D E S IG N 4: E N V I R O N M E N T, C L I M AT E, E N V E L O P E
Cheah Kok Ming
“A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through
Design 4 Year Leader, Unit 1 Leader
measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable.” — Louis I Kahn
Fung John Chye Unit 2 Leader
In the book Environmental Imagination, Dean Hawkes presents case studies of architects as they contemplate the qualitative dimensions
Tian Nan Chyuan
of environment, atmosphere and ambience in exemplary buildings,
Unit 3 Leader
extending appreciation of these spaces beyond pure technical narrative. He paints the success of these buildings as an outcome of the interplay between immeasurable poetic intentions and measurable technical means. Imagination is unmeasurable; its application is essential in seeding the conception of an original, beautiful and functional space. Yet that space must be created through measurable means, in the form of technics and technology, encompassing the deployment of materials, construction methods and environmental control, underpinned by architectural science. In design, the measurable and unmeasurable are never in conflict. Architectural science or technology always coexists with the poetic creation and performance of a successful architectural environment. And at the end of the day, the success of a building goes beyond a purely technical narrative, and extends into the unmeasurable realm of experience. Design 4: The Environment & Climate Envelope, aims to translate these architectural thoughts into the tropical context. The course will examine the design of buildings and spaces that have been conceived for warm and wet climates, and their performative and expressive qualities. There are many ways to understand the theoretical framing of tropical architecture. Tay Kheng Soon describes tropical architecture as utilising a design language of line, edge, mesh and shade rather than one of plane, volume, solid and void. Designing architecture in the tropics for Bruno Stagno is about the treatment of shadows and not light. Meanwhile, for Kevin Low of Malaysian firm Small Projects, such architecture brings about a discourse by engaging tropical counterpoints to temperate attributes. Inspired by this diversity of ideas, students will explore the notion of tropical tectonics, described as the “expressive articulation of structure, skin and space in mediating the tropical climate and its context”. Ultimately, they will emerge from Design 4 with a practical appreciation of how technics are applied in the service of poetic ends for architectural works in this specific environment, and how tropical architects have brought together invention, logic and heart to achieve form, function, economy and beauty. Image: Plastic turf cell grating employed as an environmental screen at Masjid Cyber 10, Cyberjaya, Malaysia, designed by Juteras. Image by Cheah Kok Ming
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