YEAR 3
UNIT A July-Nov 2020 James Lim + Yusoff Zainal + Firadaus Khazis + Sharon Ong + Cammy Tee
THE UNIT Degree Unit A addresses urban and architectural conditions in l o c a t i o n s u n d e r g o i n g c r i t i c a l c h a n g e a nd o v e r t h e y e a r s . Through a combination of research and creative practice, the Unit proposes interventions, which respond to urban challenges and introduce elements of cultural and imaginative vigor. We explore extremes of interrelated scales, from urban geographies through to the immediate an personal, to develop uncommon propositions. In this process, strategies formulate responsiveness to global and site conditions, understanding of scales, architectural sensibilities, as well as structural and material realities, to create social, spatial and timebased habitats and environments.
The Shared Yard, East London. Diagram exploring work/live pattern
SEMESTER’S PROJECT Covid-19 made a lasting impact on all facets of our lives in 2020. In times of crisis, it is an opportunity to rethink how we would like to live in our urban habitat in the future. In this semester - NewNormal, will be a joint studio with HKDI (Hong Kong Design Institute) to reflect on our urban habitat after Covid-19 in two cities. At times, we have seen deserted urban landscape, but we have also seen nature returned to the cities. We have see communities isolated, but we have also seen relationships rekindled in different ways. We have shut down face to face communications but we reestablished digitally. People learn, work, live and mourn in different ways. In an urban habitat like Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, how do we define our relationships with others when all the agents that binds communities and the agents that drives urban activities came to a halt? What opportunities arise when status-quo is challenged?
Main site of the semester
Sentul has a long history of being an old railway town established since the late 1800s. Starting from 1904, the Federated Malay States Railway (FMSR) began building a complex of railway maintenance workshops at Sentul known as the Central Railway Workshops, or Sentul Works. After the war, the workshops were partially rebuilt but sadly, never regained the the glory, with many of the formal colonial railway buildings left as ruins. What is left today is a mix of century old as well as slightly newer structures from the post-war reconstruction works. Using urban design methodology, the projects will focus on sited buildings, by invigorating existing and imagining new, to create schemes that are both, sustainable and enjoyable to all walks of life.
METHODOLOGY To allow answers to questions and permit designs to come into their own expression, we apply diverse methodologies to articulate student’s individual briefs, programs and spatial propositions.
Working both collectively and individually in various locations and scales, we attempt to develop a complex ability to engage in critical design discourses. In this process we use drawings, models, photography and film. Through an intense series of rational and intuitive explorations we find and articulate an inherent appropriateness and appearance to our self-defined objectives. This practice helps to enhance our intellectual, creative and sensory skills, in order to be able to shape tangible and intangible urban conditions. The methodologies will guide the work through its various s t ag es of res earc hi ng, de s ig ni ng , re pres ent i ng and te st i ng .