JOURNAL
11 - 16
CON TENTS
C T T
01
STUDIO
Álvaro Siza Vieira
Variations Studio by Kati Blom & David
As my studio theme, Variations, suggests, our task is to develop design strategies by creating various experimental conceptual models. We were required to study 2 texts in detail – a spatialcomposition text and a musical composition text – and to create a series of concep conceptual diagram drawings and physical models in response to it. This led to the idea of overlapping and intersectingplanes and lines to create spaces in my project. I also focused on spatial qualities and established different material parameters todevelop design strategies for the following phases of my design project.
School trip to Portugal I was fortunate enough to pay a visit to Portugal and exposed to Alvaro Siza architecture terminology and styles, one of the most influential architect in the city. Siza’s architecture styles inspired me when comes to master planning of the site
Newcastle Pilgrim Street Main site
Site Visit Section drawings
Boa Nova Tea House Porto, Portugal
02
Design concept
theme
The brief was mainly concerned with exploring different types of spatial qualities by using different types of abstraction process to develop design strategies and design concept. I was exposed to complimentary texts regarding spatial composition and musical composition, exploring ideas by making conceptual models. The main theme that I have established from all the conceptual models is layers.
Photomontage
After comparing two texts from different composition, my design approach is to use regular 3-dimensional to create variations of spaces and using the same regular structure of the 3 dimensional grid to mimic the rhythm in music. I used different layers in the grid to create different layers of spatial effects, by overlapping planes and lines, inspired by Vordemberge, it allows me to have variations of spaces.
Apparoach
MASTER PLANNING
Moving from a small scale project to a large scale project, students are instructed to design a master plan for the music chamber and compendium. My chosen site is located beside Pilgrim Street which is surrounded by low-rise housing and adjacent to the 55 degree North building. There is a 7m slope in the middle of the site which poses a challenge due to the different ground level height. I have to decide where to allocate the builings and the relationship between the existing buildings and my development. I have identified a loose grid of the site plan across the bridge and my design approach is to reincorporate the grid into my master plan. The huge public park which is used to collect rainwater forms a loose grid in the master plan based on my site analysis. The compendium and music chamber are located adjacent to each other forming an L-shaped boundary for the dense grid
Pilgrim street
03
Graduation project Buidling accommodates the collection of Ms.Joaquim orchid flower which is located at Pilgrim street. In response to the site analysis, ‘the long facade is designed and exposed to massive sunlight in order to create a indoor green house effect for the orchid to grow well. Double skin facade has been incorparated to create a thermal buffer for the flowers. Three circular light shaft are designed to store the hybrid specimen of Ms.Joaquim as well as the seeds of Joaquim.
One of my aims for this project is to create a sustainable building, hence, I have integrated a few environmental strategies for performance assessment that brings productivity and excellence to every aspect of sustainable building design.
Show Store
Strategy My design concept is to create a fictional atmosphere of my show/store building and prelimentary idea of what my show/store building is about. It is a place where the sensory aspects of the architectural experience will be minimised as much as possible. To approach this aim, the orchid flowers will be preserved in a circular glass full of resin instead of exposing to the nature. The resin eliminates the chances of a person to smell and touch the flowers. What a vistior will see and experience is just solely the structure of incubator. It gives an opposite idea of what a “real� orchid garden will be. By using the same design strategy explored during primer, I have created a regular structure with different layers of planes supported by thin columns for visitors to experience the space.
Incubator
Music Chamber
Music performance The idea of box within a box forms a clear boundary between private spaces and public performance space. The render shows the visual connection between the performance space and the public space. Visitors are able to see what is happening in the performance area but cannot hear the music as the vacuum glazing eliminates the sound transmitting away from performance area.
House for Community
Organic wave form facade - extend/integrate the wave all the way to the site. It feels like you are almost there, “riding� with the waves. but in fact, you realise there is a cold physical barrier (the building) and it being a cube, is the very epitome of confinement (four major walls/facade). Implication of the twin phenomena: so near yet so far. There will always be certain restrictions along the way.
4 0 Prospect
Refuge
Residential | Workshop
Living on the edge
Accommodation
As the title “living on the edge� suggests, the target dwellers of the small housing scheme are a group of young people who live their life differently from the majority of the society. In hopes of opening their eyes to another world, a design of a foyer, by definition an integrated learning and accommodation centre providing safe and secure housing for young people age 16 to 25, is required of us as stated in the brief. Bearing in mind that the primary purpose of the foyer is to support, train and reconnect the group back to society, I factored in their personal needs and privacy to learn and grow more through discovering themselves.
WORKSHOP
ABSENcE OF LIGHT The project installation requires two main designs 1) a temporary demountable shelter for the audience and the buskers and 2) a setting for the annual "busking" festival entitled " Musical Chares". We approched the project head on with a set focus of bringing "light" to the Chare by incorporating the exact opposite. We decided that the way to draw people into and through the alley to explore the festival on the other end is to increase the darkness by introducing a fabric shelter over the alley with periodic light wells, such that the light is illuminated through con trast.
Crossover
05
MUSEUM Singapore Polytechnic Graduation Project
I was fascinated with the shophouses that were located at Armenian Street, and therefore I came out with the idea to continue the essence of the shophouses so that the site would fit into its surroundings. To me, the walls of a shophouse are the most important element as they divide the shophouse into areas of different uses. Thus, I expressed and dramatized the vertical walls, the spaces in between the walls in the museum for a similar strong expression. With these thick vertical walls, the spaces between the walls look like floating boxes when they are lit up. The facade becomes less dense and the verticality of the building is enhanced.
1:50 Sectional Model
Museum of Everyday Object
Final model 1:100
Where it all started
Singapore Polytechnic grad Show
Moontopia project by Eleven Magazine
COMPETITION Project Lunar Along with the advancement of space exploration, human understanding of space has increased and this allow for further breakthrough in this voyage into the deep space. Project Luna proposes the colonization of moon to provide an alternative form of human living in a completely different from eart, in relation with tackling the booming human population and exhausting natural resources. This proposal is also aiming at redesigning the life of space scientists and astronauts that are currently residing in the International Space Station.
Moontopia Typology
Series of large scale entities scattered across the moon surface
Furniture design award Singapore 2012
Feb 2012
Longue chair The Rockstar
Furniture Design Workshop
Typology – Rocking Chair Taking the idea of curves and materials from the lounge chair and merging it with the ergonomics and basic design of the rocking chair.
04 . 02 . 12 / 3 wks
1 : 1 Final Model
The use of curves is used to represent the original design of the lounge chair by Oscar Niemeyer. The main idea planned to be expressed in the new chair design is a feeling of elegance, simplicity, continuity and cleanliness.
06
25.03
04.04
16.03
02.06
24.05
20.05
25.03
28.03
03.04
24.05
18.05
03.05
03.04
14.03
04.04
02.06
04.06
MODEL STUDY | THINKING THROUGH MAKING |
Growing & Learning
THE JOURNEY
Thank you | Architecture is a never-ending learning journey and I welcome any challenges in the future|