NUS DoA M.ARCH1 OPTIONS STUDIO - BORDERS, WALL AND COMMUNITIES (2019/2020)

YEAR 4 OPTIONS STUDIO COMPILATION OF SELECTED WORKS

2019/2020 M.ARCH 1 STUDIO BOBBY WONG

BORDERS, WALLS AND COMMUNITIES

IMAGE CREDIT: RACHEL SIM JING XI

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

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, objectmaking, 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.

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 sociobehavioural studies.

STUDIO BOBBY WONG

BORDERS, WALLS AND COMMUNITIES The studio want to work on borders, borderwalls and their communities found in and around them.

This project emerges that though border walls are often despised, there are “monumental” / historical value(s) to be gained and consumed after their use: Recall the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall. And Undoubtedly, these walls are prescient in Trump’s “America first” US Mexico Wall. However, Bansky’s “Walled Off Hotel” in Bethlehem indicates Border walls can be of economic value even as it is used with its negative connotations. For barriers can be usurped for contemporary purposes (including purposes for living and communing). No doubt it is Bansky’s political art that aids and abets, turning what’s contingent in the Palestine/ Israel border wall into its present economic value.

In the main, border walls are there to prevent free movement of people other than one’s own.

They are also erected, paradoxically though not often to keep one’s people in and others out. Borders can also be treacherous. Many are mined with razor sharp barb-wired fence.

Some Border fences are also electrified. When speaking about Border walls, the conversation often centers on physical or “hard” borders.

Walls are also metaphorical: Often soft barriers are included in its usage. Soft border consists of passport, visas and at times language and cultural traits. It is not uncommon to hear how one is racially profiled by one’s color or skin type when crossing the border.

These practices are in place to make distinction and differences between communities, nationalities and ethnic groups.

But this binary assumption is easier imagined than what is occurring in reality. For on the ground the situation is certainly not binary.

There was once, if not in the near past, then at least in some eternal time, different ethnic groups (sometime tribal) and communities could intermix and intermarry “freely” along and across border regions. It can also be postulated of a time when diverse ethnic

groups could roam “freely” across the land.

But the advent of modern nation states has meant borders needed mending. Borders have since become barriers to movements of goods and people. But paradoxically, often what you have is a diverse mix of people living on two sides of the border that is fairly representative / similar of each other. Because of this, border gates between two nation states are often areas of intense activities. The phenomenon of daily movement of goods and people across the border is quite intense. People move across to commune, to work and to reunite with what was lost.

This separation is presently exasperated by the very recent mass migration; namely, African and middle eastern people into Europe and or people from Latin America into the United States of America. These are mainly refugees seeking refuge from poverty, persecution and war. At each border crossing, one finds ethnic enclaves and processing camps where refugees wait for opportunities to make the crossing. One noted example is the “Jungle” in Calais, France, where it was home to 10,000 migrants from a dozen countries.

The studio wants to concentrate this study on towns and enclaves that have emerged in and along border conditions of Southeast Asia; namely states like Loas / Myanmar, Thailand / Myanmar, Thailand / Malaysia. One example that comes to mind is the Sop Ruak in Thailand. It is about 50 km from Chiang Rai. It is town nearest the confluence of the Mekong and Ruak Rivers and it is where the borders of Loas, Myanmar and Thailand meet.

Border crossings within Southeast Asia (Besides the Rohingya crises) are certainly “mild” in comparison to the ones in Europe.

Nonetheless, they are still fraught with their own intrigues – arm, drug, jade and money smuggling and here and there, bands of freedom fighters.

A/P Bobby Wong

SUMMUS GABRIELLE WONG

GABRIELLE WONG AY2019/2020 SEMESTER 2 YEAR 4 TUTOR: BOBBY WONG EACH PAGE IN A1 SIZE GABRIELLE WONG AY2019/2020 SEMESTER 2 TWO-UP PDF VIEW ON DESKTOP YEAR 4 TUTOR: BOBBY WONG THE PROJECT EXPLORES THE ARCHITECTURAL POSEACH PAGE IN A1 SIZE SIBILITIES OF A HYPOTHETICAL SCENARIO IN WHICH A HIGHLY FATAL PATHOGEN HAS SCARRED THE TWO-UP PDF VIEW ON DESKTOP SINGAPOREAN CONSCIOUS. POST-CRISIS, DISEASE CENTERS HAVE BEEN BUILT AT THE SITES OF MASS COMMUNITY SPREAD - THE THE PROJECTENCLOSED EXPLORES THE ARCHITECTURAL POSCONGESTED, UNDERP ASSES AT ORCHARD SIBILITIES OF A HYPOTHETICAL SCENARIO IN ROAD. WHICH A HIGHLY FATAL PATHOGEN HAS SCARRED THE SINGAPOREAN CONSCIOUS. THE STORY IS TOLD THROUGH THE NARRATIVE OF RITUAL SACRIFICE - THE ILL ARE ‘WORTHY’ AND POST -CRISIS, DISEASESACRIFICE CENTERS HAVE BEEN BUILT MAKE AN APPEASING TO THE HEALTHY AT THE SITES OF MASS COMMUNITY SPREAD - THE ‘GODS’.

CONGESTED, ENCLOSED UNDERPASSES AT ORCHARD ROAD. THROUGH THEIR ISOLATION AND CONTRIBUTION

AS TEST SUBJECTS TO THE DERIVATION OF THE THE STORY TOLD THROUGH THE NARRATIVE OF CURE, THEY IS KEEP THE ‘GODS’ SAFE. RITUAL SACRIFICE - THE ILL ARE ‘WORTHY’ AND MAKE AN APPEASING SACRIFICE‘CHIEF’, TO THE‘PHEALTHY “SUMMUS” (LATIN) - ‘HIGHEST’, ANDEMIC’.

‘GODS’.

THROUGH THEIR ISOLATION AND CONTRIBUTION AS TEST SUBJECTS TO THE DERIVATION OF THE CURE, THEY KEEP THE ‘GODS’ SAFE.

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“SUMMUS” (LATIN) - ‘HIGHEST’, ‘CHIEF’, ‘PANDEMIC’.

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MONUMENT TO THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH RACHEL SIM JING XI

THE MEATING PLACE JUDE HO

T H E M E AT I N G P L A C E The demand for warm meat drives risk of diseases to be transmitted within the local community.

The Meating Place serves as a public abattoir that provides consumers with fresh, warm meat while being responsible, humane and safe.

Warm meat is meat that has just been slaughtered and has not been chilled, commonly found in wet markets. The general preference for such meat is due to the perception that it is fresher and provides a better meal quality.

How to provide warm meat while being safe? The issue was to understand how the public could uncover the workings behind a slaughterhouse, and feel confident of the quality and freshness to purchase such meat.

The Meating Place aims to bring a modern abattoir known for its safety and hygiene, closer to its buyers to lower risk of disease transmission - closing the distance between the slaughter and the consumers.

At the same time, consumers within the abattoir becomes conscious of both the journey of the slaughtering, and the consequences of their choices.

The Meating Place is situated in Dempsey Hill as pays compliments to the site’s exquisite culinary experience and higher food quality.

The following are the slaughter process that are studied for implementation: Apart from the hide pulling, both hold similar initial process between the cattle and pigs.

PIGS SLAUGHTER PROCESS

Stunning

Bleeding

Scalding and dehairing

CATTLE SLAUGHTER PROCESS

Stunning

Bleeding

Flaying

Scraping and Gambreling

Evisceration

Splitting

Mechanical Hide Pulling

Evisceration

Splitting

DEMAND FOR FRESH WARM MEAT

THE PUBLIC ABATTOIR

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YEAR 4 OPTIONS STUDIO COMPILATION OF SELECTED WORKS

2019/2020 M.ARCH 1 STUDIO BOBBY WONG

IMAGE CREDIT: GABRIELLE WONG