Chou E NG Portfolio

ARC8060 : INTEGRATED DESIGNS STAGE 6 ARCHITECTURE PORTFOLIO CHOU E NG

CONTENT CHAPTER 3: HIGH STREET, DE-GENTRIFICATION ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT

01-05

DEFY ORDER

06-07

CLAYTON ST. - NORTH

08-13

INTERVENTION

14-31

CHAPTER 2: PROGRESS INITIAL DESIGN

32-35

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

36-40

REFINEMENT

41-42

CHAPTER 1: THESIS OUTLINE INTRODUCTION

43-44

INFORMAL SETTLEMENT

45-46

CITY

47-48

SHOPPING MALL & ARCADE & MARKET

49-55

TOPOGRAPHY OPTIMIZATION

56-61

CONCLUSION

62

CHAPTER 3 : HIGH STREET: DE-GENTRIFICATION

PAGE 2 ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT COMMON SPACE

RESIDENTIAL

ACCESS ROUTE

Analytic Map of Informal Settlement The intention of the analytic map was trying to understand the ‘structure’ of the informal/illegal settlement, the relationship between the settlement and the city and also the organization of this ‘disorder’.

100 m

➤

COMMERCIAL

N

PUBLIC BUILDING

The project begins with the interest in the characteristic of a small community of informal settlement or illegal housing located in Tawau, Malaysia. The chaotic yet organize nature of the settlement, and the malleability of the housing structure that seem to be lack of hierarchy, a bottom-up approach in producing settlement or ‘architecture’ from as found material, a ‘disorder’ that allow the settlement or the community to adapt to the political and social context but at the same time preserving their ways of life, their community.

PAGE 3 ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT COMMON SPACE

Picture Credit: Tzu Chi NGO

Common Area Common area within the informal settlement, although its populated with trash and the condition of the space was far from ideal, the area or the space serve as a common space where children would hang around, communicate and interact with each other, an informal space where people congregate.

PAGE 4 ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT ACCESS ROUTE

Picture Credit: Tzu Chi NGO

Access Route Access ‘bridge’ of the informal settlement which connect the main land to the individual household within the informal settlement. Even-though this might sound insensitive and shallow but the space or the ‘bridge’ remind me of Venice but with its own identity.

A minimalistic ‘bridge cutting through the crowed disorganized, informal housing yet ‘open’ enough to have a connection between the sea underneath

PAGE 5 ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT RESIDENTIAL

Living Quarter Similar to the ‘bridge’, due to the scarcity of building material, the inhabitant often self-built their living quarter with anything they could found, mostly ‘trash’ that being disposed around the area. Even-though the living condition isn’t ideal, but due to the nature of the informal housing, each individual house were able to showcase the essential element that constitute a house, the key element that make a house, house.

PAGE 6 RIGID CITY

Eldon Square Uses Diagram Indication of how the shopping mall was organized, with order in mind which separate building, or space into zone base on uses, that focus on serving specific function with no inter lapping function or spaces in between.

With that in mind, focusing on the city of Newcastle, or more specifically the development of Eldon square shopping mall, it reveals that the design approach of the mall was vastly different or opposed to the ‘design approach’ of the informal settlement.

PAGE 7 SHOPPING MALL Interior picture of the Eldon Square shopping mall

For example, the mall tends to prioritize order and efficiency, efficiency in generating maximum economical returns. In return, creating space that disregard the ‘human’ element in architecture, a homogeneous, control, systematic space, fill with identical retail store and deco that discourage people to act differently and passive aggressively asking people to be ‘desirable’.

PAGE 8 DEFY ORDER Despite the flaws and ‘order’ or law that established by the shopping mall, the shopping mall is still a place people congregate, interact, and meet their friend, even though most of the time they are not necessarily welcomed. But sometime people would try to resist or challenge the order’ that create by the shopping mall.

PAGE 9 CLAYTON STREET - NORTH

(Left) Key site plan, marking the location of the North Clayton street, and also a map indicating the location of the franchises store and local store.

(Right) Picture of the North Clayton street, located between the shopping mall and the Grainger market

Similar ‘rebellious or dis-order quality could also be observed on the North Clayton street. Despite the street was known as the worst street of Newcastle, which often plague by minor crime, and some might even consider the experience of the street are both unpleasant and unsafe, but it is part of these qualities, the messiness, the disorganization that gave the street its character.

With that in mind I start to record or trying to quantify these qualities by capturing activities that happened around the street. And also, in an hour increment, record the daily activities happened around the street, trying to understand how the experience, and ‘meaning’ of a single space or in this case a single street changes throughout a day.

PAGE 10 CLAYTON STREET - NORTH

26 FEB 1600 People queuing outside KFC waiting to enter

17 FEB 1700 Delivery cyclist waiting order under the shelter

17 FEB 1100 People enjoying sunlight and feeding pigeon

17 FEB 1800 Kids congregate in front of GATE chatting with bike

28 FEB 1830 Couple sitting on th ledge flirting with each other

23 FEB 1730 1530 Chatting on phone27 FEB on the entrance of Local harassing Muslim family a closed store when walking by

17 FEB 1400 TAXI driver waiting client on the sidewalk chatting

17 FEB 0600 INTU staff cleaning the pathway ready 17 FEB for 1400 opening Smoker smoking 17 FEB 1500 23 FEB on1730 17Small FEB kid with 1000 the front of the Smoking at closed the casino People sitting on scooter on ramp corner of the store, the ramp chatting 27 FEB 1530 with parents 23 FEB 1730 side of the street with pass-by Homeless people 17 FEB Smoker 1400 1530 stand on 27 FEB 27 FEB 1530 settle on the side of Homeless people the store front with Old people reading Street preacher 17 FEB 2100 the street sitting on the dog street newspaper on the 23 FEB 1730 FEB 1500 1730 preaching someDelivery driver col1723 FEB begging under sun Shopper forming a FEB 1830 on the thing bench 17 FEB 28 1500 Teenager about god lecting food from Parents sitting on in front 1830 ofShopper Tesco to sun 28 FEB onbench bench restaurant 23 FEB 1730Kidsbath27 FEB 1530 the benchchatting with 17shop FEB 1400 groceries Cleaning vehicle having dinner withfriend ing on the bench waiting 27 FEB 1530 Partner sitting on People waiting children Smoking in front of cleaning the street friend partner Homeless people waiting partner inbench Tescowith on thethe entrance of a settle on the side ofstore people in Tesco the bench closing the street 17 FEB 1700 Grainger market closing with cleaning happening 17 FEB 0900 Painter cleaning and re-painting the store front

17 FEB 1500 Street preacher preaching something about god

(Above) A collage, mapping and record of activities that happens around the site of Clayton Street and the city during different time of day

PAGE 11 CLAYTON STREET - NORTH (Above) A time log, in an hour increment recording the activities that happen on the Clayton st.

(Left) In an hour increment, picture of the Clayton St.

PAGE 12 CLAYTON STREET - NORTH Picture taken during different time on the Clayton Street

In the early morning, delivery trucks making deliveries to the Grainger market, in the afternoon, homeless people sitting quietly at the sidewalk, the people on the bench enjoying lunch accompany by flock of pigeon, and the sound of footsteps and noise made by shopper, local vendor, and occasionally street preacher, that all this voices echo and amplify throughout the street, and during the evening when everything starting to close, the small cleaning vehicle doing its final patrol, and the pace of the street starting to slow down and gradually revert back to its peaceful state.

PAGE 13 CLAYTON STREET - NORTH Collage of building elevation on the Clayton Street, with a site plane indicating the franchise store in red, local store in blue and abandon shop in gray.

With the influence or inspiration from the street, the main intention of the project or the intervention is trying to accommodate and celebrate the daily life of the street. In a way using the influence from the daily life of the street and create a ‘crack’ on the homogeneous sandstone cladded shopping mall façade

PAGE 14 INTERVENTION

Intervention isometrics drawings, in red indicating the intervention, black indicating the existing

Not trying to eliminate or demolished the existence of the shopping mall but finding a way to create a symbiotic or productive relationship between the more ‘casual’ street and the order focused shopping mall.

PAGE 15 SITE PLAN

The roll of tree and the grass was meant to create a soft boundary, a colonnade like space between the main circulation route and the existing shopping mall boundary which help create an overlapping buffer space that are permeable, at the same time create some soft separation from the busy street and the intervention.

PAGE 16

SITE SECTION

PAGE 17

SITE SECTION

A Corten steel extended threshold, located at the doorway or entrance of the Grainger market, which provide additional shelter and privacy to people smoking. The simple intervention also helps create a connection between the Grainger market and the overall shopping mall intervention. Besides, the intervention also takes inspiration from the Grainger market, more specifically in terms of the different scale of operation between the market and the existing shopping mall, and how the intervention meant to breech through the large-scale operation in the mall, and connect it back to the street and subsequently the Grainger market

PAGE 18 GROUND FLOOR PLAN

Focusing on the initial boundary of the shopping mall, inspired by homeless people normally only sit on the ground rather than benches, the half a meter drops heated concrete ledge, not only provide additional security for the retail shop located at the back of the intervention, but also serve as heated sitting place for every people to literally sit on the street

PAGE 19

MORNING

NOON

EVENING

NIGHT

The Swinging homeless pod and stall located on the initial shopping mall boundary. Which depends on the time of the day, could be repositioned to create different street condition, that accommodated the activities happens on the street and the shopping mall.

DAILY MECHANISM

In the morning based on the position of sunlight, the stall, the pod and the folding chair imbedded at the existing concrete structure, could be swing open to allow maximum light penetration to the building interior.

In the afternoon, with the position of the sunlight, the stalls could choose to swing to the closing position or the opening position and provide service to people sitting on the grass, under the tree.

In the evening, when the retails stores located behind the pods and stalls are closed, the stalls could swing close, facing the street and provide service to people such as pub goer.

In the night the pod, stall and chair could be shut off completely to create a more enclose space within the building which provide a sociable or communal space for the homeless community that stays in the shelter.

PAGE 20 FIRST FLOOR PLAN On the first floor, an alleyway fire escape inspired suspended staircase and walkway was attached to the sandstone façade of the building to help further create a connection between the first, second floor of the building and the street below.

PAGE 21 SECOND FLOOR PLAN Besides, several small-scale craft, workshop space, located on the first floor and second floor of the shopping mall, was also situated between the street and the existing franchise retails store located inside the building. Not just to re-introduce small scale hand crafting into the large-scale franchise operating retails, but also trying to create a symbiotic relationship between both.

PAGE 22 DETAIL SECTION

For example, works or art piece, in this case a tote bag, could be create by an artist or craftsman in the workshop, the tote bag could then be display and sell underneath the workshop. People with interest could then buy the tote bag, and use the tote bag to do more shopping in the shopping mall, creating a symbiotic relationship between the local store and the large-scale franchises.

PAGE 23 DETAIL SECTION

Besides, a simple public urinal was also design around the base of the tree, which help prevent urine from over ingress from the designated place to the surface of the grass where people are sitting.

With the nutrient that provide by the urine to the tree, the tree could then grow to provide shading for the building. Besides, the walkway could also help collect rainwater, and urine filtered through the ground and recycle it providing additional water resources to the shopping mall.

PAGE 24

ELEVATION

On the elevation of the intervention, a series of ducting, or smoking chimney with green tinted glasses was located under the sunlight, and at place where people or smoker normally congregate, not just providing shelter to the smoker, but also help extract smoke fume from the street level, by utilizing negative pressure and solar gain.

PAGE 25 PASSIVE VENTILATION SYSTEM Besides, individual smaller green tinted glass tube that connected to the ventilation system of the shopping mall, was also located on the ‘fins’, or structure of the intervention, facing south, to again in theory through solar gain and negative pressure created by the tinted glass and the chimney, able to provide passive ventilation to the shopping mall.

PAGE 26 PASSIVE VENTILATION SYSTEM

WINTER

SUMMER

In winter month, the system could help provide hot air, air heated by the sunlight from the south facing green tinted glass, to the shopping mall. And in the summer month, help provide passive ventilation to the existing ventilation system. In so, create a symbiotic, a productive relationship between the intervention, the shopping mall and subsequently the Clayton street.

PAGE 27 MATERIALITY

In terms of materiality, the structure of the swinging pod will be constructed with steel and reclaimed plywood which partly inspired by the ‘architecture’ found in the informal settlements, where their shelter was build from as found material. Besides, the texture and the narrative of the material also play along with the ‘messy’, complex, diverse narrative that the intervention was trying to capture from the Clayton street, as opposed to the orderly shopping mall.

The main structure, also the walkways and workshop space as mentioned before, inspired by the alleyways fire escape staircase, was constructed, or cladded with steel or Corten steel, which again trying to capture the rough, messy narrative of the street. In terms of texture, Corten steel share some similarity with the sandstone cladded façade, but in terms of narrative and tectonic, the use of Corten steel is vastly different from the sandstone, which in a way create an impactful contrast, visually and ideologically between the shopping mall and the intervention.

PAGE 28 MATERIALITY The model was created to further showcase the texture and tectonic of the different materials.

Besides, the model was also meant to reflect the idea of ‘constructed from as found material’, which inspired by the informal settlement. For example, the green tinted glass from the model was create from green aquarium air tubing, the smoking duct was created from flexible conduit, the structure and the pod are created by reclaimed wood and metal.

This also further emphasis the ‘messiness’ and roughness of the intervention, again, in contrast to the ‘clean’ sandstone facade of the shopping mall, which the proposed intervention was attached to..

PAGE 29 MATERIALITY

PAGE 30 INTERNAL VIEW First-floor walkway, on a rare sunshine morning of Newcastle, warm of the sunlight, shadow from the constantly moving branches and leaf, green sunlight from the green tinted glass tube, cast on people sitting on folding chair.

PAGE 31 INTERNAL VIEW Ground floor view, the location of the vendor stall and the homeless shelter, rain, people having a warm cup to tea sitting on the heated concrete ledge, enjoy reading, with florist selling flower, barista making coffee and Japanese food vendor selling food at the background.

CHAPTER 2 : PROGRESS, DEVELOPMENT

PAGE 33

INITIAL DESIGN

Initial design sketches trying to integrate or address the question revealed in the thesis outline document. For example, an exploration in the potential in overlapping space and ideas to create space that are less define, to combat the ‘order’ space of the shopping mall. Also exploring ways and possibility to connect the traffic busy Newgate street and the pedestrian heavy Clayton street which was separated by the Eldon Square shopping mall block.

Besides, inspired by the roof structure in the Scottish parliament, by Miralles and his team, which fully demonstrate or represent the characteristic and tectonic of the materials, in so creating architecture details that ‘work’ with each other. The project also try to explore and utilize 3d printing construction method that could fully demonstrate the potential of this technology in architecture design and construction.

PAGE 34 There are some initial sketch trying to explore the potential on the overlapping space, and a sketch model of a 3d printed structure that being optimized as efficient as possible at the given load, with as a result also creating spaces that divided by, columns, soft barrier, a colonnade like, transition space in comparison to a hard physical boundaries.

“There are times where stuff happens outside where customers don’t feel comfortable leaving until it is sorted.” – Nathan

INITIAL DESIGN

The quote from the manager in one of the cafe located at north Clayton street, that prompted the questioning of physical boundaries and the separation of space. Imagine if the separation or the physical boundaries was not present between the ‘outside’ and the ‘Inside’(the cafe), the café will become part of the street. This encourage people to be more proactive and involve themselves into the street as a community rather than separating themselves as a mere individual. This also provide the opportunity to explore the in-between overlapping space between street and stores and also between different type of shops.

PAGE 35 INITIAL CONCEPTUAL ELEVATION An initial sketch on the existing shopping mall facade, exploring the potential of 3d fabrication and the spatial quality which specifically this construction method could create.

The idea of integrating 3d printing construction method into this project is then abandoned in the later stage of the design process. This is mainly due to the building narrative that created by 3d printing construction method could potentially opposed the building narrative of ‘daily life’ that the intervention trying to frame. The messiness and disorganized of life in compared to the systematic, orderly and specificity narrative in which the 3d printing construction method create. There are also numbers of attempt in trying to integrate this building method into the intervention, but all effort seems ‘gimmicky’ and ‘forceful’ which did not fully represent the potential of this building technology.

Besides that, to fully utilized the potential of 3d printing construction method, which does not constraint by the established construction and building system, meant a re-think of building system, knowledge, and approach to architectural design, including software design and the 3d printing hardware are required. With the lack of time, access to equipment and specialist knowledge in related field, the idea of fully exploring and utilizing 3d printing in construction proven to be too challenging for this thesis project.

PAGE 36 DESIGN DEVELOPMENT An attempt on reintroducing the street’s quality, from Clayton Street into Eldon Square Shopping mall in the form of small local business and market. Not trying to entirely replace the current franchises in the shopping mall but locating local business in between ‘cracks’, underused space and space between boundaries.

The division or layout of the intervention also partly take inspiration from the layout of the Grainger Market, which one of the main ideas was to allow people to interact with the street rather than only using it as a passageway.

The circle charts on the right are meant to represent activities that happened on and around the site within the 24-hour period, blue is what currently exist while red is activities that could potentially introduce to the site, for example homeless shelter, local small business, and maybe pop-up store as well.

PAGE 37

UNDESIRABLE During this stage of the project, the project mainly focuses on the interface or façade between the shopping mall and the Clayton street. The aim of the homeless shelter proposed by the intervention not only meant to shelter people from hash and cold weather but trying to integrate this part of life into the daily life of the street. For example, by introducing these suspending pods which connect to the cafe on the first floor, in daytime the café could use these pods as extra seating while at night the pod could be lower down and could be convert into shelter for the homeless people.

Beside that, the project was also explore the possibility to frame or ‘celebrate’ the act of stealing. This was inspired by a photography artist Melanie Willhide, her work, to Ardian Rodriguez with love which Rodriguez is the thief that stole her computer. So, the story starts where her computer with her photograph stored inside was stolen and formatted by the thief, but miraculously she manages to recover her computer but the photo inside her computer was damage. Despite of the damage, she decides to embrace the visual glitches embedded in the photo and acknowledging the thief ’s collaboration in this art piece.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

MelanieWillhide-to Adrian Rodriguez with Love

Back to the proposal, the idea was to have small copper plate cladded on the surface of the building, which with some force it was possible to be remove. So, if someone or a thief is interested they could potentially steal the copper plate and sell it to interested parties. This creates a pattern which expose the concrete below and, in a way, accommodating and celebrating the act of stealing as something more positive, as the building embrace it as its part of the city or street life.

PAGE 38

(Above) a ‘Participatory Mapping with Homeless People’, created by Adele Irving and Oliver Moss. The intention of the mapping is trying to understand or capture the experience of the city through the perspective of the homeless community.

This help pinpoint the needs of a homeless pveople in the city of Newcastle, in order to survive a day in the city.

Utilizing these information, the intervention could create infrastructure or facility to better accommodate the homeless community.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

PAGE 39 DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Initial proposal focusing on the interface or boundary between the shopping mall and the North Clayton Street.

The main intend of the sketch was to divide the existing floor space of the shopping mall into smaller shop unit, to better accommodate local shops that could not afford a large retails space. Besides, a soft boundary, column divided space was also created between the street and the shopping mall, which meant to create a physical connection between the existing shopping mall, Clayton street and the Grainger Market.

Additionally, small alleyway or access route, which intentionally not align to the Granger market entrance, was also create from the Clayton street to the Newgate Street, not only to connect the 2 different street that separate by the shopping mall block but also trying to preserve the sense of ‘hidden place or street’ within the city centre.

PAGE 40

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

Further detail exploration on the layout and detail design of the previous sketch. An exploration to the layout and construction details of the homeless/café seating pod.

Also, a potential to accommodate street preacher or singer on the street though acoustic panel, by amplifying or redirecting the sound to or from the street.

PAGE 41 A scale down version of the previous sketch which mainly focused on the façade of the Eldon square shopping mall, with a fin like structure directly attach to the existing concrete structure of the shopping mall, inspired by back-alley metal fire escape staircases, which symbolised, capture and further compliment the ‘messy’ quality of the Clayton street.

Different sketches also start to explore the design of the public urinal, which trying to further highlight the ‘messy daily life’ narrative of the project. Besides, exploration into different alternative regarding homeless shelter and exploring into the idea of flexible space that could transform in different time of day to accommodate different activities.

REFINEMENT

PAGE 42

BRE Building

An exploration into the passive ventilation, inspired by the BRE building, which utilized stack effect and negative pressure to help further drive the mechanical ventilation system of the building. In this case, the green tinted glass located above the smoking pod, help absorb heat from the sunlight and negative pressure created at the top of the chimney, help provide hot air during the winter and, passive ventilation during the summer.

REFINEMENT

An exploration in suspending pod located on top of the vendor stalls, which during the day the pod could be suspended, and the curve bottom of the homeless pod could than help amplify the voice and chanting that created by the vendor located underneath it. During the night, the pod could be lower and become temporary shelter for the homeless community.

CHAPTER 1 : THESIS OUTLINE

PAGE 44 INTRODUCTION A straight line Journey to From home to Eldon Square The exercise ask us to draw a line from home to Eldon Square and walking along the line as close as possible and recording anything you see along the way. One of the interesting element along the route is the temporary ‘object’ that sit around the street, the COVID sign, the miniature bicycle on the fence, a mark or shadow of human presence within the city.

This thesis started from my interest in the characteristic of informal settlement or illegal housing in my hometown Tawau, Malaysia, in specifically the chaotic yet organize nature of the settlement and the malleability of the housing structure that seem to be lack of hierarchy, a bottom up approach in producing settlement or ‘architecture’, a ‘disorder’ that allow the settlement or the community to adapt to the political and social context but at the same time preserving their ways of life, their community even though most of them are living in a harsh condition. The nature of the illegal settlement then prompts the question on what we can adapt or learn from these settlements to combat the rigid, formal and structure nature of cities, in this case the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.

PAGE 45 INFORMAL SETTLEMENT (Left) Recent Historical Map (Above) News-clip Time-line Reveal the changes occurs in the informal settlement through time. By studying the historical map in relation to the News-clipping Time-line it reveal the drive behind the changes of the informal settlement. Besides the multilanguage news-clip was also intent to study the different perspective from 3 major community in the city towards the informal settlement.

PAGE 46 TAWAU, MALAYSIA Introductory Map of Tawau The original intent of the map was to serve as an introductory map, a journey to the city, but through the process of mapping the city, the mapping reveal some of the social, economical and political context of the city which also coincidentally showcased the link s between certain event and also party the relationship between the illegal community and the city.

PAGE 47 CHANGING ECONOMY The idea of a ‘rigid city’ or a rigid environment was extensively discuss in Richard Sennett and Pablo Sendra book, Designing Disorder, where he point out that the formation of a rigid environment and city mainly due to the 20th century urban developers and architects place order above complexity which unconsciously fragmenting and dividing space into predetermine function and zone, which lead to many building and city design from that era could not adapt to change and subsequently went demolish or fall into disrepair.

Besides the short life span of the building also hinder the formation of community, in many cases architecture is where people and community come together and gradually accumulate their collective memories which through time solidifying their community bond. Therefore, a functionally rigid and short life span building does not able to facilitate these activities.

Collage With current climate, we are ask to redefine and understand the value of what physical retails shop mean to the people and also the city as an identity.

This event also could be observed from the rapid changing digital era and subsequently exaggerate by the pandemic. First the raise of digitization, questions the existence of city and many of the physical retails shop, many of the white-collar worker do not necessarily need to be in the city to carry their daily work, on the contrary they could work from the comfort of their own home, which save commute time and as a side effect reduce environmental impact and pollution. Same could be said on physical retails where Online shopping is becoming more convenient which leads to many retail brands gradually shift toward Online platform which help them expose to a wider market at the same time also help company saving expense from renting, managing, and refurbishing a physical store front. Then the pandemic, where in UK most people are force to work from home and all non-essential store are close, mostly retail shop, during the lock-down to control the spread of the virus which lead to many major retail companies that have a large physical present in cities facing financial crisis and further questioning the existence of city, or even existence of a physical place. That said, the pandemic and the lock down measure that impose by the government also highlight the importance and people’s urge to go out and meet people or just to encounter a physical human being which due to the rigid structure and function of a city, city could not adapt or facilitate these activities that again question the existence of city.

PAGE 48 DEFINE CITY Mind Map Red - Similarity and Conflict Dotted Line - Indirect relationship Solid Line - Direct cause and effect

The British definition of city according the Oxford Language is a ‘town created a city by charter and usually containing a cathedral’, the emphasis on cathedrals as part that create city showcase that a city is where people congregate and interact.

City will not go extinct, there will always be a demand of place where people could congregate, a place where people from different background and different class could exchange idea as peers, a common ground, a city. But many developments in city and building design (mainly focus on City of Newcastle and Eldon Square Shopping Mall) often emphasis on economic gain which in return creating city that only to facilitate these economical transactions as effective as possible, in disregards of complexity and in favor of order that sterilized local community and city experience.

PAGE 49 MONUMENT MALL One of the examples that showcasing the focus on economy transaction in Newcastle city is the refurbishment of the Monument, which replace the internal center atrium circulation space into additional retail floor space. In return the city can more effectively utilize the building and are able to attract well known retail brand to rent the space.

On the other hand, the increase of floor space per shop unit also discourage local, small business to set up their business in the building due to increase rental cost which further sterilize the local business and community with well-known retail brands that could be found in almost every city. To be fair, the original circulation space only serve as a circulation space that provide access to the inner part of the Monument mall and at the same time serve as an alternative route to move through the mall rather than the outer street, which saw little use by people and result in creating spaces that’s ‘empty’.

Picture Credit: faulknerbrowns

This is mainly due to the rigid and specific ‘order’ that predetermine by the architect that the space only design to circulate people from destination, nothing else, which without people circulate through the space, the space just fall in disuse and later refurbished even though from architecture perspective the space a celebration of space with custom design metal balustrade and monumental, rustic, local center atrium with escalator vibrantly criss-crossing each other.

PAGE 50 ELDON SQUARE SHOPPING MALL Similarly, beside the large scale sterilization of community and local small business, the privatized public space of Eldon Square Shopping Mall, the internal passage of the shopping mall, which have a clear separation between circulation space and retail space (or space that people could partially stay) without any in-between spaces. This was meant to again making the shopping mall as efficient as possible in circulating people from their destinations and in result generating maximum economic gain. The different between the clearly divided and predetermined circulation space of the Monument mall and the Eldon Square is the convenience and control environment that have a function in connecting people from different part of the city, therefore even during lock-down period there are still noticeable amount of people using the internal passage even though none of the retails shop are open during that time.

Besides, before the pandemic, there are people (mainly teenager which are more care free) sitting on the floor of the corner of the circulation space until they were dispersed by the shopping mall security, even though the space are not design for people to congregate or sit down and enjoy the sceneries. This partly showcase both the rigidity and potential flexibility (although its momentarily) could be inhabit in the space and make the space more complex and interesting. That said, there are also benches or seating area around the passage where people could congregate and rest, but the main function or purpose of these seating again mainly just to create an efficient system to let shopper take a break before a second round of shopping.

Imagine you have to choose a space for picnic provided the weather is pleasant, would you choose the benches of the Quadrangle of Newcastle University or the benches in the internal passage or ‘street’ of Eldon Square both privatized public space?

PAGE 51 PRIVATIZED PUBLIC SPACE COMMON GROUND The idea of a city as a common ground where people from different background to discuss, negotiate as peers was partly influence by the idea or ‘urban room’ by Architect Terry Farrell where he propose a process or an opportunity to bring community or people as equal to other parties, to participate in the conversation of city or architecture development and design, this help create architecture and city that are more well suited to the needs of the people but most importantly help creating a bond, a connection between the community, the people and the city or architecture. Apply the idea of urban room or common ground on a city scale not only able to encourage people to communicate and socialize with each other but also create a city where different people feel belong or part of, not aim to create a homogenize community or society but to create a vibrant, conflicting, complex city where every parties could be part of the city.

Common ground only occurs when people could voice, discuss, or debate their opinion as equal without any single party having hierarchy, which most privatized public space, in this case the Eldon Square shopping mall, does not encourage, activities such as sitting on the floor, political talks, skateboarding, picture taking and singing are prohibited in these space which help the owner control the space and at the same time creating a hierarchy where ‘undesired’ activities are ‘sterilized’ and eliminated in these area.

Picture Credit: Els Leclerq

On that premise, base on the study published in Privatization of the Production of Public Space

by Els Leclerq which did a survey named ‘color your space’ where people were asked to rate the ‘likability’ of Liverpool One (fully privatized public space), Ropewalks (Partly privatized and community govern public space) and Granby4Streets (Fully community govern public space), which show that people have a more positive reaction toward Liverpool One than the Ropewalks and Granby4Street. This might be due to better maintenance in Liverpool One in comparison to the other 2 space, which showcasing people are willing to give up part of their freedom to have a better maintained space. I would also argue that people who did that survey are mainly visitor rather than inhabitant in that area therefore people are willing to momentarily give up part of their freedom in exchange of a ‘clean’ and homogeneous space that only represent big cooperation.

PAGE 52 PARAGON ARCADE, HULL One of the example that I would like to show regarding successful internals street is the Paragon Arcade, even though the space are not a privatized public space similar to the Eldon Square Shopping Mall or even the Central Arcade locate at the heart of Newcastle City, they do share commonality or at least what the internal passage in Eldon Square and Central Arcade trying to achieve, an internal street. The Paragon Arcade are able to retain the characteristic and nature of a street with a roof on top that partly shelter people from the harsh environment but at the same time allowing people to expose to the local context and environment.

This was partly due to the permeable boundaries that mention by Sennett between retails shop and circulation space, which the arcade did not systematically separating the activities of circulation and congregation, but rather allowing these 2 different activities to collide, interact and negotiate space which overall create a space that malleable and at the same time more than just function, a street. Again, would you prefer a coffee at Paragon Arcade internal street or Eldon Square internal passage?

PAGE 53 CENTRAL ARCADE Looking back at Newcastle’s Central Arcade, currently there are little to no present of people using the internal passage, not even as circulation space despite the monumental architecture design with ornament and details that reflect local craftsmanship, history and culture. Some might argue that the type of shop located at the Central Arcade are mainly retails shop which does not really encourage people to stay and meet for a long time, that said there are multiple restaurant and café located at the Central Arcade that only accessible from the outer street and fail to capitalize the monumental internal passage of the Central Arcade, which showcase, as mention

by Sendra, the importance of encourage people to think about different ways to use a public space.

With that mind, city should be more ‘adventurous’ and malleable which not only to facilitate economic transaction and gain but at a same time focusing on city as a place where people meet and feel belong to and subsequently create collective memories that maintain the sustainability of a city. That said, one of the methods to combat the rigidity and specificity of city development and architecture design that mention by Sendra and Sennett was flexibility, design a space that could facilitate and suggest multiple activities rather than specific function, space that could changes constantly, in short ‘Design for Nothing and Everything’, which is a challenge at itself but also raised some architectural question, what would an architecture be without function or in this case predetermine function? A sculpture? An ornament? An art installation? On the contrary what architecture could not be?

PAGE 54 GREEN MARKET

The diagram showcases the constant changing location of the Green Market over the time, from late 18-hunderd to current day, and couple of historical pictures which correspond to the diagram above

Green Market with a history of over a century, was previously located in the heart of Newcastle before it was demolished to make way for the current extension of Eldon Square Shopping Mall. During that time, the market was not only a place, a space that facilitate economical transaction but also serve as the cornerstone of local community that fortify the connection and bond between different city dwellers, an ‘interface’ to the city. With that, I think more importantly the market also highlight and showcased the chaotic, messy sometimes undesirable part of the city.

Even though the Green Market was fully demolished, and the remnants of the market are being outcast-ed to the Grainger market, part of these quality is still visible at the street between Grainger market and Eldon Square shopping mall, more specifically North Clayton Street.

PAGE 55 GENERAL VARA DEL REY SQUARE Picture Credit: Elii

From practicality standpoint, one of the challenges that raise from this approach of ‘Design for Nothing and Everything’ is without specific function how do you prevent space from fallen into disuse? Or how do we start design? One of the approaches that suggest by Sendra was the use, incorporation or even ‘lodge’ into infrastructure such as pipeline, electric circuit into part of the design, which would avoid the possibility of forming a disuse space also at the same time generating awareness on the infrastructure that required to maintain the sustainability of a city, a community, and a human being. One of the examples of this idea is the Proposal of General Vara del Rey Square by Elii, where they incorporate solar panel, the infrastructure, into part of the proposal and provide space underneath the solar panel which allow activities to freely occurs with minimal interfere from the intervention itself, the infrastructure gave the intervention a function but at the same time creating space where activities could occur freely.

PAGE 56 TOPOGRAPHY OPTIMIZATION Topography Optimization

Topography optimization is a technique or tools that mainly used by engineers to calculate load in certain design and then through that calculation, the engineer was able to create a design that effectively using least amount of material to sustain the given amount of load, and recently due to the advance in digital fabrication many architect and designer also try to apply this data driven design method into architecture and furniture, which able architects and designer to create sophisticated, some questionable, complex organic structure that’s pure functional and monumental at the same time.

My interest in topography optimization in architecture design and construction was mainly in respond to the utilization of additive manufacturing or ‘3D printing’ in construction industries. Even with the advancement of additive manufacturing, which allow architects to create and construct complex, unpredictable organic form in building scale, many architects choose to utilize this production method to ‘print’ straight (sometime with minor curves) wall that could be efficiently done using conventional wall construction method. With the advancement in digital tools and digital manufacturing process, architects could potentially redefine construction system and construct architecture that could only exist on drawings before. That said, there are also attempts made by architects who try to incorporate topography optimization and digital fabrication technique in design and constructing building, but rather than using this technology to redefine and re-imagine existing construction building system and methods many tries to utilize or integrate this relatively ‘new’ digital method into existing construction and building system, which did not reflect the full potential of introducing digital tool.

Picture Credit: Marco hemmerling + ulrich nether

PAGE 57 TOPOGRAPHY OPTIMIZATION

>*Long Island House, USA, SQ4D An example on how construction industries utilizing the digital fabrication process in large scale building. The project also claimed it is the largest 3D printed house. <*’Smart Slab’ DFAB House by ETH Zürich* Picture showcasing the laborious manufacture process of the ‘smart slab’. First a sand form-work was created utilizing digital and adaptive manufacturing process, after that fiber-reinforce concrete was spray on top of the sand form-work, the formwork is then removed after the concrete is cured. This process is then repeat 11 times to create 11 concrete panels that connected with the lower floor of the building.

Picture Credit: ETH Zurich

One of the examples is the ceiling panel or concrete slab of DFAB House by ETH Zurich. Utilizing digital tools ETH Zurich was able to design and construct complex organic forms and that’s it, a form without meaning, a form that could be created without digital tools. ETH Zurich would claim that the form of the ‘smart slab’ is optimized to used least amount of materials to effectively support the given load which translate to the form of the slab is both ornamental and functional, but further observation reveals that the organic form of the underside of the concrete slab are purely ornamental that did not carry any load while most of the load was carried by the waffle slabs that could be more easily construct with existing construction method. In brief, one of the factors that lead to this result is that architect and construction industries was hoping to introduce this building method into the masses a swiftly as possible, to achieve this, rather than redefining and reintroducing digital manufacturing or construction as a new building system, many choose to, or try to integrate digital fabrication into existing building system rather than rethinking building system from the ground up which led them to compete with existing construction method and building system that are more efficient and well establish than digital fabrication in architecture.

PAGE 58 TOPOGRAPHY OPTIMIZATION (Left) Original Proposal (Above) Finish Product The complete bridge was expected to be installed on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal in Amsterdam’s red light district after the renovation of the canal is complete Picture Credit: MX3D

Besides, there are also challenges, both technical and social inherit with digital fabrication and design, more specifically in topography optimization. Due to the unproven nature of the technology many architects unable to confidently ‘sell’ the idea to client and user in terms of structural integrity. For example, the Steel bridge manufacture by MX3D and design by Joris Laarman, the original design of the metal bridge conveys a narrative of structural lightness, ‘elegant’ and delicate, but due to the nature of unproven new technology, the designer compromised and end up constructing a bridge structure that similar to the convention layout of a bridge with ornamental curve.

PAGE 59 TOPOGRAPHY OPTIMIZATION

Simple Exploration in Topography Optimization The model was design based on a simple cylinder shape to support a uniform load of 5kg from top, utilizing Rhino and Grasshopper (digital software), and by inputting the material properties of the intended model, the software are able to simulate the given load and optimizing the shape by removing unnecessary material from the cylinder, the model is than 3D printed from PLA (a form of thermal plastic).

This exercise mainly to explore the possibility of topography optimization and additive manufacturing process in architecture, rather than simply ‘printing’ uniform monolithic wall, these tool provide an opportunity for us to redefine building system and also the concept of space and architecture itself.

Similarly, the way of which the building was built in the informal settlement also share the idea optimization, but in this case, the settlement built their house base on what they can find (mostly what we called ‘trash’) and experience rather than mathematics and data which is a more informal way of building but at the same time also using the least amount of material to achieve maximum amount of ‘space’. This informal method of building or ‘designing’ a house also make the building that they live in much more ‘human’, and representative of themselves, as an extension of the people living in the house but not in the form of celebration, more as a form of survival.

PAGE 60 TOPOGRAPHY OPTIMIZATION Expandability of optimization Exploring the possibility of expansion within the topography optimization system, which inspired by the idea of malleability and the informal nature of the settlement. At the same time it is also an exploration on possibility of incorporating different materials into part of the system.

PAGE 61 TOPOGRAPHY OPTIMIZATION Aging and weather in Optimization The model was created mainly to simulate the weathering effect on the optimized structure. The model was printed from 30 percent copper fill PLA which with some vinegar and salt, the copper within the PLA was able to react with the chemical and form a layer of greenish blue patina on the surface of the model, which showcased the interaction and complexity added between aging or weathering and the optimized structure.

PAGE 62 CONCLUSION In short, in terms of what I am interested in or what I am trying to achieve through this thesis is utilizing the idea of city as a meeting place and the characteristic of informal settlement or housing to not necessarily replace the existing structure of a city (the internal passage of the Eldon Square Shopping Mall), but utilizing the existing city structure as a ‘host’ and introducing a ‘parasite’, a malleable, chaotic, disorder common space to disrupt the existing rigid city structure which allow every people including visitor, not only local community, to meet and come together to negotiate, argue and compromised and during the process leave a ‘mark’ on an equal, common ground, an informal common space.