Media Soapbox

Topic Tutor Year Location

Systems. Comprehensiveness. Integration. Raymond Hoe Spring 2023

Singapore

The project is set in 2040 to transform the existing SDE2 into a media soapbox, where digital content creators can gather in a physical environment, to collaborate, to inspire, and to create.

In this day and age of digital media, humans are a group of known strangers. With exponential growth in popularity of social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and even Metaverse, they are seen as digital projections of ourselves, a way for us to express freely and openly, as well as offering a lucrative career option. It has succeeded in a digital alter ego and lifestyle which we could curate and manipulate.

The form takes precedence from the site, in which a new diagonal grid, established by the surrounding buildings and trees, is superimposed on the old grid. The building is then split into three cores—inspiration, collaboration, and creation—whereby the collaboration spine acts as the main structure holding the entire building together, thus highlighting the significance of collaboration in content creation. Media facades are also used to distribute information.

Overall, the goal is not to immerse people in a world of digital content, but instead to enable them to become active mediators in the displacement between the real and the virtual.

The Site

An Avenue for Release

After studying the site and its history, it was found that SDE2’s location was chosen to push the architecture students to the periphery of the campus, and its interior layout was planned such that students could not crowd together. Hence, my group’s direction was to transform SDE2 from what was once a place of containment, to a place of self-expression.

Interaction between users

Interaction with surrounding landscape

The form-finding process played with the usable area of the site. The topography splits the area into two--one on the slope and the other below. The one on the slope is rotated to align with the surrounding buildings and path, in an attempt to better connect the engineering and architecture faculties spacially.

SDE2 was rather inaccessible as its entrances were on the extreme ends. The proposed plan opens up the space on the ground floor, introducing a new entrance facing the architecture faculty. The site contour at the new entrance creates opportunity for a terraced amphitheatre, which rejuvenates the existing underutilised stairs. It is also an attempt in connecting the greenscape in the area.

1. Identify workable area and points of view to tackle.

2. Split block into three cores.

3. Rotate one core for connectivty.

4. Adjust length for hierarchy of different cores.

5. Adjust height for hierarchy of different cores.

The proposed project’s emphasis is the collaboration spine. The high volume and openness create a flexible and informal environment for creators to co-work while also serving function as circulatory stairs. Its grid structure mediates between the more solid creation core, which houses the various soundproof studios, and the lighter distribution core, which holds the indoor holography theatre and editing studio. Within the spine, projectors will cast onto the mesh separating each workspace, and drones will livestream the creators’ process. In the day, media soapbox leaves a lightweight impression, contrasting with the colourful media projected at night.