JASON KHOO
PORTFOLIO
windows aesop
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home house without walls
utopia weightless
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hotel kinetic
wig shop build-a-wig
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office aa
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office // aa The first part of the project aimed to understand the clients; AA Files, Apartamento and Cabinet, and the history of office design. The type of magazine, the trend, the amount of people working in the company, the places of interest that might be suitable for the clients, were part of the research in understanding what our clients wants. Through reading and analysing the magazines, I picked up the structures and its tones, which was translated onto the spatial planning and suggested materiality for the design concepts. The second part of the project narrowed down onto designing for one client - AA Files. The aim of the office design was to translate the magazine’s ethos into a spatial design. AA School of Architecture is one of the most prestigous school for architecture, thus, as as institutional publication company, it should be able to provide a ‘serious’ tone in its design.
aa // concept Collage
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Symmetry The materiality reflects the Brutalist architectural style by using concrete to provide that institutional look. The AA Files’ format provides a sense of order and symmetry through balance and composition. 03
04 01 AA School of Architecture Reading Room 02 Boston City Hall (1962), Kallmann McKinnell & Wood 03 Richard J. Daley Library (UIC) 04 Phillips Exeter Library (1965), Louis Kahn
apartamento // concept
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Raw Apartamento features interior works that are often small, uncluttered, and left untouched, unlike typical interior design magazines which tend to filter and emphasise on neat. Red outlines were used as a point of emphasis and titles in Apartamento’s layout, leading to the use of a red accent wall in the office design.
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04 01 Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Wes Anderson 02 Villa Muller (1930), Adolf Loos, Prague 03 Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Wes Anderson 04 Hollister and Peter Hovey’s Home
office // library / event space
Library
Concept Models
An archive or library within the office space was designed to allow a quicker reference for other volumes of AA files. It also functions as an event space for potential presentations or events for the public. A display section showcases the newer volumes of AA files, for the guests to pick up and read.
existing site
final design
Initial Library Sketch
Spatial Planning The floor plan was designed to create a sense of balance through an asymmetrical spatial planning. The office design followed the free plan, where there are hardly any walls that defined the different regions, but through increased floor and ceiling height, and materiality. storage
event space / library
workspace
pantry / lounge
office // event / lounge space
office // event space
Detail of Seat The hidden seats were designed to be flushed with and underneath the event space floor. It was designed for events like a movie screening for the AA students or just simply for presentations.
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home // house without walls In Sou Fujimoto’s Primitive Future, he perceives the future of housing to emphasise on the grey areas of a space, that is, there is no definitive function for a specific space. Like how there is an infinite colour range between black and white, there should be an infinite range between actions as well, thus there shouldn’t be specific rooms for certain actions or functions. Due to the nature of the gradation in space, the user experiences the space through discovering, an unanticipated discovery. A table is not neccessarily a table, but can also function as a seat. When there are walls in a space, there will be rooms. Rooms provide functions. To eradicate walls in a space will therefore create a space without functions, a space where the user has to define and discover its functions. Can a house function without walls?
Concept Models
gradation
Precedent Examples
01 A place that one thought was a floor becomes a chair, a ceiling, a wall from various positions. Inhabitants discover its functions, rather than being prescribed.
existing design
05 The building is essentially one large room filled with freestanding elements that provide subtle differentiations within an open space, implied but not dictated, zones for sleeping, cooking, dressing, eating, and sitting.
gradation 02 Associated with the concept of living within a tree, the spacious interior is comprised of 21 individual floor plates, all situated at various heights, that satisfy the clients desire to live as nomads within their own home.
06 The only other divisions in the house besides the bathroom are discreetly done with low cabinets and bookshelves, making the house a single open room. centripetal
plates
03 Fujimoto wanted to combine the relationship between the inside and outside space - architecture and nature, through transparency.
07 Neri & Hu breaks away from the conventional way of spatial planning in a home design. A centripetal planning instead of centrifugal - the private zone forms the core of the space. centrifugal
design massing
transparency
04 Three nested shells in a space, where no boundaries can be found, an emphasis on the ‘in-betweens’ , and thus blurring the definition of an indoor and outdoor space.
01 House as a Cave Final Wooden House (2008), Japan Sou Fujimoto, Japan
stacked
04 House as a Cloud House N (2008), Japan Sou Fujimoto, Japan 05 House without Walls Farnsworth House (1951), USA Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, USA
nested
final design
03 Transparency Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (2013), London Sou Fujimoto, Japan
02 House as a Forest House NA (2010), Japan Sou Fujimoto, Japan
06 House without Walls Glass House (1949), USA Philip Johnson, USA 07 Centripetal Wu Residence (2011), Singapore Neri & Hu, China
home // continuity Temporality For a house without walls, temporality is the key. A space should be used temporarily rather than of permanence. Thus, I devised a space where the kids can pull down a translucent drape, creating a private boundary space.
Floor as Countertop I envisioned the space to have a continuous flow from the floor to the table.The continuity emphasised a non-fixed, functionless space where essentially anything can take place, be it eating, washing or sleeping. It also devised how the space will be connected through both materiality (ie. a single material on the surface) and steps.
home // without walls?
Can there be a House without Walls? The strategy for a house without walls is through transparency in materiality, and temporality in space. Philip Johnson’s Glass House was able to achieve a house without walls with transparency as its core design, while Sou Fujimoto redefined housing by creating a free plan in a triple volume space, creating temporality in space. A house without walls will create problems, privacy in particular. Privacy has to be sacrificed for a house without walls to function. Unlike Johnson’s approach, I was more inclined towards Fujimoto’s idea of a house without walls where it functions like a cave essentially. To be able to break out of the norm that we lived in, ie. a house with walls, a house with fixed functions; and live in a house where there are no walls to define the activities for the owner is big step for a housing concept. Thus, there can be a house without walls. It is just whether if we are ready for it.
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hotel // kinetic The hotel project studied the ergonomics and postures of an inhabitant, in a small hotel room. The research on the characteristics of mid-century furnitures, particularly the 50s, as well as a theoretical framework by Fujimoto formed the basis of this project. The concept of ‘lounging’ became a newly acceptable activity and a fundamental concept in furniture design, thus defining an organic design in the 50s. My hotel design followed the mid-century scandinavian furniture by using bent plywood as its material, and a strong emphasis on the lounging posture. Through Fujimoto’s theoretical framework on redefining a function in a space, such that a dining room is not necessarily a dining room, I intended to explore deeper into his theory in such a way that a space can be redefined even further. Due to the nature of Fujimoto’s designs, its fixed design elements have restrictions in customisation. Therefore, by introducing a kinetic design, it creates indefine ways of customising and redefining a space’s function.
Transformation in Space The space is able to morph itself through applying of pressure. Upon entering the hotel, the space ‘moves’ subtly due to an individual’s movement that is causing the modular pieces to rock back and forth.
hotel // a space defined through postures Final Plan
Connection It essentially functions like a series of rocking chairs connected to one another. Each individual bent plywood piece is connected to one another through elastic bands to create a dynamic and kinetic space, just like a ripple effect within a space that is caused by the user.
Plan Sketch
Precedent Examples
hotel // lounging posture
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05 01 Redefining Final Wooden House (2008), Japan Sou Fujimoto, Japan 02 Lounging Fantasy Landscape (1970), Germany Verner Panton, Denmark 03 Kinetic The Turn Presented at the Pasadena Museum of California Art Design Biennial 04 Morphing Polymorphic Bench (2011), USA Columbia University GSAPP, USA 05 Rocking Barwa Chair (1949), USA Philip Johnson, USA
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windows // aesop The windows project proposed a window display design for the store Aesop. Through the design palette identified - modularity, repetition, simplicity and muted tones, my windows design followed its design philosophy; creating an appeal through simplicity. Since Aesop stores are all designed differently, my design concept reflects the approach by allowing each modular pieces to be shifted around to create different patterns, giving it a refreshing experience.
windows // models
Repetition and Shadows
What’s Next?
The key design element was repetition. However with the materiality chosen, the design appeared flat. Thus light and shadow were introduced as an another element to experiment on the models, to give visual depth to the window design.
Due to the nature of my design; ie. to create an infinite, different and refreshing look, to push forward the concept, I could explore the possibility of animating the individual pieces to really emphasise on a dynamic and infinite look.
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utopia // weightless The project relooked into the definition of one’s utopia. I envisioned my utopia with a cityscape with thin structures everywhere - from suspended or cantilevered to floating. Through transparency in materiality, and a sparse distribution of buildings in an aerial view, it provided that sense of lightweightness in my utopia; a utopia that opposed the Brutalist architectural style, and its materiality. The first part of the project focused on using different mediums to illustrate the idea of my utopia, while the second part of the project aimed to visualise the utopian design in a three-dimensional space only through casting and soldering. It envisioned a space where materiality and techniques become an important element in the design; making a twodimensional conceptual image into a three-dimensional design possible.
utopia // initial concept
Image Making Expressing the concept through different mediums such as charcoal, stippling, collage and watercolour. The initial idea was to create lightness through materiality, such as floating elements and thin structures.
utopia // jelly modelling
utopia // decomposition through composition Composition The concept was conceived through experimenting various jelly types and wires, and the composition of the wires in the jelly. The materiality of the utopian model was selected based on the concept of transparency and lightweightness.
de-composition One of the challenges posed by using jelly models was the inability to retain its original state, since it shrinks over time. The initial plan was to preserve its state through various ways such as acrylic spray or vaseline, which didn’t work out. The shrinking resulted into a ‘decomposed’, thin membrane-like structure.
Conclusion This project allowed me to realise that through the process of making, something unexpected might just turned out to be better than the preconceived idea, which coincides with Heatherwick’s design methodology.
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wig shop // build-a-wig The project created an opportunity for a wig shop concept on a Metabolist style architecture - The Golden Mile Complex, located in Singapore. This project depended a lot on modelmaking, rather than a generic approach through site analysis and spatial diagrams. The modelmaking led to a series of conceptual models with the theme ‘play’, that includes various forms of paper origami designs, and of different materiality. Thus, it informed the final outcome of the wig shop, which was rendered manually onto an A2 paper of any medium.
Isometric
Plan
Process
Perspective
Detail
Joinery detail of how both paddings can be connected
wig shop // final model
Build-a-Wig Wall The idea of build-a-wig concept is similar to the build-a-bear workshop where the customers create their own bear product. To further create a fun, customising experience, the wig shop design allows the customers to easily build a makeshift table/chair or even a privacy space. The wall paddings can be removed and customised, making the wall design a part of the wig shop’s functions and furniture. Unlike a normal wig shop, where customers purchase a wig and style it in the shop, in the build-a-wig shop, the customers selects a wig from a range of style and colours from the wall design.
wig shop // process sketches and models
Due to the existing site’s circular window as a key element in the shop, the initial sketches revolved around circles as a form of display design. Modularity in design was also considered due to the plug-in concept from the Metabolist movement. However, the concept subsequently drifted onto folding and unfolding due to experimenting through model making.
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