NUS DoA M.ARCH1 OPTIONS STUDIO - HOT AIR: THE EQUATORIAL CITY AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF AGGREGATION by NUS Department of Architecture

YEAR 4 OPTIONS STUDIO COMPILATION OF SAMPLES

M.ARCH 1, STUDIO ERIK L’HEUREUX

HOT AIR : THE EQUATORIAL CITY AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF AGGREGATION

IMAGE CREDIT: ERIK G L'HEUREUX

MASTERS DESIGN PROJECTS

INTERESTS

PROJECT ATTRIBUTES

Masters Design Projects include those explored in two Options Design Research Studios (M.Arch 1), the Advanced Architecture Studio and the Thesis project in M.Arch 2. All studios may explore issues relevant to the interests of the Research Clusters, adjunct teachers and professors in practice. Students are encouraged to capitalise on faculty expertise in widening the scope of investigations which collectively strengthen the Thesis Project in M.Arch 2.

A good Masters project is one where:

Essential and Elective modules are useful in underpinning your Masters studio investigations. Although Options Design Research studios may be varied in content and method, students are advised to be selective and to use them as ‘learning runways’ to identify a Thesis topic and to apply accumulated knowledge there. The Advanced Architecture Studio preceding the Thesis may be used to explore thesis drivers in greater detail and focus. It is expected that the Thesis project will be the most comprehensive and extensive study of all the Masters Design Projects. _______________________________________________________________________________________

• the research process informs design strategy which can be followed through a coherent sequential process of explorations or iterations • the research generates an underlying order giving rise to a number of architectural or urban propositions • the research or issues engaged with, give rise to new solutions through design, some of which are singular, permutable or recombinant • it addresses the contextual specificities of site, material, spatial, culture and program and all of the above are communicated through architectural drawings, well-crafted models and annotations which curate a design process and outcome(s) that can be understood without a verbal presentation by the author Beyond a commitment to individual academic portfolios, Masters projects play an important role in characterising the discursive ethos of a design school. It is important that you do your best.

DESIGN AS INQUIRY Masters projects can be research investigations where design forms a principal mode of inquiry. Methods can be heuristic or empirical or in mixed modes of inquiry. There are a number of research methods in design investigations leading to different outcomes but they are by no means exhaustive: • textual/graphic analysis of theoretical concepts with investigations drawn from critical discourse using text references, works of art/representation • quantitative analysis to verify qualitative hypotheses with simulation, physical experiment, prototype testing and mixed methods • scenario-driven speculative design to suggest solutions to emergent need. The process in itself is a new way of seeing/thinking which generates many solutions. One version of a solution may be articulated spatially and in full materiality • new research knowledge is interpreted in architecture as a new way of thinking/making/experiencing • existing practices, processes or existing technologies are applied to design and which produce ‘unprecedented’ outcomes

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MASTERS DESIGN PROJECTS

INTERESTS

PROJECT ATTRIBUTES

A good Masters project is one where:

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RESEARCH CLUSTERS

ASIA RESEARCH FOCUS

III. TECHNOLOGIES

The Department positions itself as a design and research think-tank for architectural and urban development issues emerging in South Asia and SE Asia contexts. Graduate coursework in design engages with key challenges in population growth, industry, infrastructure, housing and environment, climate change and rapid economic change with disruptive technologies. In engaging with trans-boundary economies and technological change, the Department addresses concerns with the environmental impact of new settlements and cities on the natural environment in the light of climate change and on the threat to heritage and cultural presentation. MArch studios anticipate planning solutions through design explorations at various scales of intervention. The Master’s coursework are thus aligned to a core of five teaching groups viz. History Theory Criticism, Research by Design, Design Technologies, Urbanism and Landscape Studies. _______________________________________________________________________________________

The Technologies cluster investigates environmentally performative/sustainable building forms and systems,and generative-evaluative processes for designing liveable environments. Its research employs traditional and emerging technologies contributing to a new understanding of the human ecosystem, and emerging computational methods and techniques for discovering the relationships between form and performance. It researches on the relationship between human and natural landscapes, at every scale, from the building component scale to the urban scale. Special emphasis is placed on the context of high density Asian cities and the context of the Tropics.

I. HISTORY THEORY CRITICISM The History Theory Criticism cluster develops critical capacities to examine questions of architectural production, representation and agency within historical and contemporary milieu. Taking architecture and urbanism in Asia as its primary focus, members work in interdisciplinary and transnational modes. We explore a range of topics relating to colonial/postcolonial and modern/ postmodern Asian cities; aesthetics and technopolitics of tropical climate and the built environment; affective media including film, contemporary art and exhibitionary modes; heritage politics and emergent conservation practices. We develop discursive fronts through a variety of media and scales. The cluster research encompasses scholarly, creative and advocacy activities. Output includes monographs, edited volumes, research papers, architectural reviews in professional journals, curatorial practice, conservation work, film and photography, object-making, and policy-influencing advocacy work.

II. RESEARCH BY DESIGN The Research by Design cluster performs translational research through the practices of making as research rather than through traditional forms academic research. It links the importance of creating, drawing, and building with rigor, originality, and significance to produce innovative and creative designs that shape the built environment. Located strategically between the NorthSouth axis of rapidly urbanizing Asia and the East -West line of the tropical equator, the Research by Design cluster performs research through practice in three main themes: • Novel aesthetics of climatic calibration and performance; • Contemporary architectonics of fabrication, material, and resources contingent on South East Asia; and • Emergent spaces of inhabitation and production surrounding the equator.

IV. URBANISM With a comprehensive understanding of the complexity and distinctive characters of emerging urbanism in Asia, the vision is to develop sustainable models and innovative urban strategies to cope with various environmental, social, economic and technological challenges that Asian cities face today and in the future. Emergent urban issues related to community & participation, conservation & regeneration, ageing & healthcare, built form, modelling & big data, and resilience & informality are investigated from multiple perspectives and inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations to question conventional norms and conceptions and establish new visions for a sustainable urban future.

V. LANDSCAPE STUDIES The Landscape Studies cluster undertakes research to generate new knowledge of landscapes as socio-ecological systems and promotes the use of knowledge in governance systems and landscape design that improve the well-being of humans and the ecological integrity of the environment. The geographic focus is primarily high-density urban regions in Asia, but members of cluster also work in the transitional zones within the rural-urban continuum, where urban regions are expanding at a rapid rate into rural landscapes. The overall research approach is both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary — we are concerned with not just advancing theoretical concepts and knowledge, but also applying the knowledge in practice and public policy to shape the environment. Our research areas cover a wide spectrum of socio-ecological dimensions of landscape, from landscape science, landscape management, to design research and socio-behavioural studies.

RESEARCH CLUSTERS

ASIA RESEARCH FOCUS

III. TECHNOLOGIES

HOT AIR : THE EQUATORIAL CITY AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF AGGREGATION

Studio Erik G L’Heureux 2019

M. Arch 1 Sem 02

Cai Tong Lee Dong Eun Luh Astrid Mayadinta Masita Binte Mohd Yusof Melvin Lim Mitch Goh Nicholas Tai Oswald Hogen Salim Huang Siti Nur Farah Sharlyn Hwang Sun Yutong

Department of Architecture School of Design & Environment National University of Singapore

Vietnam and South Korea

There is a parallel history of a nation divided, north to south and each country’s particular relationship with communism and capitalism and the respective violence of war. The legacies between korea and Vietnam are traced throughout the 20th and the 21st century. South Korea’s own Faustian bargain, under Park Chung-hee, to finance her developmental project in the 1960’s and 1970’s was pumped by capital from the US, with the agreement that South Korea would send soldiers to Vietnam. In the end over 300’000 Korean soldiers spent time fighting in Vietnam from 19641973, largely in the south. Today South Korea is the largest foreign investor in Vietnam and the recent summit between the dear leader of North Korea and my own dear leader in Hanoi speaks of this longstanding parallel.

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Q1/D3 12 Đưng Trn Quc Ton Building Q1/D3 72 Đưng Trn Quc Ton Building Q2/D1 Công Trn Quc Te Building Q4/D3 Trương Định Building Q4/D1 Hoa Lư Hotel Q5/D1 Tạp chí Th Gii Vi Tính Building Q7/D1 Nguyen Trãi Building Q7/D1 Bùi Vin Building Q8/D1 Kí Con Building Q9/D1 Võ Văn Kit Building Q9/D4 Cư Xá Đoàn Văn Bơ Building

Site

District 1 District 4

Nicholas Astrid

The project defines the idea of the collective as an accumulation of the informal that are happening in present Ho Chi Minh city. The act of addition and subtraction, as seen and defined throughout the city becomes an important tool of aggregation that forms up what the city is today. It is this informal that sums up the city and its people - which is an unknown that perpetuates throughout buildings in the city without one specific function. With this unknown in mind, our proposal reacts to the urban fabric by adopting the existing form of the site, an acknowledgement of the past. The artifact is responded by having a mirror courtyard that acts as a continuation of the existing courtyard. By adopting the maximum site boundary and having a courtyard, the design takes on the idea of layering of spaces whereby spaces are now generated towards the middle part of the courtyard. This allows a differential change in spatial hierarchy terms, creating a gesture of change from public to private as the layering translates from the outermost part of the site boundary towards the inner part of the boundary. The ground floor is then freed up through the introduction of openings which corresponds to each and every existing tube houses that were part of the site before, this acts as an acknowledgement of the existing besides being a methodology of generating vistas and physical connection between the two extreme parts of the building. The ground floor was also slanted inwards as a way to disrupt the street alignment, allowing pedestrians to take notice of the architecture on street level. By acknowledging the humidity known as ‘thick air’, the architecture adopts the climate by basing its attention towards designing the ‘air’ (void space). The void now functions as the main envelope; envelope as structure, performative tool and space for aggregation. The brie soleil thus, becomes a secondary envelope. The circulation within drives the various moment of experiencing the void; one has to pass through the void in order to access other parts of the building, allowing a rich spatial experience at various points within the building. The void is designed to ‘grow’ and ‘age’ with time, being a space of the ‘informal’ which is seen as an inevitable phenomena in the city. Together with the thick walls and surfaces that bounds the entire architecture, the building expresses itself as a tectonic and heavy object on site; and yet a light and free interior as one can imagine with its various openings of different scales which creates different pockets of light and shadow within, giving both a sense of public and private to its occupants at different parts of the building.

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Melvin Hogen

At the Heart of Buildings is an exploration in reclaiming space from the collective city, by taking the lifeblood of Saigon, its ever busy streets, and grafting it into a building through a self-standing system of courtyards bridged vertically by a circulatory belt. Like an organ, the structure pumps vibrancy and vitality as a robust building grows out of its modernist scaffolding. The belt encapsulated within the structure exists as a blank canvas to which aggregation of paraphernalia, experiences and moments flow into and become embedded. Where traces of objects accumulate and treasure troves of experiences are stored, the belt becomes a place where metaphorically gold dust settles. As a guiding frame, the structure becomes a platform which batches of future tenants may build onto. Over time, this collective becomes an archive where the scabs and scars from demolition and construction of the enveloping building gather, adding layers of texture and narratives. The whole structure becomes a sort of memorabilia; an important artifact for its users, but also for the city. In a speculative scenario, the Heart of Buildings occurs as a prevalent model all over the city of Saigon as carriers of memory and live experiences in the midst of a city continuously encountering urban renewal, where the strategy we have proposed is applied nationwide. The notion of building around a loosely defined framework is explored, and ultimately one begins to question the role of public spaces in the collective city.

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at the heart of it all

the gold dust settles

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an archival fortress

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YEAR 4 OPTIONS STUDIO COMPILATION OF SAMPLES

M.ARCH 1, STUDIO ERIK L’HEUREUX

IMAGE CREDIT: STUDIO ERIK L’HEUREUX