B.A. (ARCH) DESIGN 3: AGGREGATION, STRUCTURE, SPACE (2021/2022)

YEAR 2 DESIGN 3 2021/2022 BA (Arch) Design 3

Aggregation Structure Space IMAGE CREDITS TO: CLAIRE WONG SHI YUN

Design 3: Aggregation, Structure, Space Design 3 will investigate how architectural form can emerge from the combination of basic geometric elements. It seeks to provide students with a better understanding of how units can be aggregated, thus creating living environments that offer occupants equitable access to light, air, and water. It also requires students to reflect on how these particles can be articulated into an overall form that engages in a meaningful dialogue with the city. While the studio will involve the design of housing, this programme will be used as a mere vehicle for exploring architecture as an aggregation, or a collection of parts, looking at the interplay of repetition and singularity. Starting from the careful definition of the requirements and internal logic of each unit, what will be endeavoured is the creation of coherent wholes wherein units respond to each other, as well as to their boundaries (ground, ceiling, walls, site limits). Not unlike the concept of Existenzminimum that flourished in 1920s Europe, the studio proposes to rediscover the

basic elements of living spaces through the examination of their form and location within the built environment, and to experiment with their careful organisation in urban space. An emphasis will be placed on structure, inquiring how different arrangements of units can be devised with an eye to minimising the need for construction elements, without sacrificing architectural concepts. Formerly concerned with drawing lines, architectural culture has recently shifted its focus to a visual environment based on pixels. What are the implications of such a radical shift for architectural form?

Should it affect architecture at all? How can we design buildings that foster communities made of bits, without falling into a literal transcription of this novel condition? Such questions will pervade the different units of this studio, which will revolve around the themes of the relation between micro and macro, the cube as a basic element of composition, and the void as a driver of architectural form.

2021/2022 B.A.(ARCH) DESIGN 2

Unit 1: “Site-Specific Cloning” François Blanciak (Design 3 Year Leader, Unit 1 Leader) Associate Professor; PhD, M Arch (University of Tokyo), DPLG (École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Grenoble); Registered Architect, France Peter Sim

B Arch (The Cooper Union), BA Arch (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

Neo Sei Hwa

Adjunct Associate Professor; B Arch (National University of Singapore), BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

Tham Wai Hon

M Arch, B Arch (National University of Singapore)

Unit 2: “Cuboid Expositions” Victor Lee (Unit 2 Leader) Adjunct Assistant Professor; AA Dip, BA Arch Studies (National University of Singapore); MSIA, ARB, Registered Architect, Singapore and the UK Adrian Lai Adjunct Assistant Professor; AA Dip, BA Arch (National University of Singapore); MSIA, ARB Registered Architect, Singapore and the UK

Cissy Wong M Arch, BS Arch (The Ohio State University); Registered Architect, USA and Singapore

Shin Yokoo Visiting Senior Fellow; PhD (Tokyo University of Science), M Eng, B Eng (Tokai University); Registered Architect, Japan

Tiah Nan Chyuan Adjunct Assistant Professor; AA Dip, BA Arch (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

Unit 3: “Constructing Void(s)” Federico Ruberto (Unit 3 Leader) PhD (European Graduate School), MSc Arch, M Arch (Polytechnic of Milan) Chaw Chih Wen M Arch, B Arch (National University of Singapore); MSIA, Registered Architect, Singapore

Jane Chua Adjunct Lecturer; M Arch (Princeton University, BA Arch (University of California, Berkeley); AIA, RIBA, LEED AP, Registered Architect, USA (California)

Lee Hui Lian M Arch, B Arch (National University of Singapore); Registered Architect, Singapore

Unit 1: Site-Specific Cloning Preamble The process of cloning emerged in the field of genetic science around the beginning of the twentieth century. It consists in manipulating cells so as to produce identical life forms, with a view to artificially improving selected aspects of human life. For this reason, it has acquired negative connotations, and remains a contentious topic in all the societies which experiment with biotechnologies. But if the practice of cloning has been limited by ethical concerns in scientific fields, its planning and implementation have long been held acceptable in architecture—to such anextent that cloning could be seen as an architectural technique applied to bio-engineering.

Multiplying seemingly identical cells for the accommodation of individuals and group, in line with a desired economy of structural means, can indeed been considered a basic task for an architect. Building on this observation, this Unit proposes to reflect on, and utilize, the concept of cloning to generate appropriate living spaces that can be multiplied, but also to consider how this cloning can be made site-specific to characteristic urban conditions. Considering how large forms can be made of small ones, and reversely how small, basic forms can form the basis of large compositions when combined with each other, the Unit will seek to provide an understanding of how difference can emerge—and even require—similarity in order to be perceived as such.

Project In line with the overall objective of Design 3, this studio will investigate howarchitectural form can derive from the combination of basic geometric elements. It willdeal with the aggregation of dwelling spaces in relation with the organisation ofcirculation systems and structure in order to create a site-specific, coherent whole—that is, a composition that truly relates to the assets and shortcomings of its surroundings.

- Moshe Safdie, Habitat New York I, 1967-1968 While the ultimate product of this studio will be the design of an apartment block, preliminary work will involve the careful study of the programmatic elements of a single housing unit, and a research method that can be described as “micro to macro,” which again relates to the technique of cloning. What should ensue is a rigorous process of selection wherein the intrinsic qualities of the small, discrete cell are tested through their aggregation in urban space. The concept of Existenzminimum that flourished in 1920s Europe presented itself as a scientific approach to design technique. It aimed to palliate, through a mathematically precise design methodology, the urgent need for housing in the aftermath of World War I, and sought to determine new standards for dwellings. These were to ensure that minimum requirements for living would be respected in relation to construction costs. Likewise, this Unit proposes to rediscover the basic elements of living spaces through the close examination of their form and location within the built environment, and to experiment with their careful organisation in urban space. But it will do so in a way that is aware of the excesses that have come along with such rationalist methods, seeking to create sustainable communities rather than simply concentrating units. What will therefore be researched is the minimum conditions for an optimal quality of life, rather than the limit conditions

for survival. Cloning, as a concept, will thus not be used to produce identical life forms, but to foster the individuality of existence within the community. The work to be done in this Unit will be split in three phases. The first one will consist in determining the exact form and dimensions of the basic dwelling unit. During this initial phase, students will choose a basic geometric form, such as sphere, cube, cylinder, pyramid, and so on, to use as the unit that will be cloned and aggregated in their project. Each student can choose any form from this range, but must focus on it for the rest of the semester. This basic dwelling unit will be the object of much design attention, making sure that all the important programmatic, structural, and infrastructural components are carefully located within its boundaries. Much attention will also need to be paid to how this individual unit can be combined with other unitsinto a collective composition.“. . . cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image of these in distance are tangible within us and without ambiguity.”

- Le Corbusier. Vers une architecture, 1923 This initial phase will be an occasion to study historical precedents, searching for answer to such questions as: What is the DNA of this basic unit? How does it relate to the city? And how does it relate to architectural history in terms of typology? In the second phase of the studio, students will experiment with aggregations of this basic unit, producing multiple, well-documented, and analysed options which will form a reflection on aggregation. It will also provide an opportunity to ponder the equally important notion of disaggregation, which can make the presence of multiple units legible through the design process. Beyond the production of a series of different options, what is sought after is the definition of clear and well-formulated criteria for the selection of the arrangement of units individual students will work on for the rest of the semester. What overall form does the aggregation of unit create? How is the basic unit congruent with this morphology?

How does it respond to urban conditions? The third and final phase will consist in refining the selected option, paying close attention to the planning of circulation systems, the creation of views, the articulation of units to each other, their relation to urban elements, the overall structural parti, and the representation of all these aspects. Various arrangements can still be experimented with in this last phase, but only with a view to streamlining a well-define concept.

Programme Details All projects must result from the aggregation of dwelling units that are interconnected within an overall structural system. This system is to be efficiently served by a network of vertical and horizontal circulations (staircases, elevators, corridors, etc.). The apartment block has to be adequately lit and well ventilated. Consideration should also be given to the particular characteristics of the climate of Singapore (heat, rain, sun path, wind paths, humidity, etc.).

The project may comprise apartment units of similar size, but also units of different sizes and configuration, although these should all fit within the basic forms determined in Phase 1. Different ceiling heights can be explored, so that some of these basic units can accommodate duplex or split-level apartments. The section will be a crucial tool to provide dwellers with a diversity of living configurations within similar basic forms. An emphasis will be placed on experimentation with the typology of the housing unit.

SIMULTANEITY

by CHING MEI QI

Urbanization versus Greenery?

Fast displacement of greenery is attributable to Singapore’s rapid urbanization. It is not a rare occurrence for greenery to make way for the country’s further development.

Hence, Simultaneity.

Rather than making a choice, the project harmoniously unites the two by providing a non-hierarchichal space, where neither architecture nor greenery has a priority over the other.

For its inhabitants, the architecture serves as a reminder to cherish nature by simulating the experience of being in the natural environment.

One step forward to a ‘city in nature’.

Studio FRANCOIS BLANCIAK

Bird’s Eye View

Interior of Residential Unit

1:20 Model

On a micro scale, each residential unit provides residents with the experience of nature with its irregular shape and orientation. Residents are encouraged to climb on slopes and bend down to avoid low ceilings, emulating similar manoveurs in a hilly forest setting.

On a macro scale, the project, as inspired

by Stan Allen’s “Field Conditions”, starts by formulating different sets of data to achieve an aggregate. Reinforcing the lack of hierarchy, the resultant aggregate presents a ‘random’ systematic relationship between the residential units and trees.

1:601:60 basement basement floorfloor plan

Site Plan Lane Site Plan- - Shenton Shenton Lane

Basic Unit

^ Singapore’s park connector

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Ching Mei Qi - A0223840M

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réunion

by Shawn Lam Jun Yi The design of the project’s individual dwellings was driven from the study of a unique geometry derived from nature - an octahedron deformed by the fibonacci ratio. This geomety was studied for all its possible permutations and was aggregated to form a modular cluster. This was then transformed into habitable spaces in the form of individual apartment units.

The project’s overall concept was inspired by the history of the site at Shenton Way. Looking back at the site’s past, there used to be many kampongs that are located within and around this area. As such, the project was inspired to reunite the site with the lively kampong spirit of the past with the modern highrise concrete jungle that now exist at the site.

The design aspires to be a reunion of the kampong spirit and modern city by fusing the two through a community-oriented design that reimagines the the kampung style of living for modern life in the city.

Studio PETER SIM

UNION HOUSE

by WANG LIANG EN The former Trade Union House may be gone but the need for a place of congregation and representation for the working class has not. Through extending the form of the old Singapore Conference Hall and Trade Union House from the old Central Business District along Shenton Way into the new Marina Bay New Growth Area, the architecture seeks to re-establish a place for low-wage workers in the Central Business District.

The site sits at the intersection of the old and the new, presenting the unique opportunity to re-interpret and extend the ethos behind the Singapore Conference Hall and Trade Union House, a 20th century icon, into 21st century Singapore.

Studio NEO SEI HWA

Circulation + Green Spaces

Communal Spaces

Residences

Structure

Exploded Isometric Diagram

Residential Units

Communal Space Modules

North Elevation

L10

L11

L12

L13

L14

Part Plans

The both structurally and spatially interlocking system generates a complex that comprises distinct functional units which yet can only operate as a whole. It signals a shift towards a more interdependent mode of living made much more conscious through the design.

Communal space modules were generated through preserving the unique geometry, orientation and position. The juxtaposition illustrates the tension between public & private, dependence & independence, predictability & spontaneity. Communal spaces break away from inflexibility of the system and open up against the confines of private spaces.

THE TORUS

by THARSHANA SUBRAMANIAM The chosen geometry for this project is a torus so as to explore the different possibilities of regular living spaces. A space that is not constrained by four straight walls. The unique features of a torus is its seamless continous space, curved walls and the natural void in the centre.

The main idea of the aggregation is to create unique and various voids in between the modules to allow each resident to experience different souroundings from their unit.

The torus modules are aggregated by duplicating and rotating it based on an axis. It is repeated by adding different module configurations and rotating it accordingly such that it would branch out in different directions and connect wth other modules to create voids.

The Torus uses slides for its circulation, mainly as an escape route. From the higher floors, the user will have to take slides to reach the ground. This is an alternative to escape staircases and also provides an element of fun.

Studio THAM WAI HON

Sectional P

Perspective

External Perspective

The torus modules are aggregated by duplicating and rotating it based on an axis.

It is repeated by adding different module configurations and rotating it accordingly such that it would branch out in different directions and connect wth other modules to create voids.

Aggregation Diagram

Interior & Exterior views

Unit Plan & Sections

Exploded Isometric

The unit is designed to be a space that is relaxing for the user. To achieve this, the seamless continous space of the torus is used to blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor. The balcony which is open to sky is located in between the living spaces. There is also a split level design to layer and provide a seperation of spaces.

The unit structure consists of steel ring frames.

The frames are thicker at the bottom to support the base and thinner at the top to support the glass. Monsoon windows are used as openings to allow natural ventilation without rain.

As for the materials of the unit, the frames are made of steel, there is an additional tensile membrane for sun shading on the inner portion which is made up of etfe foil and pvc fabric, the base uses prefabricated steel and lastly solar control glass is used.

Unit 2: Cuboid Expositions 1. Introduction Working with the common program of housing in Design 3, the Unit is interested in the emergent spatial and tectonic organisations that arise primarily from the aggregation of dwellings and its related spaces, structures and building components. Culminating in the design of an apartment block through an interrogation of cuboid forms, the Unit will investigate the known design parameters and programmatic qualities that affect housing, in rethinking new possibilities for aggregation as a tool for building a collective formal language, and in doing so deliberate on its impact to the city.

2. Housing the Apartment : the Apartment Block The meaning of the word apartment derives from “apart” - to separate - premised from a state of being together. Yet it expresses the desire to be a part of, suggesting notions of the individual - a form of singularity that exists within some form of collectivity - a part of a whole.

The apartment block is a type of collective space in the city, built up from the aggregation of individual apartment units into an overall building form. In a typical apartment block, the design of the individual dwelling is led by extrinsic responses to air, light, views, facing and orientation, as well as intrinsic functional and spatial considerations such as size and internal configuration, sequential relationship between rooms, private spaces vs communal spaces, open and closed spaces etc. At the collective level, it is served by vertical and horizontal connective circulation spaces and services, ventilated and lit by airwells, permeated with voids. At its perimeter it interfaces and modulates the internal and external environments. The design of the individual unit when combined and then further aggregated, organises the form of the collective whole. There should be a balance between repetition and singularity, as well as attention paid to the scalar relationships of parts to whole.

3. Unit Framework and Focus All Studios within the Unit will operate using aggregation as the tool to drive the search for organisational and structural rationales behind each project. Studios will work on the same brief, program and site, with individual Studio Leaders providing specific guidance to their own approaches within the overall Unit focus and framework. Design 3 is not about housing with all its related issues of historical, socio-economic and cultural subtext to attend to per se, but rather housing as the vehicle for an exploration of architecture as a result of aggregation, as a collection of parts. The Unit’s focus builds upon Design 3’s overall scope of investigating how architectural forms and spaces can emerge from the combination of basic geometric elements, starting with the use of the cube or other similarly formed cuboid geometry as a basic element of composition in defining the individual dwelling unit. Cuboid expositions aims to define and frame the process of generative design exercises and operations in the making of analogues to the apartment, leading to a manifestation of the aggregated outcomes for possible collective projections of the apartment block. Through this, Studios will investigate the possible spatial and tectonic outcomes in the making of models through design operations. Such design operations should entail processes that can be demonstrated through a combination of 2d and 3d diagramming

as well as through the iterative making of physical and digital models. The combination of both analogue and digital means of production could create hybrid relationships, extending potentials and interest in the use of advanced analog tools and digital fabrication.

We will interrogate the programmatic, environmental and atmospheric drivers that could potentially inform the operations to be used in the making of the cuboid forms, or operated cubes. The parallelinteractions of extrinsic inputs such as light, air, access to views, privacy, connectivity, orientation etc,and of intrinsic motivations such as further subdivision of units, internal sequential relationships, anthropometric considerations etc, are all instrumental in defining the qualities to result in compelling spatial and tectonic outcomes. The result is an apartment analogue that suggests possibilities for combinations with others within the larger collective form. Working through such operative means extend the aggregative possibilities of individual units to one that is more deliberate, specific and nuanced, instead of the more generic, a mere rationalised and conventional way. Along the way formal resolution of its disjunctions at the unit or even sub-unit level must take place before a strategy of aggregation can be determined and formalised. As opposed to the artist David Umemoto’s sculptures, made to combine in a multitude of ways to create his final artworks, where components belong to a modular system that can be reorganized and reconfigured into new multiples and meanings but remain untethered by any burden or confines of ‘real’ architecture.

Form making is an inevitable part of the architectural design process. In learning and understanding through making - operating on a cube, students learn how formal ideas and strategies and can be guided and informed by critical inquiry of the emergent relations between structure, space and its associated qualities and effects, and where the metrics of size, dimension, scale, porosity, connectivity, etc enables design operations that have a direct bearing on their physical and visual outcomes, and consequently architecture.

4. The Site and its characteristics The site is located at the junction of Kampong Kapor Road and Rowell Road, set within an open, 3- sided urban block. The surrounding physical fabric consists of a combination of mostly 2 to 3 storey shophouses, commercial buildings and some high-rise HDB blocks interspersed with pocket parks and open spaces. The site area occupies a footprint of 24m x 25m (600 sqm), which approximates to about 4 typical Terraced House plots. Students must develop a proposal with a total floor area of approx. 1,800 sqm and up to 5 storeys (max 25m height). Due to it being an urban site, there will be no imposed setback. Projects must consider the relationship of the building edge on all 4 sides of the site to the surroundings. The Unit will choose to look beyond the social-cultural and demographical narratives that characterises the site, and instead focus on the physical and morphological aspects.

The aggregation of apartment units set within the apartment block, when viewed against the larger collection of other urban blocks within its surroundings, largely characterises the grain, texture and sense of place of a particular locale. In teasing out potential site forces, students should be critically observant of the scale and character of the site and its larger vicinity, and are encouraged to conduct their site observations with a particular focus or ‘lens’ to read, record and represent the site through strategic site mappings and drawings. Students are expected to have already understood the rudimentary aspects of site analysis, such as an understanding of the site’s physical characteristics, topography, landscape, vegetation, microclimate (sun, wind, rain), views etc. When engaging their apartment block proposals on site, Students will confront and resolve against that of the site’s existing conventions and practices, activities, flows and patterns, in alignment to their own Studio investigations.

HIDE AND SLEEP

by Dominic Chia Hide & Sleep - Apartment Collective features a unique range of seen/unseen qualities that attract owners who enjoy a private lifestyle in the heart of a bustling site. The Apartment Collective began with an analysis of 2 David Umemoto’s Sculptures - six23 and d8. Formal elements were extracted from the two sculptures and informed new approaches to 4 Spatial qualities - Seen, Unseen, Accessible, Non-Accessible.

Eight formal design strategies were utilized in its aggregation to form the final collective. These are: Taper, Thicken, Grade, Level, Spiral, Zig-Zag, Modularity, and Expand.

The result is a series of modular apartment units that can be stacked and connected via a continuous staircase. This continuous circulation allow various units to be connected thus creating a flexible range of unit sizes dependent on the user’s needs. Different floor levels and different wall heights create various zones of privacy and views for the users. Thick walls, originally inspired by the Umemoto sculptures, help with privacy from various angles. Apertures in this project are thin and tall, minimising views into the units while still capturing enough daylight through the heights of the apertures.

Studio VICTOR LEE

Primer and Analogue Process Models

Physical model making was an integral part of the process. Initial primer models based on Umemoto sculptures led to the determining of seen and unseen elements to be combined in the apartment analogue model.

Apartment Analogue

Genealogy of Form

A genealogy of form was drawn to better understand the origins of the design and how it has been added to, and multiplied, to form the final apartment collective. The modules are structural and can be stacked as high as neccessary.

Apartment Types

1st Storey Plan

2nd Storey Plan

3rd/5th Storey Plan

4th/6th Storey Plan

7th Storey Plan

Section AA

Section BB

Section CC Perspective

View from Junct

tion Perspective

SPECTRUM

by CLAIRE WONG SHI YUN Spectrum aims to investigate the gradation of open and closed spaces through the use of walls. Inspired by the phenomenon captured in Fan Ho’s photograph, ‘Afternoon Chat’. The strategies used to derive the operated cube are extracted from characteristics found in the site, namely the heavy presence of canopies from the shophouses as well as grade level changes.

A series of evaluation studies was done to derive the paired aggregated and collective form. These studies were guided by a quantitative measure of openings and a qualitative measure of perceived brightness in a space. These measures paired with the precedent study of Alva Aaltro’s Paimo Sanatorium helped derive the spatial quality hierarchy for unit spaces.

The eventual collective form is terraced around a courtyard to enable natural daylighting to penetrate the open spaces in the form of shared balconies that can be accessed by every unit.

Studio ADRIAN LAI

Fan Ho’s photograph titled Áfternoon Chat’, which features a large opening of light iluminating an otherwise dark space, creating a contrast between light and dark. In between the source of bright light and the dark environment, people and objects block the light, creating different gradations of shadow. This characteristic is something I would like to evoke in this project, where walls and floors come together to create openings of various sizes to achieve similar spectrums of openness.

Site Analysis of Rowell Road, Little India

4x4m Operated Cube Design

Evaluation of Operated Cube and Paired Cube Variations

Paired Cubes Design

Precedent Studies, Assembly of Apartment Unit, and Evaluation of Collective Form

Overall Perspective Render

First Paired Storey Cubes Public Design Space

Precedent Studies, Assembly Sectionalof Perspective ApartmentAlong Unit, and Rowell Evaluation Road of Collective Form

Sectional Perspective Across the Building

Overall View of Terracing Form

Irrational Assembly

by Caleb Lew

This project is titled Irrational Assembly, after MC Escher’s Irrational cube as it hopes to evoke the similar experience of surreal sublimity as one encounters a seemingly impossible sight.

The aim of the project is to enhance the spatial experience of both the residents and passersby and increase the utilisation of the green space of the site. The space hopes to provide a break from the visual repetition of shophouses, serve as a relief from the busyness of the city and become an enclosure for congregation and inspiration. The positioning of openings and curation of public circulation invites pedestrians to enter and utilise the inside space. The versatility of the pixels allows for multiple functions including green walls, planters, seating and structure. This cloud of pixels also serves to meld all components of the complex together, creating a cohesive and immersive environment.

Studio CISSY WONG

Unit types

The individual units consists of multiple compelling split-levels with a seamless flow of space between rooms and a gradient of privacy to suit its inhabitant’s needs.

The units feature a gradient of form to formlessness which corresponds to the gradient of privacy. The formless areas make for perfect communal areas like living rooms as they provide plenty of visual and physical accessibility, while the more closed and structured “formed” portions have increased privacy and segregation of space.

Duplex unit

Section of collective

The collective The final collective features an “urban cave” where the cloud of cubic frames and maze of staircases create a captivating dreamlike environment, hidden away from the outside world. This void space aims to enhance the experience of the residents and passersby by providing a unique and surreal environment that is a break from the busyness of the city and the repetition of shophouses.

The apartment units themselves provide for a compelling living experience, with its seamless flow of space between its multi-leveled platforms. The gradient of privacy levels in the apartments also ensure the varying privacy needs are met.

1. demarcate the site 2. divide and extrude 3. extrude with regular height increments to create terracing the result of the extrusions allows the form to address the abrupt change in building heights by introducing a transitionary roofscape. this also allows for the creation of terraces for each unit

4. allocate public circulation 5. project grid from site 6. extrude each grid until they fill up the form the resulting form is created with the incorporation of the “chaos” that was extracted from the grid of the site. this allows the form to convey the unique identity of the site

the form is pixelated into cubes of varying sizes so as to extract different formal qualities and explore how they influence space differently original form

pixelation into big 3600mm cubes

further pixelation into small 1800mm cubes

pixels are divided into sections and alternated to create a variety of big and small pixels, creating unique interactions and spaces

reassembly of pixels

extracting negative space

the cloud of small pixels are inverted and the negative space is extracted. the small pixels are chosen for this process as the finer resolution creates more unique spaces

Final collective and f

form finding process

the curated public circulation seamlessly merges the interior and exterior spaces and encourages passersby to enter the space

EXPERIENTIAL SCENERY

by ALLAN LOH As a response to the hermetic condition of local housing typology, the intervention seeks to investigate the potential of the archetypal stairway and platform to reconcile with the loss of connection between the private and the wider community.

Represented as a microcosm of the site, it invites the community to participate and unveil layers of juxtaposing architectural narritives through an experiential circulation that oscillates between the boundary of the private and semi-public.

Picture frame fenestrations capture certain viewpoints, reflecting nuances of tactile qualities on site. The japanese principle of ‘shakkei’ influences the form to take on a cavernous expression. The neighbouring facade becomes a backdrop, activated by the sporadic nature of the planters; an everchanging living scenery for residents to spectate. The typical floor slabs are deconstructed to achieve autonomous platforms that give rise to various habitable possibilities for the residents.

Studio SHIN YOKOO

External Perspective

Facade Perspective

Sectional Perspective

The dichotomised spatial-temporal quality on site features a series of interconnected spaces where users demarcate them with make shift furniture, creating informal relieve spaces along a formalised street.

The meandering axis of alleyways deliberately slows one’s movement, guiding users from the monotonous shophouses to the visually chaotic back lanes allowing one’s senses to heighten.

The lessons learnt were translated into spatial terms through a series of volumetric studies with the intention to harmonise with the physical and morphological aspects of the site.

Tenkei Workshop 01

Tenkei Workshop 01

Tenkei Workshop 01

Tenkei Workshop 02

Tenkei Workshop 02

Tenkei Workshop 02

Tenkei Workshop 03

Tenkei Workshop 03

Structure Model

Final Model

A series of model making explorations were executed to convey spatial strategies and relationship between two seemingly different boundaries, in a human scale. The final model displays the culmination of selected tenkei strategies, facade design and structural system, integrated into an aggregation.

Final Model

SKEWED VIEWS

by LIM YAN YING Starting with the probes that intrigued the initial design stages of forming an apartment analogue generates the design process towards the final composite proposal which emphasis the interaction of views and the skewed volume. The emotive drawing creates opportunities of possible spatial quality while the exploration of operations experiments the spatial quality within the two cubes and the evaluation curate a path of my stand of good design.

My design intent is to focus and enhance the unique visual experience that was explored in site. By using the 45-degree skewed volume, I can divert a negative to positive view, that maximise privacy, views, and lights for the interior spaces.

Such volume are seen in both my plans and sections which further gives the operation of skewing a stronger identity within my design planning. It also enables me to expand the hierarchy and types of modules with the operation of rotation which eventually lead to my final composite proposal.

Studio TIAH NAN CHYUAN

ASPIRATION VS REALITY

SPATIAL VOLUME

VISIBILITY

NATURAL LIGHTS

Opening to be created by operation The degree of dark and bright spaces

seen and unseen not to cluster in a space

Possibility of big and small spaces in any orientation

4OOOmm

2OOOmm

Total Surface Area 128m Opening Surface Area 41m

EXTRACT+OVERLAP

Opening Percentage

32%

Opened to sky

Seen > Unseen

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

4OOOmm

Total Surface Area 149m Opening Surface Area 16m Opening Percentage

DISTORTED+EXTRACT (1/8 CUBE)

Seen = Unseen

2OOOmm

Opened to sky

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

Total Surface Area 144m Opening Surface Area 14m 1

DISTORTED (HALF CUBE) +MOVE+ EXTRACT

Opening Percentage Open

2OOOmm

Seen < Unseen

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

6OOOmm

Total Surface Area 115m Opening Surface Area 24m Opening Percentage

ROTATE+OVERLAP+EXTRACT

Seen < Unseen

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

2OOOmm

4OOOmm

Total Surface Area 117m Opening Surface Area 16m Opening Percentage

SKEW1/4 CUBE)

Seen < Unseen

2OOOmm

4OOOmm

On the first probe on emotive drawing from the movie sandcastle, I depict the protagonist’s father conflicts between his aspiration which is being an opposite political role and the reality which is to lead a normal life. I have contrasted two spaces with brightness, visibility, spatial volume, and stability. I did a evaluation on the models which I am interested in or those that are affected by my emotive drawing like distortion and skew and evaluate them with how the opening differ brightness, visibility of spaces and the flexibility of spatial volume.

With that, the operation skewing ranked 1st and formed my apartment analogue.

Site Views

Looking into SIte Context

Moving into the site, I found out that the visual experience in little India is unique and important as when travelling down the streets, the activities, identity, and cultures that the residents or the shop owner hold can be easier seen as they are not afraid to place the items that represent them at spaces where its visible and shared with the public. This diverts people attention from looking straight into an angled view, framing the dense placement of their items. Similarly, this can be seen in the elevation where the interaction between the residents and the passer-by or the residents of the hdb building right across it is always diverted and angled.

180 Type A (Entertainment)

Type B (Isolate Rest/Work)

3 Unit Types

Composition

90 Type C (Open Plan)

Level 2 Mezzaine Floor Plan

Level 4 Floor Plan

Section

Unit 3: Constructing Void(s) Approach The exploration is twofold: A__PROTOTYPING INHABITABLE FORMS THROUGH PROCESSES OF AGGREGATION Through studies of spatial aggregation the goal is to put forward a “form” — a proposal able to investigate emerging/alternative natures of dwelling/occupying, providing residential spaces designed by tactically aggregating plural and singular functions, by strategically thinking in terms of parts-to-whole (mereology), by inventing relations that make sense of the individual and the communal: the cell as the creative containment of 3 a form-of-life and the whole, as the productive space of confrontation. The aggregative logic aimed at here is non-linear seriality — neither total genericness (the repetition-of-the-same) nor continuous differentiation (the repetition-of-the-different). The experiments shall be conducted to discover the “necessary” tune, the “mood”, the dynamic balance holding together spaces of inhabitation. Models shall emerge by applying compositional rules, by relying on discrete sets of components operating at different scalar levels and with various interlocking abilities, choreographing series of orders, figures, densities, openings, circulations, etc. Although the building’s function should be primarily that of “residing”, the studio’s task is to define what forms of occupation are to be invented in order to tackle issues affecting contemporary forms of life (existential discretisation, deconstruction of family’ structure, precarious futures, forms of life under pandemic protocols, etc.). The goal is to prototype radical forms that should be able to qualitatively integrate basic factors such as air flow, light, views, mass and gravity, minimal functional requirements, (…), all necessary elements to name as “architecture” a designed space. The studio should be able to promote debates on the functions and characteristics of “individual” and “collective” spaces, grasped as they are deployed within a building and in relation to the surrounding, the city.

B__ THE FUNCTION OF AGGREGATED VOIDS The other more conceptual trajectory asks to deploy processes of form-making through aggregation, attempting to respond a simple yet deceiving question: could space be given architectural definition by operations of subtraction, the serial addition of empty extensions, abstract volumes? As architecture is a practice of construction (additive, positive), does it not sound paradoxical to attempt thinking the act of “building” through the definition of absences?

How are we to think in term of operations of voiding, subtracting, removing, emptying as material processes of construction? Could positive-space be defined through the proliferation of negative volumes? Should a pre-existing ideal volume exist prior for the operation of subtraction of microvolumes to begin? Could architectural spaces be made by the addition of micro excavations? Subtractions from “what”, a preexisting mass, an idea? Could volumes be formally constructed and deconstructed without an a-priori definition of surfaces, membranes, or facades? What formal exercises or material probes should be deployed to inquire the materiality of inhabitable voids? What definition will the relation between interior and exterior acquire? Are we not always designing a presence by the identification of both a presence and

an absence, both given through the invention of a threshold, a liminal domain? Could space be designed by the materialisation-construction of voids rather than through liminal envelopes?

The studio asks to construct inhabitable spaces-atmospheres through the proliferation/ articulation of volumes, to think abstractly about form-formation in order to construct a syntax that manages to forward radical ideas, forms liberated, for a lapse of time, from the disempowering burden of trivially posited, mundane, questions.

Site The duality of void and its opposite has played a fundamental role in shaping the topology of the “house”, but also that of the “city”: a dialectical patchwork made of black and white domains, presences and absences, publicness and privateness, openness and closeness, accessibilities and closures, (…). The white and black hatches assumed in fact very different values and character throughout the centuries . As part of the recent history of architecture and urbanism Rem Koolhaas went into defining a “strategy of the void” , proposing 5 alternative processes of urbanisation that celebrate the proliferation of voids, planning a program of urban intervention that rely on multiplicity, contingency and transformation rather than the definition of a necessary and ultimate form. The city is itself is a fabric full of left-overs and voids…, a vacant lot, an unbuilt area, an empty plot or an abandoned building, or a space between buildings, a derelict lands, loose domains, dead zones, wild interstices, counter-sites… all have the implicit potential of “Terrain Vagues” . One must avoid thinking that any empty-vacant site a “nothing” —the “tabula rasa” approach that the modernists needed to celebrate, is somehow matter we need to pass over— one must avoid thinking that any residual space is there awaiting to be fully built.

How do we consider the plot’s existing emptiness? How should it be occupied ultimately?

Should the yet to be designed building create a barrier, becoming an obstacle to further occupation? Should the building reinforce an imaginary boundary condition or should it work to weaken separation, to dissolve the distinction between site and surrounding? The site of intervention is a plot located at Peck Seah St. (area ≈ 700 sqm) set within 2 extreme conditions: on one side the low rise fabric of shophouses, on the other the high rise materiality of finance, the CBD. (Cad file of the area will be sent at Week 0) The site’s surrounding should be morphologically-geometrically considered and respected, however sociocultural factors should’t limit formal explorations. See how Nolli and Piranesi gave a completely different character to the city by giving different characteristics to places marked by black or by white. 4 Rem Koolhaas, “Beyond Delirious”, The Canadian Architect, 39:1 (January 1994), pp. 28-30. 5 6 From Ignasi de Sola-Morales’ “Terrain Vague”: “Today, intervention in the existing city, in its residual spaces, in its folded interstices can no longer be either comfortable or efficacious in the manner postulated by the modern movement’s efficient model of the enlightened tradition.

How can architecture act in the terrain vague without becoming an aggressive instrument of power and abstract reason? Undoubtedly, through attention to continuity: not the continuity of the planned, efficient, and legitimized city, but of the flows, the energies, the rhythms established by the passing of time and the loss of limits... we should treat the residual city with a contradictory complicity that will not shatter the elements that maintain its continuity in time and space.”

MICROCOSMIC FRAGMENTATION

by TOH EU JUIN The “societal shift from technocratic, utopian planning to increasingly privatized economic development” as mentioned by William O. Gardner has transformed a managed society as that of Tokyo Bay to control space. Likewise, Singapore is also at its crossroads when defining domestic living.

Architecture has ‘always served colonisation’ – Pier Vittorio Aureli. Hence, it also has the potential to decolonise. Microcosmic Fragmentation seeks to leverage on the spatial potentials of collaborative spaces generated as required by the users (i.e. workshops/ communal kitchen) in each designated cluster, so as to promote collaboration intra and inter-clusters. More importantly act as a firm statement to resist the limitations of space making in a highly regulated Singapore.

In light of ‘sharing’ between units by means of programmatic/ selfdemarcation in collective housing, a series of explicit deconstruction and reconstruction needs to be done on both a micro and macro scale simultaneously – tectonically & typologically. First stripping the role of a house to its pure user function. Compartmentalising essential functions into discrete units of individual function-specific space and collaborative units. Upon reconstruction, ‘in-between’ void spaces are constantly exploited for an incremental spectrum of public spaces, to form a self-sufficient organism (aggregate).

Studio FEDERICO RUBERTO

Restructuring Co-O

Operative Housing

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Concept and Operation

Axonometric

The call for a mixed typological collective housing is further exacerbated by the limiting physical space due to isolation speculating about post Covid-19. There is an urgent need for the segregation of spaces to address the health concerns arising out of 24/7 work culture. This is coupled with the evolution of ‘home’ (ends) vs. ‘domesticity’ (means) to one that caters the increased demands of a ‘home’.

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Decolonising Architecture

A subsequent discretisation of units, through prefabrication, aims to “include inhabitants to participate in co-production” -- Mollie Claypool.

Such inclusive and participatory model takes caution to maintain the integrity of the ‘home’ (Singapore’s ‘nuclear family’), whilst liberating the agency of the architect.

Microcosmic Fragmentation aims to resolve the dichotomy of unity and diversity, ensued through means of inhabitable, lived and even outlived voids.

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Cluster -- Plans & Sections

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Sectional Perspective

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Aggregate -- Plan & Section

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Annotations & Captions

Top View

Spatial- Voids Relationship

Public Corridor

Unit Discrete Model 1:50

Green Terraces

Unit Assembly

Level 3 Communal Space

Full Discrete Model 1:150 -- Co-Operation

Full Discrete Model 1:150 -- Front Elevation

The Te

errace

MACHINES, HUMANS AND SPACES: Reconstruction of time and space through temporal dimensions

by MELINDA KUMALA The project investigates the relationship between architecture and machines in reconstructing our perception of space through its understanding of dynamic temporality. Through a series of pre-determined set of rotations along horizontal and vertical axis, individual units provide opportunities for the creation of multiple spaces created by the void in between.

Through such premise, questions of communality and daily living rituals are brought into the surface, highliting the need for and perhaps tensions between private and shared spaces.

Studio CHAW CHIH WEN

Probe 02: Rotating individual unit

The understanding of the design brief started with a series of exercises to investigate necessary living spaces in which it could be minimised to its very essence. The idea of rotation is then introduced, which allows surfaces to be used for multiple programs when rotated in various axis.

Probe 03: Integrated rotations

Dine

Play

Multipurpose

Work

Connection Strategy at Dine

Connection Strategy at Play

Connection Strategy at Multipurpose

Connection Strategy at Work

NORT H E L E VAT I ON

5-7 PM ~ 7 0% AT DI N I E

100 % AT DIN E

100 % AT PL AY

E AST E L E VAT I ON

100 % AT DIN E SOU T H E AS T I SOM E T R I C

5-7 PM ~ 7 0% AT DI N I E

100 % AT DIN E

Elevations at different timings and rotations

100 % AT PL AY

Sectional Perspective

Rotation at Play

Rotation at Work

Rotation

n at Dine

DISORDER

by DARREN TEO WEI JUN The project aims at utilising chaos (external climatic conditions of the site that will induce architectural erosion of the space and facade) to morph spaces over time, redefining the dwelling whilst incorporating architectural atmospheres of Lightness and Heaviness. This is in hopes that the resulting architecture would possess new dwelling opportunities/experiences, or enhance architectural atmospheric experiences.

Studio JANE CHUA

The design process began with experimentations in 2 spatial and architectural conditions: Light & Heavy, Order & Chaos.

The aim of experimenting with these chose conditions was to identify as well as discover potential forms and volumes (in both positive and negative space) that possess unique architectural atmospheres.

Architectural atmospheres in Order & Chaos were accessed further through the lens of architectural erosion and atmospheres over time.

LIGHT | HEAVY In studies of lightness and heaviness, volumes were interrogated through the lens of Form and Atmosphere.

How does one perceive a form as light or heavy?

Can there be both lightness and heaviness in the same form/volume? What constitutes a heavy atmosphere and a light one? Are heavier atmospheres more tense, constraining and imposing, while light atmospheres being more open and free?

ORDER | CHAOS In studies of order and chaos, spaces were created through various methods: through 1) free sculpting and unregulated application of chloroform onto foam, to experiment with space-creating potential, and 2) through the testing and documenting of chloroform action on foam, with controlled variables and application methods

Interior spaces consists of walls that are made of rock salt, leading to erosion over time as the walls come into contact with rainwater.

Year 0

As the interior erode, atmospheres within the dwelling change; light filters into the space from breaches in the wall. Ideas of what is public and private are challenged over time as the spaces open up to the outside.

Year 3

Hence, over time, ideas of the dwelling change along with the occupancy habits of the inhabitants. Atmospheres change through time, revealing new qualities of lightness and heaviness in the architecture.

Year 6

Atmosphere

es Over Time

THE ADULT’S PLAYHOUSE

by SIM FEI CRYSTALYN As legal as sex work is stated in Singapore, it is, as an industry, barely thriving - its operations are often limited to only the sex districts in Singapore. Furthermore, sex workers and clients alike risk being shunned or judged, mainly due to the conservative nature of the Singaporean public. Often, these people have to resort to keeping their risque activities as private as they can.

This project explores the contentious issue of stigmatism of sex workers in Singapore in the form of a residential building.

It is arguable that in order to improve the experiences for the clients and sex workers, they require a safe environment that shields them from negativity, such as the judgemental gaze of the public. Capitalizing on the idea of “masking”, the psychological play on the public’s gaze in relation to circulation paths, this building push forward a challenge to conservative minds.

Studio HUI LIAN

Miro Voids are expressed as ‘buffer zones’.

A void in each unit is introduced as a ‘buffer zone’ to determine and enforce the boundary between public and private spaces, which is especially crucial in a work-from-home setting.

In all the units, the work rooms, demarcated by the large red-tinted windows, are separated from all the other spaces through the void.

Entrances to the units open up to the work rooms to add significance to the voids, to allow transitional zones from public spaces to private spaces for the sex workers, as well as forbidden

zones for the clients to not venture further.

Privacy is highly valued, keeping all activities within the walls of each unit. Views of the works rooms are not publicized but are internalised instead.

Discreet

The usage of internal circulations optimises clear views of the work rooms through the large open windows, allowing for unregulated movements in such floors whilst upholding an external façade of harmlessness.

Conspicuous

As one venture in, through, and around the space, they risk chancing upon instances of the contemporary, leaving them intrigued and yet confused.

Chance Encounter

10th Floor Sectional Model (Cluster Type 1)

In a further expression of the masking approach in the building, the language should not only be read from the external facade, but also be translated into the spatial experiences as well. As such, the circulation of floors drives the arrangement of clusters in the building. A pattern for circulation type (internal or external) is introduced to simulate a sense of regularity.

Only with order can there be chaos. The latter formulated the arrangement of the clusters in the tower. Based on the arrangement of units in the clusters, conspicuous type’s circulation can

only be internal, discreet’s can be either internal or external, and semi-discreet’s is both internal and external. A mix-up on cluster arrangements based on their possible circulation paths gives rise to moments of confusion that leaves the visitors baffled about the building’s intent.

Negative Model

Think of a brothel: What do you feel?

Repulse.

More often than not, that is what people generally feel about the subject. Therefore, what if macro voids in the building are intentionally carved to allow for activities or amenities that instead evoke feelings of repulse, intrigue and draw the viewers in instead? Two prominent sources of gaze from the site were identified: The patrons in Sofitel sky pool [1], as well as the pedestrians at/ passing through the park [2]. Envy, like greed and lust, is an insatiable desire. The envy from noticing these amenities that speak of the opposite of their current situations serves as a distraction, as well as masks the building’s contemporary activities.

Positive Model - Northeast view

Positive Model - Southwest view