NUS DoA M.ARCH1 OPTIONS STUDIO - SEA LEVEL RISING (2020/2021)

YEAR 4 OPTIONS STUDIO COMPILATION OF SELECTED WORKS

2020/2021 M.ARCH 1 STUDIO TSUTO SAKAMOTO

SEA LEVEL RISING IMAGE CREDIT: GABRIEL CHOON

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 RESEARCH FOCUS At DOA, our advanced research delves into critical issues of architecture today and tomorrow.

In particular, we anticipate and observe new demands and novel forms of buildings, cities, environments, and nature that are emergingthroughout Asia and the equatorial region. DOA research clusters coalesce creative practice, technology, urbanism, landscape, preservation, and the specific expertise of our faculty members into a productive synergy and alignment between teaching and research.

The following five clusters drive the M Arch I Design Research Studio Options sequence, the M Arch II Design Thesis and the graduate level elective offering across our Master of Architecture programme. These are nonetheless included in the BA Arch programme booklet so that students may understand the various research interests of their faculty. _______________________________________________________________________________________

I. RESEARCH BY DESIGN The Research by Design (RxD) cluster develops translational research approaches through creative practice. It emphasises the importance of rigorously engaging critical and creative practice in making, writing, and thinking in architecture. RxD strives for innovation and influence in the built environment through its research outcomes. To date, a number of these outcomes have won awards and made considerable impact.

RxD focuses on design in Asia and around the equator, and on research into contemporary concerns as well as the identification of speculative future directions. Members work in a range of design modes from sole authorships to collaborative and interdisciplinary configurations.

As a group, RxD leverages its combined creative expertise, teaching within design studios and graduate elective modules. Research outcomes include leading buildings, texts, exhibitions, installations, films, drawings, photographs, and object-making, alongside design monographs, edited volumes, and research papers. RxD’s commitment towards integrative and translational creative practices empowers design research with intellectual and critical bearings, for a discipline in transformation.

II. HISTORY, THEORY AND CRITICISM The History, Theory and Criticism cluster develops critical capacities to examine questions of built environmental production and consumption within the historical and contemporary milieu.

Taking architecture and urbanism in Asia as a primary focus, members work in interdisciplinary and transnational modes. Our members conduct research into a wide range of topics against the context of colonial/postcolonial and modern/postmodern Asian contexts, teaching these with the aim of encouraging historical literacy and consciousness in students, to enable them to understand how the present is historically sedimented. Besides teaching, members also publish widely and in diverse forms, organise and participate in major conferences and workshops, curate key exhibitions, and advise both governmental and non-governmental organisations in related fields around the world.

III. TECHNOLOGIES The Technologies cluster investigates environmentally performative or sustainable building forms and systems, and generative-evaluative processes for designing liveable environments.

It employs traditional and emerging technologies that contribute to a new understanding of the human ecosystem, and emerging computational methods and techniques for discovering the relationships betweenform and performance.

Members investigate 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 examination of high-density Asian cities, and on application of design and building technologies in a tropical context.

IV. URBANISM The Urbanism cluster aims to contribute towards development of sustainable resilient models and innovative advanced urban strategies to cope with various environmental, social, economic and technological challenges facing Asian cities today and in the future. The starting point for this research is a comprehensive understanding of the complexity and distinctive characters of emerging urbanism in the region. Against this backdrop, members investigate emergent urban design issues related to community and participation; conservation and regeneration; ageing and healthcare; well-being and built form; modelling and big data; and resilience and informality.

These issues are examined from multiple perspectives and through both inter-disciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations, in order to question conventional norms and conceptions and establish new visions for a progressive and human-centric 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 to improve the well-being of humans and enhance the ecological integrity of the environment. The geographic focus is primarily high-density urban regions in Asia; however members of the cluster also work in the transitional zones within the rural-urban continuum, where urban regions are expanding at a rapid rate and encroaching into rural landscapes.

The overall research approach is both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. The cluster looks not only at advancing theoretical concepts and knowledge, but also applying the knowledge in practice and public policy, to shape the environment. Areas of research span a wide spectrum of the socioecological dimensions of landscape: from landscape science and landscape management, to design research and sociobehavioural studies.

STUDIO TSUTO SAKAMOTO

SINGAPORE UNDER SEA-LEVEL RISING “The task is to make kin in lines of inventive connection as a practice of learning to live and die well with each other in a thick present. Our task is to make trouble, to stir up potent response to devastating events, as well as to settle troubled waters and rebuild quiet places.”

-Donna J. Haraway Issue and Approach Singapore, a low-lying island state located near the equator, is vulnerable to climate change. Recently, it has experienced unprecedented torrential rains and prolonged dry spells. Possibly the most impactful is the sea-level rising that threatens the state land significantly. Although its process is extremely gradual and would not create a dramatic sea water inundation immediately, for the low-lying state, it would be a great concern as its assets – buildings and urban infrastructures are threatened.

The temporal and physiographical nature of this climate change in Singapore: the graduality that gives an impression an immediate response is not required and the low-lying landscape that develops a fear of the life-threatening impact, create a unique situation for its climate change defences. As Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, mentioned in National Day Rally on 18 August 2019, the state should take the sea-level rising ‘with utmost seriousness’ for ‘over many years and several generations’, and it will cost an estimate of $100 billion or more over 100 years to protect the country against rising sealevels.

The studio explored a potential urban and architectural design that respond to the sealevel rising and water related disaster mentioned above. Considering the nature of issue, the studio set a ‘long-term transformational masterplan’ as an overall approach. Along with future technosocial transformations: popularization of driverless cars, and burial of express ways, decentralization of workspace depending on network, rising e-commerce and delivery system using drones, the existing landform was gradually modified to accommodate and live with the disasters, yet avoiding devastating impacts.

As Donna Haraway suggested in the quotation above, the studio trusted that our future lies in how we make and settle manageable size of troubles, live with them and learn from them, instead of in a heroic structure that assumes that it solves the problem once for all.

Overall masterplan Taking up the East Coast area in Singapore as a project site, the studio pursued urban and architectural design to prepare for the possible water disasters from around 2050 through 2100.

Consisted of a reclaimed shore that facilitates the East Coast Park, and a high-rise public and private housings, and the original inland with low-rise residential and commercial buildings, the area emphasizes its distinctive atmosphere.

Furthermore, numbers of shophouses as cultural heritage add historical flavour to the atmosphere.

However, the area is extremely susceptible to the sea-level rising as its altitude above sea level is the lowest in Singapore.

The studio proposed the ‘long-term transformational masterplan’ by providing an effective drainage system: widening existing canals and adding new canals to respond to the increasing precipitation under torrential rain. Such canals are provided with a series of retaining ponds to adjust the flow.

The long-term transformation of the land is closely related to a systematic construction plan for the canals and retaining ponds: the excavated soils for the water system are piled to the adjacent sites to increase the altitude of the lands. The construction is planned to be conducted locally one by one to maintain the overall function of the area.

Based on the principle mentioned above, the existing urban grid will be gradually replaced by the archipelago typology due to the increase of the water surface. By the time, the project expected that the vehicular circulation and MRT would be buried, while pedestrian and light vehicular circulations are provided on the series of islands and connected by bridges. Human and material transportations are also supported by boats circulating on the canals.

Tsuto Sakamoto Associate Professor

C

THE WATER IS BACK

CHOON WONG YEN GABRIEL

The story begins at the end. Death of the mounds. Water, the harbinger of chaos. As the mounds give way to the insatiable hunger of pelting rain and raging waves, it seems we have lost yet again. The price we have paid to build these grounds, to sustain our livelihood, to thrive and flourish and lead a life of content has all been naught. As the rain soaked our clothes, we stood in silence, as we stared at the crumbling landscape. Our park in a state of deteriotation, our structures crack in disrepair. We looked to one another, “we must change, we must give in. Perhaps, in surrender, we can be victorious. Perhaps in surrender, we can live to see another day.”

01 DEGREDATION

02 HEALING

01 CELEBRATION

“ The ground crumbles away, our park gives way to the invasion of water. Where can we run to? Where can we hide?

The danger before us has to be made known.

The street lamps collapse, their light is no more, a blackout ensues while the rain rages on. ”

Balloons equipped with light emitting diodes are retrofitted onto the existing cables that run through the conduit networks underground. They serve as an ambient illuminating source of light to warn the people of the danger of land erosion.

Over time, the cable conduits corrode from the force of water. To replace it, power would have to cease temporarily.

The balloon rises higher into the night sky, providing wireless connectivity while repairs are underway.

“The structures erode, its columns exposed, rust sets in to unsettle the integrity of the dwellings as water claws onto the concrete. Over time, what we know as land becomes a faint memory. We don our rubber boots and splash into the tide, waddling in the pool, we embraced nature’s temper.”

Using the natural phenomenon of electrolysis in salt water, calcium carbonate precipitates onto the steel columns of the eroded structure. The device requires daily maintenance to ensure that the steel cathode is fully submerged. Workers hammer onto the turn handles, allowing suction to draw sea water into the device’s barrel.

Animating structures are erected along the vulnerable regions of the decayed mound. They respond to the turbid waters, dancing actively in the coming storm and hibernating in calm seasons. As they soothe the waves, sedimentation begin to coalesce into wetlands, filtering silted water from the surroundings, leaving pristine water to greet the people inland.

“The structures erode, its columns exposed, rust sets in to unsettle the integrity of the dwellings as water claws onto the concrete. Over time, what we know as land becomes a faint memory. We don our rubber boots and splash into the tide, waddling in the pool, we embraced nature’s temper.”

Across the generations, our new resilience to water must carry its value and meaning..

In the form of a festivity, the process of calcium carbonate precipitation reactivates, repairing any damage sustained by the structures. The power of lightning is harvested through the scavenging of invasive reed species that are cultivated and bound into formwork for which clay and silt can be poured into, forming a natural capacitor as a earth tower.

Torrential rain batters the earth tower. It begins to crumble away, returning to the waters as sediments of clay and silt to be collected another day.

As the lightning charges the electrolysis process, it ignites aluminum firework canisters that act in place of a sacrificial anode. A festivity of healing and reverence to nature’s temperaments.

PALACES FOR THE PEOPLE SHARYL NG YUN HUI

Palaces for the People A Psychological Response for the Displaced

by Sharyl Ng Yun Hui

A sense of Familiarity is defined as the constant exposure to the physicality of objects or nodes which serves as a form of security or reassurance. In a disaster context, these form of familiarity surfaced as the procession of their personal items.

Beloved items only hold their value if it can be used as it was before (original state) when individuals grow an attachment or familiarity to the item personally through its use for a certain purpose. Even though it’s subjective in nature on the usage between item and individual , the definition of value is still the same if the item can be functional used by the owner in a certain way.

Because of the changes have to be made in response to torrential rain and sea level rise, many will have to be evacuated from their homes and the usage of items will be affected as they are unable to bring along the items with them when moving. This will cause individuals to feel displaced and anxious in this new unfamiliar transient landscape.

The project is a focus on the people’s life in the new condition developed in the masterplan and the psychology of the people in such a condition.

Palaces for the people serves as a storage facility in the form of time capsules that allows individuals to revisit the experiences they have with their items and also continuing to have community engagement while ensuring their place in East Coast is not lost despite having to deal with evacuation, construction and extreme weather. This state of bliss between individuals and items aid in the psychological reassurance in the midst of the impending disaster and drastic changes made to address it. After the apartments on the mound are built, items will be gradually removed . However, there will be some items that are left beind on purpose because of the new sense of belonging and familarity cultivated during the unfamiliar environment (construction of the mound). Hence, the items left behind are eant to extent/ prolong that sense of beloning into the unfamiliar environment of living on the mound that helps people to adapt to the new life on the mound. The last chapter of the old environment is a new chapter in the new environment

Dust Facade Experiment

LIVING WATER CLARENCE TAN HONG XI

LIVING WATER

by Tan Hong Xi, Clarence The making of the masterplan of East Coast bides time to respond to a severe underlying issue of climate change; an imbalance of the world’s ecosystems from the overexploitation of our ecology. Industrialisation and modernity brought about a gradual but stark disparity of ecology from our lifestyle, desensitising us from the severity of overexploitation.

The scheme therefore aims to address the imbalance by negotiating natural cycles with the modern anthropological cycle, connected by the abundance of water, merging the two to form a larger, sustainable model of living along East Coast.

To negotiate the balance cycle to enable a resilient, self-sustaining model of living, the project starts with two processes: 1. Tangible alterations through re-wilding with anthropological cycles - anthropological activity directly influence and aid the proliferation of ecosystems; both man-made and natural. The integration of anthropological sequences and events allows for an anti-fragile ecosystem that allows for both humankind and other species to co-exist and benefit as a symbiotic whole, that concurrently influences the second goal of: 2. Intangible, behavioural alterations through shaping the way modern and natural ecosystems adapt together - A lifestyle paradigm shift from disparate ecological relationships, to an active observation and reaction to the immediate environment, nudging humankind back into the ecological cycle once again.

Negotiating Processes - Balance

YEAR 4 OPTIONS STUDIO COMPILATION OF SELECTED WORKS

2020/2021 M.ARCH 1 STUDIO TSUTO SAKAMOTO

IMAGE CREDIT: GABRIEL CHOON