Valent Tan | SUTD ASD Portfolio 2022 by Valent Tan

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PROJECTS

Architecture Core Studio 3

Creative Quarters

Architecture Core Studio 2

Singularity Danger

Creative Machine Learning

Zone Acoustic

Digital Design & Fabrication

Toblerone

CREATIVE QUARTERS

ARCHITECTURE CORE STUDIO 3 SUPER-DIVERSITY: Urban Living For All Term:

2022 (spring semester)

In collaboration with:

Melissa Tan

Teaching team:

Calvin Chua (faculty) Chew Yun Qing

The housing studio seeks to uncover Singapore’s new forms of diversity that has inevitably emerge from the island’s connectivity to the wider world. The project aims to develop a mixed-use housing typology for Singapore’s budding entrepreneurs, with each quarter designed for different entrepreneurial archetype.

Melissa and I aimed to develop a mixed-use housing typology for Singapore’s budding entrepreneurs, with each quarter of the site designed for a different entrepreneurial archetype while responding to the artefacts found on site. The green spine splits the site into two halves, which is then split into quarters.

The project began with a masterplan developed by the section to decide on the vision for the site and the parceling of the land for each pair of students to further develop. The site is located on a hilly terrain in Singapore, with half the land being part of the Clementi Forest, and the other half the Former Mowbray Camp. From the site analysis, four spines that flows across the site are developed, namely the urban, blue, green and road spines.

From the site analysis and development of the masterplan, key artefacts within the site such as the army barracks and contours of the hill were considered in the massing proposal. The project investigates the podium-tower typology, with the podium being a single datum line, connecting to the residential towers. The towers are flipped near the blue spine at the lower grounds, sitting underneath the podium, responding to the contours and lack of shade from vegetation.

In the masterplan, the plot is sub-divided into 6 smaller plots, each to be further developed by a pair within the section. My pair chose the plot which used to be the former Mowbray camp, with the four spines running through the site.

Other infrastructures such as bridges and steps were proposed to connect to the other projects as part of the master plan.

11 m

The units of the Artist-in-Residence village is designed in mind for the flexibility of changing the shared communal spaces. As the residents become familiar with each other, the shared spaces grows to accommodate to the changed lifestyle. The sizes of each program in the unit is rationalised through the use of tatami mat arrangement, achieving better proportions.

Communal Space

Dwelling Unit

Stairs

Phase 1: New strangers sharing a communal living space

Phase 2: Opening up to sharing space with strangers

Phase 3: Strangers to neighbours, co-living together

With the stairs located on the exterior, each level is rotated by 90 degrees, resulting in a circulation wrapping around the building. By having occupants circulate around and through the communal spaces of the different levels, the idea of the co-living restricted to a single level is removed, encouraging sharing of spaces throughout the point block. The design thus responds to the users need for the Artist-in-Residence of meeting new people and creating new experiences.

To encourage the use of natural ventilation while providing some levels of privacy, breeze blocks are used to create the facade for the Artist-in-Residence point blocks. ANSYS fluent was used to conduct a CFD analysis to study air flow within the unit with the breeze block. Following the wind rose data, South directional wind at 2.78 m/s was used. The result shown is quite favourable, with the area weighted average windspeed of 1.62 m/s, which meets the minimum requirement from BCA Green Mark. The use of breeze blocks contributes to the vernacular aesthetic of the Artist-in-Residence village, creating the ‘kampung vibe’.

Unit Plan View

m/s 10.00<

Unit Section View

8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00

1.50

1.35

1.20

1.05

0.90

0.75

0.60

0.45

0.30

0.15

0.00

<0.00

Wind Velocity (m/s)

2 m

The Home Business apartments are designed to create a dual circulation system, with the public circulating at the exterior and an internal private circulation which also functions as a back of house for the occupants. A gradient of public to private determines the location of the programs within the dwelling units. The L-shape configuration was used so that every unit has interfaces with the public, creating a shop front for the home business. A double diamond massing was used to connect the two residential blocks via the public circulation.

34 m

Public Circulation

Semi-Public (Unit) Private (Unit) Back of House

Air Flow

A 3 x 3 meter grid was used to develop the size of the units, with the exception of a 4 meter wide grid used to connect the public to private circulation. The corridor is offset and disaligned from the opposite corridor in order achieve better cross ventilation. The public corridor is a 2 meter offset from the units.

Upper Level Dwelling Units

Lower Level Dwelling Units

Public circulation are restricted to odd levels where the apartments have a shop front to support the occupant’s home businesses. The even levels will have a larger production space instead of a shop front, which is suitable for home businesses that do not require visitors to enter their home. The podium is functions as a co-working space which connects the different entrepreneurs living in the four different residential clusters. Below the podium is the food bazaar, an experiemental hawker space for budding chefs and restauranteurs. The food is used to bridge between the different projects in the masterplan, creating a node within the urban spine. To combat the high solar heat gain, a double skin facade strategy is used in tandem with breeze blocks, creating a well shaded and cooling space. The podium uses large sliding panels which are operable, thus allowing the space to be naturally ventilated.

Sectional Perspective 17

Site Plan 20

Elevation 21

SINGULARITY

ARCHITECTURE CORE STUDIO 2 the digital archive: the proto-cemetery Term:

2021 (spring semester)

Teaching team:

Eva Castro (faculty) Daryl, Jacob, Young Bin

The studio will operate ‘against’ hyper-contextualism or specific technicisms of sort, challenging preconceived cultural conditions, the “known” and the “appropriate”, to create experimental prototypes whose specificity don’t arise from the regulative condition of a specific place but from the environmental fictions we will design. With a ‘site-less’ condition and the temporal context being far flung into the future, the studio requires the construction of a fictional site and speculative narrative, addressing the universal urgencies of spatial limitation, data storage and memory preservation. The project postulates Death and Rituals in a speculative future, where death is welcomed as an advancement of civilization. The narrative questions the notion of individual identity within the sea of consciosness that is the whole of humanity, and inheritance of will to one’s successor.

The given site typology for the Proto-Cemetery is the cliff. The fictional site is sculpted and molded with references to the Cliffs of Moher, the Green Bridge of Wales and Bear Island in Svalbard. The cliff is designed to have a peak that points towards and beyond the horizon, signifying the end of life and the immaterial plane that lies beyond. A spherical cave is carved out of the cliff to create monumental space, invoking a sense of awe when one enter the cemetery. Jean Baudrillard work ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ was referenced to explore the concept of hyperreality, where the real and fiction are blended seamlessly that no real distinction can be found. The proto-cemetery is defined as the convergent site of will and knowledge from the dead, a singularity of humanity’s wisdom coalesced into a single entity.

World Building Narrative

What w i l l you miss aft er you die? T he fut ure hold s s o muc h p o s s i b i l i ty that i t o v e r whelms us wit h regret . T he complet ion o f the Zei tp y ra mi d i n the 3 1 8 3 AD, t he recover y of t he C her nobyl Exc l us i o n Zo ne i n 22000, an d the c o llision of our galaxy wit h Andromeda in 2.5 mi l l i o n y ea rs , a re e v en ts f ar flung int o t he fut ure beyond t he reach o f o ur b ri ef ex i s tenc e. The f e ar i s not t hat of deat h, but of regret . In the y ear 30XX, progression of humanit y has plat ea ued . W hi l e the w o rl d n o l o ng er suffer s from food shor t ages or pover t y, tec hno l o g y a nd c ul ture h as re ac he d a st agnat ion. Many st ar t t o ponder and q ues ti o n the rea s o n f o r th e i r exist ence. Maybe it was by pure chance o r thro ug h the w i l l o f the un k no wn, a collect ive of t hinker s came t o t he s a me c o nc l us i o n; o ur e x i s ten c e merely ser ves as a vessel for t he univer s e to g ro w, a nd no w i t i s ti m e to assimilat e and ret ur n t o t he singular it y. The c o l l ec tive inspired ot her s and soon grew int o a c o ng reg a ti o n. The f o l l o w ers believed t hat t he singular it y is an ent it y b ey o nd huma ni ty, y et d o no t w o rship it . Inst ead, t hey wrot e t enet s for sub s eq uent fo l l o w ers ; The F i v e Fo r m s of Assimilat ion. T he follower s docume nt thei r l i v es thro ug h a d i g i tal j our nal, capable of recording ever y sens a ti o n, tho ug ht a nd e m o ti o n. T he knowledge and wisdom of humanit y w i l l then b e retur ned u p o n d eath t o br ing us closer t owards t he Singulari ty.

Five Forms of A ssimilation

As s i m i l at i o n with Society The usable organs of the deceased are first donated to the ill, regardless of their belief. This follows the tenet to live a fruitful and experiential life, and if one’s life can be prolonged, then it shall be. As s i m i l at i o n with the C ongregation The body will be processed into wafers to be consumed during communion for the departed member. The act reinforces the idea of assimilation, with every departed always existing as part of the living, until the very last person. As s i m i l at i o n with the C emetery The remains will be added into concrete dolosse to become part of the cemetery’s infrastructure, prolonging the life of the cliff until the end of time. As s i m i l at i o n with the Mind The memory of the departed will be incorporated into the memory of the congregation. To prevent a mental overload, the congregation will be injected a hallucinogen to induce a trance-like state, allowing the memories to merge. As s i m i l at i o n with the Singularity The memories of the departed will be copied into the supercomputer. With every death, the assimilation of memories furthers, until the last human with the memories of humanity.

Program, C irculation & Diagra m

The ri tual der ived from t he nar r at ive requires the c o rp s e to b e d i s i nteg rated for t he deceased t o achieve imma teri a l i ty fro m o f the p hy s i c al w or ld. Different component s of t he cor p s e w i l l b e us ed i n the ri tual s o f assimilat ion, conveying t he idea t hat the d ec ea s ed w i l l s ti l l l i v e o n w i thin us, so will t heir wisdom. A syst ema ti c a p p ro a c h i s ta k en to un d ers tand how t he cor pse is t reat ed, which infl uenc es the p ro g ra ms o f the c e met er y. Dat a collect ed from t he deceased i s s to red w i thi n the ‘S i ng ul ari ty’, a digit al archive of humanit y. Genet ic d a ta c a n b e us ed to p re d i c t h e alt h issues and illnesses while t he cumu l a ti v e k no w l ed g e w i l l an s w er q u est ions t o advance civilizat ion. The p ro g rams are ar r anged in accordance t o t he funera ry ri tes d ev el o p ed i n the n arrat ive. T he family and fr iends of t he decea s ed w i l l fi rs t enter the Co m m u n i o n Hall for t he assimilat ion wit h t he congreg a ti o n, us i ng mi x ed real i ty to disor ient and prepare t he ment al st at e o f the c o ng reg a ti o n. The p as s age circumambulat es around t he cave, wea v i ng i n a nd o ut o f the c l i ff and put t ing t he congregat ion int o a t r ance- l i k e s ta te. The ri tua l e n d s i n th e Incor por at ion C hamber, where a hype rs ens o ry rec rea ti o n o f the d e c eased memor y is exper ienced by t he con g reg a ti o n to tra ns fer the m e m o r y and skill of t he deceased int o t he li v i ng , c o mp l eti ng the as s i m i l ati o n wit h t he mind.

Form Exploration

Computational Field Lines Top V iew

Side V iew

Generated For m Top V iew

Side V iew

A co mp u t a ti o n al d es i g n ap p roach is t aken t o st udy t he spat ial relati o ns hi p o f the o rg a ni c c l i ff fa c e a nd the p e r fe ct s p h e ri c al c av e . The g ener at ed field lines are abst r act ed t o create the c i rc ul a ti o n a nd fo r m o f the c emetery sp a ce s . T h e to p v i ew s ug g e s ts how t he passage could mediat e bet wee n the c l i ff fa c e a nd c a v e a s i t mo v es fro m th e co mm un i o n h al l i nto the “Singular it y”, dist or t ing t he pat h as it mo v es c l o s er to the c a v e.

Virtual Reality

E xt e n d e d Re al i ty i s m ai n l y applied t o t he C ommunion Hall and t he C a v e, w here the a s s i mi l a ti o n w i th the c o n g re g a t i on and m i n d o c c urs respect ively. T he C ommunion Hall uses l i g ht to c ha ng e the c o l o r o f the i nteri o r, m a t ch i n g t he c o l o r o f th e s k y. By making minut e phase shift s in t he in teri o r l i g hti ng , the o c c up a nts s l o w l y l o s e th e i r s e n s e o f ti m e. Th e Si ng ul a r it y is nest ed wit hin t he spher ical cave, c rea ti ng a mo numenta l v i ew o f the d i g i ta l arch i ve o f hu m ani ty.

Scan t o view project video produ c ed . t inyur l.com/C ore2Valent

DANGER ZONE

CREATIVE MACHINE LEARNING Advanced Topics in Design Computation Term:

2021 (fall semester)

In collaboration with:

Sheryl Mah

Teaching team:

Immanuel Koh (faculty)

From the shared interest in games and procedural map generation, the project started with an investigation into developing GAN model targeted towards generating new game maps to create unique gameplay experience.

CS:GO was chosen as the game provides detailed game match information on their match statistics website: csgostat.gg. The game matches will be mined to create the dataset to be used to train the GAN model.

With a focus on first person shooter 3D game, specifically Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) project aims to study ‘dangerous’ spaces in CS:GO game maps and to extrapolate the spatial qualities of such spaces.

By looking at the death locations in the game match statistics, a heatmap is created for a few game matches of different CS:GO game maps.

A generative adversarial network (GAN) will be trained to detect ‘dangerous’ and ‘safe’ spaces within a given floorplan to predict dangerous areas in the event of a terrorist attack. A ‘safe’ game map will be generated to test and obtain insights when designing safe and secured spaces.

To facilitate the semi-supervised learning process, semantics are generated in order to create the labelled dataset. The spatial semantics are generated by demarcating the different spaces within the game maps. The spatial qualities are denoted with different colors. Lastly, as an experiment to draw relation to visibility and openness of a space, a visibility graph is generated using DepthmapX, creating a third dataset.

Raw Dataset

Dataset A

CS:GO Game Map: Dust II

Heatmap generated using Grasshopper

Nine different game maps were used as datasets to train the model: Ancient, Basalt, Dust 2, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass, Train and Vertigo. Matches where the game is skewed heavily towards one team were considered heavily to depict the losing team as civilians.

To process the game map death location statistics, the a heatmap is generated with the read representing areas of high probability of dying and blue representing areas with high survival rate.

Dataset B

Dataset C

Semantics to show spatial quality

Visibility Graph (VG) from DepthmapX

In order to differentiate how the spatial quality can affect survivability, semantics were added to the game map, which each color representing different spatial quality, such as white meaning open space and magenta meaning spaces ﬂanked by two high walls.

Visibility relationship between spaces were considered as a factor that could contribute to the danger levels of a space. DepthmapX is an open-source software used to create a VG as an additional dataset.

Paired Cycle Gan Analysis The GAN model was trained in two ways, one being a combination of dataset A and B, and the other dataset A and C. The CS:GO Train map was used to test whether will both GAN models generate the similar heatmaps to draw correlation between the spatial semantics of the game and visibility. Subsequently, a floorplan of SUTD was fed to both GAN model to predict the most dangerous areas within the campus. Both generated heatmaps from the GAN model were quite similar. Unfortunately, the heatmap generated shows that SUTD does not have much safe spaces to hide from, except for our studio at the bottom left of the campus floor plan.

Paired CGAN Label to Image Analysis A simple Vanilla GAN model was used to train the dataset of split heatmaps generated by grasshopper. The GAN model consists of a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture to sample new images from its inputs. The generated heatmaps are than sorted into two groups, ‘RED’ and ‘BLUE’. A code was written that samples each image to determine the percentage of red and blue in order to know which group to sort the images into. A GAN model trained using the dataset A and B was fed with the generated heatmap from ‘RED’ and ‘BLUE’ groups to generate the spatial qualities of the space. The semantics are orientated and pieced together manually to create a map, and finally cleaned up and converted into a 3D model in Rhino.

Generated Heatmap

Generated Semantics

Reorientated Semantics

Blue Heatmap (Safe)

Red Heatmap (Dangerous)

The semantics were manually recreated in Rhino, showing how our team envisioned a safe and dangerous map to look like.

Safe (Blue) Semantics Map

Comparing both maps, the safe map appears to have more enclosed rooms surrounding the atrium space. Many obstacles and walls are dispersed throughout the map, blocking any direct line of sight from the terrorists. The dangerous map has continuous corridors throughout and allow a clear line of sight at any angle, making it more difficult for users to seek refuge. When compared against the VG created from the Rhino model, the safe map has more bluer spaces as compared to the dangerous map which demonstrates that these maps are true to their labels. Although the maps tend to correspond to its labels, the model does have some flaws in the sense that some aspects of the semantics were not shown, such as the upper levels or the half walls. The images generated were still generally pixelated and blurry thus manual work was required to generate a coherent image. However, the model has proven to still be effective in generating safe or unsafe spaces.

Safe (Blue) VG

Dangerous (Red) Semantics Map

Dangerous (Red) VG

3D Print model of the ‘Safe Map’

Unreal Rendering Showing Possible Implementation of Map into CSGO

From the semantics map, a square frame containing an interesting arrangement of enclosed rooms and corridors was chosen to be represented as our focused safe space. A 3D model was generated and rendered in Unreal Engine to visualize how the space would be experienced in a playthrough. While exploring the 3D space, there were many sharp turns and possible hiding spots, which could give the terrorist team a hard time infiltrating the space, simulating how a secured space should be like

Unreal Model of the ‘Safe Map’

ACOUSTIC TOBLERONE

DIGITAL DESIGN & FABRICATION CNC Term:

2020 (spring semester)

In collaboration with:

Sharmayne Lim

Teaching team:

Stylianos Dritsas (faculty)

Acoustics is an important performance criteria for architecture. The acoustic quality of a space is determined not only by the volumetric geometry of the room but also its surface characteristics such as its material and surface area. To maximise soundproofing of a room, pyramid or wedge-shaped panels are the most effective as they have a larger surface area available for incident sound waves, thereby making them have greater absorption than equivalent plane absorbers of the same volume. We explored altering the geometry of surfaces in specific ways to control the acoustics of a room. This can be applied to architecture, when designers need to design spaces with a desired performance criteria, they can engineer the acoustics by regulating the geometry and material of the surfaces they use. The use of CNC milling machine allows for precise sculpting from the high density polyurethane foam block. This suggests for a design that requires precision, thus the acoustic panel is decided to be the design manufactured.

Due to the vertical subtractive nature of the process, the foam board cannot have any undercut carved out of it. The design of the acoustic panel can be generated through acoustic ray tracing, where the plane of each cell reflects the ray particle to a targeted point. LMN Architect methodology of acoustic ray tracing was studied as a reference. Acoustic ray tracing makes the assumption that sound propagates along rays that are normal to the wavefronts. This allows for the use of ray tracing, which is computationally less straining. The initial rays from the source point will propagate towards the centroids of the grid cells in a divergent path. Target points created on the dome will determine the orientation of each cell on the grid. Through vector summation of the ray from the source to grid and target to grid, we can get the vector normal of the grid cell orientation. The grid cells are reorientated and extruded to create the final acoustic panel design.

Grid Cells Grid Points (Centroid)

Initial Ray

Source Point

Target Ray

Target Dome

Reflection Plane

Target Points

1. GENERATING A GRID

2. VECTOR PATH

3. TOBLERONE GEOMETRY

A rectangular grid is created in the XZ plane. The number of cells in the X and Z direction will be dependent on the size of each cell. The centroid of each cell is generated with the area component.

The path taken by the ray particle is determined by two vectors, origin to grid and grid to target point. The angle bisector vector is calculated through the summation of vectors to be used as the vector normal for generating the subsequent planes.

The centroid of the cell is off

distance. The grid cells are ex point to form pyramids. By ch the centroid, the height of th This will affect the slope of th

fset in the Y-axis by a certain xtruded to the offset centroid hanging the offset distance of he pyramid will also change. he toblerone units.

4. DEFLECTING PLANES The plane generated is normal to the angle bisector vector of the ray particles’ vector path. Using the plane, a planar surface is created and extruded. This solid extrusion will be used to remove the intersection between itself and the pyramid, creating a truncated pyramid.

Due to the limitations of the CNC machine, the size of the sample acoustic board is fixed at a 8x8 grid, measuring at 20cm by 20cm. A 2.5mm offset is added in between each truncated pyramid to accommodate the extra material removal due to the 5mm ball mill.

Zero Tolerance for 5mm Ball Mill

2.5mm Tolerance for 5mm Ball Mill 8x8 Grid Cell Design

Grid Cell Morphed to form Truncated Pyramids 56

2.5mm Tolerance in between each Pyramid