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ar ch it ect u r al p o r t fo l i o t w e n t yfifteen
P E R S O N A L
S T A T E M E N T
Human experience is one of the essential elements in architecture. Most of us never realize the impact of design on human experience. Our mood, comfort level and the interaction between the people are affected by the spaces we occupy. This phenomenon is the power of design. Context-sensitive is the theme for the projects featured in this portfolio. It always inspires me to collectively reimagine and reinvent spaces as the core of every community. Every site that I have visited has a distinctive set of physical, cultural, and legal characteristics that presents different opportunities and constraints for alternative uses of the site. Whether it was designed for the local community or the visitors, the building designed is always responsive to the context. It constantly reminds the users to appreciate the beauty and essence of the site through the experience and memories. Nowadays, architecture designs are too often relying on just only one primary sense, which is the visual one. Architectural building can be more truly relate to its context and surrounding through all the five senses. The way a human body engages to the space shows the beauty and function of our senses. As the human body moves, touches, sees, smells and even tastes within a space, this is when architecture comes to life. As people say that architectural space is about layering for all of the senses. Bringing a space to life means that architectural function and form is not just primarily for the visual sense. By engaging all of the senses and how it responses to the site, form and function may be more fully conveyed so that the users can have deeper and more meaningful moments and experience – feeling the bouquet of their surroundings in all of its dimensions.
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01 YEAR THREE, SEMESTER TWO Cultural Art & Craft Centre Petaling Jaya, KL
02 YEAR THREE, SEMESTER ONE Theories of Architecture & Urbanism SS15, Subang Jaya, KL
03 YEAR THREE, SEMESTER ONE Art and Craft Market Chow Kit, KL
04 YEAR TWO, SEMESTER ONE Vistor Interpretative Centre Labrador Nature Reserve, Singapore
01
CULTURAL ART & CRAFT CENTRE // Petaling Jaya, KL
Kids playing different kind of sports at Rakan Muda Sports Centre.
P E TA L I N G
Key plan
J AYA
The site of this project is located along Jalan Selangor and Jalan Templer, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Petaling Jaya is a district which has been flooded with latent talents. Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) has been pushing the idea of creativity but the only issue is that all the talents are scattered around the area. In order to have a proper platform for the youth to practice and showcase their talents, a creativity centre is needed to help the community. One of the ways to triggers one’s creativity is through art. As Malaysia is a country which is filled with diverse cultures and ethnic, learning cultural art and craft may help the youth to trigger their creativity and also appreciate the beauty of local art.
Panaromic view from the roudabout along jalan selangor and jalan templer
S I T E A N A LY S I S
A lot of creative activities can be found in Petaling Jaya. For example, along Jalan Tengah, there are street arts such as graffiti along the wall of the shoplots behind the alley.
Rakan Muda Sports Centre provides different kind of sports facilities for the youth to carry out their daily sports activities.
Assunta High School allows students to try out different type of cretive activities, such as performing arts, art and crafts and etc.
Menara MBPJ
Pantai Baptist Church
Residential area
Micro site plan n.t.s
Assunta hospital
Rakan Muda Sports Centre
PROGRAMME
Batik
Calligraphy
Wood crafting
Wau
Weaving
Wayang kulit
The building proposed is a Cultural Art and Craft Centre, named The Edifice of the Art. The target users for this building is mainly youth, especially from seven to twenty years old. The aim of this building is to promote art and cultures in the community and to nurture the creative art talents in Malaysia. Also, visitors can strengthen the mutual understanding between various cultures throughout the visit.
DESIGN PROCESS
Existing contour
Individual pots
Elevated up (visually light)
Existing trees
Cubes (corridor-connection)
Vertical louvers (create fluidity)
Too bulky
Circular (Dead-end spaces)
Linear design due to exting trees
Curvy Linear
A daytime perspective of The Edifice of the Art from the visitor car park
Lower ground floor plan
Ground floor plan
First floor plan
Second floor plan
Section A-A’
Section B-B’
West Elevation
Orientation
South Elevation
Wind
Views
Sectional perspective
Interior perspective of the individual art galleries which exhibit students’ latest work
Batik studio which allows visitor to experience the process of batik making
A night render of the Edifice of the Art
02
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM // SS15, Subang Jaya, KL
Site plan of SS15, Subang Jaya, KL
SS15, SUBANG JAYA Subang Jaya is one of the busiest suburban cities in Klang Valley which is 20km West of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was established in the year of 1974 and now it is administered by Subang Jaya Municipal Council (Subang Jaya Municipal Council, 2004). Subang Jaya consists of SS12 to SS19, Bandar Sunway, USJ and etc. It covers an area of 161.8 sq. kilometers with a population of over 450,000 people (Subang Jaya Municipal Council, 2009).
Key plan
Subang Square
Site plan
In the heart of Subang Jaya is where SS15 is located, a popular and vibrant commercial and residential area. SS15 is developed by Sime UEP (a subsidiary of Sime Darby) which is completed in the year of 1998.The location of SS15 is very strategic as it is near to the townships of Petaling Jaya and it is surrounded by many amenities. The accessibility to SS15 is very convenient via New Pantai Expressway and Federal Highway. It is also near to Shah Alam Highway and North Klang Valley Elevated accesses. Nowadays, SS15 has become a trend setting area due to its wide population of students as there are quite a number of higher education institutions situated in that area (Michael, 2014). The student population here is about 20,000 with 80% from outstation (Leong, 2008). Also, it has become a famous place where the youngsters will hang out during the night.
Panoramic view of subang square, ss15, subang jaya
LE CORBUSIER Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris) was a Swiss-born French architect who belonged to the first generation of the so-called International school of architecture (Corbusier, 2015). He approached the field of urban planning more slowly than he did in the field of architecture. Le Corbusier’s theory of urban planning, as it developed over the following decades, is a search for these basic principles. In the interest of clarity it may be divided into four stages: A Contemporary City (1922), The Radiant City (1935), The Great Waste (1937) and Regional Planning (1939) (Guiton, 1999). The theory “the planning of a contemporary city” from Le Corbusier can be represented by SS15, especially on the site – the neighbourhood of Subang Square. The theory focuses on a lot of elements but centralized plan plays the major role as Le Corbusier is famous for its design on centralized plan which has been often contrasted to Frank Lloyd Wright’s decentralized plan. He also mentioned on strict separation of zoning according to the function of the space. Le Corbusier focused on open space and he stated that buildings should be built around it.
Le Corbusier
Figure 1 Spatial Planning (Zoning) of site
FA C T O R S T H AT I M PA C T THE SITE Urban Spatial Planning
Figure 2 Grid lines form a repetitive geometrical layout of the site
Figure 3 Location of Subang Square which is centrally located on site
Figure 4 Subang Square as the only high rise office building of the site
Urban spatial planning is very crucial to form a good urban neighbourhood. The urban spatial planning of the neighbourhood of Subang Square is very strategic. In Le Corbusier’s description of ‘A Contemporary City of Three Million Inhabitants’ (Corbusier, 1929), he stated “The city of to-day is a dying thing because its planning is not in the proportion of geometrical one fourth. The result of a true geometrical lay-out is repetition. The result of repetition is a standard.” This proves that Le Corbusier is a strong supporter of geometry (grid) in planning. The site - neighborhood of Subang Square is mapped according to its grid which leads to different zones. With the aid of gridlines, the repetition of the massing forms a perfect form of the urban spatial planning (Figure 2). Next, as Le Corbusier’s centralization theme was strict separation of societal functions, he divided separate zones for workplaces, residences, shopping and entertainment centres (Tungare, 2001). Figure 1 shows that in the neighbourhood of Subang Square, commercial lots are more on the West and South of the site whereas residential area is on the North and East. A higher educational institution, Taylor’s Business College is located on the South of Subang Square. It is very obvious that the area is designed in a centralized theme and the societal function is separated clearly. Subang Square is centrally located in the neighbourhood (Figure 3). Le Corbusier also stated that a centrally located core performed the “higher” functions in his cities. Figure 4 proves that Subang Square is the only high rise office building with a shopping gallery on its lower floors in SS15. It marks the difference of its function compare to the surrounding buildings. Thus, it meets the requirement of “higher” function through Le Corbusier’s theory.
Figure 5 Office workers from Subang Square will visit the commercial area greatly due to its high population
Figure 6 The main customer of the eateries on site is students from Taylor’s Business School specifically during lunch hour
Figure 7 The existence of Subang Square and Taylor’s Business School boost up the property of the site
FA C T O R S T H AT I M PA C T THE SITE Population The population of the site is mainly office workers and students as the main building on site are Subang Square and Taylor’s Business School College (Figure 8). Subang Square is the only high rise office building on site as all the residential houses and shop lots are just 2-storeys building.
Figure 8 The main population of the site comes from Subang Square and Taylor’s Busniess College
In “A Contemporary City” (1922), Le Corbusier mentioned “The higher the density of a city’s population, the shorter the distances to be covered…However, though we must increase the density of the population, we must also greatly increase planted areas…We must therefore build the city vertically”. Although there are no apartments or condos found on site, the main population comes from Subang Square and Taylor’s Business College. As Subang Square is a high rise office building, it can accumulate a lot of people in the building/area. In addition, Taylor’s Business College is located right in front of it. Taylor’s Business College is a college that provides excellence pre-U studies since 1969 (Taylor’s College, 2014). This makes the area around
Subang Square and Taylor’s Business School highly populated. Therefore, as the density of the city centre increases, the business affairs around, especially the shopping gallery and commercial shop lots will increase greatly. The business of the commercial shop lots, mainly the eateries will increase due to high number of students and office workers visiting during lunch hour. Besides that, due to the location of Subang Square and Taylor’s Business College, a lot of office workers and students prefer to stay somewhere near the buildings. Hence they choose to stay at the 2-storey terrace house around which is just walking distance to either Subang Square or Taylor’s Business School. Due to the high amount of students and office workers staying on site, it boosts up the property of the site (Figure 7). The average sales price of the property of SS15 is very high in this past two years. The rental of the 2-storey terrace starts from RM1,300 to RM4,900 (Propwall, 2013). This attracts a lot of investors to invest in that area. Consequently this leads to a better economy and property of that site. Also, the population of site will increase highly.
Figure 9 Open space located at the North East of site
FA C T O R S T H AT I M PA C T THE SITE Open Spaces
Figure 10 Pathway provided for people to jog around the open space
Figure 11 2-storey terrace houses are built around the open space
In the neighbourhood of Subang Square, there is an open space (field) on the NorthEast of Subang Square (Figure 9). Open space plays a significant role as it acts as a space for the people to carry out their social activities. Children will be spotted at the field during evening time and there are a lot of people will be jogging along the path of the field during early morning and evening time (Figure 10). According to Le Corbusier (Etchells, 1922), he said that “sports must be an everyday activity, and they must take place right outside the houses.” In this goal in mind, Le Corbusier greatly extended the ideas he had for his “contemporary city” (Guiton, 1999). By applying Le Corbusier’s theory on site, the large open space acts as a place for people to carry out different sports activities throughout the day. Figure 11 shows that the 2-storrey terrace houses are built around the open space so that it is easier for the resident to carry out their daily sport activities. Moreover, a basketball court is centrally located for the residence to gather and play around (Figure 12). Although Le Corbusier’s theory is applicable on site, the site itself might be a dangerous place as well. As there are more students staying in that area, it has become one of the crime’s targets. In the past few years, the crime rate on site has been increasing gradually. The resident does not go to open spaces that often due to their safety. The resident prefers to go other places to carry out their sports activities. This makes the open space useless in the end thus this contrasts with the theory. Le Corbusier’s theory can be applied a few years back but not for now due to the safety of the residence to carry out their sport activities in an open space.
Figure 12 Basketball court for people to gather and play around
2-storey residential houses in ss15, subang jaya
SYNTHESIS Through the analysis, the site is an interesting site to study based on Le Corbusier’s theory. Although he has a lot of elements in this theory, due to the site context of the site, only a few can be applied. As mentioned earlier, the urban spatial planning in the neighbourhood of Subang Square is done greatly. Every zone is separated according to its societal functions. In the future, the spatial planning of the site might have some changes but it should still have a clear separation according to its societal function as this makes a city/ area looks more systematic in a way. This will lead the people to have a clearer image and direction on wherever they want to go. Next, the population of site is high due to Subang Square and Taylor’s Business School compared to the other areas in SS15. Indeed, building the city “vertically”, as mentioned by Le Corbusier, will boost up the economy of a city. From what we see for now, the 2-storey terrace houses are very run down and it needs a lot of renovation to make the house liveable and new. In the future, the government might make some changes on the housing area. They might demolish the houses and build some condominiums to accumulate more resident when the population of the site hits a certain limit. Therefore the site transform from a sub-urban area to a beautiful cityscape. Also, open space plays an important role to the humans to carry out sports activities according to Le Corbusier. In these past few years, this theory is no longer that suitable on the site itself. The crime rate has increased tremendously and people are scared to hang out or play in the open space. 10 years later, the open space might be converted into an indoor basketball court or indoor football field due to the security of the resident. People will lose the fun and joy of experiencing natural air in the field. Finally, the site is full of potential to be developed into a greater city. Le Corbusier’s theories can still be applied on site. Everything will change eventually according to time as time passes. Architects or urban planner in the future will have to think of human’s lifestyle, comfort and safety to design a better place for living. As what Le Corbusier said “Contemporary cities cannot meet contemporary needs unless they are adapted to new conditions” (Guiton, 1999).
03 ART AND CRAFT MARKET // Chow Kit, KL
The lively flea market that brings out the essence of chow kit
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Chow Kit, a beautiful long street filled with interesting buildings, people, culture and social behaviour. It is one of the liveliest streets in Kuala Lumpur since the mass migration of Indonesian in 1900s. This has lead agriculture and trading in the area, mainly on textile and eateries. As trading blooms in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, drugs and prostitution were then introduced. In 2003, monorail line was built through the heart of Kuala Lumpur.
Site plan
Chow Kit was one of the few places to have a station built. Since then, Chow Kit’s accessibility was greatly enhanced. One of the last few traditional Malay houses that still preserves its original features from 86 years ago in Chow Kit was unfortunately demolished on March 2015 and now Chow Kit is slowly losing its local identity.
Panaromic view of chow kit street
View of dry market
S I T E A N A LY S I S
View of Chow Kit street
View of Neotel hotel
View of Safuan Plaza
View of back alley
The accessibility to chow kit is very easy and conveient. The diagram proves that there are different ways to come to the site. Most of the visitors prefer to use the public transports, such as LRT and buses which is more convenient.
View of Maybank building
Bird eye view of the art & craft market
C O N C E P T
Long vertical chow kit street
Tilted shoplots allow visitors to have a clear of the shops
Setback line pushes the ground floor inwards
Folding chow kit street vertically
Vertical signboards to showcase the shops
Ramps going up in the same direction
Trees on the street provides shade for the pedestrian
Spaces are divided into different levels
Ramps opposing each other to create contrast
F A C A D E
Tilted shoplots to 20 degree
Views from vehicles and monorail
Back facade (openess)
Visitors can have a full view of al the shos
Views from the ground level
Ramp contrasting each other
Stacking visuality (chow kit street)
Use of windows brights up the alley at night
A garden to welcome visitors
Ground floor plan
First floor plan
Second floor plan
Two entrances
The entrances are designed in a way that one at the front and another at the back so that visitors can visit the market from any directions
Stack effect ventilation
Hot air rises while cold air coming in from both the entrances reduces the heat in the market. It creates a better ventilation for the market itself
Tilted wall panels
The market’s facade consists of vertical tilted panels so that people travelling using the cars, monorail or even from the street can see through what is happening inside the market.
Section B-B’
Section A-A’
Front Elevation
A bird eye perspective of the public realm which is a open garden concept where visitors can hang out around the space
Shoplots with tilted wall panels and vertical signboards to allow visitors to have a clear view of the shops
Exterior perspective of the art & craft market that shows the tilted wall panels with glass windows which represents a display art box
04
VISITOR INTERPRETATIVE CENTRE // Labrador Nature Reserve, Singapore
The diverge pathway in labrador nature reserve
L A B R A D O R Labrador Nature Reserve is a retreat of serenity and a historical site built by the British in Singapore before World Wat II. The park offers both scenic views of the sea and natural rocky cliff-side vegetation. While leisurely strolling along the nature trails, various species of animals can be seen among the canopy of trees. Beautiful insects can also be spotted throughout the park.
Site plan
World War II relics are located all over the nature trails, which covers the history of the site. The tunnels and forts give a memorable experience of the park’s history.
Panaromic view of labrador nature reserve
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casement wall obstructing the view
S I T E A N A LY S I S
B huge tree obstructs the view
B trees obstruct the view of the site from the eastern entrance
C view looking into the city
C I R C U L AT I O N
D world war ll memorial monument
SITE CONTEXT E view deck from the gazebo
The intersection point between the circulations create a diverge pathway in Labrador Nature Reserve. In addidition, the beautiful plants and trees provides a unique sense to it.
Bird eye view of the visitor interpretative centre
C O N C E P T
Diverge
Magnificient
Deserted
Freedom
Diverge
Contrast in size & shape
Explore the elements of contrast
Subdivide
2D shape to 3D form
Adding materials to enhance the contrast elements
Opposing each other
Explore diffrenet kind of 3D form
A B’
B
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Ground floor plan
A B’
B A’
First floor plan
Section A-A’
Ground floor plan
First floor plan
Circulation diagram
Section A-A’
Ground floor plan
First floor plan
Spatial organization diagram
Section B-B’
Interior perspective of the reception area
Gallery hall where by visitors can learn the history of labrador nature reserve
West Elevation
East Elevation
Exterior perspective of the visitor interpretative centre