Tania Chumaira // Interior Architecture Portfolio
Table of content • •
Curriculum vitae Academic Works Postgraduate final project : Orbital Threshold Postgraduate thesis : Geometry Gestural Principles Derived from Abstracting “Wayang Kulit” Puppetry The Bartlett 2013 Summer School : Porta Place Undergraduate final project : Dramaticity
•
Teachings Undergraduate final project studio : Living Machine Art appreciation class Architectural communication technique studio
•
PhD Proposal
Tania Miranti Chumaira
Flat 2, 222 Upper Chorlton Road, Manchester M16 9RW Ph. +44 7432126232 taniachumaira@ui.ac.uk / taniachumaira@gmail.com https://taniachumaira.com/ •
Education 14-15 M. Arch Graduate Architectural Design, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London 13 Summer School, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London 09-13 B. Arch Interior Architecture, Universitas Indonesia
•
Work experience 16 Research fellow, Department of Architecture, Universitas Indonesia 15-16 Teaching fellow, Department of Architecture, Universitas Indonesia 15 Teaching assistant, Interactive Architecture Lab Workshop, Xu Zhou University, China 14 Outsource Furniture Designer, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Republic of Indonesia 13-14 Design director, Pleisure Living 13 Outsource landscape architect, Government of Jambi Province, Sumatera 13 Surveyor assistant, Ciliwung River Research Conducted by Universitas Indonesia and National University of Singapore 12 Outsource interior designer, Syariah Amanah Umah Bank, West Java, Indonesia
•
Achievement 15 B-Pro Show (exhibition), The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London 15 Project presentation, Indonesia Kontemporer, SOAS, London 15 Best paper, Indonesian Scholars International Convention, King’s College, London 15 Selected project, The 13th Northeastern Conference on Indonesia, Yale University, USA 14 Awardee of Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education’s Scholarships Programme 12 Indonesian Contemporary Art and Design Exhibition 07 Regional Painting Exhibition “Ekspresi 2 Generasi” 06 Merit Award, ASEAN Scholarships for Indonesia
•
Languages Bahasa Indonesia (nationality), English
•
Tools Hand drawing and digital media (AutoCAD Autodesk, SketchUp Pro, Adobe Package, Microsoft Office Suite, Ardui no, Processing)
References •
• • •
Prof. Yandi Andri Yatmo, S.T., Dip. Arch., M.Arch., Ph.D. (yandiay@ eng.ui.ac.id / yandiay@gmail. com) Dr. -Ing. Ir. Dalhar Susanto (dalhar3001@yahoo.com) Sam McElhinney MA (Cantab) M.Arch ARB (sam@mudarchitecture.com / smcelhinney@ucreative.ac.uk)
Body and its relationship to space always intrigue me. Therefore, after gaining understanding towards interiority during 4-year-study I then pursued M. Arch Architectural Design focusing on interactive architecture. Joining Interactive Architecture Lab gave birth to my design thinking where architectural approaches do not only discuss boundaries as solid materials or buildings constructed by brick walls. I endeavoured to unearth insight in designing architecture which is about projecting human body through space. In The Bartlett, I also had opportunity to build the design in 1 : 1 scale so I could directly examine the relationship between human and the designated space and see how the space affected human’s behaviour. The past study period encouraged me to return to Universitas Indonesia and discuss more about interiority with some fresh insight. Teaching and exploring design through my own studio caught more of my attention and passion in extending design approach. Therefore, I have no doubt that I have to carry on my research for a higher degree.
Interior Architecture, Interiority and Its Substances What is interior architecture? What could distinguish it from interior design? What are the goals? What lies on this particular knowledge? What are the impacts to the built environment? I was carrying those questions in my mind during my undergraduate study period and gradually able to enrich understanding towards interior architecture. Brooker and Stone (2012) mentioned that interior architecture was more like organ transplantation rather than putting on cosmetics. Then, I unearthed understanding about interiority human projection within the designated space. This interiority is not necessarily represented by buildings or other archetypal structures. It could be space generated through lights and shadows as long as it is designed to project humans’ bodies as the inhabitants. Interiority offers opportunity to dissolve the gap between human and design. Furthermore, interiority also gave birth to different type of approaches in design.
Fig. The Urban Conga light installation
Fig. Drawing narrative through shadow play
Dramati(c)ity : Undergraduate Final Project The Urban Conga light installation aspired me to investigate light and shadow as the elements to create narrative and spatial engagement through the installation. Then, I made some simple exploration of how to construct narrative. Being inspired by narrative of shadow puppetry, the exploration continued to understanding light’s tintervention such as distance change of object, screen and light source. Bringing the different kind of interventions, led me to three kind of shadows formed which are mirroring, receding, and immensing. then, this type of shadows is combined with a narrative scenario in order to create a whole new spatial experience. Through a frame of high density situation, sequences are found. these become a gradual change that forms a scenario. through some shadow techniques mentioned before. Shadows and narration then come up as a unity to perform a live spatial experience. this is expected to be very efficient in delivering particular message since 70% of human receptors is functioned as visual receptor (Ackerman, 1990). “Shadows are graphically powerful and traditionally have sinister overtones. in film noir they are used with great drama to suggestt entrapment or danger” (Ingeldew, 2011)
Fig. Shadow play through layering
The narration is allured through shadows regarding the space programme which consist of exposition (introduction), climax, and resolution.
Fig. Form shadow explorations
Fig. In search of narrative forms
Fig. Constructing narrative scenario
Fig. Wayang puppetry basic gestures
Fig. Story from the ceiling patterns
Fig. Spatial ambience
Installation : Stepping on Memes! Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, is one of the cties with highest amount of traffic. during the past years, the number of vehicles have been increasing but not the space provided. reported that the current medium speed is about 15 km/hour, the jakartans should face that 60% of their time each day is spent for the journey from one place to another. The team then came up with the idea to keep the people’s mind fresh although the gridlock is undeniable. Through placing a fun installation in public spaces such as train station or bus station, we expect people could be entertained rather than feeling so stressful. Each time being stepped, the box will sound particular meme expression which is surprising yet funny at the same time. Each box is also equipped by tsprings under the steps to make the top board always bounce back again. This sensation made to create playful sensation. The steps also visually seems riddiculous through the presence of the familiar contemporary funny characters from 9gag.
Fig. The making process and installation on public space
Playing with Lego Furniture The objective of this project is to design a furniture regarding the site context. The site is a lobby that is functioned 24/7 not only as a meeting point, but also as a place for students to do their work. The students usually sit on the floor while working with their laptops. Seeing this phenomenon as an issue, then idea to design a furniture to accompany their working time came up. Having fun while working? Why not? The main function of this furniture is for seating. Tn addition, this furniture resembles how legos transform so that the users can play with the modules while adjusting their own physical needs such as something for back to lean, something for changing the way people sit in quite long duration, etc.
Fig. Configurations of the modules
The Bartlett Summer School : Porta-place The purpose of this project is to make an intervention that could be placed in three different sites with different characteristics as well. The sites are under Hungerford Bridge, Seven Dials Monument (square), Parliament Hill (Hampstead Heath). Nature and human potentials from the sites were discovered such as sunlight that could create shadows, surroundings’ view that could only be seen from upper spot or additional equipments, and the crowd of the people including their pattern of circulation. Explorations were made in order to create as many as possibilities to answer the challenge of each issues that come from different sites. In order to accommodate all the needs therefore and idea of making a portable pavillion came up. Through some basic movements such as rotation and dilatation, this pavillion anwers the contextual issues. Those basic movements are also complete the design as a porta-place.
Fig. Preliminary model explorations
Fig. Preliminary model explorations and site plans
Fig. Planning the final form by utilising recycle components
Fig. Porta-place showing its portability and transformability
Fig. Porta-place’s portability
Fig. Constructing narrative scenario
Interactive Architecture as An Interior Architecture Method Ruairi Glynn in his first autumn 2014 ‘s lecture at The Bartlett once mentioned that Interactive Architecture was about designing a reciprocal system responding and receiving human behaviour including their response that could be scaleable yet replicable to a bigger system. It gave a thought to me that interactive architecture shared similarities to interior architecture where it discussed about what bodies project themselves as particular behaviour and being responsed by an interactive design. The only difference was Interactive Architecture used digitalised approaches. The studio aspired me a lot to endeavour boundary-pushing approaches in design. I became more convinced that architecture was not just about building and typology, architecture could begin with a very small system or form. During the studio, I was building the 1:1 scale of the design as well in order to be able to see the design’s impact to human behaviour. It was interesting to see the performance of a design responding and interacting to humans.
Gestures and Animated Space of Light My curiosity about light, space, and performance continued at The Bartlett. I carried on my research about Wayang Kulit or Indonesian shadow puppetry as a form of storytelling performance that utilises shadow puppet gestures. It was interesting to see there were only few codes used to create a narrative. My interest then led to a series of fundamental questions as such as : What are the minimum criteria of gestural perception that can be governed in order to build spatial engagement? Can geometric and gestural principles be abstracted from Wayang Kulit? Can a study of traditional Wayang Kulit theatre provide a series of abstracted gestures to aid the minimum criteria? Which geometric principles underlie Wayang Kulit gestures? Can such criteria be used to successfully inform spatial engagement and interaction in a controlled environment? My research tried to look at the potential of geometry principles in Wayang Kulit gestures to deliver narration. In order to gain an understanding of the geometry principles in Wayang Kulit gestures, theoretical research and research in design was undertaken. The research suggested that the design grammar identified in experiments has the potential to create spatial engagement and interaction in a controlled environment. The opportunities afforded by the research in design method through making four prototypes of interactive architecture’s installation.
Fig. Poster of the first prototype
The first prototype was completed during Interactive Architecture Lab’s workshop. The first prototype was made as an examination tool in order to see the performance of interactive light and its impact to humans. Proximity sensors equipped the light armature that was cut into patterns. The first prototype had its drawback. The shadows had its limitation to be animated. Then, I moved to an optical experiment with rotating mirrors and laser pointer. It turned out the laser point was able to change into line. If it was observed in a total dark environment, it generated a wall cutting through the space.
Fig. Light experiment with rotating mirrors
The way mirrors worked was similar to galvanometer motor mechanism. Using galvanometer motor enabled myself to programme the mirrors’ position. As a result, many patterns could be generated through some algorithm calculation. The finding led to applying gestural criteria from Wayang Kulit puppetry in an interactive architecture’s installation. The criteria are size, position, angle, speed, and shape. This installation enquired sensory system and movement mechanism as an input and response. Then, the third prototype was created.
Fig. Light experiment with rotating mirrors
The rule was giving different pattern on the ground according to the human’s position detected from the pressure pads on the ground. This prototype was intented to be functioned by one person. Then, what if we built multiple mechanism, what would happen? We were thinking about overlapping shapes dividing a space and building dialogue between humans and machine yet one person to another.
Fig. Light experiment with rotating mirrors
That thought led us to build the final prototype equipped with multiple mechanism. The interactios drawn on separated diagrams on the next two page.
Fig. Light experiment with galvanometer motor
Fig. Shape experiment drawn by galvanometer motor
Fig. Installation’s plan
Fig. Abstracting Wayang Kulit puppetry
Fig. Scenario of multiple mechanism
Fig. Oblique’s spatial scenario
Fig. Installation on site
Fig. Multiple users’s experience on site
Rethinking Interiority “This dichotomy between subject and object is fundamental to a model of perception in which the body is seen as projecting its favorite interior states onto the exterior world ,� (Weinthal, 2011) In search of interiority, Interactive Architecture made me think that interiority could be created through interactive manner as one of the approaches. Interiority as well could be constructed through small components that may have been perceived as objects. I carried that understanding to my former university, Universitas Indonesia, in terms of being a teaching fellow. I was working for eight months before deciding to continue my education as a PhD candidate. Assisting undergraduate final project’s studio and conducting two classes gave me more insights related to the matter of interiority. What are the essential substances? What kind of reciprocal interaction could occur within? How is the space like to be perceived as an interiority? These questions intrigue me to channel deeper research related to interiority and interactive approach.
Teaching’s Experience I was conducting a class and a studio as well as assisting Prof. Yandi Andri Yatmo on final project’s studio. The class was art appreciation where my coleague and I taught theory related to space, body, contemporary arts, and curatorial. We managed some exercises also to challenge student’s understanding and creativity through several projects. The exercises included body limit project which discussed about the way bodies responded triggers from environment and creating opportunity from it by means ideas of art that could utilise such body responses. The second studio was Basic Design 2 which discussed about techniques in communicating architecture and dialogues about bodies and how they perceive environment with their sensories. Challenge was also accepted to assist Prof. Yandi Andri Yatmo in guiding year four’s students in completing their final studio. The students were aimed to conduct their own research according to their own interest in order to gain new perspective towards interiority and creating design method’s through their own researches. The researches lied on different areas such as constructing contemporary and conventional narrative method within collages, observing Koi fish behaviour and the water filtration system within as a way to create living interiority, designing in between blurred space, designing living habitation through understanding of ground materials, and creating interiority through criminal investigation. Fig. Models from final exhibition
Fig. Studio and final viva
Fig. Body limit project from group 1 Art Appreciation Class 2016