YEAR 5 COMPILATION OF SELECTED WORKS
2019/2020 M.ARCH 2 THESIS
M.ARCH THESIS: AN OVERVIEW
IMAGE CREDIT: TOBY FONG KHEE CHONG
MASTERS DESIGN PROJECTS
INTERESTS 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. 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. _______________________________________________________________________________________
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
2019/2020 M.ARCH 2
PROJECT ATTRIBUTES A good Masters project is one where • 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. _______________________________________________________________________________________
RESEARCH CLUSTERS
ASIA RESEARCH FOCUS 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. _______________________________________________________________________________________
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; •Contemporaryarchitectonicsoffabrication,material,andresourcescontingentonSouthEastAsia;and • Emergent spaces of inhabitation and production surrounding the equator.
2019/2020 M.ARCH 2
III. TECHNOLOGIES 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.
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.
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ABRAHAM DAVID NOAH
AMAN
CHU
FOO QIA
LIAM
THE NEW MONG KOK WALLED CITY AS A C
2019/2020 M.ARCH 2
2019/2020 THESIS PROJECTS Advisor: A/P Zhang Ye
H | FROM CAPITAL TO COMMONS – A CASE OF CLASS STRUGGLE ON THE MOON Advisor: A/P Erik L’Heureux
NDA MO SHUEN YEA | CARTOGRAPHIC ARCHITECTURE: SPECIFIC INTERVENTIONS THAT PROJECT THE RURAL REVENGE OF ULU PAPAR IN 50 YEARS Advisor: A/P Erik L’Heureux
NICHOLAS TAI HAN VERN | HAPPY ENDING: HOLY MEN IN SIN CITY Advisor: A/P Tsuto Sakamoto
BONAVENTURA KEVIN SATRIA | CONFRONTING THE UNKNOWABLE Advisor: A/P Tsuto Sakamoto
VIANY SUTISNA | BREEDING RESILIENCE Advisor: Dr Cho Im Sik
CHLOE LIM EN | THE SHARING AFFAIR: NEIGHBOURHOOD EDITION Advisor: Tomohisa Miyauchi
UA MU EN JOHN | CARA 365: CURATING ALLEVIATING REFRESHING ARCHITECTURE Advisor: Tomohisa Miyauchi
TAY TZEMAN RENEE | R.ECO: A OLD TO NEW TEXTILE DISTRICT Advisor: Dr Ho Puay Peng
CLAUDIA CHENG KAI XIN | NEW(S) ARCHITECTURE Advisor: A/P Ong Ker Shing
AO YING KIMBERLY | TIME AND SPACE: PHYSICALIZING TIME IN THE MODERN CITY Advisor: Dr Simone Chung
KAM XUE JUN | THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC MACHINE: THE VESSEL Advisor: A/P Joseph Lim
M SHU-LING RACHEL | BEYOND ‘BLACKBOXES’ - AN EVER-CHANGING URBANSCAPE Advisor: A/P Joseph Lim
LOH TZE YANG GLENN | T O T E M: AN EVOLUTION OF SPECTATORSHIP & PLAY Advisor: A/P Joseph Lim
SUN YUTONG | HUDSON RUNWAY 2046 Advisor: A/P Thomas Kong
MELVIN LIM CHUNG WEI | ORCHESTRATING THE SPECTRALITY OF NATURE Advisor: A/P Lilian Chee
MUN QIN JIE IAN | THE ETHEREAL CITY OF PINK Advisor: A/P Lilian Chee
TOBY FONG KHEE CHONG | WILD [LIFE] NOMAD BOOTCAMP Advisor: Chaw Chih Wen
YANG LULU | PROTEST IN THE POST-HUMAN AGE Advisor: A/P Bobby Wong
YIP JINGWEI | OF CHINESE BODIES WITH WESTERN IDEOLOGIES; CONTAINMENT CITY FOR HONG KONG’S INTENSIFYING TURMOIL TOWARDS 2047
From Capital to Commons – A Case of Class Struggle on the Moon by Abraham David Noah Advisor: A/P Zhang Ye
From Capital to Commons argues that the extreme environment of space will force the lunar workers under a capitalistic town to rise up against the capitalist owners and create a Commons where they maintain and cooperate together for survival. The project presents 4 phases on how a Commons on the Moon can slowly grow from the fictional corporate town of Artemis on the Moon and how it struggles to gain autonomy and bargaining power with each phase presenting a dynamic Capital-Commons Relationship.
Cartographic Architecture: Specific Interventions that Project the Rural Revenge of Ulu Papar in 50 Years by Amanda Mo Shuen Yea Advisor: A/P Erik L’Heureux
Focused around the Papar River in Sabah, East Malaysia, my thesis explores the representations of such a rural site to realize the silent Ecology of what occurs above and underground. It repositions the surrounding topography, buildings, and inhabitants around the Papar river as the main axis. This is the silent architecture of the Papar river and serves as a lens that allows me to design specific architectural interventions that projects a path in the Ecology of the river that benefits the environment and hence, the indigenous population.
H I G H
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Ulu Papar
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Plantations
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Intense Development Area
Restoration of Forest
Restoration of River Bank
Resistance Void
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THE RESORT FRONT PERSPECTIVE 1
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Path for Buggy
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EcoResort
Bioswales
Reservoir
Good Soil Condition Great Groundwater Absorption Filters Pollution Lessens Water and Air Temperature Restored Edges
Pulls Decelopment away from River Sits Sensitively on already Cleared Land Improves Soil Condition Improves Groundwater Absorption Polluted Surface Runoff Increases Water Temperature
Filters Surface Runoff Improves Soil Condition Improves Groundwater Absorption Decreases Water and Air Temperature Creates Micro-habitats
Using the Belt of Cleared Land for High Tension Power Cab Improves Soil Condition Improves Groundwater Absorption Collectd Surface Runoff Decreases Water and Air Temperature Provides Water Resource Habitats and Vegetation Restored to Some Extent
K A M P U N G
K I G A N D A N S C 5m
Condensed Agricultural Village
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Efficient Land Use Development on Existing Cleared Land Pulled back from River Mixed Crop Agriculture Bioswales to Filter Surface Runoff Improved Soil Condition Improved Groundwater Absorption Decreases Water and Air Temperature Waste Stored in Underground Sewage Tank
Restored River Bank
Split Channel of Papar River
Island
Papar River
Restoration of Habitat Improved Soil Condition Improved Groundwater Absorption Filters Surface Runoff Decreases Water Temperature
Extreme Bend that created Split Channel Merges with Main Papar River after Island White Water Rafting Starting Point Decrease in Water Pressure Decrease in Water Temperature Improved Habitat Conditions Decrease in Pollution
Reconnected Micro-habitat Splits Papar River from Extreme Bend
Decreased Pollution Decreased Water Pressure Decrease in Water Temperature Habitat Restoration
100m above sea level
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Maximum Water Level
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Happy Ending: Holy Men in Sin City by Nicholas Tai Han Vern Advisor: A/P Erik L’Heureux
Border, as shared between two separate nations, can exist in various forms depending on the geographical conditions in which it sits. The border is merely a demarcation set between two countries despite it being an official demarcation which marks a nation’s sovereignty. It is an agreed representation of land ownership by both the government and the mass. However, the border plays many roles where it controls geopolitical issues from not only a national scale but also internal problems at the regional level for those who live within borderlands; closely linked to matters of culture and history. This is especially relevant in the regions of Southeast Asia(SEA) that has undergone waves of colonisation and oppression for centuries. The borders of SEA are ones that share a common path. This thesis situates itself on the borderlands of Thailand-Malaysia, specifically between Rantau Panjang in Kelantan (Malaysia) and the infamous party town of Sungai Golok (Thailand). Unlike many well written and recorded borders in the world such as the US Mexico border and the North- South Korean border that has strong traceable historical reference between nations, borderlands in SEA are incidental and should be understood from a regional point beforehand as they share similar pasts of colonialism civil wars, regional conflicts and etc. Many countries in SEA underwent further political turmoil during the post-colonial period, in the mid20th century where various global geopolitical happenings were coinciding such as the Vietnam War and the Cold War, making SEA region a victim of its spillover effects. The effects are still visible at present in the many border regions in SEA, making it a hotspot for international and trans-border crimes such as smuggling and trafficking in the region if not global scale. With only a river separating between Rantau Panjang and Golok without any forms of physical barrier and active monitoring, the border is practically open to citizens from both sides who not only hold different citizenship and identity but were also brought up under opposite political and cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, with talks from both sides of the government in building a wall as an attempt to alleviate these issues, the impacts of this proposal would not only alter a local fabric that has been long established for centuries, but would also lead toward unknown future complications. Ultimately, this thesis challenges the role and limitations of architecture within chaos order, religion, culture, security and sovereignty in a familiar yet foreign context to the natives living within this borderland.
Confronting the Unknowable by Bonaventura Kevin Satria Advisor: A/P Tsuto Sakamoto
Lapindo mudflow is the largest mudflow eruption in the world’s collective memory. Since its inception in 2006, it has swallowed twelve villages and displaced more than 60,000 people (Mazzini 2018). Given its overwhelming presence and the impossibility to access and comprehend the mudflow, people living in the surrounding area are in constant fear. In the mean time, people will try to exploit the situation by reclaiming the pit, giving it a specific function, appropriating and exchanging it. Politics of the three parties-local dwellers, government, gas company-are the manifestation of it. The project takes this political exchange and meaning construction as an inevitable process. It provides gas towers and rice farming as a form of compensation. Using natural resources-dug soil for farming and extract gas from the field. They also prepare for the mud flood. But these processes are always expressed with a certain fear of not knowing what is going to happen. In this situation, such sense of fear will be reflected in architecture, in how buildings are constructed within the pits. The flood may suddenly occur in an unprecedented scale-out of expectation, or it may not happen for more than 50 years.
Breeding Resilience by Viany Sutisna Advisor: A/P Tsuto Sakamoto
The thesis begins with the phenomena of the Southeast Asian haze that blankets Singapore and Malaysia with thick smog, as seen from satellite images, an annual phenomenon that persists despite the efforts of numerous parties to limit its occurrence. Specifically, the context of interest is a complex ecosystem of the peatlands in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, where raging fires occur and pungent haze persist. The design exploration firstly delves into the mechanism of oxygen production through a symbiotic human – non-human relationship between humans and chlorella vulgaris, a species of algae used in long haul space explorations where astronauts must be selfsustainable. This mechanical and technical knowledge is then adapted to the local technologies and materials available on the site, to ensure maximum effect despite its limitations. This knowledge is then translated into the kind of forms and structures aligned to the cultural and human context of the indigenous peoples of Kalimantan, through a rigorous study of primitive materials and village engineering structures, as well as folk art and symbolism in the indigenous Kaharingan religion. The thesis becomes an orchestration of the arising mechanical and aesthetic opportunities of the site conditions, using village engineering and adhocism as a construction logic while maximising the silhouette effects of the haze as an emerging aesthetic of resilience and adaptation.
The Sharing Affair: Neighbourhood Edition by Chloe Lim En Advisor: Dr Cho Im Sik
Income inequality has been a persistent issue in Singapore and not only does it have social impact on societal level, it will also cause “politics to become vicious, society to fracture and nation to wither” There are opportunities, besides policies, to mitigate social stratification and exclusivity by starting with the immediate neighbourhood around us. More than 80% of Singaporeans currently live in a HDB town and the Neighbourhood Centre within the town serve as potential platforms that enable everyday interaction, become places where people meet to build and sustain social ties, and engage in discussion and debate. This thesis will explore the future role of our HDB Neighbourhood Centre through a new hybrid economic system and architectural lens. It focuses on adaptability, empowerment and ownership where architecture forms as a catalyst to create a collaborative and convivial neighbourhood with spaces ranging from intimate neighbour encounters, to resident level initiatives to the larger neighbourhood socio-economical setting. It hopes that the Neighbourhood Centre will no longer be a oneway transaction but a two-way involvement between residents and economic stakeholders to strike a healthy balance between profitmaking and societal relationships.
CARA 365: Curating Alleviating Refreshing Architecture by Chua Mu En John Advisor: Tomohisa Miyauchi
Globalisation has resulted in a world in which much of society live in a highly stressful environment intertwined with the volatile uncertain complex and ambiguous VUCA world. Overworked with little time to rest and recuperate, introspective questions haunt our mind causing us to feel insecure, insufficient, and inadequate. We question our identity purpose and sense of belonging in a VUCA world. These anxieties when left unaddressed would lead to panic and poor mental health. There is therefore a need to nip these in the bud, CARA 365 consists of CARA 365 Eco-system, CARA 365 Experience and the CARA 365 Handbook that empowers the user to create their own unique stress alleviating architecture customized to their own liking adapted for their own specific environment CARA 365: is An Eco-system, Experience and Handbook of empowerment Unlocks creativity and brings CARA to any individual CARA 365 Eco-system: is Harmonious synthesis of architecture 24/7 atmosphere intentionally designed for stress and anxiety alleviation 24/7 and a refreshing environment The CARA 365 Handbook and Hex-board: A Set of 365 uniquely curated atmospheric scenarios Through an iterative thought and development process Categorized in Spaces for contextualizing design for application to site and program Covers broad spectrum of contexts allowing one to find resonance with scenarios CARA 365 Experience Empower individual to personalize environment Developed your own unique stress alleviating architecture Customize to your own liking for your own specific environment
R.eco: A Old to New Textile District by Tay Tzeman Renee Advisor: Tomohisa Miyauchi
“R.ECO is a small-scale textile and garment manufacturing district set in a park along the former Rail Corridor in Singapore. Its main function is to aggregate clothing waste, provided by the community, into a form of resource, be it garments or textiles, and display both the process and finished products. In this way it is hoped that it will galvanise greater interest and participation in grassroots, non-technological strategies for clothing sustainability. R.ECO is run by the R.ECO Cooperative, which brings together a crafters and artisans under the guidance of a revolving scheme of fashion designers. This gives local fashion designers a platform to exhibit their work, as well as explore and innovate with sustainable textiles. In return for donations, R.ECO provides a public service through the Clothing Library, which sustainably extends the lifespan of clothing by lending out clothes. R.ECO’s array of workshops and studios also taps on this textile resource to reconstruct unwanted textile into new goods, or to use as a base material for creative action. R.ECO is laid out as an intimate craft village model within a park-like setting for creative activity to take place organically. The informal arrangement allows the public to naturally flow through, observe, or even interact. It also serves as a green buffer and meeting point between the residential neighbourhoods of Queenstown and the larger One-North industrial area.“
The raised covered walkway is one of the primary channels into the site, acting as a convenient connection to Buona Vista MRT. Its brightly coloured, hanging fabric panels serve as a pathfinding mechanism for members of the public.
1. Washing area 2. Dryers 3. Soaking troughs 4. Lounging platforms 5. Detention pond
1. Dyestuff processing area 2. Heated dye vat room 3. Dyestuff drying racks and pigment storage 4. Heated dye vat room
The dyeing workshop is used to process yarn, fabrics and even finished garments. The workshop also includes a communal garden in which organic dyestuff is grown and
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1. Rinsing area 2. Soaking & washing area 3. Machine washing room 4. Drying racks 5. Soap processing area 6. Storage area 7. WC The textile laundry workshop mainly serves the dyeing workshop’s need for intensive washing and rinsing of dyed fabric. It also includes a small space for soap recycling.
1. Defibre and carding area 2. Fibre storage 3. Shredding area 4. Air pump, filtration & exhaust Clothing items and fabric scraps which are made of organic materials: cotton, linen, wool, etc. are shredded before composting, which enables faster breakdown of the material.
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New(s) Architecture by Claudia Cheng Kai Xin Advisor: Dr Ho Puay Peng
Conceptualized amidst the 2019 Hong Kong protests, this thesis explores the changing news media landscape and its vanishing architecture in today’s post-truth digital age, an issue very much rooted within the larger architectural discourse of the diminishing physicality of place. The site of Edinburgh Place in Central, Hong Kong, lends an opportunity for the design to reintroduce a sense of “public-ness” into the historically significant civic centre, supporting the news media program as the “fourth estate”. Amidst a news environment in which it is difficult to extract information and reflect to develop knowledge, this thesis speculates a new typology for a news media centre that encompasses an archival facility and co-working hub open to the public, key programs becoming increasingly intertwined due to the increasing speed of the news cycle. The architecture aims to reflect the present state of the physicality of news media as a series of temporal instances, reinstating the ritual of news and embedding it in space by capturing and displaying the ephemeral “flow” of information and time as breaking news becomes accessible archival material.
view of site from statue square
Time and Space: Physicalizing Time in the Modern City by Foo Qiao Ying Kimberly Advisor: A/P Ong Ker Shing
Under today’s structures of commercialisation, a high level of control over the physical environment is imposed, requiring space and the built environment to possess only controlled, stagnant conditions constituted by a singular understanding of human comfort - one of constancy, immaculacy and efficiency. It is this control in the increasingly commercialised built environment that the opportunities for time to manifest and be tangibly perceived have been eradicated, unfortunately posing very real physical ramifications for human wellbeing. This thesis thus aims to explore how, within today’s climate of commercialisation, the variety of ways time manifests physically and is experienced may be brought about by architecture.
The Anthropomorphic Machine: The Vessel by Kam Xue Jun Advisor: Dr Simone Chung
[h]umans are being defined through the artefacts that they design. In a sense, humans question themselves and redesign themselves continuously. Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley define ‘Human’ as an unstable category. They assert the interdependency of [H]uman with artefacts is what makes Human human. Artificial Intelligence (AI) exhibits the idea in which the Human is able to programme intelligence through a set of rules input within a machine. N. Katherine Hayles explains the idea where the difference between the Human mind and the Machine mind is the mere difference in the set of algorithms. Perhaps if AI is programmable, humans can be programmed. Algorithms in the Human is similar to the software for brain that is being programmed after birth through life experience that gives the set of knowledge and skill. Yet, what define the Human from the Machine is the intelligence of taking control. Hayles asserts that technologies stimulate transformation in human reading pattern from hermeneutic close reading to hyper reading that is similar to machine reading which initiates synergistic interaction of texts is in accordance to Max Tegmark’s plasticity of Life 2.0 where flexibility in knowledge enables humans to constantly redesign the Human’s software. Both exhibit the idea in which the Human is in better control of own identity through the cultural evolution. This postulate a critique on Pierre Bourdieu’s taste culture that suggests judgement of taste dictates a permanent social identity and impedes social mobility for that taste is being ‘programmed’ through the economic, academic, cultural and social capital. Thus, when humans are improving and becoming better at fast pace with the help of technology, I wish to analyse the definition of Humancentred design in architecture when what stays constant is only the life form (body) that is bounded to the biological aspect of a human.
Beyond ‘Blackboxes’ - An Ever-changing Urbanscape by Liam Shu-Ling Rachel Advisor: A/P Joseph Lim
“The screen is no longer a one-way mirror… It is starting to reverse, so that it is no longer simply projects… what happens when we insert our whole body, like Alice, inside?” (Guretin, 2006). With the advent of technology, screen-based art has emerged beyond planar configurations into an evolving digital landscape which is spatial and interactive. A relatively new phenomenon, the project looks at interjecting key digital light galleries that transforms a megaplot in New York City into a fertile space where digital artists, researchers and New Yorkers interact, collaborate and innovate. These key digital light galleries break away from their ‘blackbox’ typology where they continually transform, crafting dynamic and ever-changing landscapes. The project challenges the contemporary city that has evolved into a capitalist city. Disrupting the rigid Manhattan grid, an existing postal service block is ‘cracked open’, introducing new spatial layers. Like the street, the architecture serves as a medium for the unpredictable, the spontaneous and the unplanned.
T O T E M: An Evolution of Spectatorship & Play by Loh Tze Yang Glenn Advisor: A/P Joseph Lim
The days of video games simply being played in computer rooms are over. The rapid growth of competitive gaming has brought these virtual contests to real, heart-racing episodes held in front of deeply passionate live crowds. Prize pools in these competitions reach tens of millions of dollars, making them at least comparable to more “traditional” global sporting events. While this growing phenomenon presents an opportunity for industries like gaming and broadcasting (amongst others) to expand, architecture of the Esports facility is only just starting to respond. While more purpose built Esports venues are beginning to be built, the biggest annual Esports events tend to be held in retrofitted professional sporting or entertainment spaces. At the base level, this project seeks to examine the nature of Esports spectatorship and reevaluate the traditional infrastructure that still dominates. The proposed reworkings go beyond programmatic performance to invoke novel spatial experiences. At the urban scale, Totem strives to become a new form of physical escapism. By focusing gaming - and fun - into a hub, it becomes a 21st century destination to Watch, Play, Make, and Live games.
Hudson Runway 2046 by Sun Yutong Advisor: A/P Joseph Lim
In New York, high-end fashion is flooding everywhere in the city. The New York Fashion Week twice a year lead a variety of events and new trends of fashion. However, only a part of the wealthy people and professionals in the city can access to the high-level fashion. Many ordinary people with dreams of fashion stopped in front of the threshold of high fashion. This proposal aims to achieve the civilianization of fashion in New York by means of architecture, to create the public space of fashion display that serves the public to understand fashion, and to make the fashion display no longer exclusive for just a few ticket holders.
Orchestrating the Spectrality of Nature by Melvin Lim Chung Wei Advisor: A/P Thomas Kong
The notion of natural and man-made is very ambiguous in today’s world. We live in an interconnected mesh of hyperobjects, too large to grasp in isolation but inadvertently allowing human actions to have far-ranging and indirect implications. Amidst perpetual worldwide competition and dispute for land and water territorial resources, new territorial islands continue to emerge in contemporaneous times, whether as a product of volcano eruptions, melting glaciers or mud-spewing landforms. Whilst conventionally recognised as a process of natural formation and consequently, bearing valuable maritime territorial rights, this thesis questions if the provenance of new island emergences are still and distinctly natural anymore. Juxtaposed against Singapore, a country obsessed with artificially reclaiming land and continuously embroiled in controversy with its neighbor over national territorial limits, the thesis intends to unravel paradoxes and ironies in the ambiguity of territorial distribution. The intent is not to propose a solution to such issues but to raise them and probe deeper with an architectural proposition. Adopting a speculative scenario, the scheme imagines a covert committee formed to conspire and orchestrate a seemingly natural emergence of islands around Singapore. Employing 3 dispersed apparatuses under the guise of existing site narratives, the project replicates - as is observed in several instances around the world – the lie of the land and the use of nature as the carrier of secrets. Singapore pits fabricated nature against the allegedly fabricated territorial dispute from its neighbour. A critical discourse is engaged about presentday ignorance and negligence in the significant and contentious conundrum of regulating and according territorial rights to nations.
THE ETHEREAL CITY OF PINK by Mun Qin Jie Ian Advisor: A/P Dr Lilian Chee Teaching Assistant: Wong Zihao
Context: In 1993, the American Natural Soda Ash Corporation fabricated a rumour that soda ash produced by Botswana Ash (Botash) in the Sowa mining district was impure due to the pink colouration of its salt brines. Subsequent predatory pricing tactics and soda ash dumping in the Republic of South Africa further threatened the soda ash market. These factors negatively impacted the economy of Botswana and the ecology of the Sua salt pans. Following the decline of the Botswana salt market, Botswana ash was forced to intensively mine to increase its yield and sustain its workers’ livelihood. Abstract: The thesis is built around a speculative ecoloagical landscape which celebrates the denigrated shade of pink. It is created in an environment of salt, sorghum, algae and flamingoes – ecological agents which now sustain the pink archipelago within which this proposal emerges. The Ethereal City revives native Batswana myths, fables and folklores in its practices. It capitalises on the shades of pink in the seasonal variations of dry and wet so that these natural and ecological constructs become embedded into an architectural narrative and experience. The pink city regards tourism not just as an alternative source of revenue but projects a global image about colour in the larger context of Africa. The proposed infrastructure — the Pink Suns, the Rainmakers, and the Pink Springs — draw upon the mix of traditional myths and contemporary science to cultivate pink in the brines, sky, and salt plains. Together with the Botswana choir, the Pink Suns — the foci of algae farms — harness energy as the choir sings in celebration of a coloured identity. Algae growth is scientifically proven to be enhanced by song. Planted in the sorghum fields, the totem-like Rainmakers, each with a rainwater reservoir, sustain the crops. In return, the sorghum stems adorn the rainmaker to filter rain collected for the next season. With the coming of rain, the Batswana locals recreate the Pink Spring of salt springs and salt huts (with the help of their Rain God). Visitors to the Sua salt pans, experience this ephemeral and fragile landscape in the transient architecture of the salt huts, which slowly dissolve into the earth and are cyclically reconstructed. Framed against the backdrop of flamingoes — whose feathers are coloured pink when they feed on the brines of the algae — the city bursts to life each season in a different shade, accompanied by specific seasonal events, atmospheres, textures and architectures. Antithetical to the overdetermined effects of mass industrialisation, this thesis imagines an architecture, a landscape and a future that returns to culture and landscape, that is both constructed and organic. Pink is a shorthand for a Batswana identity, and its architecture speaks of deference, independence, return and renewal.
Keywords: Pink, Architecture, Fable, Salt, Botswana Film: https://youtu.be/jMsqhbTZ6-U
wild [ life ] nomad bootcamp_ by Toby Fong Khee Chong Advisor: A/P Dr Lilian Chee Teaching Assistant: Wong Zihao
Context: The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of global supply chains. The immobilisation of global workforces and restricted international borders has led to severe disruptions of essential imports such as foods, medicines and daily necessities. Import-dependent Singapore is left to fend for herself drawing on limited stockpiles and scavenging for alternative food sources. Abstract: A rewilding of Singapore into a productively secure nation must occur to address the continued crises. The thesis starts the process to reconcile food production with the household, beginning with a Back-to-Basics Bootcamp education of rewilding in the Northwest countryside. Singapore’s rewilding suggests production security as a shared responsibility between companies, the state and the individual. This thesis proposes a Back-to-Basics Bootcamp, an intermediary between the Northwest and the city. Over the course of 50 years, the Bootcamp mints an urban population into resourceful and productive agents for Singapore’s rewilding. Life post-Bootcamp compels one to apply knowledge and physical specimens within our urbanized surroundings. By the year 2070, after the gathered Northwest practices root themselves into our daily existence, the Bootcamp will be rendered obsolete. The Bootcamp is sited in Northwest Singapore, the last vestige where ground-based farmlands and wild jungle coincide. People and programmes in the Northwest retain an integral relationship to the wilderness, tapping into indigenous, generational and endangered knowledge of non-urban living to grow food and keep lands productive. The Bootcamp is experienced through the recovered fieldnotes of an alumni that unfolds in four phases - 1. Sprout (Initiation), 2. Seedling (Skills Acquisition), 3. Rooting (Farmhands), 4. Fruiting (Graduation). Wild nature exists in many material forms - from barnacles to wild mushrooms. Through the manipulation of such materials, the architect enters an equal partnership with the wild to sculpt spaces of learning. This proposal demonstrates one such partnership through the detailed development of architecture’s collaboration with the native Ficus Kerkhovenii plant. The architectural outcome is in a tectonic centred around the Ficus’ behaviour as space-maker, construction material, educational tool and timekeeper which facilitates the transfer of basic knowledge and low-technology. Keywords: Rewilding, Northwest Singapore, Basics, Nature Website: wildlifenomadbootcamp.squarespace.com Film: https://youtu.be/XmuV6ORudkc
Protest in the Post-Human age by Yang Lulu Advisor: Chaw Chih Wen
“A control is not a discipline. In making Highways, for example, you don’t enclose people but instead, multiply the means of control. I am not saying that this is the Highway’s exclusive purpose, but that people can drive infinitely and ‘freely’ without being at all confined yet while still being perfectly controlled. This is our future. “ - Two regimes of Madness, Gilles Deleuze (2006) And if the said future is one governed by the control of the information highway, is there a way to resist this? And is the resistance only virtual in this Post-Human age? Taking cue from the above pertinent questions, this thesis investigates and argues that the city, once an arena for protests and demonstrations, still has a pivotal role in this act of resistance. By adopting Hong Kong and its recent protests as a backdrop, the project speculates a City of Freedom where the agency over this information highway is vested back to each individual city dweller and their collective sentiments is directly reflected in the aesthetics of the urban fabric.
Of Chinese Bodies with Western Ideologies; The New Mong Kok Walled City as a Containment City for Hong Kong’s Intensifying Turmoil Towards 2047 by Yip Jingwei Advisor: A/P Bobby Wong
In 2047, the ‘One Country, Two System’ agreement between China and Hong Kong would have expired and the New Mong Kok Walled City would be erected as a containment city for Hong Kong’s rioters that are involved in the turmoil of the city. Inspired by the Opium War in which the British had left an indelible scar on Qing Dynasty China, the thesis envisages the reversal of China’s worst humiliation into a solution for Hong Kong’s intensifying riots. By inoculation, the walled city becomes one of China’s state apparatus to contain rioters in a false utopia of equality and freedom while Hong Kong proceeds smoothly into 2047. The glory of Hong Kong which the freedom fighters of Hong Kong have fought so hard for, reveals that freedom and equality are both subjective constructs in the form of a Chinese body with western ideologies. As the saying goes, the only constant is change. The perceived glory of Hong Kong that clings to the past would therefore become nothing but encapsulations in time, a memory, a nostalgia if one refuses to progress with change. With the false perception of a democratic utopia, the Opium that left an indelible scar on China becomes one that offers the inability to feel pain, a moral solution for an otherwise state of anarchy beyond salvation. Alas, Hong Kong rightfully returns to China, once and for all, ending one Century of Humiliation.
YEAR 5 COMPILATION OF SELECTED WORKS
2019/2020 M.ARCH 2 THESIS
IMAGE CREDIT: LOH TZE YANG GLENN