Architecture Portfolio 2022

Simeon Chua

portfolio of creative works

SIMEON CHUA

I chose to pursue Architecture because its an incredibly interesting field, a distinct mix of science, math, art and technical know-how.

I am interested in a refined simplicity, good proportions, and specificity of place.

EMAIL SIMEON.CHUA@GMAIL.COM

MOBILE +61 404 238 367

SKILLS

REVIT RHINOCEROS GRASSHOPPER AUTOCAD

PHOTOSHOP ILLUSTRATOR INDESIGN VRAY LUMION MODELMAKING

AWARDS + RECOGNITIONS

2021

HOME FOR THE BLIND [SHORTLIST]

House with a Fence, suburban residence for the visually impaired based upon ideals of functional phenomenology and program.

2021

NON-ARCHITECTURE LANDSCAPE AWARD [HONOURABLE MENTION]

Gallery of the Anthropocene, active reuse and redevelopment of an abandoned minepit in Shandong, China.

2021

VALE DE MOSES SLEEPING POD [SHORTLIST] Breathing Pod, enhanced wildlife habitat intergrated with multi-sensory passive design features for a cabin.

2021

FUTURE PUBLIC SPACE [FINALIST]

Cathedral of Play, active reuse and urban revitilisation of a degraded river in Melbourne, Australia.

2020 REVIVING MINES [1ST PLACE]

Gallery of the Anthropocene, active reuse and redevelopment of an abandoned minepit in Shandong, China.

2019

UNDERGRADUATE MEDAL

Awarded to the top graduating student in the Faculty.

2016, 2018, 2019 DEAN’S HONOURS AWARD [YEAR 1, 2, 3]

Awarded to the top 3% of the students in the faculty annually.

2019

NELL NORRIS SCHOLARSHIP

Awarded to the top Architecture student in the cohort.

2019

MSD ARCHIVAL COLLECTION

Diagrammatic construction model archived in the Design faculty’s collection for its exemplary level of quality.

VIVID FURNITURE DESIGN [FINALIST]

B]01-FLOW, an overlap between craft and digital fabrication.

2019

DI-GENERIC CITIES: TOKYO [SHORTLIST]

Tokyo Meta Tower, visions of a metamorphic tower.

2018 HUGH O’NEILL SCHOLARSHIP

Awarded to a student who has done exceedingly well in design studios as well as subjects relating to architectural heritage and history.

EMPLOYMENT

2020 - 2021

WOHA ARCHITECTS

Assistant Architectural Designer - 6 Months Intern - 10 Months

Large-scale urban infrastructure project, from schematic/ masterplanning stage to detailed design.

2019 - 2020

SHIGERU BAN ARCHITECTS

Intern - 5 Months

Resorts, homes, disaster relief shelters and competition entries. Designed and built physical models, prepared presentation materials, 2D/3D graphics, drafting.

2019 NEXTLAB

Fabrication Technician - 7 Months Part-Time Part of fabrication lab at University of Melbourne. Explored experimental technologies such as 3D printing, 3D scanning, augmented reality and virtual reality.

2017 - 2019

UNITED MAKE

Junior Designer - 20 Months Part-Time

Small-medium scale artworks + installations, furniture + product design, speculative design, and medium scale residential. Operated digital fabrication technologies such as Lasercutting and 3D printing extensively.

2017 - 2018

CHANDLER ARCHITECTURE

Student Architect - 18 Months Part-Time Town planning applications, CAD drafting, 3D modeling and rendering, for primarily small-medium scale residential houses and apartments.

TEACHING

2021 - ONGOING UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE Design Studio Alpha Explores a range of design issues and approaches including use of precedents, critical analysis, elements and systems, additive and subtractive geometry manipulation, narratives of site.

EDUCATION

2021 - ONGOING UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE Master of Architecture Weighted Average mark of 90.0

2016 - 2019

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE Bachelor of Environments [Architecture] First Class Honours. Weighted Average Mark of 85.8

23.11.22

MUSEUM OF HANDHELD NARRATIVES

HOUSE WITH A FENCE LANEWAY DWELLING FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

GALLERY OF THE ANTHROPOCENE REVITALIZATION OF AN ABANDONED MINEPIT

01 MUSEUM OF HANDHELD NARRATIVES

TEAM SIMEON CHUA

YEAR 2022

TYPE ACADEMIC

LOCATION BARBICAN ESTATE, LONDON

BRIEF MODEST MUSEUM

TUTORS RENNIE LIFFEN + OSKAR KAZMANLI-LIFFEN

TO INITIATE A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE USERS AND THE USED IN THE BARBICAN

TO INVESTIGATE THE SOCIAL ISSUES THAT PERMEATE THE CREATION AND OPERATION BARBICAN

TO EXPOSE THE HIDDEN EFFORTS OF LABOUR AND LOOK WITH FRESH EYES BARBICAN

TO COUNTER THE UTOPIAN NARRATIVE TENDENCIES OF THE BARBICAN

Resident’s Garden

Sunken Columbarium

WinterSolstice15.1°

Summer Solstice61.9°

ArticialLights

Detail

The Barbican creates an alternate world through its distinctive language of architectural detail. From concrete surface finishes to temperature dials to landscape figurations, every element is thought through deliberately and made cohesive. Consequently, the spaces of the Barbican are rendered with a poetic sensibility that captures the imagination of those lucky enough to occupy its spaces, immersing them within a dense atmospheric narrative of a promised utopia, a haven, a sanctuary from the chaos and issues of the outside world.

Counter-Detail

The glorification and fetishization of the Barbican belies a series of terrible and deep-seated issues that permeates its creation and operation. If a syntax of forms, gestures, and details can serve to perpetuate a Modernist Utopian narrative so richly, then it stands to reason that it too, holds the potential to communicate a counter-narrative of the Barbican’s problemmatic issues and dealings. An architecture of counter-detail is not one that is the opposite of the barbican per se, but rather is responsive to it, and createsthegroundsfordialogueandexchangewithit.

Glossary

Museum

[A space that conveys a narrative through the curation of content.]

Handheld

[An implication of physicality, a realness that invites textural and haptic interactions.] Narrative

[A way to make sense of the world and ourselves, and a means to interpret and communicate that to others.]

Counter [To respond to something of the same kind, especially in opposition.]

Dialogue

[A conversation between two or more participants.]

[To take part in a conversation or discussion to resolve a problem.] Syntax [ e coherent and legible arrangement ofelements withinaspatiallanguage.]

a Syntax of Counter-Detail

The counter-narrative of the museum revolves around a critique of the Barbican’s beautiful and ubiquitous masses of textured concrete, every inch of which was painstakingly bush hammered to mimic stone, an operation of absurd scale and dubious intent that resulted in the infliction of long term injuries and health issues upon the worker.

This forgotten moment serves as provocateur for the elaboration of material and process as narrative exhibits forming the museum, manifesting as a new syntax of counter-detail: haptic memories embedded within the architecture, awoken in the experience of phenomena.

Sequence of Moments

1 A folded metal plate threshold draws attention to the haptic experience of one’s footsteps. 2 An extended transitionary space builds a sense of compression, intensified as the visitor turns into a low, heavy stairway.

3 A sense of release as the space expands both vertically and horizontally away from the visitor. A series of stone figures diffuse the atmosphere of the Barbican into the space. Gravel from the landscape spills into the space, broken down into individual pieces and moments. 4 In the shadow, the sense of touch is emphasised. 5 A forced perspective of the cone captured in the reflection of the water exaggerates the depth of the space. 6 As eyes acclimatise to the darkness, they begin to notice faint imprints of worker’s hands cast into the wall, leading them through the dim corridor. 7 Out into the Barbican with fresh eyes, every bush hammered surface laden with extra weight.

FORM 7

SPLIT

1:10 11:50 :100

THROUGH COUNTER-DETAIL, THE MUSEUM FORMS A PRECISE CRITIQUE, NOT OF THE MATERIAL USE OF CONCRETE AS ORNAMENTAL ARTIFICAL STONE, NOR OF ARDUOUS WORK, BUT RATHER, OF TECHNIQUES OF MAKING AND LABOUR THAT ARE DETRIMENTAL TO THE WORKER AND THEIR CRAFT. THE USE OF CONCRETE AS ARTIFICIAL STONE IS EMPHASISED AND REEXAMINED THROUGH THE INTRODUCTION OF STONE MASON TECHNIQUES PASSED FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION THROUGH MILLENNIA RAISE

02 HOUSE WITH A CENTRAL HALL

TEAM JENNIFER CAREY + SIMEON CHUA YEAR 2022

LOCATION COOK, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY TUTORS KATE FINNING + ANDREW POWER

SUBURBIA

This duplex housing model sits within and responds to the found context of Cook, a typical Canberran Suburb. Observations and an understanding of suburbia; its idiosyncrasies, its expression, its tectonics, is merged with abstracted ideals of spatial continuity and composition. The project works to a desired state of ordinariness, elevated with a sense of lightness

PLAN

The main spaces of domestic labour, the kitchen and the laundry, anchor the plan and are tied to the vertical organisational clarity of the hearth and stair respectively. A central hall cutting through the length of the house then mediates and organises the condition between the Kitchen-Hearth Room and Laundry-Stair Room.

Room-to-Room connections and spatial composition are explored through a multiplicitous reading of the plan and its rooms. The central hall, a long continuous entity, can also be read as two intersecting spaces, or three similarly proportioned and dimensioned rooms. Rooms forming the central hall then lead to a pinwheel reading of four rooms organised around the hearth, or a kitchen mirroring a similarly proportioned outdoor alfresco.

Similarly, adjacenciesfoundintheKitchen-Room-Ensuite and Laundry-Stair Room-Garage connections allows for varied readings and usage of space within the plan.

Where access to the ground floor is on axis at each end to interface with the frontyard and backyard, entry to the first floor occurs off axis into the centre of the plan.

Despite its multiple readings, the plan retains a nuanced simplicity that is continuousacrossfloors,impartingasenseofspatialandstructurallegibility.

VOLUME

A familiar yet strange hip roof sits atop a simple but well-proportioned mass that obscures the reading of the house’s double storey height.

The hip extends down and outwards towards the street, resting on two smaller masses that frames a small void. This extension frames and mediates the condition between front and side yard. Further back, the main body the roof floats out to frame a double-height portico that speaks to the formal civic nature and scale of the street interface.

FACADE

A gestalt reading of the house’s facades expresses the duplex’s intention to be read as one or two dwellings.

Along the street, a formal reading is created by a clear alternating pattern of solids and voids, a rigidity that is reinforced by materiality and expressed rhythms across the facade.

In the back, an informal reading is expressed by a skirt roof that divides the facade into two horizontal bands. Distinct materials and rhythms give each band an individual expression that is balanced and tied back together by a rigorous overall composition of panels and column orders.

GARDEN

The house and its Central Hall possesses a strong directionality that mediates a gradient of maintenance between frontyard and backyard, formal and informal. At the front, a soft yet ordered space forms the image of an ideal neighbour. At the back, a lack of rigidity allows for the mess and disorder of everyday living.

Duplex Dwelling Ground

Duplex Dwelling Level 1

A Gradient of Maintenance: The house and its central hall possesses a strong directionality that mediates a gradient of maintenance between frontyard and backyard, formal and informal.

An Extended Hip Roof: A gestalt reading of the house’s facades expresses the duplex’s intention to be read as one or two dwellings.

00.52.5m

Where Two Dwellings Come Together: The double height Stair Room provides a communal space of shared utility that connects the ground floor and first floor dwellings should the house be subdivided.

Spaces of Labour: The walls of the Laundry Stair Room and Kitchen Hearth room are constructed of exposed brick which is then painted white. Here an external material is brought inside, conveying an illusion of mass despite the reality of its layered construction.

A Simple Tectonic: Despite its subtle complexity, the house and its plan retains a simplicity that is continuous across floors, imparting a sense of spatial and structural legibility.

Spatial Continuity: The central hall can be read as a long continuous entity, two intersecting spaces or three equal rooms with a rotated center, and blends into a pinwheel of four rooms established around the Hearth.

A Skirt Roof:

Facing the backyard, an informal reading is primarily expressed by the skirt roof that divides the facade into two horizontal bands with distinct materials and expressions.

Column and Panel Orders: An ordered complexity enabled by a rigorous system of proportions and material relations pulls together the reading of the ground and first floor, across the dividing line of the skirt roof.

Roof

- Galvanised Steel Roof Sheet - Galvanised Steel Flashing

- Aluminium Gutter, Surfmist Finish

- Waterproof Membrane

- 50x50mm Timber Battens

- 300x115mm LVL Rafter - 445x115mm LVL Lintel

- 90x45mm Timber Stud Soffit Frame - 15mm FC Panel Soffit, Surfmist Painted - Aluminium Soffit Vent, Surfmist Finish - 110x19mm Fascia Board, Surfmist - Bulk Insulation

- 10mm Internal Plasterboard, Lexicon Half White Painted Finish

Wall

- 190x20mm Timber Reveal, White - Aluminium Window Frame, Double White Matte Finish

- Formed Timber Sill, White Painted - 15mm FC Weatherboard, White Painted - Waterproof Membrane

- 90x45mm Timber Stud Frame - 300x115mm LVL Beam - Bulk Insulation - 10mm Spacer

- 10mm Internal Plasterboard, Lexicon Quarter White Painted Finish - 10mm Recessed Timber Skirting Grey Snow Season Painted Finish

First Floor

- Hardwood Floorboard, Natural Finish - 19mm Yellow Tongue Substrate - 300mm “PosiStrut” Floor Joists - Acoustic Insulation

- 16mm Fire-Rated Plasterboard Ceiling, Lexicon Half White Painted Finish

Skirt Roof

- Galvanised Steel Roof Sheet - Galvanised Steel Flashing - LED Tube Light, 3500K - Waterproof Membrane - 50x50mm Timber Battens - 90x45mm Timber Stud Frame - Bulk Insulation

Facade

- Austral Bricks, Traditional Grey Blend, Mortar Colour to Match Brick Nominally, Raked Mortar Joint, Squidgy Mortar Joint to 600mm Height - Aluminium Door Frame, Double Glazed, White Matte Finish

Ground Floor

- Hardwood Floorboard, Natural Finish

- 19mm Yellow Tongue Substrate - Cast In Situ Concrete Slab & Footing

- 0.2mm Polyethylene Vapour Barrier

Finish Frame Painted Finish Finish

Surfmist Finish Finish White Painted Finish Double Glazed,

Painted Finish Painted Finish Finish Board, Finish Finish Ceiling, Finish Blend, Nominally, Height Glazed, Finish Footing Barrier

HOUSE WITH A FENCE 03

TEAM GEORGIA HUANG + SIMEON CHUA

YEAR 2021

TYPE

COMPETITION

LOCATION NORTHCOTE, MELBOURNE

BRIEF HOME FOR THE BLIND

Location

An entrance nook collects and reflects sound, allowing the house to be found through echolocation much easier.

Semi Detached

The iconic suburban fence is reinterpreted from one of separation and isolation to one of connection and interaction.

The challenges of being visually impaired are tackled through three main avenues: Social, Financial and Functional.

Socially, the house explores a connection to its neighbours through a reinterpretation of the backyard fence, reimagining the laneway as an interface that could foster relationships with neighbours and the wider community. Financially, a pottery studio provides reliable income through the

sale of objects and provision of classes, enabling a greater degree of independence and self-reliance. Functionally, a series sensory stimuli facilitate orientation usage of space, and provides a stimulating experience in absence of sight.

These three avenues amalgamate into home that could enrich not only the life its occupant, but that of the surrounding community as well.

Orientation

A rigorous 300mm grid both plan and section allows for a strong understanding and mental mapping of space. This works conjunction with various haptic, auditoryand olfactory stimuli to allow the occupant to orientate with ease.

classes, independence series of and stimulating into a life of surrounding

grid in allows understanding mapping works in various olfactory occupant

Bus Stop

Northern Sun

The house is orientated to allow its thermal mass to be heated up by the Sun in the cooler months.

Southern Winds

Prevalent winds, cooled by the wetland ponds and adjacent nature reserve, ventilates the house in the warmer months.

Train Station Convenient access to public transportation.

Disability Centre

Convenient access to supporting services, and offers the opportunity for the house’s occupant to connect with other visually impaired people.

Nature Reserve

Convenient access to a safe and relaxing recreational area.

Shoes are taken off to feel the distinctive floor materials and textures of each zone.

The fence structure functions as a haptic orientation spine through the length of the house.

Thick earthen walls absorb low frequency traffic noise.

The house recedes into the landscape as it gets progressively wider and private.

Objects made bythe occupant are displayed in the fence and can be sold, providing income.

Thestudioallowsforthepracticeofcraftfromthecomfortand safety of home, and creates a connection to the community through the sale of objects and provision of classes.

WinterSolstice

Aromatic herbs for cooking are harvested and hung by the window, giving the area around it a distinguishable fragrance.

Summer Solstice

The porous fence interfaces with the narrow laneway, allowing the occupant to engage with their neighbours and community on a day-to-day basis - building up vital social capital.

Smoke

Rainwater

Amoss garden provides a soft multi-sensory experience and place to wash hands and rest.

Braille grid coordinate notations are embossed on the copperbacking board of each cupboard.

The hearth, a deeply evocative and sensory experience, is placed by the laneway - allowing passersby to be spontaneously invited in by the occupant if desired.

The main street interface prioritises privacy from far away “spectators” that cannot be engaged in conversation.

Smart voice-activated devices are used to operate features such as lights and switchable glass.

Switchable glass provides extra privacy and a high contrast background against which object silhouettes can be easily identified.

Pots containing water features produce distinct sounds based on their size and form. This calming sound is gentlyamplified intothe interiorsoundscape by the building’s horn form, and serves as a form of orientation

A wetlands pond system filters and treats rain and greywater, and enhances the local soundscape by attracting songbirds and providing the sound of flowing water and rustling grass.

Prevalent Winds

GALLERY OF THE ANTHROPOCENE 04

TEAM FELIPE CORAL + SIMEON CHUA YEAR 2020 TYPE COMPETITION BRIEF REVIVING MINES: SHANDONG PARK

LOCATION

SHANDONG, CHINA

Scars gouged into the earth, entire landscapes desecrated and obliterated for the extraction of resources, minepits are one of the most potent symptoms of the Anthropocene. In this forsaken landscape of forgotten culture and erased memory, minepits form unintentional monuments to our avarice.

Consequently, these degraded landscapes hold immense potential for a novel exploration of rehabilitation- not just ecologically, but for the inhabitants of the region too.

An array of mechanisms, programs and moments redefine an abandoned mine pit in Shandong, China. The scheme aims to acknowledge the area’s rich cultural heritage, intensely industrial past, and boundless potential. It charts a way to a brighter future - revitalising this degraded post-industrial landscape for locals, travellers, and wildlife alike.

“In the Chinese tradition, as a place of retreat, the mountain was not a merely a poetic and aesthetic object but also a moral object worth of public veneration” - Wang Shu

If the mountain represented a moral object, what then is the minepit?

A constructed river flows down the minepit’s ramp and gets progressively treated by the revegetated landscape before collecting into a reservoir at the bottom. This complex system of dams, flows and landscaping creates habitat for wildlife.

Where the original mine pit represented an extraction of resources out of the site, the proposal seeks to build up resources such as clean water and biodiversity into the site.

Visitors follow a path along the river, experiencing moments such as garden pavilions, waterfalls and galleries. The series of excavated galleries document the largely adverse effects of the Anthropocene, covering themes such as mass extinction and global warming. The path terminates at a teahouse, where visitors can rest, contemplate, and collect their thoughts over a cup of tea.

Minepit Plan

Minepit “Unrolled” Plan

Gallery: Industry Gallery: Atomic Warfare

Gallery: Mass Extinction Gallery: Waste Gallery: Climate Change

TeahouseNature Reserve

Pond & Waterfall Dam & Filtration Islands

Excavated Gallery

Standard Long Section

The proposal seeks to develop within visitors an understanding of Humanity’s ability to damage and scar, but also the possibility to repair and recover.

05 A SERIES OF THINGS

TEAM

YEAR 2019 TYPE

This project focusses on the analysis and subsequent understanding of the processes + concepts that inform and shape how a building is designed and constructed.

Drawing from a wide variety of sources that include construction drawings, contract documentation, product technical information and interviews with the architect + engineer, the building was dissected to understand what goes into completing a successful building project.

This understanding was demonstrated firstly through an axometric drawing, followed by a highly detailed physical model.

FLOW

TEAM SIMEON CHUA + EMMA KELLY YEAR 2019

FLOW investigates digital fabrication joints and techniques. It looks into marrying the conventional aesthetics of traditional craft with contemporary forms and structural principles.

The design process was based on the exploration of how planar sheets of materials could be formed into a soft, sinuous, and flowing form with minimal work. A celebration of structural and tectonic logic also formed the backbone of the conception process.