ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO 3 [ARC 2118]
 1. Fam Li Kian 2. Hiew Yen Nee 3. Elaine Bong Poh Hui 4. Wesley Hew Xin Han 5. Ch'ng Xing Yue |  |  CASE STUDY 1 |
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Project 1
Journey for the 5 senses
A project on exploring spatial typologies and spatial poetics.
The poem we had chosen is Battle of Bleinheim by Robert Southey.
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Linear model
The entrance started on a big plane of grassland next to a river to suit the setting in the poem. Then it is divided into two, allowing visitors to experience the point of views of Old Kaspar and the grandchildren differently.
With the gradual transition into the next space of the building, the upper part represents the mindset of the grandchildren; the lower pathway brings the visitors on a journey through the oldman's view of the war. For the upper path, the building will become lower and yet with open space, allowing visitors to stretch their hands out and bend/ crawl their ways through to experience what it is to be a child and discovering things.
In the middle intersection part of the building, there will be columns extruding from the bottom path to the upper path, interconnecting the two. The visitors for the lower path will find it hard to past it through while on the upper path it would be short extruded column caps. It is used to explain the hardship of the people in the past and how the present generation finds it as historical artifacts, just like how little Peterkin found a skull by the riverside and not knowing what it is.
The most interesting part of the building is where water are diverted into the building, flowing through the building. The upper path visitors will only hear the water sound yet not know where it had come from whilst for the lower part a line of glowing water could be seen on the ceiling.
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Concentric model
The model is made to attract visitors on first sight yet not knowing the secret hidden behind it, which they will only know after exploring it.
When the visitors walk towards the entrance, the shiny steel cladding on top of the building makes the visitors to raise their heads up and feeling overwhelming. The elliptical shape of the top cladding and narrow entrance of the building will subtlely guide visitors into the building. This is to bring out the intepretation of the poem in which the people sees the glory of the war and follows blindly the ideal of others around them.
The entrance opening is made tall to give off a grand sensation to the visitors. The empty space and hard reflective surfaces in the building is to allow echoes to emphasize on the fact that Old Kaspar didn't know why they fought the war for yet kept on hearing others calling "It was a famous victory!". At the side of the interior walls, there will be light coming in from the roof illuminating the shiny metal top and interior space.
The platform on other end of the building will then capture the attention of the visitors and allowing them to enjoy the scenic mountain valley view. This platform is also to distract visitors from discovering there are actually stairs leading upward the roof. Only when the visitors turn around, they will realize the roof is actually a big void, but they could only see part of the roof and not what's happening in it. This explains our group's intention about Old Kaspar might have seen part of the bad side of the war after hearing to what his grandchildren had said, yet he's still in denial.
The stairs leading upwards are narrow, curved and require visitors to touch the rough wall in order to get up as there are no railings. This is to allow the visitors to experience the internal struggle people need to go through to accept the truth instead of the ideal they have believed for a long time.
The huge void above covered in rusticated materials represents the lost and agony war had brought. It might have seemed glory from the outside, but you could only truly feel it by being in it.
Project 2
Genius Loci
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This is a project to explore a site and draw some sketches while develop a conceptual design based on what we intepret about the site.
The inspiration started when I discovered the gun emplacement located halfway in Labrador Park, Singapore. It's interesting to see tree growing out from something that's used to be a war machine.
The leaves scattered seem to represent the sacrifices made in the war, while the roots signifying the strength of people uniting. Unity among different ethnicity that is created from war, with the tree growing upwards to the sky, in a methaphorical way, towards the future of the people. The concrete structure beneath seems to be a confinement for the tree, like the war in the early days, but it didn't stop the tree from growing, just like Singapore didn't stop growing because of the war.
The further I explored the park, I found out a path which was so dense in trees with insects chirping so loud. Evenso, it felt calm and peaceful. The contrast between the path with the sunny beach next to it had given me an idea to design something that contrasts yet comes in harmony in a way.
The idea of designing my building flowing horizontally on the site is to allow it to blend into the surrounding without being too off context. Then like tree roots, the branching entrance stairs attracts visitors to a central gathering point, a point for unity. The middle part of the building is left void to create a sense of falling, in remembrance of the sacrifice the war has brought.
A roof is added for the upper floor due to wanting to create a dimmer and more private space for visitors to be more focus on their feelings and also to provide shading. Besides, circular stairs are created around the central void to allow visitors to sit around due to an observation of lackness in sitting area at the site enabling visitors to truly feel the atmosphere of the used-to-be-battle-site park.
Then it ended off with a one way path, to emphasize on the visions the people worked together for. This path leads to a lookout deck that seems floating on the cliff, facing the breezy sea.
Project 3
Visitor Interpretive Centre (VIC)
Project 3 is a continuition of design from the previous conceptual idea.
The columns that were previously used to support the building and roof was improved into tall memorial columns with a purpose of creating sense of verticality as well as support structures for the roof. Besides it also adds emphasis to the central void. Originally concrete, the roof is changed to PTFE membrane roof to create lightness of structure visually. Moreover it admits sunlight to the upper level so that it won't be too dark affecting the desire of visitors wanting to stay longer. A simple food and beverage stall is also located near to the central void.
The interwoving wooden roof beams connecting to a circular structure gives off a sense of intervining lives of people that are met at a point due to the war. it's ripple-liked design also indirectly guide visitors to the central point of the building.
Tall concrete blocks are placed along the path to the lookout deck, making people wondering what's on the other end of the building so that they would be curious enough to explore it. The tall blocks are also used to create solemnity and reduce the sense of self.
The lower part of the building(ground floor) is physically more solid compared to the upper part. It acts as the resemblance of the confinement and lost caused by the war. This is where the main exhibition area located. Skylights built around the circular central void and strip openings at the side will admit light into the space. There's a small lookout space at the ground floor allowing the visitors to be intact to the environment while feeling the exhibition space.
Spaces are divided according to the privacy needed, site contour and the access to each facilities for the convenience of the users. Equipped with a reception desk, office area, storage room, bookstore, exhibition area, lookout space, the ground floor space ended with an exit to the public washrooms. The washrooms are separated and placed on the outside to prevent foul smell from distracting visitors in the building interior space.