The Veiled Chandelier

Robinson Road , Singapore

The transformation of John Graham’s AIA Building is one of a climactic exterior as well as a contrasting interior. The gradated stretch and twist of the envelope reacts to the solar path resulting in an East-West impenetrability and a NorthSouth porosity. This gradient mitigates the tower’s overall solar exposure by densely shading the upper levels that receive more solar radiation and opens up the lower to allow in more light and air. The relentlessness of its employment goes to the extent of concealing the entrance, therein creating the effect of the veil. Interior air-conditioned spaces are incrementally recessed towards the lower levels to further mitigate spatial heat gain - naturally ventilated spaces consequentially increase. The glassed volumes are hung from primary floor slabs and seem to descend from above creating the effect of the chandelier.

Pulau Jubin (Ubin) Granite Island / ‘chieo suar’

Landscape Focus Design Studio (Year 3\ Assistant Professor Rafaella Sini )

The exercise used a number of tools necessary to engage in a critical reading of context: techniques of representation such as mapping, sketching, comparative visual analysis are explored, to conceptualize, imagine and convey the complex, layered landscape strata, its range of interpretation and possibilities.

Trinity

Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate, Singapore

The elevation is composed of three main envelope: the ‘outer’, the ‘inner’ and the ‘non-structural’. The ‘outer’ is made up of alternating rows of light shelves and tablestoallowdiffusedlightandkeepoutdirectsunlight.The‘inner’iscomposed of triangular folds that act as sunshades, keeps the rain out and directs the view downwards.The‘non-structural’envelopessportadiscontinuousverticalelement segmented by rows of light shelves. The depth of each envelope is calibrated by their positions on the inside-outside and east-west direction. Despite the difference, The three elevations are read as a unified whole characterized by their vertical elements, proportions and materiality.

Dual Exoskeletons Ayer Rajah Industrial Estate, Singapore

The diagrid structural exterior directs the load to the envelope. The definition of envelope is usually accompanied with preconceptions such as surface, boundary, shell, skin or façade. In order to push the interpretation of envelope, firstly, a secondary filigree structure is devised as the envelope for the existing building and the structure for the new addition. Secondly, instead of viewing the envelope as a surface, this endoskeleton is a volume within a volume (the exoskeleton). In order to accentrate the secondary volume, circulation cores are carefully positioned between the outer and inner envelopes. Lastly, the envelope becomes a form of inhabitation.

Orchid R&D and Export Jurong, Singapore

The 2030 vision aims to integrate industry, demographics, and nature through being sensitive to the side of Jurong Hill. The sales of orchids is a large global market, and Singapore in particular is one of the largest exporters or orchids in the world. A programme of hotels and service apartments, together with exhibition spaces and educational facilities, are proposed to complement the business.R&Dfacilitiesaidinimprovingtheworkflowofproduction,andthisties in with the educational intent of promoting nature. Through this, an urban realm is created for the otherwise contained orchid export industry, to allow the public to learn and gain appreciation for orchids, Jurong Hill and nature. This public space is the orchid nurseries, located at the breezeways of the project whereby windfrombothdirectionsismanipulatedwithascreen.Thenurseriesalsoactas a filter for the industrieal N-E wind.

Biomedical Strip Jurong, Singapore

The 2030 Jurong Biomedical Strip is an integrated facility that is situated to the south of Jurong Hill. It seeks to explore a new building cluster typology that combines the verticalitu of Mixed Use Developments with the industrial concept ofBench-To-Bedthatcanallowforintegrationonthehorizontalaxis.Byallowing better ventilation conditions, the wind strategies applied on the masterplan level helped to activate key urban nodes allowing this development to not only be an innovative place to work in, but also a comfortable and ideal place to live in.

The idea of the fragment- of memory and image, as being more powerful than the actual entity of the lighthouse reflects the sort of territorial identity which can be discerned from Pedra Branca. Horsburgh Lighthouse, much as the lighthouse in Woolf’s description, becomes primarily empowered through a collective cultural image. The lighthouse becomes significant because it is a allegory; of place-memory, of familial relationships, of growth, and of territory. It acquires importance beyond itself because of the narrative that is used to perceive it, and thus in turn becomes a tool to engage concepts which concern those narratives. Horsburgh Lighthouse hence becomes an allegory to describe not only Singaporean territory, but the role of architecture in territorialisation as well.