02
AR1102 2014 | 2015
Sean Poon Shao An A0122439
Projects
01 Man, Scale and Context Anthropometry, Man and Function
02
Drawing Inspiration: Invisible Cities, Sophronia
08
Scale, Site & Context
12
SojournčŒś
14
02 The Room and a Street Miesian Influence
22
Proun, Parti
26
Reexamining Invisible Cities
27
Glas[t]raum
30
03 The Arcadian Gallery
38
01
Man, Scale and Context
The Selegie-Prinsep district is one frequented by a younger age-group, thus it is important to understand how their 02
body sizes and proxemic patterns would affect their ability to enjoy a space, in spite of its limited footprint.
Anthropometry, Man and Function While scouting the Selegie-Prinsep vicinity for a suitable site, one thing was made clear about the district - it pulsated with an irresistible vitality in the evening. The stillness of day recedes to make room for casual eateries, bars and bistros.
This state of flux was something that I wanted to celebrate; to create a destination where one could observe it from. A casual eatery was my programme of choice for a kiosk-intervention there, a choice that dictated the focus of anthropometry to be studied.
03
Anthropometry in a cafĂŠ/bistro setting
04
A space to relax and watch the world go by...
05
intimate, person-sized spaces Final Wooden House, Sou Fujimoto
06
Fenestrations and openings are orchestrated through modular building components (h: 350mm), serving to create person-sized spaces and niches that double as furniture.
signposted entry
Third Wave Kiosk, Tony Hobba Architects
one-to-one
nature and self
Geometrically striking, yet still grounded to its site materially, the Third Wave Kiosk becomes a unmissable pitstop. Particularly interesting is its opening-closing strategy, where folded metal plate shutters metaphorically embrace patrons.
07
Drawing Inspiration: Invisible Cities, Sophronia An assembly of collages investigating the spatial possibilities that emerge from the rich urban fabric of the Selegie-Prinsep district, distilled through the lens of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, and Rem Koolhaas’ Delirious New York.
08
The city of Sophronia is made up of two half-
And so every year the day comes when the
cities. In one there is a great roller coaster with
workmen remove the marble pediments, lower
its steep humps, the carousel with its chain
the stone walls, the cement pylons, take down the
spokes, the Ferris wheel of spinning cages, the
Ministry, the monument, the docks, the petroleum
death-ride with the crouching motorcyclists, the
refinery, the hospital, load them on trailers, to
big top with the clump of trapezes hanging in the
follow from stand to stand their annual itinerary.
middle. The other half-city is of stone and marble
Here remains the half-Sophronia of the shooting-
and cement, with the bank, the factories, the
galleries and the carousels, the shout suspended
palaces, the slaughterhouse, the school, and all
from the cart of the headlong roller coaster, and it
the rest. One of the half-cities is permanent, the
begins to count the months, the days it must wait
other is temporary, and when the period of its
before the caravan returns and a complete life
sojourn is over, they uproot it, dismantle it, and
can begin once again.
take it off, transplanting it to the vacant lots of another half-city.
09
A state of duality, the taste of dichotomy, and the celebration of the ephemeral and transient.
The act of transplanting a half-city into another vacant plot of land suggests that a system, which can be interpreted as a grid, guides Sophronia’s organisation. By reading this in tandem with Delirious New York’s interpretation of Manhattanism and Coney Island, this grid, or a “mosaic of episodes” becomes an individual unit of space that holds a particular memory or genius loci, crossing and flowing into each other. 10
This is an exchange and ebb of memories and experiences, transcending and subverting the rigidity of that grid and thereby giving th e city life.
A moment worth observing and contemplating.
layers & a mosaic Paying homage to the site’s contradictory existential roots, a grid derived from the area’s circulatory forces guides the design process. 12
Scale, Site and Context A tea-room in the city
The richly textured site and unique programme demands a paradox: a delicate but assertive solution. Urban, yet zen.
“the transcendental role played by light in this experience” Nelson Atkins Museum, Steven Holl
“spatial armature rising above a new plaza” Lujiazui Exhibition Centre, OMA
tea-room proportions Anthropometrically speaking, the tea-room borrows its scale from that of a traditional Japanese tea-room, while not transplanting the vernacular language to the Selegie site.
13
sojourn茶
14
a machined structure to facilitate the appreciation of the ebb and flow of the city a space to sense the transitory nature of the mosaic of memories that flow between a city’s invisible grid-lines
a play on transparency and porosity, being integrated and detached simultaneously a space to meditate on transience over tea
the ascent
Each small courtyard along the journey upwards include integrated seating to allow for brief moments of rest and contemplation.
With a clear focus on the site’s tree, the narrow stairway winds its way up to the tea-room at the peak.
the peak
Peaceful without being austere or monastic, the space allows for the quiet contemplation of the rich Selegie-Prinsep streetscape.
A play of light and shadows define the spatial experience. Shadows from the leaves overhead. The faint glow of the coloured lights outside in the evening. A blurred canvas.
02
The Room and a Street
Miesian Influence A distillation of the architectural language that of Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat.
22
A 3-tiered stacked volume, programatically divided between served and servant spaces. The shearing and extrusion of these volumes further articulates this.
The column grid serves to frame views of site’s willow tree & Brno’s Spielberg castle, the grid forms the basis for spatial zoning to emphasise hierarchy of space.
23
Programmatic zoning is further refined through geometric planes and elements that extend or receed past the columngenerated grid. These transformations are based on the mid-point of the grid and golden ratios.
24
The scale of spaces affiliated with the experience of nature are larger due to its basis in larger segments of a golden rectangle than that of other spaces, as an expression of hierarchy of space.
Continuity, a Progression from E a r l i e r Wo r k Brick Country House “wall loses character... serves only to articulate the house organism�
25
The Barcelona Pavilion A free plan, column-grid zones - courtyard as mediating zone
Proun, Parti
El Lissitzky, Proun
An evolution of the parti, with a focus on the subversion of a guiding grid, the blurring of boundaries through intersecting layers, and a deconstruction of Miesian formality.
Reexamining Invisible Cities A deeper exploration of the spatial concepts
In such an arrangement, the “transplantation”
implicit in the city of Sophronia was carried
of half-cities would then occur in a linear
out as part of the process of developing the
manner, whereby one half shears off the other.
design for Glas[t]raum. Rereading the narrative, the emphasis of this study was placed on the
Sophronia is thus defined by the dichotomy
relationship and dynamics between Marco Polo
between change and stasis. This is analogous
and Kublai Khan, with the intention of designing
to the flux embodied by Marco Polo through
a dwelling that was set within Sophronia.
his travels, in contrast to Kublai Khan’s static state of ruling from his capital. Polo returns with
Like the earlier interpretation of Sophronia,
enticing tales from abroad, only to depart again,
its two half-cities are viewed as being
leaving Khan waiting in anticipation for the
dichotomous. Yet here, the two-half cities
next tale to be heard – a need to be mediated.
are imagined to sit parallel to each other
Therein, tension and mediation become the key
rather than according to a grid, as a means to
driving concepts behind the development of this
exaggerate this dichotomy.
dwelling.
Design Iteration 1
28
Architectural forms and planes, placed at oblique angles, direct the user into the space. Cruciform columns punctuate the space, subtly suggesting a different zoning through its [+] footprint.
29
Glas[t]raum
“The elements moved, evolved, transformed, metamorphosed in the way that they do in dreams, changing shape and form and yet, to the dreamer, 30
remaining what they always were: der Glasraum, der Glastraum, a single letter change metamorphosing one into the other, the Glass Space becoming the Glass Dream� The Glass Room, Simon Mawer
a story telling pit-stop, mediating between past and future
31
Glas[t]raum is designed as a pit stop for Marco
views of each half-city. It is only within the space
Polo on his travels; a destination that facilitates a
that one can experience both half-cities at once.
momentary rendezvous between Polo and Kublai
The journey inward becomes a procession.
Khan. When they meet in Sophronia, the dwelling functions as a story-telling station, where Polo
Architecturally, the Miesian language of planes is
shares accounts of his travels with Khan. This is
distilled to its intentions – freestanding elements
a manifestation of the paradox of time, where the
floating within the grid. They subvert the grid,
past is rendered eternal in a tale, and of coming
expressing tension and simultaneously mediation
and going, where the exchange that occurs
between rigidity and flux. Similarly, the bench
between two contradictory forces is mediated.
that punctures the inside and outside achieves this same goal. Throughout the design, layers of
32
The dwelling is conceived to sit on the parallel
space overlap and intersect, in contrast to the
division between both half-cities. Its design is
dichotomous views they frame. The tension is
primarily circulatory driven, where each threshold
evident throughout, yet celebrated, and in doing
features a marker that modulates between the
so, accepted and reconciled.
furniture and art, in synthesis with architectural geometry
Left Poul Kjaerholm’s PK11 chair, 35
Above The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour
36
03
The Arcadian Gallery
When he enters the territory of which Eutropia is the capital, the traveler sees not one city but many, of equal size and not unlike one another, scattered over a vast, rolling plateau. Eutropia is not one, but all these cities together; only one is inhabited at a time, the others are empty; and this process is carried out in rotation‌ Thus the city repeats its life, identical, shifting up and down on its empty chessboard. Invisible Cities - Eutropia, Italo Calvino
40
Drawing from the design language of Alvar Aalto’s Summer Experimental House, as well as the city of Eutropia from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, The Arcadian Gallery functions as a showcase for the my studio’s work, rendered in cardboard.
The design for the collateral that accompanies the gallery and its showcase draw inspiration from Alvar Aalto’s work, especially of that for Artek. His signature screens are celebrated, abstracted to highlight the moire effect that often accompanies such a textural treatment. The geometric sans-serif, Futura, was chosen for its bold and clean look, a nod to the intentions of the gallery’s design.
articulated edges that celebrate their medium
42
Image Credits: Adrian Au
43
Tu t o r : R a y m o n d H o e Studio RH 2015