Huey Chyi - Architectural Portfolio 2021

ONG HUEY CHYI

6019-2135120

onghueychyi@gmail.com

Portfolio

52200 Kuala Lumpur

An architect is merely the curator. He celebrates the phenomenon that predates his involvement and is given an authorship for his intervention.

I am a strong believer that art and architecture invariably co-exist. Architecture is a form of art that recognises the subject and creates a kind of connection with it through its own intervention.

No. 5 Jalan Wangsa 1/2

Taman Wangsa Permai

Education Taylor’s University

Experience

7/2017-8/2017

Jimmy Lim Design

Architectural Intern

Produced architectural models, Participated in client meetings

LNL Sdn Bhd.

1/2020-3/2020

Architectural Intern

+ Schematic Design

Exploration of facade design, Involved in one renovation project

+ Design Development

Linden Music

PRESENT

Extra Curricular

2018

2020

Part-time Music Teacher

Taman Tugu Design Competition

To design an outdoor pavilion for the opening of Taman Tugu Park.

Volume Zero Tiny LIbrary Design Competition 2020

To design a library for the unfortunte at a chosen rural place with limited access to education.

Taylors University Symphony Orchestra

Design Team Leader

Leading a design team to involve in concert posters design, ticket design, merchandise design, concert bookelt design, and venue dsign etc.

Secretary

Selangor Philharmonic Orchestra

Assistant Section Leader 2018-2019

To assist in leading the section before and during the concert.

_SCREEN Taylor’s Architecture Graduate Showcase 2020

2020

Curation Team Leader

To lead the curation team in conducting the event of the graduate showcase. Mainly involved in coordinating events like design competitions, software workshops, graduate website etc.

semester 2

weekend lodging

kek lok tong, ipoh

project brief: Weekend Lodging denotes ‘A place where one escapes for relaxation, recreation and vacation for a short period of time.’ This Weekend Lodging should function as habitable architectural spaces to enable the activity associated with living, dining, showering, cooking, storage and such within the built up space of maximum 150 m2 .

about site: Kek Lok Tong is a cave temple situated in the natural and picturesque area of Gunung Rapat in the south of Ipoh. The cave temple sits on a 12 acre site and was used as early as 1920 as a place of worship.before it became part of an iron mining site. When mining ceased it was dedicated again to religious purposes and opened to visitors in the 1970s.

Next to the cave temple is a garden where our site is located. The garden includes gazebos and a reflexology path that attracts more senior aged retirees from around the neighbourhood to spend time on leisure activities together such as chess or just to chit-chat.

project desc. : A weekend lodging that plays with the availability of space to the public, and privacy of space, given its unique location of a private building placed admist a public park.

Taman Indah Jaya Project Study

When the project brief were being handed down to us, the first question that i started asking myself is ---- “How can a private lodging be in a middle of a public park?”

This public park is mostly visited by senior aged retirees from surrounding neighbourhood to gather and conduct social activities such as chess, Qi Gong, Pa Kua, or just exercising as a past time acitivity. It has become their gathering spot and even the furnitures, such as the table in the gazebos were personalised with chess chekered box carved ontop.

By studying their daily activities, I begin to realise how they have orientated their own social bubble between Private, Semi Private, and Public.

kek lok tong site

The gazebos are a personalised space by a group of elderlys that gathers almost daily to socialise. It can be also put as the gazebo being their “territory” as any other people who uses the gazebo when they are around, will be seen as “odd” . Thus, they have expended their own social bubble to the extend of their own friend, therefore considering the gazebo as a “private” space.

Public

On the contrary, the benches that were placed outside and further away from the gazebo were mostly used by people that came alone, or people who are not too familiar with the environment around them. For example, couples, tourists, and families.

Open Space

Open spaces are a converging point between private and public spaces by bluring the boundary between them. The open space between the gazebo and the benches were used as an area where activities such as Qi Gong and Tai Chi were being carried out. It is sometime also a children’s playground. This open space allows for an outspill of activities between the gazebo, and the public benches

By studying their daily activities, I realised that the locals especially has a great attachment to the site, as their daily lives and entertainments are anchored around the people that they meet at the park and what they do there. Therefore, I wanted the building to not just be a weekend lodging itself, I wanted this building to be able to give back to the community and not make it seemed alienated from the site and the empathetic users that uses the site frequently.

I wanted this lodging to be able to be used by the public when the owners aren’t around. Thus, drawing from the study around the gazebo area, I realised that a great factor to determining the privacy and publicity of a space is the amount of visibility and exposure to the environment outside their own social bubble. Thus, I began to play with planes and how it affects the amount of exposure and visibility through it via the orientation, height materials, etc.

Use of different height of planes to lure and direct users

Different orientation of planes as a ‘compartment’ to define semi-spaces

Screen

Use of tall planes as screen to define a sense of privacy

With the study of the orientation, height and materiality of planes, I wanted to give back the ground floor to the community and to further enhance the livelihood of the park. Thus, I intended to have the main functional spaces of the buidling to only start on the first floor onwards so that the ground could be given back to the community and they will be able to use it as a part of the park.

Ground Floor Plan

1. Public Realm

2. Entrance

First Floor Plan

1. Outdoor Balcony

2. Pantry

3. Shower Room

4. Foyer

5. Living

Second Floor Plan

1. Master Bedroom

2. Bedroom

3. Balcony

semester 5

learning centre

jalan stesen 1, klang

project brief: Weekend Lodging denotes ‘A place where one escapes for relaxation, recreation and vacation for a short period of time.’ This Weekend Lodging should function as habitable architectural spaces to enable the activity associated with living, dining, showering, cooking, storage and such within the built up space of maximum 150 m2 .

about site: The personality of Jalan Stesen 1 is more introverted and shy, compared to the Little India area which is always full of life and busy. On a macro scale, both contrasting personalities of areas are just separated by a 3 meter alley way. One that is always busy and happening, dominated by existential users, and another dormant and shy, dominated by empathetic users.

The empathetic users are people who has an attachment to the site, mainly those who grew up in that place. The businesses along Jalan Stesen 1 are mostly run by empathetic users and has been there for generations. It is a site full of essence and nostalgia.

project desc. : As the existential area continues to expand, the Jalan Stesen 1 faces the threat of losing its foothold in maintaining its essence and traces of culture as old businesses run by the empathetic users starts to close down one by one as it loses its heir to the business and some, its arts and crafts.

Thus, the Learning centre aims to fan into flame again the essence of site, and to induce empathy through converging two needs on site; the needs of conservation of culture or arts and crafts, and the needs of space by the youth as there are numbers of education centre in a 1-2km radius from site.

Education Pods around site

There are multiple educational buidlings around site from 1-2km radius. Which causes a need to cater for the needs of a student. Where will they go after class? What will they do? What kind of space can we provide for them?

Identifying the users on site

Empathetic Insiders

they are the ones that cretes the culture of the region and had lived there for generations, even their businesses. They have attachments to site.

Existential Insiders

They are people who are attracted to incidents. Their existance is defined by the potentials that the site could provide. For example, the business owners in Little India that only comes to site for business, and does not live on site.

Objective Outsiders

They are the people who view the site on first dimension. They identify the site based on setting and activities. For example, tourists or visitors that comes to site for the first time and views the site based on what they see and experience

jalanstesen1

site

little india street

Socio Economy

More and more new businesses in Little India are emerging and thus having to expand into the older street of Jalan Stesen 1. The vast expansion of the existential area could be a threat that will invade into the empathetic area and thus having Jalan Stesen 1 losing it’s essence and sense of culture and age that is unique to the its community Users Footprint

Empathetic Insiders

The empathetic user’s footprints are often around those old shop houses where they are familiar with as they have been there for generations, both the users and the shop. They normally just hang around these places to chit-chat

Existential Insiders

The footprints of the existential insiders are often places for them to grab and go. They already have an intention in mind on where to go upon stepping into the site.

Objective Outsiders

The footprints of objective outsiders are normally onto those landmarks around the site, mainly places where the site is known for, like the signature Bak Kut Teh, and mural arts and cafes.

Fabric Store

Punjabi Cloth Shophouse

Restoran De-Salma

Cendol Store

Seng Huat Bak Kut Teh

How Wan Chicken Rice Seraph Awaken Cafe

Mural Arts

Chung Kuk Kopitiam

Wah Sang Brothers Timepiece Shop

Chung Kuk Kopitiam

Teck Teh Bak Kut Teh

Location Study

Our site is located at the intersection point between two alley ways; The alley way between the building and the public space where the food stalls are located, and the back alley that seperates c

By using this intersection, this buildling makes use of different possible approaches to the building to act as an “intersection” which glues the spaces around together and spill it out. In other words, by making “A space in a place. “

Open Space

By first following the parallel grid form of the building and extending into the plaza, the frontage of the plaza is defined so to bring in and attract activities into the open space then into the building, or from the building extending into the plaza, etc.

With the movement of users that is perpendicular to the parallel grid of the buidling, it creates multiple intersecting points in the grid. Multiple activity pods are then placed on these intersecting points while maintaining the existing food stalls along the alleyway.

Afternoon Morning Night Empathetic Users

Programme Study

Objective Users More Usage User Internsity Library Temporal Workshop Art Workshop Public Realm

Existential Users

1. Reception

2. Gallery

3. Timepiece workshop

4. Courtyard

5. Community area

6. Cafe

7. Washroom

8. Exhibition area

9. Amphitheathre

10. Food stalls

Ground Floor Plan

Side Elevation

1. Temporal workshop

2. Informal learning

3. Office

4. Storage

5. Cafe

6. Study area

7. Libray

8. Discussion room

9. Media room

10. Washroom

12. Social Balcony

pottery cultural art centre

Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Kuala Lumpur

project brief: The project brief was to design a cultural experience centre that focuses on empowering the people’s appreciation of their own culture and environment.

about site: Kuala Lumpur is a culturally rich and diverse city that is widely visited by locals and tourists. It’s diversity in contemperary art scene and culture all began around the Klang River, when back in the days the river attracted merchants who trade basic provisions for tin miners to come and Kuala Lumpur began to grew from there.

This eventually contributes to the richness of the city in the contemporary art scene and architecture. Until 1986, Kuala Lumpur began to realise its potential in tourist industry.Today, its diversity and richness has attracted both locals and tourists. There are also resurgence of activities anchored by city galleries, exhibitions, wall paintings, etc. were also seen today as a part of the tourist experience.

project desc. : The river is known as the nucleus that drives the city into development, but what about the cultural impact of river? Has people started to forget about about the original use of river that contributes to the culture of Malaysia?

The river used to be a place to collect clay for pottery making and it used to be a form of identity to the culture of Malaysia. But the pottery making industry has begin to die down even until today, the industry is still struggling to survive.

Thus, the building aims to provide a platform for the potters to communicate and interact so that it creates a community of potters to bring back the dying art of Pottery making in Malaysia and to educate the community about pottery cultural art

The River

The river is known as the nucleus of the city that drives Kuala Lumpur into development. But people tend to forget the cultural values of river where it was used to be a place to collect clay for pottery making. But down the road, people are slowly neglecting about the cultural art of pottery making and eventually the industry is stuggling to survive till this very day.

4 Contact points on site

Our given site is sandwiched between 4 contact points each with different personality and human intensity. Thus it is crucial how the building responds to each needs.

Kasturi Walk

Central Market

Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock

Riverside Walk

Process of Pottery Making

The process of traditional pottery making can be described with the 4 elements of pottery making.

Clay is collected from river bank

Pottery Moulding Process

Water is added to soften the clay

clay is air-dried after molding

Pots are put into kiln to be heated

By studying the process of pottery making, its language is being integrated into the language of the buidling. interms of spatial arrangements, materials, openess, etc.

Patches of clay are being overlapped over one another to form a verticle form of the vessel. Both the solids and the voids are being overlapped to form an upward structure

the clay is being pinched to the side to form a void in between.

The building spatial arrangment is also arranged so that a vessel is created in between and the solid spaces are organised outwards to enclose a void on the inside.

Just like the star of a pot is not what was created, it is what it was created to hold. Thus, the main design approach is to emphasize on the use of voids as a vessel that connects both the users and the building. The permeability, openness and materiality of the building is considered to integrate the 4 elements of pottery making (earth, water, fire, air) into the language of the building.

Design Intention

IDENTIFYING CONTACT POINTS

Personalities of the contact points, Central Market, Kasturi Walk, Riverside Walk, Main Vehicular Pathway

CREATING AN AXIS

By connecting the approaches and form a continuous axis that goes through the building

SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT

The spaces are then placed around the void facing outward to create a ‘vessel’ in between.

‘VESSEL’

The voids connects upward to create a ‘vessel’ that anchors the building vertically

WORKING Artist studio

EXHIBITING

Exhibitiong space, Gallery space

EDUCATION Workshop, Library

PRIVATE

Artist living quarters, Collab space

EXPERIENCING

Seating spaces, Workshops, Public Spaces

PARTICIPATING

Retail, Cafe, Gallery

01 PLACING OF BLOCKS

Placement the Public and the Artist bllock on site

02

EXTENDING TO CONTACT POINTS

The Public block extend outwards to reach towards both contact points

03

ESTABLISHING A CONNECTIONPOINTS

The use of Public realms as a connecting point between the contact points

04 A GESTURE OF START

Elevate and expose the underground to mimic the gesture of going down to the river bank to collect clay

05 ESTABLISHING AN AXIS

Connected through staircases, an axis is punctured through the other side to make a connection

06 SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT

The spaces are arranged facing outward around the central void to respond to the activities happening at the contact points

1. Basement Carpark

2. Public Space

3. Courtyard

4. Office

5. Gallery Walkway

6. Semi-open lounge

7. Gallery

8. Artist Studio

9. Pergola Walkway

10. Dormitory

Roof plan

Second floor plan

1. Library

2. Pottery Workshop

3. Cafe

4. Lounge 5. Reception 6. Living Area

First floor plan

1. Office

2. Cafe

3. Temporary Workshop

4. Gallery

1. Workshop

2. Courtyard

Ground floor plan

Third floor plan

Fourth floor plan

1. Glazing Room

2. Firing Room

3. Design Studio

4. Living Quarters

1. Exhibition Room

2.Outdoor Gallery

3. Courtyard

4. Living Quarters

“ Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speaks for themselves. “

- Julia Morgan