CORE GRADULATE LEVEL MODULES

AGILITY AND ADAPTABILITY - THE NEW NORMAL OF LIVING WITH ENDEMIC COVID-19

Tutor: Tan Beng Kiang

ASIAN MODERN HERITAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF CHANGE: CONSERVATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Tutor: Johannes Widodo

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has upended our daily lives and posed social, economic, and environmental challenges. It has affected how we live, work, learn, and play; and disproportionately so for the vulnerable communities. As we move to the next stage of living with COVID-19 endemic and anticipate the inevitable next pandemic, there is a need to rethink architecture and urban design solutions for the new normal. Any thesis proposals that falls into this theme are welcome.

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, and 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 existing city will be like when this transformation takes its full effect. Students will select areas of interest within the city/city fringe to postulate the possibilities.

ISLAND PEOPLE

Tutor: Tiah Nan Chyuan

Across different cultures and time, the island condition has been described historically and mythically as the experience of an outpost that is defended, surrounded, contained, isolated, quarantined or hidden. The inherent vulnerability and siege mentality of islands imbue their inhabitants with both a deep awareness of their identity, their self and their relationship with the surrounding externalities.

This thesis will explore the “island condition” through both physical and abstract notions, looking at operative conditions from isolation to protectionism, access and rights, and equality and equity. Non-linear enquiries would be conducted across multiple probes, to unravel deep mindsets that define the unique behaviour of “islands” and their people. The hope is that these insights will suggest alternative strategies to engage geopolitical issues related to collective identity, shared responsibility and ownership over contested territories, and space and time. Modern Asia has not developed in a vacuum but has evolved through sustained interactions with the West, which has had a constant presence in our collective consciousness. Asia is a dynamic source of our identities. Industrialisation, urbanisation, westernisation, colonisation, decolonisation, and nation-building-these phenomena have variously defined Asian modernism. Asian modern heritage is manifested in the myriad forms of architecture. Conservation is a process of managing change and permanence that is directly related to ecological sustainability and cultural authenticity. In 2012, the UN released 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for the world by 2030. The conservation design thesis deals with the adaptive reuse of modern heritage in the Asian context with a new well-integrated function, while maintaining cultural authenticity, architectural integrity, economic viability, social inclusivity, and historical continuity.

MAKING CONNECTIONS

Tutor: Wong Chong Thai, Bobby

The thesis offering examines architecture as a matrix of pathways, networks and connections, both existing and emerging. Architecture is often about making connections; it is in making connections that significations occur. These are moments where thoughts or actions are virtualised or actualised. Like a throw of the dice; diverging and converging forces collide, producing singularities. At that point, the old is refreshed, or morphed into new emergence. For Nietzsche, this emergence represented the way to truth. We will examine architecture through this lens, putting aside notions of pre-existing cultural values or preconceived perfect absolutes, and look instead at the production of sense prior to language, codes or identities.

ALTERNATE HISTORIES, PERIPHERAL ASSOCIATIONS

Tutor: Wu Yen Yen

Architecture is rarely predicated on discourses and ideologies. Instead, it reacts to other metaphysical, natural and societal constructs.

This studio offers a space for architecture-esque counteranthropocentric germination. Materialist ontologist Manuel De Landa suggests that geology, biology, economies, linguistics and culture, steered the growth of cities. Mario Carpo suggests that form generation is afforded by mathematics and science. With computation, a new kind of intelligence that is incongruous even to our logical minds is upon us. Beginning from outside of architecture, we will find our way back in, piecing together self-motivated theses, for physical expressions in environments where they thrive unseen.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE SHARING CULTURE

Tutor: Zhang Ye

A sharing culture offers a sustainable and equitable way of living together in an increasingly fragile urban world. In sharing culture, individuals participate in sustained practices of togetherness characterised by the co-creation, co-management, co-ownership, and co-consumption of resources. Crucial to this sharing process, is the recognition of architectural spaces as both a shareable asset, and an enabler for more effective sharing activities. This thesis offering will explore the important question of how we can design an entire space sharing system to embody the culture of sharing itself, and how we can harness architectural design to facilitate the continuous production of new socio-spatial relations and new modes of gathering and interaction in sharing activities.

CLIMATE SENSITIVE DESIGN; LIVABLE AND SUSTAINABLE CITIES

Tutor: Yuan Chao

With the rapid urbanisation and climate change, the key challenge in front of architects is clear: it is difficult to achieve a balancing act between unstoppable human desire for development and the finite environmental carrying capacity of cities. This design studio engages students to explore ways to conduct climate-sensitive design to create buildings that are more human centralised and environmentally responsible. The studio emphasises the impact of environmental analysis on design. The knowledge delivered in this studio allows students not only to develop climate sensitive design concepts and ideas, but also to practice the corresponding design strategies and skills.