PORTFOLIO
2019-2024
PHOONG ZHIA WEN
01. THE WAYWARD PLAY
INTIMATE NARRATIVES, ARCHITECTURE AS CRITICAL FABULATIONS
Year : 2024
Location : Pearls Hill
Tutor : H. Koon Wee
The identities of Architecture and Activists are both loaded, broad, and often overlooked. At first glance, both disciplines seem to belong to the work of a group of people, namely, the Architect and the Activist. Yet, when one probes deeper into the social networks of both identities, the works that they do, the people that they serve, the systems that they work under, we realize that Architects and Activists are not dissimilar – the goals largely align but the medium of interaction differs in finding methods of amplifying unheard voices, to push for social change in ways that are required. In a perspective titled ResponseAbility, Lokko argues that “race has been [architecture’s] subject matter all the time” (Lokko, 2005). This thesis furthers that stand in arguing that the Architect has always been the Activist for change – to desire social change and believe that their work can lead to greater social justice, they invest fully in the uncertainty of their influence in creating collective visions. In taking the step of enacting as one, they inevitably become the other.
In attempts to find built forms to serve justice to the fringes, this thesis takes on the site of Pearl’s Hill, a landscape surrounded by marginalised communities in Singapore. Drawing their stories, and drawing their rituals became crucial, to uncover found habits
and found spaces. The thesis rejects high design, and find ways of celebrating the literal theatrics of the fringe communities, a practice of performing that ties the marginalised together.
Through the process of design, the intimate truths of the people fighting agaisnt the oppressive systems constantly serve as the design and narrative driver, where architectural design can facilitate the possibility of imagining a safe and humane future for them in real space. This is how the thesis defines the architect as the activist - the visualiser of intimate narratives, and designer of critical fabulations.
02. COOL ALGORITHM
Year : 2023
Location : Central Business District
Tutor : Rudi Stuoffs
This studio focuses on Singapore’s sea-city fringes and its current threat of increasing shocks and stresses induced by climate change and excessive CO2 emissions. Specifically, through computational analysis and rule-based design we aim to explore urban design and planning approaches that can help to mitigate climate change and reduce its effects, emphasizing the reduction of carbon emissions and the potential for building biomimicry technology to capture, absorb, store and remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Starting from the current urban landscape, we aim to identify positive design actions and express these in the form of design rules that encode their conditional application to the existing situation thereby achieving a preferable outcome. Embedding both conditions and parameters for application, design rules operate on the data at hand, and express geometric and semantic transformations. Design rules support computation and the exploration of alternative design outcomes.
The project seeks to analyse thermal comfort through wind analysis in the Central Business District area in Singapore, to derive a masterplan that prioritises thermal comfort in a place that is rapidly heating up. Through computational methods of modelling on the urban, district and building scale, we are able to algorithmically simulate thermal conditions to have a range of satisfactory results, as well as extract patterns that could also be manually applied. The steps can be broken down into the following:
1. Data Analysis with QGIS
2. Grid Generation
3. Height optimisation
4. Grid/offset optimisation
5. Retrofitting
6. Building optimisation
7. Generative visualisation with AI
Balanced
Tall Flat
03. THE MATERIAL CORRIDOR
Year : 2021
Location : Defu Lane 12
Site Area : 2500m2
Tutor : Jaxe Pan
The Material Corridor explores Weak Architecture through the concept of Concavity. Concavity refers to the pushing out of any interior void and ignoring the outside, eliminating architecture and externalising human activities. Concaved Cities allow users to understand architecture beyond its built forms, and to understand them as spaces that are never static but always changing.
The site, Defu Lane 12, is an industrial estate which houses different manufacturing and storage warehouses. Concavities exist at Defu, making the site intriguing and humble. The Material Corridor hence posits a new Industrial Typology at Defu Lane 12, that externalises its internal programs by pushing the materials and storage to the facade, retaining the qualities of the concaved city. This new typology creates an ecosystem between business on site, where users traverse through the site and interact with the materials placed on the facade of different warehouses, and innovate to create new goods and products at various design centers. The creation of this ecosystem supports the traditional businesses that are becoming obsolete at Defu, by creating a niche but ever needed economy for the cluster of warehouses on site.
This design looks at a furniture workshop in particular, where it houses multiple workshops for the public to enter and make new furniture. It is also in direct relationship with a recycling warehouse adjacent to it, where users can deposit old furniture that can be repaired and recycled at the furniture workshops. Recycled materials can also be upcycled and put into new furniture to create new and sustainable goods.
The inevitable urbanism of Defu Industrial Estate to Defu Industrial City based on the principles of Capitalism and Sanitisation, negates concavity as a city phenomenon. Additionally, the traditional enterprise and its fixed container cannot survive in urbanism, as they are not equipped to adapt to the temporality of modernity, resulting in the death of Enterprises. The future Defu Industrial City should be designed such that the enterprises can sustain and adapt to changes, by facilitating ecosystems where they will always stay relevant, and creating environments where they will always be in demand.
04. THE WOBBLERS
AIR AS THE ENVELOPE | THE NEXT POSTURE IS THE BEST POSTURE
Year : 2021
Location : West Coast Park, Botannia
Site Area : 2500m2
Tutor : Tham Wai Hon
Floors are defined as the lowest point of contact with the body that prevents the user from falling into the space underneath. Currently, floors are only designed as flat, continuous surfaces with the primary aim of allowing people to walk on.
However, the floor is cold and can be better inhabited to reduce our reliance on external cooling mechanisms in the tropics. In addition, many cultures inhabit floors rather than furniture, and research has proven a correlation between this form of inhabitation and healthier lifestyles due to the constant movements involved while inhabiting floors that allow for a wide variety of postures.
Hence, this project hypothesises that floors should be the primary surface that users inhabit by exploring floors as surfaces that are thermally comfortably and surfaces that promote an active body. This is done by minimising surfaces, minimising supports and minimising structurse to make air the envelope that separates the body from heat.
05. COMPUTATIONAL FABRIC
Year : 2019
Tutor : Wu Yenyen
This exercise is about remapping and reinterpreting complex information systems, through a coded drawing of lines and shapes.
to be able to derive an intelligent and powerful system of code, it requires rigorous experimentation and exploration, to best understand the intrinsic set of information, and henceforth assign a code to each parameter.
this is followed by a translation exercise that involved rigorous experimentation and exploration with the material and actions applied to the material. it is a logical and systematic process that aims to best represent a unique set of complex information.
models of individual systems looking like this the models clarity to them, and can understood however, by models to a single system, complexity of the many intersecting as well as the multidirectional of lines in my coded drawing
models of individual systems looking like this the models clarity to them, and understood. however, by models to a single system, complexity of the many intersecting as well as the multidirectional of lines in my coded drawing
as such, i had to take a step look into the system in its meant that i had to look actions to represent a greater type, and create my model where nodes and lines are how they
as such, i had to take a look into the system in meant that i had to actions to represent a greater type, and create my model where nodes and lines how they
i came up with more actions, an interesting complexity different actions the lines in my me to better information from my final model managed to capture complexity as well
i came up with more actions, an interesting complexity when the different actions as when all the lines in my intersect.
this allowed me to better entirety of information drawing in my final model model managed to capture levels of complexity as well
additionally, models how the connections as can be when the connections and compounded it in forms shapes will final the models the as be the and compounded it in forms shapes will final the
06. INTERACTION DESIGN
Year : 2023
Tutor : Dr. Bimlesh Wadha
Navigating through indoor spaces can prove to be quite challenging for many individuals. Often, information boards are scarce and only located in central areas, leading to detours and frustration when trying to find a specific location. This issue is further compounded by inconsistent icons and symbols on existing indoor maps, making it difficult for users to understand and follow different navigational models. This problem is particularly prevalent in large and complex indoor environments such as shopping malls, airports, and hospitals. At present, there is no standardized indoor navigation platform available. Users must often search for individual locations online, which can be quite time-consuming and inconvenient. To address this problem, our group proposes a user-friendly application that simplifies indoor navigation with standardized maps and easy access to location information. The proposed application will use modern mapping technology to provide users with accurate and up-to-date indoor maps of buildings and other indoor spaces. These maps will be standardized, ensuring consistency across different locations, and will have clear and recognizable icons and symbols to facilitate navigation.
Furthermore, the application will allow users to easily search for specific locations and obtain detailed information about them, such as operating hours, available services, and current promotions. The application could also incorporate features such as realtime updates on the availability of parking spaces or the status of flights at an airport. By providing users with a comprehensive and user-friendly platform for indoor navigation, our application would make it easier for individuals to find their way around indoor spaces, ultimately saving time and reducing stress.
