Wanting to protect and preserve this vulnerable ecosystem and save the site from encroaching developers, the architects decided to blur the boundaries between
/1 The main entrance to the museum yawns open like the mouth of a cave.
/ OPPOSITE An aerial view of the organically-shaped museum, which is partially submerged beneath the dunes.
/ PHOTOGRAPHY 之WU QINGSHAN, TIAN FANGFANG, ZAIYE STUDIO
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/ ABODE /
/ WORDS SASHA GONZALES
PUBLIC PRIVATE POROSITY The fragmented layout of this resort-inspired holiday home in Uluwatu, Bali is conducive to intimacy and big parties at the same time.
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/1 A large palm-lined entry courtyard creates a dramatic sense of arrival with a grand staircase floating over a cascading water feature.
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he brief was simple: To make the most of the site. The site in question: a super-sized parcel of land, dramatically perched high on a limestone cliff edge in Uluwatu, on the south-western tip of the Bukit Peninsula of Bali, Indonesia. The owner wanted a holiday home in the style of a luxury Balinese resort where he could spend time with family and friends; a place that featured generous outdoor spaces that capitalised on the ocean and sunset views and access routes to the surfing beaches down below. South Africa-based architectural practice SAOTA was commissioned to bring the brief to life, and the result is nothing short of spectacular.
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TROPICAL FRIENDLY The project’s lead architect, Philip Olmesdahl, says that Bali’s tropical climate played a significant role in determining the overall layout, “The property is really a collection of individual spaces – separate suites and living areas in a fragmented arrangement that brings the indoors and outdoors together. “To protect these spaces from the scorching sun we included shading and overhang throughout the building and made sure that the outdoor zones, like the dining and sitting areas, had varying degrees of cover.” As the site faces east over the sea, it enjoys ocean breezes. To take advantage of this position, Olmesdahl designed
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/2 The “fragmented” layout offers a sense of privacy and intimacy, no matter how many guests are staying at the house.
the covered outdoor areas, courtyards, gardens and pavilions in such a way as to encourage airflow and improve ventilation throughout these spaces. “The building is in a linear form running north-south, and the covered terraces therefore, draw the sea breeze from east to west, towards the western courtyard,” he explains. The porous nature of this layout helps
keep the property cool, but when the heat gets too much, guests can also escape to the fully enclosed, air-conditioned lounge and dining areas. The sloping roof is also a climaticallyappropriate response to the east-west orientation of the house, inviting in the morning light and opening up ocean views to the east, while providing shelter from the harsh afternoon light from the west.
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/ DINE /
The matte blackpainted wood ceiling at the entrance creates an interesting contrast with the light-coloured wood flooring and Ryukyu tatami mats.
/ WORDS PRAISE POH
BEAUTY IN SUBTLETY A high-end Japanese restaurant in Shenzhen epitomises the essence of its home country with its choice of natural materials and attention to detail.
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ituated inside a golf club in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Hanashobu exudes an elegant serenity and calmness with its heavy use of light-coloured wood and flower-themed detailing. Taking inspiration from the ryokan – a traditional Japanese-style inn that typically features rooms covered in tatami mats – Masashi Sudo, lead designer of INVI inc., sought to create an upscale, yet intimate setting for diners that would allow them to experience Japanese culture and tradition in its totality. FLOWER POWER The restaurant is named after the Japanese iris, which is a symbol of elegance and refined beauty. Sudo believes it is important for diners to have a feel of Japan’s natural scenery while dining in a Japanese restaurant. Hence, he decided to leverage on the theme of four seasons. “As the restaurant is located inside a golf club, the storefront is surrounded by an outdoor terrace. I took advantage of this and planted a Japanese garden that consists of the flowers and plants of the four seasons. “Unlike Japan, there are no clear seasons in Shenzhen. However, the angle at which the sunlight strikes the earth changes with the time of the day, and we decided to express the changing of the seasons through this by arranging the plants to reflect the different time/season of the day,” he elaborates.
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/ PHOTOGRAPHY SIMON ZHAO
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/ /PEOPLE PEOPLE/ /
/ WORDS LOW SHI PING
THE REAL DESIGNER Much has been publicised about Jaime Hayon but it is clear the Spaniard has never let it get to his head, preferring instead to focus on spreading joy through his work.
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/ PHOTOGRAPHY CHINO SARDEA
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or all his awards, accolades and successes, Jaime Hayon is remarkably down-to-earth. After a press conference in Jakarta, where he presented his first-ever sanitaryware collection designed with TOTO, a colleague and I wave him over to a table we are sitting at, hoping to have a chat.
The TOTO by HAYON collection strives to break down sanitaryware to its simplest form.
The 45-year-old Spaniard complies without batting an eyelid, seemingly not bothered by our casual manner. Speaking perfect English with just a hint of a Spanish accent, Hayon is forthcoming about the project, which, more specifically, is done with PT Surya Toto Indonesia (STI), the result of a joint venture with TOTO Ltd Japan. “They feel like a little family but they’re actually a big corporation. It is amazing how despite the company being so large, I talk to the owner face-to-face,” he enthuses, when asked about the best part about the project. “It’s so beautiful to see how they love the company and project. In Europe, you never talk to the boss.” The artist-designer can say that with much authority since his client list is dominated by European companies. These include the likes of Baccarat, Cassina and Swarovski, for which he creates furniture, lights, home accessories, artworks and even interiors. A close to two-decade career has seen him make Wallpaper magazine’s “Top 100” list, and be lauded as one of the most creative icons by Time magazine. This kaleidoscopic universe Hayon resides in might sound dizzying but
somehow, he is able to make sense of it, “It’s how I think. I don’t compartmentalise. Creativity is a flow of ideas that can be adapted to many realities.” This flow of ideas is mostly encapsulated in what is today a mini library of sketch books. “I have 300-400 of them,” he says. “Sketching is such an integral part of me, that it is like a body part related to my brain, an extension of whatever I am doing. “I sketch to think and to imagine how anything can be – from lists, to more free-sketching, to things I see around me, or to whatever is on my mind at the moment. There are many reasons and contexts for sketching and each is a singular need or reflection.”
STRIVING FOR SIMPLICITY Putting pen to paper is also part of his design thought process, and it was no different for the TOTO by HAYON collection,
“The starting point was the harmonic line: a simple product that is decorative and functional... I used curves and forms [found in] furniture and sculptures.” This theme is dominant throughout the different pieces, whether it is the toilet, flush, sink, faucet, showerhead, mixer or spout. Each item is stripped down to the simplest expression, with consideration given towards tactile quality. He also plays with colour – offering the pieces in rose gold, brushed nickel and matte black and white, in addition to the more common chrome. Hayon reveals that the biggest challenge was “to find a way to express myself in such a technical project”. “For TOTO, technicality comes first. They are like surgeons. But when I make a product, I think about the design first and how it’ll look in my project. I don’t think about the mechanism,” he admits.
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/ AVANT-GARDE /
NOT YOUR AVERAGE SKYSCRAPER / WORDS LOW SHI PING /
Mention “skyscraper” in this part of the world and the functions that come to mind are typically offices and residences. To Serbian architect Marko Dragicevic though, it is a waste recycling plant for an urban context. His concept, Methanscraper, was the winning entry in the 2019 eVolo Skyscraper Competition. The raw, skeletal tower is modular in nature, with removable capsules attached to a concrete core that stores the different types of recyclable waste. Built into each capsule is the capability to extract the methane that is a bi-product of the process to generate electricity. Benefits include a reduced dependence on landfills that take up precious space, and the ability to control toxic gases to be emitted into the air and cause pollution. We can’t wait for it to be built and operational.
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