Taxonomy of Tropical Living

Research Booklet Vol. 02

Taxonomy of Tropical Living An Illustrated Handbook

A collection of local and regional ways of inherently ‘tropical’ life, both modern, indigenous

and hybrid. Scales are transcended - from reciprocal landscapes to poetics of dwelling.

Local Vernacular, Craft and Skill

Malay House

Malay houses are the indigenous vernacular of Malaysia and Singapore. Roofs with large overhangs form verandahs and vents in the gables allow crossventilation to cool the interior spaces. These houses are a learned and iterated socio-cultural response specific to tropical climate, local materials and religious beliefs.

Local Vernacular, Craft and Skill

Attap as Material The Nipah palm is common along the shores of Singapore and Malaysia.

Locals used to dry the leaves, fold them over a rod and stitch them in place to form shingles called ‘attap’.

These shingles are used for roofing as well as the sides of houses and can last for 5 years or more.

Local Vernacular, Craft and Skill

Hybrid Shophouses Shophouses are a hybrid between European shophouse typology, tropical practice of locals and the religious

motifs of local builders and clients.

These slender lots typically feature an inner courtyard for ventilation and light.

Local Vernacular, Craft and Skill

Torajan Village These traditional settlements are highly influenced by the tropical environment setting of the region, socio-spatial organization, and the paddy farming culture prevalent in the area.

The tongkonan is vertically divided into three levels: the attic where the regalia and family heirlooms are kept; the living area; and the space under the floor where domesticated

animals are kept. These compare with the upper world, the middle world, and the under world.

A vernacular combination of timber and bamboo construction is employed with the use of thatch such as coconuts, leaves, grass, or rice straw. Loose joinery of wooden pegs and mortise and tenon joints make the structural framework absorb shock waves.

Local Vernacular, Craft and Skill

Indigenous Indonesian Towers These masonry towers are of unknown purpose, however the craft and construction processes are clearly legible in its form. This creates a unique aesthetic - one that is accessible in its technical information yet vague in its purpose.

Local Vernacular, Craft and Skill

Bamboo Construction Bamboo is one of the fastest growing local materials in the tropical region. As such, it has had a long historical use as a material.

Though its popularity in construction faded

due to the availability of new modern materials like steel, the anthropocene forces us to relook at these vernacular methods of construction.

Local Vernacular, Craft and Skill

Seaside Settlements

Many early Malay villages were seaside settlements built on stilted foundations made of local wood.

The water was both transport and a source of sustenance, while

buildings were made of materials not far from the shore. This makes the frequent repair work easy, setting up a local ecoloical niche by the sea.

Local Vernacular, Craft and Skill

Bamboo Weaving Bamboo weaving is a common tradition found in many Asian countries, from Myanmar to Hong Kong. The bamboo

has to be split, cleared of pithe and then woven together to form facades, structural systems or ornamentation.

Local Vernacular, Craft and Skill

Dorze Bamboo Hut In Ethiopia, the Dorze people have developed a technique of splitting and weaving bamboo into conical houses. Even the scaffolding and ladders are made from

bamboo, forming a holistic building system from primary structure, to cladding to support. These houses gradually shrink due to termites and rot which eat away at the bottom.

Contemporary Interpretations

Vertical Grottos The village of Xiyaotou in the Zhangjiakou prefecture contains a network of traditional cave dwellings, which provided the inspiration for the interconnected vertical pods forming the Grotto Retreat Xiyaotou.

By flowing the bridge of connectivity in between the private grottos, the design attempts to realise a community in which public and private coexist.

Contemporary Interpretations

Anandaloy Named Anandaloy, which means place of deep joy in the local dialect, the building contains a therapy centre for people with disabilities on the ground floor with a women-led textile workshop above it.

Rammed earth, made with mud from local ponds, was used for the structural elements like walls.

Bamboo from a local forest was used to create a veranda around the building and for its ceilings and roof.

The natural materials mean that at the end of the building’s life it can decompose.

Contemporary Interpretations

Bamboo Shells The lightweight structure features bamboo arches that support an organically shaped canopy.

The 14-metre-

high arches are connected by anticlastic gridshells that curve in two directions to create a robust, tensioned structure.

Contemporary Interpretations

Woven Bamboo Tea House

The shelter’s concept derived from a desire to regenerate the area’s tea houses, which are used as resting spots for farmers working on the surrounding land and to provide shelter from storms in rainy seasons, or from the sun during the hottest part of

the day.

The structure was made by locals with no prior experience in weaving bamboo, aided and guided by digital design and a local expert in bamboo weaving.

Contemporary Interpretations

Bamboo Stalactite The pavilion is composed of a sequence of “vaults” made by bending and assembling a large number of bamboo stalks, firmly bound together using only natural fiber strings

and ropes. The structurally strong mesh provides a shading effect while creating suggestions of cavernous spaces.

Contemporary Interpretations

Bamboo Canopy The canopy is supported by angled columns concealed within living bamboo shoots that extend through circular openings in the roof.

The bamboo lengths are soaked and then scorched

so they can be bent into the shape required for the upright and lateral members. They are then woven into a loose, random pattern by profressional weavers.

Contemporary Interpretations

Solidity and Porosity

These three hostels by Anna Heringer in Baoxi, China, make use of natural local materials like bamboo, mud and stones. A core is made using structural

rammed earth walls and a bamboo outershell is created around it, providing solar shading.

Contemporary Interpretations

People’s Park Complex People’s Park Complex was designed by one of Singapore’s pioneering architects, Tay Kheng Soon. It merges conerns with a cosmpolitan global image with local issues of land scarcity and climate. A podium houses shopping, eating and social spaces while the dense housing tower sits on top.

Contemporary Interpretations

Golden Mile Complex The brutalist building’s sloped south facing facade now sports a hodgepodge of bodged balcony extensions, and zinc roof sheets reminiscent of a “vertical slum” with all its

individuality and chaos.

Inside, shopping, offices and entertainment are housed for both residents and the public. The lower level retail atrium was

originally open to the higher level atrium and naturally lit, however at some point it was fully enclosed and converted to an airconditioned space.

Contemporary Interpretations

Dramatic Volumes Vo Trong Nghia’s design language exaggerates volume, showing off the structural abilities of bamboo but also fully making use of a tropical environment.

Deep shading is provided by his large roofs which create serene spaces below the volume.

Contemporary Interpretations

Perforations and Voids A layer of porous brickwork does not preventing the outside environment from coming into the studio, so the artist can feel the wind, the cool from the river and the sound of nature in the surrounding area.

Similarly, the inner bamboo structure which acts as platform but also shelving creates a visually unintrusive circulation path around.

Voids, openings and perforations allow the rural location to be enjoyed fully while providing enough privacy.

Contemporary Interpretations

Pandan Valley Condominium

This private residential apartment complex features a dramatically stepped facade with generous verandahs.

Along its facade, solid, shielded spaces are punctuated by voids

for open-air spaces.

Each apartment enjoys access to light, air and open space, even in a dense housing configuration.

Practices of Dwelling

Greening Commons Common corridors are a liminal space - they are neither outdoors nor indoors, and neither public nor private. As such, appropriation of the space is common, usually as space for gardening which inhabitants of flats lack.

Practices of Dwelling

Laundry Facade Hanging laundry out to dry in the sun is one of the many practices that rely specifically on a tropical climate.

While the practice has been adapted from the shift

between attap houses to HDB flats, it is still apart of the tropical habitus. It is a practice that is also performative and spatial simultaneously.

Practices of Dwelling

Gates and Grilles Due to the design of flats only having windows on one side of the building usually, doors are used commonly for cross-ventilation.

Thus, they have to remain open while still allowing privacy and security. This is the premise for one of the more

humble sights of tropical dwelling the decorated gates and grilles of doors.

In such austere settings, the door’s grille is usually patterned and specific to each inhabitant, becoming a clear marker of identity.

Practices of Dwelling

Shared Green Urban Plots There has been an increasing interest in shared urban gardening plots in Singapore, especially as more people dwell without a private garden.

This harks back

to the days when subsistence farming was common and villagers would share and exchange crops and produce.

Practices of Dwelling

Urban Furniture

Tiled urban furniture were common in HDB void decks in the 1970s as Singapore decided that it could do better than just provide basic housing.

These furniture are essential to the staging

of everyday life - for the elderly to sit and read the papers, for kids to play games around.

Urban spaces would be lifeless without its furniture for choreographing life.

Practices of Dwelling

Void Decks The public space below HDB flats - void decks - are where old spatial practices of hanging out on verandahs are still acted out.

It is a ventilated, shaded, large space for informal social gatherings as well as more formal events, such as funerals and Malay weddings.

Practices of Dwelling

Frames and Voids Voids and frames in perhaps feelings of walls are typical tropes safety. in Chinese landscape gardens.

They are yet another humble marker of They have been our perceived urban traditionally applied landscape. in the urban context as well to provide visual porosity for social surveillance and

Practices of Dwelling

Courtyards, Voids and Pockets Courtyards in slender, deep lots are common to allow air and light into the space.

But also perhaps as a remnant of social practice

of gathering in outdoor spaces.

Now however, the courtyard is reduced to the sociality of the family.

‘Nature-ficial’ Landscapes

Bamboo Systems Bamboo scaffolding systems are a humble vernacular variation of steel scaffolding systems. This much overlooked variation reveals the abundance and potentials

of bamboo as a potential infrastructural network.

‘Nature-ficial’ Landscapes

Floating Solar Farms In an attempt to transition to more renewable sources of energy, large floating solar farms have been deployed over the reservoirs to spare any land.

This marks the beginning of more

dual programming of landscapes in Singapore as it struggles to transition amidst the climate crisis while still attaining ever higher levels of material standards.

‘Nature-ficial’ Landscapes

Sand (Dunes) Reserves Large sand reserves are crucial to Singapore, where land scarcity is the underlying principle to its masterplanning.

These form whole landscapes in

themselves that are out of sight and out of reach to citizens.

The supply chain of our reclaimed land is unknown to most Singaporeans, cloaking the artificiality of our success.

‘Nature-ficial’ Landscapes

Man-made Territories Singapore has undergone extensive land reclamation since its independence.

Since 1960s, Singapore has increased in size by 22% and aims to increase this

by 7-8% more by 2030. Singapore’s land reclamation comes at the expense of other regions where the sand is mined, creating our wealth out of other’s devastation.

‘Nature-ficial’ Landscapes

Mega-Markers in the Sea Large concrete structures out in the sea mark the boundary of where new territory is about to be laid out through land reclamation.

On plan, these

harmless markers demarcate a boundary. In real life, they exist as items in the landscape themselves.

‘Nature-ficial’ Landscapes

Above the Canopy Tree-top walks are an emerging landscape trope in Singapore’s parks.

They are meant to reduce the impact of human traffic on the forest, while also conveniently serving as a tourist

attraction and gimmick for locals.

But perhaps this new elevation in the landscape can provide useful vantage points of protection and survey, even by civilians.

‘Nature-ficial’ Landscapes

Reservoirs / Lakes Singapore reservoirs look curiously like natural lakes but are instead artificial reservoirs for rain water collection. Even the forests that surrounds our reservoirs in National Reserves are mostly secondary, further blurring the boundary between nature and man-made.