NUS DoA M.ARCH1 OPTIONS STUDIO - WHAT IF? AN ALTERNATIVE URBANISM HISTORY (2019/2020)

YEAR 4 OPTIONS STUDIO COMPILATION OF SELECTED WORKS

2019/2020 M.ARCH 1 STUDIO CJ LIM (ONG SIEW MAY VISITING PROFESSOR)

WHAT IF?: AN ALTERNATIVE URBANISM HISTORY

IMAGE CREDIT: GOI YONG CHERN

MASTERS DESIGN PROJECTS

INTERESTS Masters Design Projects include those explored in two Options Design Research Studios (M.Arch 1), the Advanced Architecture Studio and the Thesis project in M.Arch 2. All studios may explore issues relevant to the interests of the Research Clusters, adjunct teachers and professors in practice. Students are encouraged to capitalise on faculty expertise in widening the scope of investigations which collectively strengthen the Thesis Project in M.Arch 2.

Essential and Elective modules are useful in underpinning your Masters studio investigations.

Although Options Design Research studios may be varied in content and method, students are advised to be selective and to use them as ‘learning runways’ to identify a Thesis topic and to apply accumulated knowledge there. The Advanced Architecture Studio preceding the Thesis may be used to explore thesis drivers in greater detail and focus.

It is expected that the Thesis project will be the most comprehensive and extensive study of all the Masters Design Projects. _______________________________________________________________________________________

DESIGN AS INQUIRY Masters projects can be research investigations where design forms a principal mode of inquiry.

Methods can be heuristic or empirical or in mixed modes of inquiry.

There are a number of research methods in design investigations leading to different outcomes but they are by no means exhaustive: • • • • •

textual/graphic analysis of theoretical concepts with investigations drawn from critical discourse using text references, works of art/representation quantitative analysis to verify qualitative hypotheses with simulation, physical experiment, prototype testing and mixed methods scenario-driven speculative design to suggest solutions to emergent need. The process in itself is a new way of seeing/thinking which generates many solutions. One version of a solution may be articulated spatially and in full materiality new research knowledge is interpreted in architecture as a new way of thinking/making/ experiencing existing practices, processes or existing technologies are applied to design and which produce ‘unprecedented’ outcomes

PROJECT ATTRIBUTES A good Masters project is one where: • • • •

the research process informs design strategy which can be followed through a coherent sequential process of explorations or iterations the research generates an underlying order giving rise to a number of architectural or urban propositions the research or issues engaged with, give rise to new solutions through design, some of which are singular, permutable or recombinant it addresses the contextual specificities of site, material, spatial, culture and program

and all of the above are communicated through architectural drawings, well-crafted models and annotations which curate a design process and outcome(s) that can be understood without a verbal presentation by the author Beyond a commitment to individual academic portfolios, Masters projects play an important role in characterising the discursive ethos of a design school. It is important that you do your best. _______________________________________________________________________________________

RESEARCH CLUSTERS

ASIA RESEARCH FOCUS The Department positions itself as a design and research think-tank for architectural and urban development issues emerging in South Asia and SE Asia contexts. Graduate coursework in design engages with key challenges in population growth, industry, infrastructure, housing and environment, climate change and rapid economic change with disruptive technologies. In engaging with trans-boundary economies and technological change, the Department addresses concerns with the environmental impact of new settlements and cities on the natural environment in the light of climate change and on the threat to heritage and cultural presentation. MArch studios anticipate planning solutions through design explorations at various scales of intervention.

The Master’s coursework are thus aligned to a core of five teaching groups viz. History Theory Criticism, Research by Design, Design Technologies, Urbanism and Landscape Studies. _______________________________________________________________________________________

I. HISTORY THEORY CRITICISM The History Theory Criticism cluster develops critical capacities to examine questions of architectural production, representation and agency within historical and contemporary milieu.

Taking architecture and urbanism in Asia as its primary focus, members work in interdisciplinary and transnational modes. We explore a range of topics relating to colonial/postcolonial and modern/ postmodern Asian cities; aesthetics and technopolitics of tropical climate and the built environment; affective media including film, contemporary art and exhibitionary modes; heritage politics and emergent conservation practices. We develop discursive fronts through a variety of media and scales. The cluster research encompasses scholarly, creative and advocacy activities. Output includes monographs, edited volumes, research papers, architectural reviews in professional journals, curatorial practice, conservation work, film and photography, objectmaking, and policy-influencing advocacy work.

II. RESEARCH BY DESIGN The Research by Design cluster performs translational research through the practices of making as research rather than through traditional forms academic research. It links the importance of creating, drawing, and building with rigor, originality, and significance to produce innovative and creative designs that shape the built environment. Located strategically between the NorthSouth axis of rapidly urbanizing Asia and the East -West line of the tropical equator, the Research

by Design cluster performs research through practice in three main themes: • • •

Novel aesthetics of climatic calibration and performance; Contemporary architectonics of fabrication, material, and resources contingent on South East Asia; and Emergent spaces of inhabitation and production surrounding the equator.

III. TECHNOLOGIES The Technologies cluster investigates environmentally performative/sustainable building forms and systems,and generative-evaluative processes for designing liveable environments. Its research employs traditional and emerging technologies contributing to a new understanding of the human ecosystem, and emerging computational methods and techniques for discovering the relationships between form and performance. It researches on the relationship between human and natural landscapes, at every scale, from the building component scale to the urban scale.

Special emphasis is placed on the context of high density Asian cities and the context of the Tropics.

IV. URBANISM With a comprehensive understanding of the complexity and distinctive characters of emerging urbanism in Asia, the vision is to develop sustainable models and innovative urban strategies to cope with various environmental, social, economic and technological challenges that Asian cities face today and in the future. Emergent urban issues related to community & participation, conservation & regeneration, ageing & healthcare, built form, modelling & big data, and resilience & informality are investigated from multiple perspectives and inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations to question conventional norms and conceptions and establish new visions for a sustainable urban future.

V. LANDSCAPE STUDIES The Landscape Studies cluster undertakes research to generate new knowledge of landscapes as socio-ecological systems and promotes the use of knowledge in governance systems and landscape design that improve the well-being of humans and the ecological integrity of the environment. The geographic focus is primarily high-density urban regions in Asia, but members of cluster also work in the transitional zones within the rural-urban continuum, where urban regions are expanding at a rapid rate into rural landscapes. The overall research approach is both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary — we are concerned with not just advancing theoretical concepts and knowledge, but also applying the knowledge in practice and public policy to shape the environment. Our research areas cover a wide spectrum of socio-ecological dimensions of landscape, from landscape science, landscape management, to design research and sociobehavioural studies.

STUDIO CJ LIM

(ONG SIEW MAY VISITING PROFESSOR)

WHAT IF?: AN ALTERNATIVE URBANISM HISTORY Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion, too. Imagine all the people. Living life in peace…

– John Lennon + Yoko Ono, ‘Imagine’, 1971

The Pity of War’ (2009) by Niall Ferguson and ‘Imperial Twilight’ (2018) by Stephen Platt hold out the tantalizing prospect of a world that, with the right choices in the past, could have been different and better. Ferguson argued that Britain should have abstained from World War I — fascism and Communism would never have taken off. Furthermore, ‘If Charles Elliot had not let his panic get the best of him or if just five members of the House of Commons had voted differently in 1840 — we might be looking at a different Hong Kong’, speculates Platt. Similarly, history takes a different direction in Philip Roth’s ‘The Plot Against America’ (2004) in which Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in the presidential election of 1940

by Charles Lindbergh. If we maintain the same critical-thinking as Lennon, Ferguson, Roth et al., and focus on the imagination of alternative built environments – what would urbanism in Europe, South-east Asia, or the USA look like without inherited Roman, British Colonial, or modernist influences?

After the Great Fire of 1666, Christopher Wren proposed a Roman-style, grid-plan for London with large piazzas linked in a geometric manner by wide long boulevards. But what if Wren’s plan was implemented? London would have missed the opportunity to be a kaleidoscope of smells and shadow of sometimes puzzling urban layouts and bricolage architectural styles. Conversely, ‘Big Hero 6’ (2014) had San Francisco rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake with a Japanese motif, and renamed Sansokyo.

Cultural context and location have a significant role in the way we reflect the past – at a macro/ societal level and at a micro/personal level.

What if the Romans did not invent aqueducts, roads, concrete, sewers or sanitation? On sustainability, the science fiction author, Olaf

Stapledon predicted in ‘Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future’ (1930) that civilization might collapse as a result of resource depletion, a concept that was ridiculed as outlandish at the time.

In Frank Capra’s ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ (1946), a desperately frustrated man is shown by an angel what life would have been like if he had never existed. It is in this opportunity of alternative histories that we can better understand to address the world in crisis, resulting in the evolution of resilient architecture and urbanism tailored for the determining factors of climate, resources, environmental degradation, and the idiosyncrasies of humanity.

PROJECT ONE (1 week): Students are to identify the ‘what if?’ for an alternative urbanism history, and its related issues and consequences in the present day. Through research, analysis and a set of critical thinking, students will formulate a narrative with specific timelines and protagonists which will provide a speculative programmatic framework for the semester.

PROJECT TWO: The narrative and critical thinking from Project 1 are applied onto a location that is ‘undesired’ – be it the climate, economy, geography, lack of inhabitation or indifference. Students are encouraged to present curious, bold and even naive alternative urban and architectural polemics (and not necessarily sensible solutions or enlightenment values) to develop an innovative commentary on the crisis of present day. Just imagine…

Prof CJ Lim (Ong Siew May Visiting Professor)

A DREAM OF (PRESENT) ARCADIA GOI YONG CHERN

A Dream of (Present) Arcadia Location Straits of Johor Timeline 2020Protagonists Singaporeans and Malaysians Critical thinking How can the pursuit of happiness in a 21st century Arcadia reshape the regimented, synthetic Faustian utopia where imagination is scarce Might we reinterpret this romantic ideal, often depicted in prose and painting, as spatial compositions of of slowness and serenity, humanity and nature? Could a more nuanced architecture, framed by time, tide, and atmosphere, bring us back to that dreamlike environment of well-being and equality between human and nature?

Synopsis Take a moment and re-imagine Singapore rejecting blind capitalistic progress for a 21st-century Arcadia. Rather than technological rejection or selfish individualism of past arcadian notions, the wild idyll of Thoreau, the naivete and idealism of Lennon, and techniques of Romantic landscape masters inspires this speculative portrayal.

The waters of the Straits of Johor on the Singapore-Malaysia border become an open, blue-green canvas. Wind and waves shape a new seaborne meadow – a space to dream within nature, a wide expanse of solitude and separation that rejects the choking city and all that it represents.

Upon this fabric are introduced the figures of arcadia – akin to follies in a vast garden – built from the ruin and waste of past orders. The playful water nymphs, drifting flocks of sheep, the liberated wild men, and musical pipes, coalesce to physically and experientially heal four sites that epitomize the horrors of the Faustian condition – resource husbanding, poisoning of air and sea, anger and congestion in pursuit of wage, and the boundaries enforced by national division.

Water nymph

Sheep

Wild man

Pan-pipe

Collage - Punggol-Pasir Gudang masterplan

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WHAT IF JAKARTA LEARNT FROM OZ? AHMAD NAZARUDDIN BIN ABDUL RAHIM

What if Jakarta learnt from Oz? Location Jakarta Sea, existing Jakarta, and the Thousand Islands Archipelago Timeline 2020 to 2050 Protagonists The Jakartan women, who are burdened by domesticity or sent to foreign countries as domestic and service workers, adopt Dorothy of Oz as their heroine and actively participate in reconfiguring new Jakarta.

Critical thinking Enraptured by ecological disaster and the subsequent mass exodus of Jakarta to Borneo, Indonesia’s capital looks toward the seas to renew hopes of rebuilding their new ‘home’. Dorothy’s dream of Oz is the virtual re-imagination of Jakarta, inspired by the reality of the leather cutout puppets and the virtual shadows of wayang kulit. The vernacular urban strategy seeks to protect nature and provide security for its citizens, through participatory empowerment of women.

Synopsis The capital of Indonesia faces extensive flooding due to the groundwater extraction within its soil. In the wake of this sinking, Jakartans looked to the waters and the ‘Three Winged Monkeys’ from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939), which embody the subversion from evil to good, manifest as Jakarta staying put, rising sea levels and the prejudices of men. The archipelago’s architecture harnesses the qualities characterised by Dorothy’s three comrades; Tin Woodman’s desire for a heart in the rich coral industry and marine agriculture, Scarecrow’s wish for brains in an eco-centric educational hub and workshop, and the Lion’s dream of courage in the coastal housing. Empowered by these, the Dorothies heal the now-submerged land of Jakarta through mangrove cultivation and treatment of its water as the subversion of real and virtual unfolds across the coast; as the reality of living on water gradually crystallises in new Jakarta, the older Jakarta blooms into a floating jungle.

Dorothy

Scarecrow

Tinman

Lion

Hope

Brains

Heart

Courage

Collage for Scarecrow-Dorothy Masterplan

Phase 1: 2020 The Twister

Phase 2 The Yellow B

2: 2025 Brick Road

Phase 3: 2050 The Emerald City

WHAT IF ‘SINGAPORE’S PERENNIAL SENSE OF PARANOIA IS THE VIRTUE FOR NATIONAL RESILIENCE’ GARETH SEAH WEE KIAT

What if ‘Singapore’s perennial sense of paranoia is the virtue for national resilience’ Location Between The Float and Esplanade in Central Singapore Timeline 2020 (The architecture and strategies are in anticipation of sea-levels rise up to 3 meters in 2300) Protagonists Singaporeans (who chose to stay) and be global eco-warriors Critical thinking ‘Elysium’ and ‘Wall-E’ forewarn a future where humans have abandoned Earth leaving much detritus from consumerism and capitalism, and the irreversible environmental damage resulting in sea levels rise. The project, an antithesis of these SF scenarios, offers a deliberate social commentary on the irresponsibility of human greed and how our perennial sense of paranoia can cultivate architecture of resilience and offer reassurances through programs that protect, provide and engage national participation.

Synopsis Instead of opting for mass migration, Singapore choses to stay and restore the earth. The architectural programs and urban strategies are the outcomes of Singapore’s long history of paranoia: from the lack of potable water and food, construction of underground air-raid shelters, to the excessive heighten safety measures implemented during any health scares including the currently Coronavirus pandemic. In preparation for sea-level rise, the Singapore Government reimagines The National Service to cultivate sustainable resilience – ‘a risk management and survival kit’ to engage citizens and other eco-pilgrims to combat the global enemy of the 21st century. For starters, all Singaporeans are enlisted to swim and embrace the rising sea. It is also compulsory to participate in social responsibilities and survival activities including planting bamboo for buoyant construction resources; fishing to clean out the ocean’s

Water-Stick Insect

Flamingo

Fish

Lion

Archery & Plantation

Raincatcher

Swimming Pool

Bamboo

WHAT IF SOCIAL PARIAHS ARE THE WARRIORS OF SUSTAINABILITY? PHUA YI XUAN ANTHEA

What if social pariahs are the warriors of sustainability?

Location Gurugram, India, the most polluted city with the youngest population in the world Timeline 2025 onwards Protagonists Embodying The Little Prince, the homeless children of Gurugram assumes the role as guardians of the city, creating a series of gardens of resilience in neglected spaces through a subversion of expectations.

Critical Thinking “The Little Prince” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1943) recounts the protagonist’s meeting with characters often perceived as metaphoric follies of mankind. The urban humanity proposal is premised on changing these negative mindsets and preconceived societal prejudices and discrimination. Empowerment of helpless street children, lowtech environmental engagement with nature, and anti-capitalism “bottom-up and make-do” regeneration are virtues for good spatial governance.

Synopsis The homeless children of Gurugram use negative metaphors of useless characters from the Little Prince to become the resilient architectural tools to create communal sustainability and empowerment. The vain man, who craves company, provides temporary homes for the children, and spaces for aloe-vera cultivation amongst existing housing. The drunkard, who drinks to forget, are walls of dew catchers, trenches and stepwells to employ sustainablee water management. The geographer, with a wealth of knowledge of climate and a desire for the unknown, cultivates protein-based bean plants in an unorthodox spatial configuration – vertically around the columns of demolished buildings. The lamplighter, are the wind energy harvesting kites. The king, afraid of being alone, boldly engages the long hours of sunlight, bamboo allotments and dry clay mounts to create ever-changing shadows of public gathering spaces. The businessman, obsessed with numbers and counting, creates a tempo of inhabitable bamboo screens around the site to initiate a new sustainable economy to collect recycling materials. Analogous to the Prince and his rose, the children lovingly grows bamboo and cacti to cultivate sustainable resources for self-empowerment.

Redistribution of slums into public spaces in Gurugram

Masterplan Collage

THE VAIN MAN With their kit of resilience, the slum children begin to build a garden of resilience. They begin by building extensions of housing, finding expansiveness in an occupied space.

LAMPLIGHTER Wind energy harvesting kites

Maste

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WHAT IF TEMPORAL PROTEST CAN IMPEDE THE ADVANCEMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE? TERENCE CHEK WEI JIE

What if temporal protest can impede the advancement of Climate Change?

Location Adjacent to Singapore’s Parliament building + Strategic “Points of Infiltration” within Singapore Timeline 2021 Protagonists The Children of Singapore Critical thinking “Superflat” (2001) is Takashi Murakami’s post-modern art protest against Post-World War II. In 2019, children round the world are calling for adults to stop ruining the planet and wage action against climate change. Can innovative child’s play articulate temporal fun space-making and flexible architecture of protest to plant powerful seeds of change that will have a lifelong impact and foster a new generation of eco-warriors?

Synopsis “Child’s Play”, the new Ministry of Children in Singapore articulates the principles of protest against climate change through story-telling, imagery but not data. Inspired by pop-up culture and stage-designs, the “temporal weapons of mass demonstration” can get people to think about these critical issues and what they mean to their lives, their family and their communities. Akin to Archigram’s “Instant City” (1968), here the weapons can be deployed at short notice. When not in use, the weapons congregate as a forum for story-telling, poster-making and speeches – the voice for the future generation. The project takes inspiration from Chinese paper offerings with the use of sustainable materials such as bamboo and recyclable materials like newspaper with varnishing as the skin for elements of the building.

Harp Model

Collage for Concept Masterplan

YEAR 4 OPTIONS STUDIO COMPILATION OF SELECTED WORKS

2019/2020 M.ARCH 1 STUDIO CJ LIM (ONG SIEW MAY VISITING PROFESSOR)

IMAGE CREDIT: TERENCE CHEK WEI JIE