Jason Khoo jasonkhoosc@gmail.com +65 96436579 jasonkhoo.sg
my design philosophy I believe in a holistic approach when it comes to design thinking, always open to endless possibilities that are influenced by anything in the world. I have always been keen in entering uncharted territories when exploring for a spatial design concept, or when packaging a design presentation. My design philosophy has always been challenging the notion of a fixed outcome in a design. I firmly believe that there is no one end result, no -ed but a -ing. To put simply, a man is always constantly moving, changing his postures when sitting, messing up his room. The design possibilities are endless, and the design processes are neverending. From the third year, I have worked with designs that are not definitive in nature, like customising with endless outcomes or constantly changing a design through postures. It is always in transition. The first project that piqued my curiousity and interest in continuing its theme was the utopia project back in the third year, where I discovered my model made out of jelly ended up rotting and shrinking. It made me realised two things: One, there is no such thing as a final end result/design and two, there is beauty in decaying. Hence, that extended onto my fourth year’s Manifesto on the theme: ephemerality, and searching for the definition of decay as a spatial quality. Choice project continued the design conversation on how time affects a design, by exploring the concept of impermanence and how it links with a fast food restaurant. Personal project concluded its own trilogy of projects by combining both theme explored in the past, and continues the search for a design that decays.
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anatomy
02
impermanence
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disintegrate
manifesto 01 - 19
choice 21 - 37
personal 39 - 53
ways of decaying
a fast food restaurant
an ephemeral exhibition
01
anatomy ways of decaying
PROJECT TYPE: EXHIBITION DESIGN LOCATION: SINGAPORE, WHEELER’S YARD
manifesto
The exhibition’s intention is to appreciate the ephemeral beauty of the showcased works and decay as art. The manifesto project is also the beginning of the use of ephemerality as a spatial concept, in this project, through light and shadow. manifesto | 01
CAFE
EXISTING PROGRAMMES TO PA A PA RK YO CO H V NN IA EC TO
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TOA PAYOH VIA PARK CONNECTOR
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
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CAFE SERVICE/WC SECOND FLOOR PLAN
BIKE SHOP STORAGE STAIRCASE OFFICE CIRCULATION
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threshold and volume The site has multiple entrances, thus a main entrance is vaguely understood. However, the iconic Wheeler’s Yard gate, known for customers to take photographs of, could be considered a key element and landmark of determining the site’s threshold. There is a clear juxtaposition between the volume of space in the exterior and the interior of the cafe. This offers an opportunity for the exhibition design to emphasise on the double volume space on the exterior.
THRESHOLD
VOLUME
IDENTIFYING OF THRESHOLD
INTERIOR VS. EXTERIOR
GATE
INTERIOR
CORRIDOR
EXTERIOR
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libeskind Libeskind’s Holocaust Tower in the Jewish Museum in Berlin uses natural lighting that penetrates a small gap in a dark void space, provoking visitors their senses of despair and helplessness.
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volume and light While a similar strategy is adopted, the exhibition design aims to utilise the existing volume and height, as well as playing with light and shadow but instead of despair, it aims to bring the concept of preserve and decay. Like preserve and decay, the duality can be compared with both light and shadow. When one controls the amount of light entering a space and allows more shadows, it can be seen as how one attempts to preserve instead of letting it decay. This exhibition aims to use the language of light and shadow in response to the theme preserve and decay.
initial collage
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VENTILATION BLOCK
BRICK
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design variations Ventilation blocks and bricks as a design strategy was derived from the site’s extensive use on its walls. Ventilation blocks and bricks were repurposed into creating an unique exhibition experience, by controlling the amount of light and shadow, and redefining exhibition walls. The design strategy plays with light and shadow through ventilation blocks and gaps of each bricks. The subtle gap differences of each bricks eventually lead from a fully opague brick wall to a partially visible wall.
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decayed
CRYSTALLISATION anatomy|ways of decaying The 30 artefacts selected under the theme on anatomy for the exhibition, titled ‘Ways of Decaying’ (a reference to Obrist’s Ways of Curating), includes works from renowned artists such as Damien Hirst, Eva Heese, Anya Gallaccio.
its material structure; hence decay. It is divided into 3 different categories; ephemerality, urban decay and crystallisation. With ephemeral beauty as the core of the exhibition, the installations are intended to degrade over time.
The collection explores the inevitable deterioration of an anatomy through
Selected works range from organic decay such as gerberas flowers and
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preserved shark, to inorganic decay in architecture such as Kowloon Walled City. The collection considerates the inevitable decay process and its aesthetics as a form of art. Like Hirst’s decaying preserved shark, it shows the inevitable process of decay despite preservation.
decaying
EPHEMERALITY
URBAN DECAY manifesto | 09
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anatomy|spatial zoning As identified in the site analysis, the start of the exhibition begins right next to the iconic Wheeler’s Yard backdoor. Following the narrative of decaying to decayed in Ephemerality, the visitor is led to the centralised space that displays Damien Hirst’s work which embodies the duality of preserve and decay. Crystallisation screens films that explores the theme of ephemerality as well as methods of decaying, and art works that are crystallised. Urban Decay works with the urban theme of decay, such as the Japanese illustration of Kowloon Walled City and accompanied by an installation that is falling apart.
EPHEMERALITY CRYSTALLISATION URBAN DECAY
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perforated brick walls The walkway at the entrance of the exhibition, designed with perforated brick walls, leads the visitors towards the cafe and the exhibition while passing through Johanna Mårtensson’s series of photographs depicting a decaying city built out of bread. Perforated brick walls were used as a design strategy due to also how light disperse through the gaps in between, as though the bricks are disintegrating one by one. Its secondary function creates a sense of intrigue as the spotlights in the interior flood and make the facade glow from the outside, as opposed to how exhibition walls are usually solid instead of partially visible.
Decor Photoinstallation (2009) Johanna Mårtensson 6 Photographs, 50 x 40 cm
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The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991) Damien Hirst Sculpture, 217 x 542 x 180 cm Despite preservation, the shark shows signs of decay.
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anatomy|preserve & decay The center of the exhibition houses Damien Hirst’s installation due to its duality of preserve and decay, as the preserved shark is showing inevitable signs of decaying. The use of ventilation blocks as a wall design controls the input of lighting within the space, making the space even darker yet allowing little light to slip through the gaps creating a dramatic scene. The existing space’s volume was exagerated further with a mirrored finish ceiling, while suspending the installation, emphasising a clear juxtaposition of the spaces’ heights between the inside and the outside. Sand was introduced onto the flooring due to its ephemeral nature, like how it will spill out of the contained space when visitors walk in and out.
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materiality Most of the existing materiality and the functions of the cafe remained the same since the exhibition is not permanent. The raw and rundown-looking textures such as the concrete flooring with parking lot numbers suited the theme of the exhibition as it was left untouched, hence it was unnecessary to replace any of the existing materials. While, sand was introduced to further build upon the concept of ephemerality.
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Residue SIngapore & Me, My Selfie, and I Marcel Heijnen Printed on thick Swiss fine art paper, 150 x 120cm The artist speaks about impermanence in Singapore through photography - as he juxtaposes public housing blocks against weathered walls; a technique involving reflection, creating one seamless image.
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art of decay
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The Manifesto project dealt with 30 artefacts, a site with an industrial and raw look, and a theme on ephemerality and decay. To retain an existing facade/ materiality and leave it untreated over time may appear rundown, but the beauty behind the materiality is the history, and how it changes over time. Like the existing parking lot left untouched in Wheeler’s Yard. The design however, was more of an artificial attempt to create decay in manifesto | 18
space. It also lacked the notion of how time influence or affect the design. This project was the root to setting up the ideas and philosophy of mine, as a designer. Throughout the process of the final year, it attempts to continue the conversation of ephemerality meets design.
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preserve ‘beauty’ Anya Gallaccio Installations, 260 x 535 x 25 cm
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Experiencing ephemeral beauty and the inevitable decay process, and through juxtaposing a fresh and decayed work.
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02
impermanence a fast food restaurant
PROJECT TYPE: COMMERCIAL, INTERIOR DESIGN LOCATION: SINGAPORE, CARPMAEL ROAD
choice
Imagine a space that is fast paced, a space that is constantly in transition, and with the belief of ‘quickness’ held onto by many fast food restaurants. The choice project explores the notion of impermanence in relation to fast food dining experience, similar to how one would experience in a drive-through. choice | 21
joo chiat rd onan rd carpmael rd crane rd ceylon rd
SITE @ 71 CARPMAEL ROAD
dunman rd
SITE SECONDARY PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY
ZONING - TYPES OF F&B SHOPS
SITE COFFEESHOP CAFE FAST FOOD RESTAURANT RESTAURANT AND BAR PUB
CIRCULATION WITHIN SITE SITE POSSIBLE CIRCULATION TAKEN BY RESIDENTS
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MORE RESIDENTIAL UNITS
SITE
CRANE ROAD
TOWARDS JOO CHIAT RD.
00:00
18:00
06:00
CARPMAEL ROAD
TOWARDS HDB UNITS
TOWARDS DUNMAN RD.
12:00
on the go The targeted clientele for the fast food restaurant is both the residents and the working professionals. The fast food restaurant values speed, efficiency, and an ideal all-day healthy meal for customers who are in
a hurry or always on the go. The site is placed in the middle of several residential units, from HDBs to landed properties, and next to the bustling Joo Chiat Road.
USER GROUPS RESIDENTS WORKING PROFESSIONALS CULTURAL VISITORS
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fast food|rice ball Rice ball as fast food is the healthiest alternative, and in comparison with other fast food restaurants, it can be served quicker.
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Ordering from staff < 16 Mins
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2. Order
1. Queue for food
3. Wait for food
4. Collect
5. Eat
:(
:(
Ordering through kiosk < 6 Mins
5
1
1. Order
2. Wait for food
3. Collect
4. Eat
:(
vs
On the Ball < 2 Mins 1
1. Order
1
2. Wait for food
3. Collect
4. Eat
:)
customer experience map In comparison with other fast food restaurants, the queue and wait for food tend to be the longest, while technology in ordering through a kiosk may help shorten the time needed, both preparation and food packaging is essential in improving efficiency and speed in a fast food restaurant. I proposed rice ball for it is quicker, healtier, and easier to grab and go compared to a sandwich or a burger.
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gradation The coloured plates, which are commonly used for hawkers selling chicken rice balls, suggest a certain familiarity through the extensive feature wall design. Similarly, the transitional value of materiality of the wheat growing process that spans the entire ceiling are strategies for illustrating gradation as a design language.
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The fast food restaurant’s interior mimics the “drive-through”, but except it is within an interior space.
EXISTING SHOPHOUSE
The linear interior space allows a possibility to design the thoroughfare experience of the interior.
SECTION VIEW OF INTERIOR
order prep
The space is divided into 3 parts - order (take-away); preparation; and dining space.
dine
SPACE DIVIDED INTO 3
Design strategy using colour gradation, the wall fades from green to orange plates in relation to the 3 zones.
WALL FEATURE - GRADATION
The ceiling is lowered in the preparation zone to create a visual focal point, emphasising the theatrics in preparing rice balls.
LOWERED CEILING
Similar design strategy is applied onto the ceiling, using the growth of wheat as the colour scheme.
CEILING FEATURE - GRADATION
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‘WALK’-THROUGH
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impermanent spaces The fast food restaurant emphasises on the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;fastâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in food by making the circumstances unfavourable for customers who wish to stay and linger - truly capturing the impermanent quality of the space. The restaurant space becomes a impermanent space, for people to come and go like a drive-through or rather a walk-through.
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ORDER
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all it takes is one hand Technology to order in a restaurant has become an effective and common method. For a fast food restaurant that is catered to the residents and working professionals who work within the vicinity, on the ball aims to cut down and be efficient right from the moment the customer steps into the store. In a situation where a businessman is holding onto his suitcase and on his phone, ordering and eating in this restaurant only requires one hand. The ordering machine is designed to resemble a rice bucket, and a wooden feature wall to highlight the space.
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PREP
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the open kitchen The overall materiality of the restaurant maintains a natural theme accompanied by a subtle tone of white and greys to allow both the ceiling and the feature wall design to stand out. In addition to the theatrics of preparing rice balls, the lowered ceiling of the open kitchen becomes the center of attention, leading customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perception towards it.
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DINE
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you have to stand and dine The difference between a fast food restaurant and other dining places is all about the speed. A fast food restaurant is meant to be a quick alternative for customers who wish to have a quick meal, thus the usual lingering/seating typology in typical fast food restaurants becomes redefined into a standing dining area. The choice of a round table follows both the familiarity of a hawker centre table design and the chinese value of ‘团圆’(reunion) found on round tables. The design of the tables retain the values and at the same time is beign modernised into a tall bar-like table.
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WHAT IS AN IM impermanence
The choice project looked beyond just designing for its interior, but the experience in the interior space as a whole; from ordering to leaving the space, from the rice ball graphics to the identity of the restaurant. It was a perfect choice to play around with the concept of time and impermanence; by creating a design philosophy and bold statement for the restaurant to essentially force customers to stand and dine, embracing fast food. What is an impermanent space? A space that is not meant to be permanent for anyone, a passing moment in a spatial context - a manifesto of mine to design with time in mind. This passing moment was translated into the space of a fast food restaurant, by focussing on a thoroughfare walk-through experience in the restaurant, rather than the dining experience (the ceiling and wall design vs. stand and dine).
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MPERMANENT SPACE?
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03
disintegrate an ephemeral exhibition
PROJECT TYPE: ART INSTALLATION, URBAN DESIGN LOCATION: SINGAPORE, BRAS BASAH. BUGIS
personal
The project is a public intervention that aims to celebrate transitory moments, and conceptualise ephemerality into a impermanent spatial experience through transition in its materiality, which eventually disintegrate into nothing. personal | 39
ephemerality in design The impermanent state of a jelly decaying kickstarted this material analysis. The aim of the study for these materials was to extract its impermanent qualities and recreate into a space. Like how styofoam â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;meltsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; when reacting to acetone. In order to capture the transition process of a materiality, timelapses and photographs were taken. The Personal Project looks into public spaces as the area of study, and focuses on a transitory spatial experience through ephemerality, which is the quality of impermanence.
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impermanent qualities Qualities such as how the porosity of bubble foams becomes less dense over time as it disintegrates, and the opacity of ice and wax becomes clearer when heated, are some of the experimentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; results.
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ephemeral art As a piece of ephemeral art, Anya Gallaccio exhibited an artwork filled with flowers which was intended to inevitably decompose to form a performance of transitory.
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car-free event meets art With the recent introduction of Car Free Sunday in the Civic district, and PARKing Day in Singapore, it could also be transforming the streetscape of the Arts district by opening up the roads for art installations. Similarly in Brussels, from the event duration to the activities such as chalking on the roads, are ephemeral in nature.
Car Free Sunday
Brussels Street Arts Festival
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design for the art district RO
Within the art district of Singapore, Bras Basah. Bugis, both Queen Street and Waterloo Street has a potential to work on in creating a better streetscape for the art and design community. Currently, the existing streetscape feels rather mundane despite most art centres and museums within the vicinity.
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The existing widen walkways designed on Queen Street provide an opportunity for a design to situate in, while Waterloo Street Arts Belt offers art and historical values.
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The project strives to revitalise the art district, through Queen Street as its starting point, and subsequently the rest of the streets within the art district. Due to the concept of ephemerality, the project is meant to be temporary.
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FIGUREGROUND OF BRAS BASAH. BUGIS
SAM AT 8Q
DBL0 ARTSPACE PTE LTD
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ARTSPACE GALLERY
art for all, all for art R OR CH RO
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Not only does art bridges student and the public, the project also creates a symbiosis between the public and the students; free art for public and free publication for students.
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As an art/design student, getting exposure and recognition is appreciated greatly. The public is a great platform for students to show their voices to the world, to their future bosses.
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QUEEN STâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S EXTENDED WALKWAYS WATERLOO STREET ARTS BELT BRIDGING BOTH STREETS
SITE FORCES: ART SCHOOLS AND ART STREETS OF BRAS BASAH. BUGIS
BRAS BASAH MRT STN
SINGAPORE ART MUSEUM
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ARTWORK
MULTIPLE ARTWORKS The basic element for the installation, an artwork, multiplied and aligned with the existing site context.
ARRAY OF ARTWALLS
LESS TO MORE DENSITY The design approach of showing the essence of disintegrate through density.
THOROUGHFARE
A path is opened up to create a thoroughfare experience of walking through the space.
CIRCULATION
The spatial quality recreates the concept of disintegrating by playing with the transition of height.
The existing site pattern is expanded onto the roads to create a seamless transition and encourage car-free events.
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TRANSITION FROM HIGH TO LOW
EXPAND EXISTING SITE PATTERN
The surrounding artworks and the space appear to be disintegrating when one travels through the thoroughfare.
The artworks gets more dense and the height of space has been slowly reduced.
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a disintegrating space When traversing through the space, one can immediately notice the shift from the start to the middle and to the end of the space. The design languages used to create a disintegrating space are the density and height of the space; a physical translation of as though one is walking and observing a sped up process of an ice melting, of a food decaying,
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of a foam disintegrating into smaller parts. Similar to how acetone disintegrates a styrofoam, the installation/exhibition space can be associated to how public is disintegrating the space by slowly â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;eating upâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the art panels and revealing the naked structures. After all, who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want free art?
opacity and porosity The artworks will be contributed by the art schools in Bras Basah, that vary from different opacity and sizes.
be achieved when the artworks start to reveal pockets of holes when the public is involved.
The overlapping artworks achieves the porosity effect, giving a denser space in the middle of the installation/ exhibition, while less dense on both ends of the design. Similarly, the porosity effect can also
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ephemerality in social media The concept of ephemerality also exists in social media platforms, for example Snapchat, a video/ messaging application that only allows the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s friends to view shared medias for up to 10 seconds, and then it disappears. The ephemeral nature of the medias sent possess a sense of urgency and importance knowing that it does not last forever. Similarly, the installation/exhibition space designed was meant to recreate the same outcome of impermanence. The experience in the space today may not be the same as tomorrow etc. And sooner, the space will disappear. The sectional perspective depicts the process and lifespan of the exhibition, as a space filled with artworks fades slowly into nothing, leaving just the steel structure alone.
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decay as spatial quality | an impermanent space The personal project is an improved conclusion in response to the manifesto and choice project; a finale of its trilogy, so to speak. While both projects attempt to define and answer the concept of impermanence and the act of decaying, the personal project improves on the concepts and merge the two qualities together. The manifesto project lacked the essence of time affecting a design; how a space is showing signs of decaying being experienced by the visitors in the exhibition space. The choice project looked into the experience of a passing moment through gradation as its design concept in defining an impermanent space. The personal project invites the public to shape the spatial quality as the
space starts ‘decaying’ every time someone takes an art work away, revealing what’s behind. It also brings the impermanent quality into the space as the site is a thoroughfare, a longer passing moment compared to the choice project’s walk-through. Lebbeus Woods questioned the architects on the ultimate decay of their own buildings and whether if one should embrace and accept its inevitable outcome. He believed that architects should not work hard to avoid unfavourable outcomes through a selection of materials. Unlike every designs that believe in a finished product as its final outcome, the personal project believes that there is no final outcome on either the start or end of the design. I believe that the act of decaying, when the space is disintegrating, that is the experience that at its highest peak.
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