M.ARCH I 2021/2022 (M.Arch) Options Studio
M.Arch Options Studio An Overview Photo by: Christopher Chua
M.ARCH I: An Overview SEMESTER 1 (M ARCH I & II STUDENTS) AR5801 OPTIONS DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO 1 Modular Credits: 8 AR5805 ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE STUDIO (VERTICAL EXPERIENCE) Modular Credits: 8 SEMESTER 2 (M ARCH I STUDENTS) AR5802 OPTIONS DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO 2 Modular Credits: 8
This three semester design module sequence establishes the foundation for Masters level creative practice design research in architecture. It provides the students with an opportunity to select from a variety of studio topics; thereby allowing them to choose the themes aligned with their individual interests and intellectual drives—while creating synergy with their studio leader. Framing design as a creative practice, the objective of the module is to develop a high level of competency in creative practice research, leading to architectural outcomes, which are in turn, aligned to the faculty’s expertise and interests. Students are expected to demonstrate a high degree of proficiency in creative practice research, design thinking, representation and communication. This module demands that students not only deploy creative practice research methods; but also translate research outcomes into actionable strategies in architecture. Advanced architectural thinking and clear practicebased research methodologies applied to architectural discourse are expected, alongside mature representational techniques that communicate ideas through non verbal and verbal mediums.
Learning Objectives: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
To understand and critically demonstrate creative practice research methods in a studio context. To understand and take a critical position on methods of creative practice research and their resulting outcomes, and the impact of these on the formation of architecture. To understand and take a critical position on the translation of creative practice research outcomes into architectural approaches, techniques, and strategies or tactics. To understand creative practice research as a fundamental component of architecture and to explore its future trajectories. To design with creative practice research and its conceptual tools, and to be able to use such research to make ethical judgments in architecture. To utilise advanced representational techniques in both digital and analogue mediums to communicate research, iteration, and design techniques in architecture. To utilise advanced digital data, visualisations, contemporary simulations in 2D, 3D, and 4D mediums to probe architectural approaches to design. To utilise advanced analogue and digital tools in the exercise of making. To communicate creative practice ideas in concise and considered verbal, written, and performative presentations utilising a wide range of mediums.
Measurable Outcomes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Provide an innovative and rigorous design concept in a studio context. Provide a clear design research method and approach to the act of design, based on an aim of the studio. Clear individual focus for design research and making process within the studio context. Coherence of design research, making process and design outcome. Produce robust architectural representations with rigour and graduate level expertise in 2D, 3D, and 4D mediums. Communicate the design and its contribution to knowledge through verbal, written and physical mediums and artefacts.
M.ARCH I & II SEMESTER 1 DESIGN STUDIO LEADERS: AR5801 OPTIONS DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO 1 LEADERS:
AR5805 ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE STUDIO LEADERS:
Cheah Kok Ming
Hans Brouwer
Vice Dean (Academic), Associate Professor; B Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore
Adjunct Associate Professor; B Arch (University of Southern California); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore
Simone Chung
Associate Professor in Practice; B Arch (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore
BA Arch (Hons), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore),Dip Illum Des (Sydney University); GMAP, MSIA, Registered ArchiteWct, Singapore
Florian Heinzelmann Associate Professor in Practice; PhD (Eindhoven University of Technology), M Arch (Berlage Institute), Dipl-Ing (Munich University of Applied Sciences); Registered Architect, the Netherlands
Richard Ho Professor in Practice; B Arch (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore
Patrick Janssen (Co-teaching with Rudi Stouffs) Associate Professor; PhD (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), MSc (Cog Sci Int Comp) (Westminster University), AA Dip
Nikhil Joshi Senior Lecturer; PhD (National University of Singapore), MArch Conservation Studies (University of York), B Arch (University of Pune)
Khoo Peng Beng Adjunct Associate Professor; B Arch (National University of Singapore); RIBA, MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore
Victoria Jane Marshall Visiting Senior Fellow; PhD (National University of Singapore), MLA, Cert Urban Design (University of Pennsylvania), BLA (University of New South Wales), AAG
Ali Reda B Arch, BSc Arch (University of Sydney)
Rudi Stouffs (Co-teaching with Patrick Janssen) Dean’s Chair Associate Professor; PhD, MSc (Arch Comp Design) (Carnegie Mellon University), MSc (ArchEng), Ir-Arch (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Tan Beng Kiang Associate Professor; DDes (Harvard University), M Arch (University of California, Los Angeles), B Arch (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore
Teh Joo Heng Adjunct Associate Professor; SMArchS (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), B Arch (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore
Fung John Chye
Raymond Hoe M Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); RIBA, MSIA, ASEAN, APEC, Registered Architect, Singapore
Gaurang Khemka M Arch (University of California, Berkeley), B Arch (Sushant School of Art and Architecture); MSIA, IIA, AIA, LEED AP, Registered Architect, Singapore
Jimenez Lai Visiting Professor, (Cornell University); M Arch, BA Arch Studies (University of Toronto)
Constance Lau Senior Lecturer, (University of Westminster, London); PhD (University College London), AA GradDip, B Arch (National University of Singapore); FHEA, ARB, Registered Architect, UK
Joseph Lim Associate Professor; PhD (Heriot-Watt University), MSc (University of Strathclyde), B Arch (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore
Ong Ker-Shing Associate Professor in Practice, BA Arch Programme Director; M Arch, MLA (Harvard University); MSIA, Registered Architect and SILA, Registered Landscape Architect, Singapore
Tsuto Sakamoto Associate Professor, M Arch Associate Programme Director; MSc (Columbia University), M Eng (Waseda University), B Eng (Tokyo University of Science)
David Schafer M.F.A (Cranbrook Academy of Art), B Arch (University of Arizona); FAIA, NCARB
Naoko Takenouchi (Co-teaching with Marc Webb) BA Interior Architecture (Nottingham Trent University), BA Arch (Tokyo Kasei University)
Teo Yee Chin M Arch (Harvard University), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore
Marc Webb (Co-teaching with Naoko Takenouchi) M Arch (Bartlett School of Architecture UCL), BA Arch (Manchester Polytechnic); ARB, Registered Architect UK
M.ARCH I SEMESTER 2 DESIGN STUDIO LEADERS: AR5802 OPTIONS DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO 2 LEADERS: François Blanciak
Erik G. L’Heureux
Associate Professor; PhD, M Arch (University of Tokyo), DPLG (École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Grenoble); Registered Architect, France
Dean’s Chair Associate Professor, Vice Dean, M Arch Programme Director; M Arch (Princeton University), BA Arch (Washington University in St. Louis); FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB, Registered Architect, USA (New York and Rhode Island)
Lilian Chee Associate Professor; PhD, MSc Arch History (University College London), B Arch, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore)
Cho Im Sik Associate Professor; PhD (The Graduate School of Seoul National University, Korea), M Arch (The Berlage Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands), B Sc (Seoul National University)
Chatpong Chuenrudeemol M Arch (Harvard University), BA Arch (University of California, Berkeley)
Hsin-Ming Fung Ong Siew May Visiting Professor (National University of Singapore), Professor (Southern California Institute of Architecture); FAIA
Thomas Kong Associate Professor; M Arch (Cranbrook Academy of Art), B Arch (National University of Singapore); Assoc. AIA, Registered Architect, Singapore
CJ Lim Professor of Architecture and Urbanism (The Bartlett, University College London); PhD (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)
Shinya Okuda Associate Professor; M Eng, B Eng (Kyoto Institute of Technology); Registered Architect, Japan and the Netherlands
OPTIONS DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO: SEMESTER 1 STUDIO DESCRIPTIONS (AR5801)
ARCHITECTURE AS A PEDAGOGY Tutor: Cheah Kok Ming
Almost 20 years ago, Peter Elliot’s Water Recycling Plant in the Melbourne Zoo is a small scale infrastructure but occupies a prime spot between animal enclosures. Recently a controversial waste management project, the Amager Resource Centre was conceived by Bjarke Ingels as a mammoth incinerator plant with an integrated ski slope as its roof. Vastly different in scale comparison, but the common thread linking the two architecture is the idea that buildings can complement its purpose to promote desirable ideas for gaining public advocacy and adoption. “Architecture as Pedagogy” is the framework for the studio to explore meaningful form and programme relationship in a place for Adventure Education.
ARCHITECTURE AS MEDIA Tutor: Simone Chung Assisted by: Mary Ann Ng
Almost 20 years ago, Peter Elliot’s Water Recycling Plant in the Melbourne Zoo is a small scale infrastructure but occupies a prime spot between animal enclosures. Recently a controversial waste management project, the Amager Resource Centre was conceived by Bjarke Ingels as a mammoth incinerator plant with an integrated ski slope as its roof. Vastly different in scale comparison, but the common thread linking the two architecture is the idea that buildings can complement its purpose to promote desirable ideas for gaining public advocacy and adoption. “Architecture as Pedagogy” is the framework for the studio to explore meaningful form and programme relationship in a place for Adventure Education.
TROPICAL MARKETPLACES IN BANDUNG, INDONESIA Tutor: Florian Heinzelmann The majority of people in Indonesia buy their groceries via local markets (pasar tradisional). Despite management issues resulting in desolate maintenance, sub-par logistics and low hygienic standards, Indonesian markets are vibrant multi-programmatic spaces fulfilling a larger role in society. Due to all problems and the recent surge of COVID-19 in Indonesia, markets need to be fundamentally rethought while keeping the spirit and remain financially attractive for the less affluent. The design-research will look into several aspects like social interaction, community, urban integration, delivery chain, on-site logistics, but also resilient solutions like passive climatic design strategies enabled by an overarching ‘programmatically thick roof’ serving the collective.
HILL WITH A VIEW – THE KEPPEL GOLF CLUB
Tutor: Richard Ho
It has been announced that the lease for two of the 23 golf courses in Singapore will not be renewed when they expire in 2021; and the land will be returned to the Singapore Land Authority. The Keppel Golf Club being one of them. It’s high time, that we, as a nation re-examine our priorities especially when so much land has been set aside for the recreation of so few, not to mention that golf courses are perhaps the most detrimental to the biodiversity of our natural environment and not sustainable in the long run for a city-state that purportedly has a shortage of land. But what will happen to these two golf courses?
CONSTRUCTIVE CONSERVATION: DESIGNING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR THE PAST Tutor: Nikhil Joshi The rapid transformations experienced by many contemporary Asian societies have radically challenged their built environments’ cultural integrity and cohesion. Several historical buildings and neighbourhoods are erased in the name of ‘development’ (read ‘economic benefits’). It consequently disinfects the place of its identity and leaves it bland and out-of-date after a while. Wilke argues that “a sense of continuity does not have to stop new ideas —just the opposite. The deeper the root, the greater the range of nutrients”. In this vein, this studio advocates critical thinking and understanding of place/ building, change, and stewardship as part of continuing evolution. Applying conservation principles to assess the scope for a new intervention, students will strategise and deliver innovative ways to actively manage change to our historical urban landscape by protecting and adapting historical buildings/places to achieve a balance ensuring that their significant cultural values are reinforced rather than diminished by change.
WARM DATA, TRANSCONTEXTUALITY AND NOT KNOWING: FUTURE SINGAPORE
Tutor: Khoo Peng Beng
Instead of putting ourselves in a place of knowing, we start by putting ourselves in a state of not knowing so that we can be more open to exploring possibilities arising from the interactions of the multiple contexts affecting any issue. The idea of transcontextuality is that there are multiple different contexts that are interconnected and interdependent behind any single question, issue or thing we look at. Warm data (Bateson) is transcontextual information about the interrelationships that integrate a complex system. The studio will create an alternate Singapore in the future using the Paya Lebar Air Base site with individual projects collectively forming as a whole. Students will explore multimedia presentations— both analog and digital; moving from abstraction to concretisation.
SAMPLING SINGAPORE: ENACTING CARTOGRAPHIC PRACTICE
URBAN SPACES OF ONE-NORTH: COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS AND RULE-BASED DESIGN
Tutor: Victoria Jane Marshall
Tutor: Rudi Stouffs (Co-teaching with Patrick Janssen)
Mapping is a design tool, and maps are ‘things’ that inform architectural outcomes. In this studio, students will learn how architects and landscape architects have engaged cartography to both analyse and project change. The studio is framed by a three-kilometre diameter sampling strategy, based on the 110 Community Clubs of Singapore. We will ask, what if the Club’s governance was substantively empowered to support design? The collective outcome of the studio is premised on the notion that a multiplicity of map knowledge can open up space for architectural outcomes that are unimaginable within existing cultures of governance and official representational tropes.
Through data collection and computational analysis, the urban spaces of Greater One-North are assessed from various viewpoints, including accessibility, integration, visibility, human comfort and other requirements. Shortcomings may be countered through design and planning; with design actions expressed in the form of design rules that apply to the existing situation, in order to achieve a preferable outcome. Reflecting on the desired objectives of cohesion, vibrancy and liveability; design rules formulate these into actions and operations. Embedding both conditions and parameters for application, design rules operate on the data at hand, and express geometric and semantic transformations. Design rules support computation and the exploration of alternative design outcomes. This studio builds upon last year’s studio, while shifting the focus of attention in terms of both territory and objective.
BTTV; “BACK TO THE VILLAGE” Tutor: Ali Reda
This studio acknowledges that the Urban Fabric will not and cannot continue to function in the same way as it did prior COVID-19. So where to, from here, is the question that will be addressed. People living in cities do not intrinsically know what living in a village means. They cannot fully empathise or understand the charms of village life. To the villagers the world over however, “God made the country and man-made the city”. Whilst Singapore started as a collection of charming villages, it is now a first world sophisticated and busy city. The older generations here often speak about the 乡村, Kampung, the Village. They reminisce about people living in villages who led simple, peaceful, healthy and happy lives. As such, there needs to be a review of how we look at the urban fabric, the way it is designed. It must be people-centric, super sustainable, its form, its function, and a mega mix of programmes. The new, multi-purpose city; where people live, work, play, shop, and entertain, must reflect this, and encompass the new “Circular Economy”; the economies of the villages of yesteryear!
TERRAIN VAGUE: NEW TRANSFORMATION POSSIBILITIES Tutor: Teh Joo Heng A shift in usage patterns is being anticipated in the city, supported by hybrid land use, car-lite policies,— with COVID-19 accelerating the state of flux. This transformation allows for the reclamation of land from roads, carparks, and other public infrastructures. A new possibility is emerging within the city that comes with the recalibration of usage for existing buildings and leftover land. The studio is to speculate what the BRAS BASAH BUGIS AREA will be like, when this transformation takes its full effect
ENVISIONING THE NEW NORMAL OF LIVING WITH ENDEMIC COVID-19 Tutor: Tan Beng Kiang The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has upended our daily lives and posed social, economic, and environmental challenges. A high percentage of the population continue to work from home; and for students, a blended ‘learning from home’ system will become the new norm in Singapore. Social life is affected by social group size limits that fluctuates with each phase of pandemic measures. As we move to the next stage of living with the COVID-19 endemic, what is the implication on the design of our future living space and neighbourhood? The studio will envisage a design that can respond in a resilient way to changing circumstances due to the pandemic.
ADVANCED ARCHITECTURE STUDIO: SEMESTER 1 STUDIO DESCRIPTIONS (AR5805)
UBIQUITOUS GREENING Tutor: Hans Brouwer
This studio will explore the now-accepted paradigm that our urban environments and our building typologies can be reconciled with an aggressive introduction of planting. We will be exploring greening strategies at both the urban and architectural levels. A mini-masterplan will be created as a group effort, with each student going onto developing a building within that context. The studio will examine the gamut of architectural enquiry from the theoretical right down to the practical. The intended outcome is not to create an utopian future worldview, but to develop an aggressively real possible outcome for our habitats and cities.
F.U.N.3 | INFLEXION POINT Tutor: Fung John Chye
Fifty years ago, Buckminster Fuller pre-empted the challenges to human civilisations which are now impending. In Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, he posits the criticality of managing the planet’s finite resources sustainably, through a systems view for regenerative living. Spaceship Earth is at an inflexion point as cities face the convergence of existential threats—climate crisis, ageing populations, resource scarcity, pandemic, and technological disruptions. Third in the series on Future Urban Neighbourhoods, this studio will explore urban planning and architecture that mitigate the immense problems to invent viable Anthropocene futures through scenarios of sustainable human communities, urban environments and deep technologies in 2050 and beyond
FUN PALACE 5.0
Tutor: Raymond Hoe “Technology is the Answer, BUT What Was the Question?” (Cedric Price, 1979) The evolution of machines, AI and hyper-scale cloud computing has challenged the conventional wisdom of current technology-led developments such as real estate, typology, resilience, and economic sustainability. Industry 4.0 will be disrupted by 5.0 technology. Technology-led retail mixed-use developments will face fresh challenges and stress-tested to ‘re-invent’ user-experiences for consumer generations of Alpha and K. It is imperative for the present-day retail-led, mixed-use typology to evolve in the world of virtual reality, gaming, data, algorithms, pattern recognition, machine-learning, automation, advanced manufacturing with innovative spatial and programmatic concepts of the near future 2030 . The studio will investigate Cedric Price’s concept of flexibility and his experimental cybernetic narratives of impermanence , fun and leisure in “FUN PALACE” as catalysts and critical theoretical frameworks. This forms the basis to re-programme and re-purpose an existing urban retail development in Orchard Road, Singapore; to be transformed via a strategic urban design intervention into an experiential 5.0 mixed-use programmatic landscape. Studio and project site discussions will also be coordinated with notable external industry sector experts to stir further research and probe issues in the realm of both human-centric and technology-centric interfaces for both group and individual design vehicles.
LEFTOVER SPACES AND DETRITUS
Tutor: Gaurang Khemka
Our cities produce leftover and interstitial spaces. Spaces under flyovers, disused rail lines, and other unclaimed leftover and negative fragments are some examples. We humans, generate copious volumes of material waste, some of which are incinerated, some goes into landfills, some finds its way to the oceans, while some ends up in these unused leftover fragments of the city. Can architecture intervene at this juncture of waste? This studio shall explore crafting alternate typologies, materials and construction methodologies for a reduce/ reuse/recycle future for the Singapore cityscape.
CITIZENS WITH NO PLACES
DIRTY ARCHITECTS
Tutor: Jimenez Lai
Tutor: Ong Ker-Shing
The unhoused population permeates the urban fabric of Downtown Los Angeles, and there are no clear options to help improve this plight. It begs the question: what can architects do to help? There will be a very specific social, political, and aesthetic agenda within the studio. Additionally, we will be telling stories: No Place—an etymological root to the word “utopia”—is not an ideal place. Instead, it is a lens from which a type of journalism can be conducted, and a platform for thoughtexperiments. We will work within No Place for people with no places, and propose possible future scenarios.
This studio embraces forms of dirtiness as a matter of urgent public necessity. Our public health crisis of inflammatory diseases seems due, ironically, to the eradication of dirt from our everyday lives. We will explore reversals of the values of modern architecture’s resilient cleanliness, aiming for strategic and designed “impurities”. Solutions will expand upon historical modes of interaction between buildings and types of “dirt”—from pre-modern practices, to modern ventilation systems, to domestic animals, and other vectors. These will attempt to restore, in part, a type and degree of organic waste in the spaces, surfaces, and systems of the building, to create an architecture, as hospitable at the microbiotic scale, as it is at the human one.
SITE, SCIENCE-FICTION AND SUPERTREES, ‘BUILD BACK BETTER’ Tutor: Constance Lau A new blueprint for a city that is continuously in process requires the formulation of innovative design strategies that amplify these qualities. The users’ participatory processes and new ideas of mapping individual experiences are considered through the Situationist International’s notions of psychogeography where the theory of the dérive, détournements, and plaques tournantes, are employed to generate alternative approaches to document overlooked aspects. These transient, process-driven and shifting ideas of use and site, create new readings and meanings that will further Singapore’s stance as a garden city, and futuristic reputation for botanical constructs like climate altering domes and Supertrees. Utopian references ranging from colonial ambitions for ‘planting the world’ to Metabolist ideas of artificial land, megastructures, and nature will be used to ‘Build Back Better’, and generate visionary, ecological, and inclusive design proposals, conceived to embrace ensuing climate, economic, and social uncertainties.
FUTURE TODs
POST-SPORTS ASSEMBLAGE
Tutor: Tsuto Sakamoto
Why must the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2021 be held despite a State of Emergency under COVID-19 pandemic? The symbolic festival, insistently placed in terms of space and time, triggers questions on global capitalism, nationalism, and a substitution of historical memory. Under this critical perspective, the studio will investigate the event and its history—circumstances of the unrealised games in 1940, and the first games in 1964; while scrutinising the possible transformation of the sports event and training process—their space, scale, and operation—by using recent and future intelligent technologies and a pervasive media network. Based on the investigation and placing the projects in Tokyo where the 2021 games will be conducted—the studio ultimately aims to propose alternative forms of sports activities and events that are surrounded and integrated with a variety of non-human objects and living beings in urban and natural contexts.
SITUATION TENSE AND READY FOR ACTION
Tutor: Joseph Lim
Tutor: David Schafer
Although Peter Calthorpe coined The Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) as a concept in ‘The New American Metropolis’ in 1993, Shaofei Niu, et. al. (2019) argued its existence in the 1971 URA Concept Plan; connecting new towns and the downtown district with urban nodes at MRT stations where compact and mixed-use neighbourhoods incorporated a public central space at a transit station. The planning of a TOD for urban vibrancy is now investigated in the context of a pandemic. How will ventilation, density, and distancing redefine commuting, and the physical form and spaces of a TOD? Students will learn from international consultants—AEDAS, SAA, LTA and URA, in a cross-disciplinary design research studio developing individual Masters projects.
Take a deep breath and look around you. How can you design your way out of this? What is within arm’s reach? What is within a day’s walk? How deep are you willing to go? The goal isn’t simply to survive but to thrive… Assess your situation. Center yourself. Test your boundaries. Make shelter, make light. Together we will look at strategies for constructive, forward momentum from a diverse range of sources (alchemy, adhocism, improv, jugaard, preppers, #EDC, #ISRU). We will explore our immediate context(s) and condition(s) by contemplating the dualities of working collaboratively in isolation, working intimately but remotely, working precisely within a space of uncertainty, and fundamentally, we will make; improvising without compromising.
DOWN TO EARTH : THE NEW PEASANTRY
FORAGING FOR DESIGN
When we think of farming in Singapore today, two diverging trajectories come to mind. The first is a ground-up interest to “grow your own”, as hobbies, lifestyle choices or community initiatives—on backyards, remnant plots, or HDB corridors. The second is a state-led mission to increase local food production, with an aim to reach 30% self-sufficiency by 2030. A key thrust of this is the high productivity redevelopment of Lim Chu Kang to a high technology agri-food cluster. Is the future of agriculture an industrial abstraction, or can it still connect people to the land? This studio will look for alternatives, hacking a trail between ecology and technology, spiritual enrichment and physical sustenance, community, and national security.
FORAGING is a culinary concept that uses local wild ingredients as a way to reduce the carbon footprint, encourage sustainability, and evoke a sense of place. We would like to take this idea further and expand the concept of FORAGING to include the architectural and interior concepts for a new dining space. In an increasingly homogenised world, there is a stronger desire for people to seek more local experiences rooted in their communities, together with an increased awareness of sustainability as both a consumer, and in the built environment. With easy delivery and better transport networks, a central location is no longer a requisite for a successful restaurant. With this in mind, our focus will be in the North East of Singapore—around Sungai Kadut and Kranji, where nature and industry exist side-by-side in a combined area of manufacturing and small-scale farming. We will look to create a hybrid of these two contrasting elements using the concept of FORAGING, that will combine both sustainable ingredients to support the restaurant and the physical elements of the space where local fabrication and foraged materials can be combined.
Tutor: Teo Yee Chin
Tutor: Marc Webb (Co-teaching with Naoko Takenouchi)
OPTIONS DESIGN RESEARCH STUDIO: SEMESTER 2 STUDIO DESCRIPTIONS (AR5802)
PROGRAMMATIC SCULPTURE
Tutor: François Blanciak
The Programmatic Sculpture studio will focus on one pure geometric form as a basis for design investigation. This form will be a large cube with fixed dimensions, located on a given site in Singapore. Following a thorough analysis of the site in its greater context, students will be asked to determine their own programme. The design work will then consist of adapting the original form of the cube to its given site and chosen purpose. This process can be referred to as an act of programmatic sculpture, involving the erosion of the initial form with the projected programme.
EMERGING CIVIC URBANISMS: DESIGNING FOR SOCIAL IMPACT Tutor: Cho Im Sik The studio will explore integrative and hybrid urban models that cultivate genuine socially and ecologically sustainable lifestyles. Innovative approaches will be investigated to facilitate timely, flexible and contextsensitive urban interventions. This is to encourage a shift from centralised, top-down approaches; to more decentralised, bottom-up processes. From singular and static design solutions, to dynamic and pluralistic design processes, which can be instrumental for reconceptualising urban space design, for the hybrid and high-density environments of today and tomorrow. Diverse hybrid social spaces that encourage individual and collective creativity and allow for continual transformation and adaptation will be explored.
S.E.A BASTARDS STUDIO
Tutor: Chatpong Chuenrudeemol
DOMESTIC CAPITAL: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDIO
Tutor: Lilian Chee Assisted by: Phua Yi Xuan, Anthea, Tan Yi-Ern Samuel & Wong Zi Hao
Work is moving home. Buildings that previously distinguished productive (paid) from reproductive (domestic/care) labour are being rendered obsolete; sacrosanct boundaries between private and public realms are made ambiguous. While this phenomenon is not new, its historical insignificance arises from architecture’s tendencies to divide these realms, minimising a territorial intersection with multiple social-cultural-economicalethicalpolitical repercussions. This is to say, the home|work phenomenon remains to be conjectured. The studio will enact a series of counter-situations—practices, objects, temporalities, scales, programmes, sites—which challenge the conceptions, forms and experiences of “work from home”. We will engage in the production and curation of architectural artefacts (drawings, paintings, field sketches, photographs, models, and other objects), with the aim of delineating emerging domestic sites of labour by projective means—i.e. the descriptive, the imaginative, and the speculative. An accompanying seminar component Workaround (see p.30) combines ground design research with historical and theoretical material. This studio-seminar will be run as part of Foundations of Home-Based Work: A Singapore Study; funded by the Social Science Research Thematic Grant.
S.E.A. Bastards, or Southeast Asian Bastards, are homegrown architectural concoctions and strategies created by everyday people to solve everyday problems. Bastards are live street typologies, not frozen vernacular artefacts from the past. They may include beautiful shacks in a city slum, illegal pop-up vendors, a secret love motel…even a wonderful make-shift bench on the sidewalk. Most view Bastards as eyesores to the city, lacking in any serious design pedigree. However, it can be argued that they are the most authentic and inventive examples of Southeast Asian architecture despite their unrefined appearance. The recognition and understanding of S.E.A. Bastards is key to creating urbanistically responsive, ecologically-informed, and culturallyauthentic architectural vocabularies for Southeast Asia. In the S.E.A. Bastard studio, you will discover, survey, and document an existing Bastard, either in Singapore or in your hometown. You will then “grow” wonderful new Bastards from these originals.
THE ART-ARCHITECTURE NEXUS: NEW CONVERGENCES AND INTERSECTIONS Tutor: Thomas Kong There are myriad ways the art-architecture nexus is expressed. It includes material experimentation, use of media, techniques of making and documenting, critical and social practice, writing manifestos, design of cultural institutions, and participating in biennales as curators; to name a few prevailing examples. The spaces for learning, making, viewing, and presenting art and architecture are also less clearly bounded. Art schools now offer professional architecture programmes. Artists have occupied public spaces with their installations while art galleries and museums commission architects to build temporary structures. This studio will examine the art-architecture nexus as a place-bound practice with an attention to material, time, body, phenomenon, perception, and visceral experience. The broader context of a world undergoing a profound socio-cultural, political, ecological and technological transition will frame the material and spatial speculations. The studio is ideal for students seeking a deeper theoretical understanding of the art-architecture nexus; and who enjoy material experimentation, drawing, and making at different scales.
HOT AIR: THE DRAMATIC ATMOSPHERES OF THE EQUATORIAL CITYS Tutor: Erik G. L’Heureux The equatorial city’s relationship to climate and atmosphere has become an increasingly complex interface in relation to climate change, population growth, and contamination. Against this background, this studio will research the atmospheric mediums of “hot air” situated in urban Southeast Asia. Three features will guide the work: saturated urbanisms, thick envelopes, and aggregated roofs that modulate and filter the “hot air” of the equatorial city. As the equatorial city evolves from the granular, porous, and informal, to a more formal, conditioned, and hygienic metropolis, it is being transformed with large-scale capital, global aspirations and imported technological systems, often to its longterm environmental detriment. The design research will focus on modes of architectural construction in the region, and the tension between these and the precedent of mid-20th century tropical modernism of the 1930s to the 1980s. The dramatics of heated air, aggregation, scale, vegetation, humidity, heat, rain, and hygiene, and the numerous contagions that compound an atmosphere of “hot air”, will drive the studio’s design and representational research efforts for the semester.
Tutor: CJ Lim There is always a space of empathy cultivated from the acceptance of idiosyncrasy. Whether by bold gestures or by subtle attrition, our love affair of the city and its architecture is constantly re-written to build a fundamentally different idea of society. At different times and places, we break down hierarchies to empower the oppressed, the ignored, or the disenfranchised by embracing equality in expression, diversity, and identity. This studio encourages students to explore the critical thinking and the poetics of unconventional architecture and resilient urban design that address the idiosyncratic narratives of humanity and climate.
SKY TIMBER™ - TROPICAL RENEWABLE ARCHITECTURE Tutor: Shinya Okuda
The year-round high intensity sunlight experienced by tropical plantations, allows trees and crops to grow a few times faster than the ones in temperate climates. One of the strongest motivations to review timber plantations nowadays, is that it is a renewable resource and effective carbon sink, which is the true game changer of the global warming era. However, its architectural application in the tropics faces challenges of constant high-humidity, harsh weathering and fierce termite attacks. SkyTimber™ is a professional design research studio, aiming to create symbiosis between nature and the built environment, providing microclimate, fresh oxygen, comfort, and amenity for humanity, leading to unique sustainable tropical aesthetics in architecture.
MARINA CITY GALLERY by HAU WEN HUI WENDY Our Cities produce leftover and interstitial spaces. Spaces under flyovers, disused rail lines and other unclaimed leftover and negative fragments. We humans, generate copious volumes of material waste, some of which is incinerated, some goes into landfills, some finds its way to the oceans while some of this waste finds its way to these unused leftover fragments of the city. Can architecture intervene at this juncture of waste? Leftover Spaces + Leftover Material to create a usable building typology that contributes back to the city fabric and its residents. My project intervenes at the leftover site under the Benjamin Sheares Bridge. It aims to educate users on the development of Marina City, through re-imagining gallery space in a recreational centric area, with efficient use of recycled marine materials. Putting education at the forefront, I explore strategies to engage with the users and educate them at different scale.
Studio GAURANG KHEMKA
Initial Concept
Implementation Phases
Plans & E
Elevations
As the leftover site is located near the marine life, plastic waste is identified as the material palette for exploration. The aim is to utilise the leftover material to create a gallery typology that contributes back to the marina city fabric and its residents. As user travel through the gallery, they are also educated on the marine waste at the same time.
FRAGMENTED GALLERY
MODULE 1: ENGAGING WITH WATER Height of Views: At water level ±0,000
MODULE 2: ENGAGING WITH COLUMNS Height of Views: ±8,600 Initial Concept
MODULE 3: SUSPENDED SEMI-OUTDOOR GALLERY Height of Views: ±8,600
Prototype
TACTILE STORY by OW YEONG JUN JIE As one of Singapore’s oldest districts, Chinatown boasts many historic structures and artefacts that are handed down from generation to generation. Many pieces of architecture can be seen lining the streets of Chinatown, most of them hiding “precious treasures” within. Some shops even withstood the test of time, standing strong for as long as a hundred years. While it is great that there have been younger and fresher faces taking over the older generation, we must note that the tangible is easily bequeathed, but the intangible is so often lost forever. Tactile story imagines a possible future where its presence in the city would not only help Singaporeans reconnect with the past, but also create a new destination where people could see that People’s Park Complex houses more than just shops and places of service. Residents around the area could see it as a family destination, or a space where families could bring their kids to play, watch a show, or tell stories, while workers nearby would have a new place to relax, where its prominence on the rooftop breaks the skyline of regular and dull concrete and glass monotony.
Studio GAURANG KHEMKA
The “New Performance”
Spaces of Story Telling
As one of Singapore’s oldest districts, Chinatown boasts many historic structures and artefacts that are handed down from generation to generation. Many pieces of architecture can be seen lining the streets of Chinatown, most of them hiding “precious treasures” within. Some shops even withstood the test of time, standing strong for as long as a hundred years. While it is great that there have been younger and fresher faces taking over the older generation, we must note that the tangible is easily bequeathed, but the intangible is so often lost forever …
The Festivity Within
While Chinatown has been known to house various illicit and vice activities in the past, one cannot deny the fact that it was a place of hardworking labour, coupled with serious enjoyment. Indeed Chinatown was a place where locals can be seen working non-stop during the day, largely attributed to the fact that it was near the port and was where goods were being delivered into the country, but during the night bustled an entirely different life. Markets crowded to their peak, hawkers had long lines, loud music broke through the air and the chatter of crowds pierced through the air.
Can “story-telling” help to bring out the “intangible experiences” from the previous generations, and can it be told in a way that could be appreciated by the younger generation? Preserving fading memories and experiences by reconnecting the young with the past, Tactile Story envisions a place where families, millennials, and the older generation can gather to share their stories. Not just a place for listening, but also one for reliving, Tactile Story recreates “past textures” of Chinatown through architecture and clever use of materials.
Sprouting fro
rom Beneath
Festivity Deck
Puncturing of Sides
Centre Performance Stage
Puncturing of Podium
View from Bistro & Bar
360 ° Viewing Platform Deck
The “Hangout”
Roof Supporting Amenities
The “Hideout”
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“cloakroom”
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mother’s study
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living area
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powder room
680
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nursery
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guest area
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731 55
A HOUSE FOR TOUCHY-FEELY PEOPLE 450
by REBECCA CHONG Human dirt is the aggregate of all dirt, both external and internally produced by bodily functions. The assumption is that this dirt is indiscriminately omnipresent, to the extent that all surfaces our bodies contact with effectively map human dirt. Simplistically put, this project is interested in contact surfaces. Especially in this day and age where we’ve never been more sensitive about touching a lift button for fear of it being a medium for the dirt of another user to leap onto us, I would like to make a case for a house where everyone touches everyone through some surface or space, as some form of cognitive behavioral therapy. We’ve always lived with this sort of contact, what more between members of a family inhabiting the same apartment. My design intends to increase the frequency and intensity of human dirt about our domestic spaces, as well as spark moments of recognition of this often overlooked or unnoticed form of dirt.
helper’s bath
hall
Studio ONG KER SHING
reinforced concrete
400
1350
helper
garage
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entrance
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This couch happens to be in a position where the inhabitants of this house aren’t able to observe it from their rooms. Hence, there’s no of knowing that where you rested your head was precisely on the spot where someone’s butt just was...
The shifting of the piano bench out forces inhabitants to veer closer to the dining table, in the process brushing their hands along the table for some form of support.
This step prompts people to search for physical supports to lean or grasp, creating a high touch intenstive regions, allowing for more dirt to be passed from one body to another. The ledge is also read as a seat, by a user leaving the house.
KEY contact between bodies contact with foreign dirt contact with one’s own body
human contact mapping
There is the occassional interfacing with foreign dirt, such as in the case of a passing breeze that is too invitingly cool to pass up.
A 600mm high ledge doubles as seat, or an edge to lean on, as well as a table of sorts for both the dining and living areas between which it is located.
Furniture rarely comes with a manual on how to use it, and some of us are more fidgety than others...
human contact mapping (zoomed in)
We begin with an observation about the (mis)use of spaces in the domestic setting. This analysis assumes that dirt is perpetually omnipresent on the human body, whether accumulated or self-produced. Dirt may be refer to the aggregate of dirt, both foreign and internally produced, that humans carry about, of which physical intimacy and contact (direct and indirect) is seen as the conveyor of this dirt. “Dirtier” refers to a more intense passing around of this dirt, such that one’s individual biome vof “dirt” becomes more diversified. “dirtier” may also refer to more exposure to foreign dirt from the environment. It was then observed that dirtier spaces were those that had a more ambiguous reading, perhaps due to having less defined boundaries, such as the 600mm step down which could be read as table, chair, ledge et cetera.
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refoaming asphalt waterproofing troweled mortar t = 30mm rigid insulation foam t = 34mm autoclaved lightweight concrete t = 34mm sound insulation sheet t = 1mm vertical steel plate with openings for services gypsum board
1800
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heater store
2660
2005
bathroom
terrace
2550
7250
2050 2550
weather resistant steel plate t = 16mm urethane foam spray (insulation) t = 20mm weather resistant steel plate t = 14mm
daughter’s sleeping room
4350
weather resistant steel plate t = 16mm dining ・ living 150 350
son’s bedroom
kitchen
fiber cement board t = 16mm autoclaved lightweight concrete t = 34mm sound insulation sheet t = 1mm vertical steel plate with openings for services gypsum board 1800
hallway 1800
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fiber cement board t = 16mm hot water floor heating t = 16mm urethane foam spray (insulation) t = 50 mm vertical steel plate with opening for services floor joists concrete foundation
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House in Plum Grove sectional oblique
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waterproofing membrane t= 10mm autoclaved lightweight concrete t = 34mm sound insulation sheet t = 1mm insulated vertical steel plate with openings for services gypsum board
daughter’s study
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refoaming asphalt waterproofing troweled mortar t = 30mm rigid insulation foam t = 34mm autoclaved lightweight concrete t = 34mm sound insulation sheet t = 1mm vertical steel plate with openings for services gypsum board
bathroom
150
1800
2400
heater store
2550
daughter’s study
daughter’s sleeping room
4350
weather resistant steel plate t = 16mm
din
son’s bedroom
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1800
fiber cement board t = 16mm autoclaved lightweight concrete t = 34mm sound insulation sheet t = 1mm vertical steel plate with openings for services gypsum board
kitchen
hallway
House in Plum Grove sectional oblique (zoomed in)
An existing house that seemed to have a similar notion of no boundaries, even in its intense cement board t = 16mm fragmentation was House in Plum Grove by Kazuyofiber Sejima. Despite being a intensely compacted hot water floor heating t = 16mm urethane foam spray (insulation) t = 50 mm house, the 16mm thin walls nonetheless draw up vertical a distinct boundary between one space and steel plate with opening services the next, yet allowing the spaces to visually bleedfor into floor joists one another. Where there seems to be concrete foundation the opportunity for an ambiguous space, however, is where a opening in the walls at a height of approximately 1000mm is made. The division of the sleeping space from the study space becomes a space of ambiguity at the same time, as seen from how the daughter (tinier figure drawn in red) has intepreted the window as an aperture to climb through, while the mother uses 16 1670 16 1050 16 it as a ledge50to lean on drawn in red). 1000(taller figure
38 Oxley Road
towards Orchard Road
Lloyd’s Inn Hotel
Lloyd Road
Oxley Road
towards River Valley Road
Oxley Residence Condominium
site axonometric
The site is chosen for its quality of being seemingly out of today’s time. The road registers a day night rhythm, with pedestrians and road users frequenting the road to access the shopping belt. Yet, there is a patch of greenery towards that remains stubbornly undeveloped even after the security detail for the nearby 38 Oxley Road has left, eventually becoming overgrown. This timelessness complements the placelessness of the design language of House in Plum Grove, an aspect of the original which has been retained.
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“cloakroom”
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mother’s study
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living area
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450
powder room
680
40
nursery
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680
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450
1008
guest area
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entrance
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kitchen 3300
dining area tea room
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helper’s bath
helper’s bedroom
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reinforced concrete
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fiberglass-reinforced plastic waterproofing mortar reinforced concrete
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store/laundry
hall
garage
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shed
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ground floor plan
reinforced concrete vertical steel plate with openings for services fiber cement board t = 16mm
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library
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reinforced concrete
hallway
reinforced concrete
fiberglass-reinforced plastic waterproofing mortar reinforced concrete
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entrance
200
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service area
50 150 100
soil drainage cell eco-root barrier waterproof membrane fiberglass-reinforced plastic waterproofing mortar reinforced concrete
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father’s study
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stair sectional oblique
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fiberglass-reinforced plastic waterproofing mortar reinforced concrete
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reinforced concrete vertical steel plate with openings for services fiber cement board t = 16mm
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mother’s study sectional oblique S = 1/45
parent’s area
reinforced concrete vertical steel plate with openings for services fiber cement board t = 16mm
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fiberglass-reinforced plastic waterproofing mortar reinforced concrete
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kitchen 3030
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tea room
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ground floor guest area bed room. model at 1 to 20 scale.
ground floor guest area bed foot/desk/corridor. model at 1 to 20 scale.
NOMADSCAPE by
SMUHAMMAD SYUKRI BIN MATSUNI,
LEONG YUE QI, CHRISTOPHER CHUA PART A\\ Nomad-scape was conceived bearing in mind the notions of nomadism and eco-literacy. What if we could introduce an improvisational spirit in the campers while encouraging them to exercise their own agency and autonomy with the tools at hand? The idea of the push cart was thus born, as a tool which will follow the campers throughout the duration of the camp. Designed as a kit of parts, the pushcart is made up of a number of elements, affording different configurations. As campers traverse the campsite, they can reconfigure their carts or accumulate parts that will then aid them in overcoming different obstacles throughout the camp. Nomad-scape is designed on 4 different layers considering its site, the setting, the series of obstacle courses embedded within our individual design and lastly the keys or in this case the constructed push-carts that unlock multiple modes of interaction with the obstacles and setting. All in which to encourage a diverse and varied movement pattern that is unique to every camper.
Studio CHEAH KOK MING
Annotations & Captions
Nomad-scape pu
Nomad-scape pedagogy and overview
The camp starts at the drop off point where they will make their way to the bushcraft store space located near the water boundary. This is where they will first retrieve the items of the pushcart and construct their own unique cart out of materials such as water barrels, rope, benches, crates, and bamboo ladders. These items also come designed with slots as well as grooves that provide the affordance for rope or bamboo to be slotted into. All these materials are recycled or even upcycled items such as rope obtained from sail boats to timber benches made from pallets.
ushcart flowchart
All of which is processed as the camp’s formal workshop to ensure its quality as well as its structural integrity. After building their cart, their pushcarts will be pushed along the path along the center of the stores to the accommodations outdoor amphitheater where they will have their bonding time by trying to complete their lodging space with the push-cart’s materials. They will then return to the bushcraft store where they will enjoy their meal and subsequently get debriefed. After their night’s rest at the lodging area, the campers will then have to reassemble their cart to tackle obstacles throughout the
day to obtain more push-cart parts that can aid in their finale event. On camp night, the campers can utilize their pushcarts and convert it into makeshift living quarters as well as cooking devices. On the last day, the cart will have evolved further from its starting point at the bushcraft store where it should be now ready to take on the task of carrying tree saplings to even participate in the raft races.
NOMAD’S SHED by CHUA YAN JUN CHRISTOPHER PART B\\ Nomad’s Shed creatively reinteprets the relationship between outdoor adventure and its dedicated storage as one that is reactionary and symbiotic. Storage here is seen as a visual tool and possibly a spectacle that reacts not only to the physical environment but also to the nature of the camp’s nomadic program. Nomad’s Shed aims to provide a means to which adventure storage can reflect the time and seasons to take advantage of these cycles in further educating campers about ecology, teamwork, and sustainability. The project exists at the in betweens of the site’s water and land boundaries, featuring a main hall, canoe launch points, push-cart chattels, outdoor kitchens, workshop spaces as well as supporting high and low element facilities that engage the use of the pushcart.
Nomad’s Shed: Main Hal
ll and Canoe float details
Nomad’s Shed: Push car
rt and bushcraft storage
Axonometric of
f Nomad’s shed
Axonometric of
f Nomad’s shed
PASAR ROYONG by Sharlene Sow and Kom Hui Jing Women are major contributing factors to the economical power within markets, however, there are also evident gender differences experienced by them. This is shown by which products are sold by whom, such as the sale of meat products being more male-dominated whereas dry goods and textile are more women-dominated. This is also represented in the form of differences in income where meat products are the driving force of market customers. Despite earning less, women in the market, or Indonesian societies in general, have to simultaneously take care of children and their households, while manning their stalls. Women need a higher level of representation in society, and the market aims to empower women in this respect. The market is organized as a spiraling array of platforms where meat products at the top end drive traffic along a central courtyard which serves as interface and communication platform for all sorts of public, cultural, economic, women-led activities to give them more opportunities but also a space for social interaction and representation.
Studio FLORIAN HEINZELMANN
COLLAGE Empowering women with local crafts while enscapsulating gotong royong spirit
RESEARCH Demograhpics and women representation in society
Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
FLOW CHART Project Premise
DESIGN STRATEGIES Responding to site and program goals
Diagram by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
Creating a public thoroughfare that connects the site and allows continuity of the ground circulation.
The atrium as a communicative spaces and the hearth of the building.
Split level system around the atrium for continuous circulation flow and enhanced visual connectivity.
Double void system to increase usable space and create more interaction with the atrium.
Allocation of service lane and service blocks to the back of the site, away from main traffic flow and for ease of access.
Programme allocation from highest activity level to lowest, determining the program’s distance from the atrium.
DESIGN PROPOSAL Creating a public thoroughfare the connects the site and the market
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
Being located in a less developed area of Bandung, it is important that the market is constructed with building materials and technologies that are not foreign to the local population. As such, the newly revamped pasar adopts a simple frame system, consisting of reinforced concrete frame construction on the lower levels, wrapped by a volumetric light weight roof structure which provides for a comfortable microclimate, being shading, daylight and cross ventilation.
LEVEL 2 FLOOR PLAN
LEVEL 3 FLOOR PLAN
Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
THE ATRIUM AS THE HEARTH Platforms spiraling around the atrium
EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC
Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
PROGRAM MATRIX Drawing correlations between programmatic functions
SECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE A-A
CIRCULATION FLOW Curating circulation of various users to increase exposure to women craft and encounters with one another
Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
CREATING MICRO-COMMUNITIES To strengthen bonds amongst merchants, increasing sense of ownership towards the market MEAT
VEGETABLE
DRY GOODS
COOKED FOOD
CLUSTERS LOCATIONS
MEAT CLUSTER PLAN
VEGETABLES & FRUITS CLUSTER PLAN
BATIK & APPAREL CLUS- COOKED FOOD CLUSTER PLAN TER PLAN Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
COMPENDIUM OF INTERFACES Interfaces designed for specific program requirements
Diagram by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
SECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE B-B
FACADE DETAIL Polycarbonate louvered system with timber cladded facade
EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC
Drawing by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
Visualisation by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
ATRIUM SPACE
Visualisation by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
PLAYGROUND INTERFACE
Visualisation by Kom Hui Jing and Sharlene Sow, 2021
MARKET HALL
The Tale of Two Cities by Ching Yu Han & Marsha Ismail The Tale of Two Cities is a conceptual project that is set in 2050, exploring the relationship between the two cities that have emerged from an industryof space debris management and the social structures informed by them. As a consequence of decades of space debris, it poses threat to interplanetary space travel. Stratum Corporation forefronts the space debris management industry by creating a new geological material out of space debris. While a new geology is born and serves Stratum Corporation as a floatation device for the settlement, it also marks the edge of a new underground city. The Tale of Two Cities explores the productive potential of extreme densification due to toiling for the credit system. While the Stratum borders on the neocolonial master plan that is imposed from a singular seat of power, the Burrow surrenders to wilderness. Climate change or space debris in this project is no longer a technological problem, but rather an ideological one, rooted in culture and politics. The Tale of Two Cities is simultaneously an extraordinary speculative image of tomorrow and an urgent examination of the environmental questions facing us today. The primary media through which this project has been explored is through film. Please enjoy it!
Studio SIMONE CHUNG
Studio Architecture as Media
Section of Stratum Cor
rporation & the Burrow
Geology Storage & Manufacturing, Power Generator and Kelp Stealing Harvesting
The Burrow Marketplace & Dwellings
The functioning of the Stratum is reliant on the power that is drawn from the seabed which the Burrow has inconspicuously purloined. The history of the Burrow stems from the less privileged’s hijacking of the Stratum Floatation Device (Geo 3 Development Project). It has since been transformed into a hyper-dense metropolis with black market and supply chains that houses the less privileged contributors of the Stratum Corporation. The Burrow now houses those who aspire to reach Mars and those who have given up on their interplanetary dreams.
The Burrow Marketplace
The architecture of the Burrow becomes a geologic force remade and rescaled. The converter crushes large debris into smaller pieces. They are then melted and made into new materials. Currently, new materials are used to develop the Floatation Device (Geo 3 Project). The heat produced from this conversion is transformed into electricity to power the rest of the Stratum and the Burrow. The Burrow uses the new geology as a material to create their dwellings. It is also said that there exist certain geologies that only exist within the Burrow, that are fetching very high prices as the Marketplace
People of the Burrow ususally trade stolen harvested items at the Marketplace. Items that are in demand by the Stratum would typically hold a better price. The Burrow, too, mines and harvests its own geology by burrowing through Stratum’s Space Debris Pit, taking advantage of geology that has been crushed under the pit for a decade. The Burrow uses the new geology as a material to create their dwellings.
Stratum Corporation Rocket Landing & Maintenance
Stills from “The Tale of Two Cities”
Stills from “The Tale of Two Cities”
Project aims and bus
siness model
Site plan (adjacent to
Farm buildin
o Kranji Park car park B)
ng cluster plans
Section A-A’ of Cluster 1
Section B-B’ of Cluster 1
Section C-C’ of Cluster 2
Apart from the food forest which the farm buildings reside in, there are 3 other demonstration zones which enhances the experience. The farm questions the promises of a greener future made by farms of the future and instead adopts the food forest permaculture practice of imitating forest-like structures to increase the biodiversity, efficiency, and sustainability of food production systems. Through utilizing nitrogen-fixing and nutrient-accumulating plants as well as the chopand-drop techniques, the forest farm generates a positive feedback loop of nutrients recycling and contributes directly to the future of food by allowing for much more life within a single area. Drawing inspiration from the multilayered nature of the food forest, the roof form and the walls of the farm buildings engage in a playful conversation with the food forest. As the various crops layers corresponds with the verticality of forests, the farm buildings respond with a play of roof ridge and eaves.
Perspective of cucumber trellis along path
Perspective of lookout point accessed from Cluster 2
Cluster 1 farm building elevation
Site se
Forest inspiration
ection
n drawing
Perspective of staircase of Cluster 1
Perspective of cutout in Cluster 2
Cluster 2 farm building elevation
Bridge from cluster 3 leading to the food forest
View of worker’s residence and lookout point from food forest across bioswale
Cluster 1 with trapezoidal ceilings
Cluster 1 spatial layout
Cluster 1 elevation view
Cluster 2 without roof
Cluster 2 and bridge elevation view
Cluster 1 site model
Rall.way by ANDY MOK, GOH YI FAN & TENG YING SHI Rall.way is a rejection of a typical Transit-Oriented Development (TOD): one that is usually dense and heavily built up. The intervention almost serves as an extension from the existing Admiralty Park: a juxtaposition against the currently indoor centric Woodlands Square. Through integrating research and recreation via landscape and wetlands, opportunities are provided for work, leisure, and play, boosting the wellness of researchers, locals, and international visitors alighting from the Rapid Transit Station (RTS). Split into three hubs: healthcare, agri-tech and botanics, they all aim to provide a calm, peaceful and multi-sensorial atmosphere for the users, a step away and a drop in tempo (rallentando) from the rapid and busy atmosphere in a typical TOD.
Studio JOSEPH LIM
The masterplan has layers of linkways of different velocities: RTS track that links to Johor and beyond, Skywalk as a
a new neighbourhood PCN, Streetwalk as convenient access for work, and Greenwalk for recreational enjoyment.
Perspective sections of Masterplan showing the connections among
the 3 hubs, existing Woodlands Interchange & surrounding buildings
Strategically placed just beside Causeway Point, the RTS & CIQ are being placed away from the main masterplan to keep it calm an
nd sparse. Convenient access is provided towards the Healthcare & Agri-tech hubs, as well as existing programmes around the site.
The Healing Punch (Botanics Hub): Consisting of a flower and tea district, a therapeutic experience is provided via integration with nature; a new ecosystem is created w
within and beyond the site. Programmes include tea and honey harvesting and production; the teahouse and bathhouses can be healing spots for people who work there.
The Farm Oasis (Food Hub): From the common vegetables to aquatic plants and exotic seafood, a series of active and enjoyment sp
The Farm Oasis (Food Hub): Key locations such as the existing underground MRT station, proposed RTS station, Republic Polytechnic, and sur
paces integrates food production and retail into a nature park experience, reestablishing the missing link between our food and us.
rrounding neighbourhoods are connected through a network of strategic linkways, each providing unique visual, park, and retail experiences.
Eden of Healthcare (Healthcare Hub): A quarantine resort, travellers who are tested COVID-19 positive can have a stress-relieving quarantine experience, through integration of
Sky Infinity Pool , Herbal Steam Bath, Aqua Fitness, Whirl Pool, Jet, Floral Sauna and Sun-Tanning Area Visitors are encouraged to utilise the pool and spa facilities while keeping their distance for safe distancing as these activities brings several health benefits. Beyond plessure, it reduces the risk of vascular diseases such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease. The COVID-19 virus does not transmit through water while swimming. However, the virus spreads between people when someone has close contact with an infected person.
Garden Terraces: Healing Garden, Sensorial Garden, Participatory Garden, Green Walkway and Flower Bridge Both passive and active contact with nature bring mental and physiological benefits that aid in healing and rehabilitation. Gardens benefits the visitors’ well being with hightened senses as a stress reliever. The Flower Bridges will be used as the main circulations to get across mid level for those who are feeling unwell.
Forest Garden at Lobby, Health Care Facility and Quarantine Facility Trees are planted densly to simulate a forest atmosphere where the users have to meander and find their way through these spaces. The Forest Garden located in the middle is the Lobby’s atrium is entitled for the visitoes to take their temperature and swab test before proceeding to their designated units.
Single Unit Quarantine Facility Single Unit Quarantine Facility is attached with individual balcony and shared garden between 4 units to prevent virus transmission. Each visitor will be given a 2 levels unit of 128m2 area.
Hawker Food Street and Grocery Mart A Hawker food street gives them a sense of home. Hawker Culture in Singapore is an integral part of the way of life for Singaporeans, where people from all walks of life gather at hawker centres to dine and bond over their favourite hawker food.
Family Unit Quarantine Facility Faimily Unit Quarantine Facility is attached with individual balcony and shared garden. A family of two to five will be able to share a single unit of 258m2.
Single General Ward These single general wards are for patients with moderate symptom . The is negative pressured and each individuals only occupies one storey of 64m2. Visitors and fmily members are able to visit them in a outdoor setting with consistent ventilation.
Structures and Lifts Each liftt is catered for 4 units in a single level to reduce cross contamination of the virus and improve the circulation .
PROGRAMMES Recreation 1. Infinity Sky Pool 2. Herbal steam Room 3. Floral Suana and Spa 4. Food street-Singapore Hawker 8. Rejuvenation Garden 9. Sensorial Garden 10. Garden Walkway Terrace 11. Participatory Community Garden Quarantine Facilities 5. Single units facing Woodlands Avenue 5 (128m2) 6. Single units - facing Malaysia Johor (128m2) 7. Shared garden between four units Healthcare Facilities 12. Single General ward with negative pressure (Moderate symptoms) 13. Family unit for 2-5 pax (256m2) 14. Staff Entry with Donning Room and Doffing Room 24. Intensive Care Unit with Attached Nurse Post 25. Isolation Room for Severe Cases 26. Doctor staff entry for Donning and Doffing 35. Bio-medical waste Space
Quarantine Facility Back-Of-House The BOH facilities provides a sanctuary garden at the lobby. Laundromat, cloud kitchen, general store, guard room, sercurity room and bio-medical waste space are within this vicinity.
Quarantine Back-of-House 15. Quarantine Staff Sanctuary Garden 22. Laundromat Back of House 23. General store and Guardroom 27. Cloud kitchen 28. Nurse Station for Intensive Care Units Quarantine Facility Front-of-House 16. Temperature taking kiosk 17. Self check-in Reception Area 18. Open Vista 19. Holding Area for Severe and Moderate symptoms 29. Garden terrace 30. High-level isolation wards 31. Mortuary Others 16. Temperature taking kiosk 17. Self check-in Reception Area 18. Open Vista 19. Holding Area for 36. Ambulance drop off
Healthcare Facility It improves convinience to have by reducing travelling time and contamination while travelling other hospitals. Each ward with will have a nurse post attatched at a ratio of 4:1 to 2:1. Doctorr and Staff entry for Donning and Doffing, Oxygen supply room, Isolation room for severe cases, Intensive care unit with attached nurse post and mortuary are within this vicinity.
quarantine facilities with recreational activities and healing gardens. Sitting above Causeway Point, users get panoramic views of the masterplan and the Johor Causeway.
AN URBAN RETREAT by Joshua Andrew De Souza Re-activating the Pasir Panjang Waterfront Prior to land reclamation works in 1971 and the subsequent establishment of the container port, Pasir Panjang used to be a popular beach and recreational destination hosting regattas and other water sport activities. With the waterfront being largely inaccessible to the public since 1971, the Breakwater Retreat taps on the FlexiCity studio master plan guidelines and returns the waterfront and waters to the public. The project draws on history and reintroduces watersport activities and waterfront living to the area for all to enjoy. With the masterplan specifiying a 100% publicly accessible ground level, the projects rethinks the typology of a lifestyle venue and includes both public and private spaces. Fronting the decommisioned Pasir Panjang Power Station, the project draws on the architectural language of the power station. Studio Richard Ho Kong Fatt
Pla
ans
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South Facade : Overlooking the Singapore Strait
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North Facade : Fronting Pasir Panjang Power Station A and Proposed Park Connector
Market
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HOARDING AND ITS IMPLIED BOUNDARIES by Goh Kar Hui & Rifqi Ashraf Set in the context of a hot summer season in Los Angeles Skid Row, the proposal explores the notion of climatic inequality in the unhoused population of the United States. Artificial climates strongly drives the concept of the architecture where the project intervenes at the level of public programmes such as the retail stores, cinemas , the libraries and supermarkets that use excessive climatic appliances, this becomes design opportunities where the architecture can tap-on to create curated leakage of climatic atmospheres that manifests in the form of an artificially conditioned environment in the streets for the unhoused to utilise. The proposal tells the story of how architecture attempts to collapse the economic statuses of both parties - the architecture deals with the conditions of excess climatic appliances involving multiple retail stakeholders to provide or share their comfort and environment with the unhoused. It ultimately empathises by stressing the notion of climatic equality between the two parties and talks about the subversion of the hoarding phenomenon through an excess of quality of air, thermal comfort, visibility and communication appliances.
Studio JIMENEZ LAI
The Sharing o
of Appliances
Conditions of the unhoused: Section
The research analyses an interesting spatial conjunction between the hoarding of objects by the unhoused population and the hoarding of climatic appliances from the privileged located along San Pedro Street. In the spirit of Reyner Banham’s study of artificially conditioned environment, the project empathises by exploring ways where the architecture can create micro-climatic boundaries for the unhoused to lessen the mental stress faced from the harsh climates of LA. Hoarding of Appliances
The Bellows Section: Cool Air Created Through Mechanisms
Artificial climates strongly drives the concept of the architecture where the project intervenes at the level of the retail stores, cinemas , the libraries and supermarkets that use excessive climatic appliances, this becomes design opportunities where we can tap-on to create a form of leakage of the climatic atmospheres that manifests in the form of an artificially conditioned environment in the streets for the unhoused to utilise.
The proposal attempts to collapse the economic statuses of both parties - the architecture deals with the conditions of excess climatic appliances involving multiple retail stakeholders to provide or share their comfort and environment with the unhoused. It ultimately empathises by stressing the notion of climatic equality between the two parties and talks about the subversion of the hoarding phenomenon through an excess of quality of air, thermal comfort, visibility and communication appliances.