Oasis 02 by Angel Javier

Oasis The right to the city 02

Glasgow School of Arts Year 3, 2019 Interior Design Studio

This consist of documented research works of the sites, the act of drawing, collages/montage as the visual montage and as avway to communicate. A series of Atelier Bow Wow Isometric perspective drawings to capture the mall's identity and community. Design proposals and a plug-in design. What does "The Right to the City" means? It defines the right of the people, the inhabitants to live with dignity in these urban areas. What makes a city a city? Is it the people inhabiting them or the people with the political power and authority over the land? There is a need to maximise the participation of the dwellers of the city to avoid destroying the places or buildings that we have social ties, relationship and communities in. In this project, I studied the inhabitants, the community of the building to extract the importance of it to them and how it shapes their day to day life. That it is not just a building, not just a city but a lifestyle and a community to the people. To find out what kind of special relationships and community inhabiting these spaces that could eventually lead me to an intervention for their right to the city.

Angel Javier

CONTENT Part 1 Star Vista Textile Centre Atelier Bow Wow Perspectives

Part 2 Design Process/Ideation Intervention

STAR VISTA Star Vista is mostly known as a food hub, where students, office workers and family would eat and enjoy their time together. Despite how big it is majority of the shops in it are restaurants as shown on the drawn map on the right. However, third floor onward it is mainly use for the offices and an auditorium for church services and some concerts as well.

Site Visit: Star Vista map location study

Restaurants / Eateries

Basement A good half is filled with restaurants with the hospitality services as the other half. Most of the people arriving with their cars would be coming from here. Hence, it is usually brimming with people.

First Storey More options for shopping on this floor however it also gets busy as it has a huge open space where people can sit down and enjoy their food with others.

Second Storey This has the most eateries and restaurants, most probably as this is nearest to the au ditorium, the closest floor for them to have their meal before or after church services or concerts.

The Central Staircase When I think of Star Vista this is the first image that comes to mind. The central staircase where most people would sit and eat with their friends. As this shopping mall has an open concept, fresh air does come in and it gives an even more casual atmosphere than other shopping malls. People tend to just spend most of their time here rathen than going around the mall itself.

Star Vista's Staircase with people chilling around. Some alone or with their friends either eaing or just star

ring into space.

Atelier Bow Wow Drawing of the Staircase at Star Vista 10

Dining Alfresco Inside As Star Vista has an open concept is really is interesting to find such cafes where people can eat "outside" the cafe while still being inside the mall. A very interesting concept that I think most poeple don't tend to notice and accept it the way it is. As there is no air conditioning outside the cafe, they are provided with a huge ceiling fan instead. It gets incredibly busy on weekends here as well.

In front of one of the cafe's in Star Vista 'awfully chocolate'. As seen the inside of the cafe is already full hence the people dining outside. It can get quite humid if you stay in one place here despit being inside a mall. 11

TEXTILE CENTRE Textile Centre holds a lot of history as it was built on the 1970s and it is one of the main textile and distributing center in Singapore and south East Asia. It is made up of 13 floors in total however one is only able to go up until 5th floor 6th floor to 13th floor are used as an auditorium for a church and some offices. They sell mostly textiles here with a few options of eateries and other shops. However, surrounding Textile Centre there are plenty of places to choose from when it comes to eating or shopping. Site Visit: Textile Centre location study

Fabric Shops Restaurant / Eateries

First Storey Etering from the main entrance, all you see first are fabric and more fabric shops around you, going all the way up to third storey. It is quite an amazing view.

Second Storey The most front part of this floor are mostly fabrics with a mix of a few eateries. How ever, most are service shops and majority are empty stalls.

Third Storey There are even less fabric shops here and majority are just left closed.

Fourth Storey Other than a few fabric stores and a close cinema, there's only a few eateries here. Expecting it to have even less people was a mistake as it seems to be a secret haven for those who wants to eat alone.

Textile Wonderland "Whoa, so much textiles!" This was my first impression stepping inside Textile Centre. It is full of nostalgia without even me knowing much about the space at first. The space speaks for itself, the history, the peo ple and even the community slowly built up with this space history.

A high ceiling entrance way, showcasing majority of their fabric shops.

Ceilings over Fabrics What caught my eye from this view was the ceiling, occupy ing half of my vision, it is impossible not to notice it. More than a few times my eyes would stray there instead of look ing below with all of the shops. I thought it was such an interesting character in the Textile Centre.

The Secret of Fourth Storey Is it a hidden Oasis? Maybe. As the level goes higher, it gets quieter with less people on it. However, fourth storey was different. It was brimming with people eating when I came to visit. Most of them are solo eaters, turning and looking away from each other. This is an interesting character of the Textile Centre as no one would have expected it to be full of people on the fourth floor dining. As there are a lot of other options in other levels and many eateries surrounds Textile Centre itself. It seems like most of the people eating here are residents and frequent visitors who have known this place long before that it be came an untold truth to the rest.

Atelier Bow Wow Drawing of the Coffee Shop with its Solo Eaters 22

Part 2

Eating Culture Both Star Vista and Textile Centre has a strong eating culture though very different from each other. With Star Vista the community is built over the sharing of the space for food, hence building a relationship. It is import ant as the space becomes the center of relationship. While for Textile Centre, a mutual understanding has been built over a history of friendship and relationship between shopowners, the regulars and even the residents in the area that makes them respect the way they eat. There is respect for privacy here, they themselves know solitude and are com fortable with it, hence the truth untold for the solo eaters on the fourth story. It is the norm and became the culture there. Both shopping malls has an invisible community that is are only prominent to the people who are frequent in both places and that is their Eating Culture.

For the Solo Eaters of Textile Centre For the regular eaters in Textile Centre it seem like they are here to find solitude as they eat. A place to eat alone, their hidden Oasis. As an outsider of this space, this is not common knowledge and there seems to be a hierarchy when it comes to dining here. A respectable understanding for these solo eaters to be on the highest floor possible and those who eat in groups seems to always dine in lower floors. What happens if this hierarchy on dining is brought to light through an intervention? Not to disrupt or change the hierarchy but to tell a message.

The Way We Live A visual representation of the way we live. It is not visually prominent in our daily lives, but there is an order and hierarchy in everything we do.

Eating Solo

Chair

Table

Solo Eater #1 Inspired by the foldable table and chairs originally used in the space. How can I make a foldable element that would let in dividuals eat alone comfortably while not disrupting others?

Chair

Table

Solo Eater #2 From the observation, most of the eaters in level 4 turn away from each other and watch people pass by as they dine. Why not let them have the ability to still do the same? Hence, the design is changed so that the solo eaters are still able to watch peo ple pass by as they dine.

Solo Eater #3 What if it is covered. An eater isolated in a space? How would the experience be? Would it be too suffocating or an oasis for these solo eaters?

PLAN

Fourth Storey - For Solo Eaters

Third Storey - For Couples

Second Storey - For Small Groups

First Storey - For Big Groups

Hierarchy

y in Dining

ELEVATION

ELEVATION OF PROPOSED INTERVENTION "What happens if the hidden eating hierarchy is shown? The Oasis of the solo eaters is made visible?" 29

PLAN OF PROPOSED INTERVENTION not to scale 30

Right to the City Having this intervention gives the dwellers in this place speak. Speak the culture and community built through long history here in Textile Centre. This intervention was created in hopesthat it could be able to communicate their right to the city. The community and respect when it comes to dining in Textile Centre.

Intervention Idea #1 A quick visualisation through digital drawing of the intervention coming from level 4 to level 1, showing the hierarchy of dining at Textile Centre.

"What if the flow of people are centralised?" "Would the heirarchy become more prominent?"

ELEVATION OF UPDATED PROPOSED INTERVENTION not to scale 36

Intervention Idea #2 A digital drawing to visualised the updat ed centralised intervention. To guide the flow of the people dining.

Atelier Bow Wow Drawing of the Intervention showing the dining hierarchy 40

The Textile Shops and Intervention 41

- END