THESIS PROJECT ABSTRACT
ARC 8060
THE BIG HERE AND THE LONG NOW MATERIAL DRIVEN DESIGN APPROACH This studio introduce architecture in relation to time. The concept of thinking ‘now’ as a seed for the future instead of simply viewing something that exist for a brief moment since anything we consume and develop now has the power to affect many years down the road. However, as the world begin to proceed at a quicker speed, the less time people are willing to slow down and think about the future. The word ‘now’ is becoming considerably shorter, whereas these decisions has a significantly larger impact than before which we will soon receive repercussions from all irresponsible act we did previously, not necessarily impacting us within our lifetime but surely our next generations will have to deal with what we leave behind. Similar to the situation we are currently in. Bamboo is chosen as the material for investigation. Further developing from stage 5’s investigation in terms of sustainability, this year I have joined BHLN studio to approach architecture from a material’s perspective. This project begins with researching bamboo’s current material flow paired with its carbon footprint. It clearly shows the importance of using local material. Simply by reducing the transportation distance, the amount of carbon produce is greatly decreased. This project challenges the idea of using bamboo directly as a material directly from where it’s grown without harvesting. Since bamboo is already a zero waste material, the main investigation is not about closing the loop in the cradleto-cradle process. Bamboo is great at carbon capture and could be decomposed naturally after its end of life. Generally speaking it is a sustainable material. Despite it having that much environmental benefit, the material has fallen out of favour in the building industry for many tangible and intangible reasons, mainly technical difficulties and people’s preconception about bamboo. The first problem to tackle with bamboo is to change the negative connotations it had. I begin studying different material’s transition period, notably plastic and timber. Although these materials have a significantly different background and design obstacles, they both exhibited similar vigorous exploration process before the material gained its current position. Past examples have proofed that with appropriate design and application, the material’s best traits are presented. It has the power of shifting people’s impression of the material from negative to generally positive. Therefore I believe bamboo should be approached differently and viewed as if it’s a new, independent material. Through material driven design, a new building method is developed to suit living bamboo and a system that could not be replaced by any other material. In doing so, there will not be any direct comparison to conventional building materials that would immediately put bamboo to a disadvantage. The project does not begin with a fixed program and massing but rather to fit a building function afterwards so that there is less hindrance in exploring purely from a material’s perspective and to see what it wants to be. Each material deserves its own design, tailored to its unique properties accordingly so that resources are allocated efficiently. Therefore, my approach in reintroducing this traditional material is by changing people’s perception through offering a new tactile experience demonstrated with the stool design. Bamboo strips are bent to create a bouncy seat as oppose to traditional bamboo furniture that looks chunky and primitive. This project proposed a series of installation, intervention and structure that is grown and used according to the overall natural growth cycle of bamboo. Since they are all time specific, the few independent proposals is completed as one project. There is a clear overall time line and sequence of event at the beginning. This document is a 20 page thesis project abstract concluding stage 6 design work.
Janet Tam / stage 6
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