Shawn Lee | Academic Compendium (2017-2021)

Selection of architectural works 2017 - 2021

Shawn Lee

ACADEMIC COMPENDIUM

My name is Shawn and I am currently studying Architecture at the National University of Singapore. I am an enthusiast when it comes to

film photography, specialty coffee brewing, plant

collecting, videography and environmentalism. I apply these dedicated crafts into my everyday life

and extract the discipline and patience needed, into my design works.

Architecture offers me an opportunity to envision

a future, unrestricted by the conventions of society. Personally, I express my design through

thoughtful detailings, sustainability and a great appreciation of materials and its qualities.

S H A W N

L E E

Architecture / Interior Design

shawnlee218@gmail.com https://issuu.com/shawnleesp https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnleesp/

K E Y

MI LE STO NES

Archival21 Exhibition Publications Exco (2021)

1st Runner Up: NEA Iloomination Competition (2021)

BCA I-Build SG Undergraduate Scholarship (2020) Valedictorian for School of Design (2018)

Diploma in Interior Design ( With Merit) (2018)

U-Phoria Architecture Design Prize (2018)

Director’s Honour Roll (2015-2018)

R E L E VA N T

E D U C AT I ON

Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, NUS (ongoing)

Diploma w/ Merit in Interior Design, Singapore Polytechnic

I transient / social infrastructures

[ Interstitial Territories ]

/ BA r ch Y3S1 Desig n St ud io /

II climatic / experimental

[ unSTRUCTURED ] / BA r ch Y2S2 Desig n St ud io /

III retail / experimental

[ The Great Forest Intervention ] / BA r ch Y2S1 Desig n St ud io /

IV social / public

[ The Forgotten Collective ] / I n te r i o r D esig n Y3S2 F in al Year P r o ject /

I transient / social infrastructure

[Interstitial Territories] Tutor: Wong Chong Thai, Bobby Transient Morphology for the Displaced

As construction takes place on the planned Defu Industrial Estate, each company needs to maximise space and cost when planning for storage and dormitories. New morphologies of interim hybrid structures, merging with onsite scaffoldings and birthing new functions in dead interstitial spaces between buildings. This site also plays host to a different marginalised community, the displaced/homeless, seeking refuge within the construction site, away from the developed and surveilled. As these interim structures expand across the site with different iterations, they represent the temporal nature of such transient architecture, formalising intangible qualities into tangible states, creating new interstitial territories, providing permanence with impermanent forms.

Greater Extent of Defu: Urban Map

URBAN AND SITE ANALYSIS Defu Industrial Estate sits at the South West border of Paya Lebar

Airbase, forming one of the many industrial estates in that area. The site is divided into redeveloped and an existing site, with its landlease ending in

2030. Surrounding the estate is residential areas as well as green pockets and canals, with the airbase sited to be transformed into residential use after its lease is up.

Exisitng Structures and Appendages

Defu Land Use

Vegetation

Imageability of the Site

MARGINALISED PERSONAS

Migrant Workers Current standards of living and our treatment towards migrant workers

have resulted in physical and emotional struggles in their day to day living.

From current dormitories unable to cope with pandemics like Covid19, to poorly designed and tight spaces for so many individuals to co-share.

This raises ethical issues on the living standards as well as ways to better

improve the lives of workers, thus improving their health conditions, and allowing for more productive work.

KEY AREAS OF CONCERN;

1. Lack of common spaces (with current outward facing hallways) 2. Cramped living conditions

3. Lack of personal space and boundaries

Displaced / Homeless With the varied degrees of homelessness in Singapore, it is still frowned

upon and constitutes as ‘dirty’ under the eyes of our law. These displaced individuals experience different issues, resulting in some form of

homelessness from social/familial and financial problems. The services

available to this community is small, with specific requirements to fulfil, this reduces the opportunity for the individuals to seek the assistance they need. In addition, hostile laws and regulations makes it hard for forms of vagrancy to take place here, as they will be forced into a welfare home.

KEY AREAS OF CONCERN;

1. Lack of dignity and anonymity for the individuals

2. Lack of support and nightly shelters to meet temporary needs

3. The inability to provide for themselves which promotes the vicious cycle of displacement

PREAMBLE Interstitial Territories

As construction takes place on the planned Defu Industrial Estate, each

the developed and surveilled. Using the confusing agglomerated mass, they

company needs to maximise space and cost-efficiency when planning

slip into the building at night seeking shelter. In the process, a symbiotic

for storage and dormitories. New morphologies of interim hybrid

relationship is formed between the marginalised personas, allowing for an

structures, merging with onsite scaffoldings and birthing new functions

exchange of services/goods and social relations. In the day, the homeless

in dead interstitial spaces between buildings. The structure grows around

slip out of the site to continue drifting while the workers get back to work.

construction core services, expanding informally to suit the migrant workers, forming an en masse of agglomeration. This provided the workers with

As these interim structures expand across the site with different iterations,

greater autonomy in living in exchange for higher productivity during work.

they represent the temporal nature of such transient architecture, formalising intangible qualities into tangible states, adapting and identifying fluid

This site also plays host to a different marginalised community, the

relations and functions of spaces. This creates new interstitial territories,

displaced/homeless, seeking refuge within the construction site, away from

providing permanence with impermanent forms.

TYPOLOGIES

DORMITORIES

Formal

KITCHEN

Formal

PUBLIC/PRIVATE SHOWERS

Formal

TOILET

Formal

SERVICES

Formal

MAKESHIF T WAREHOUSE/ROOMS

Informal

/ Architectural Guidelines

Occupying Dead Spaces between buildings

/ Spatial Hierarchy and Arrangement

Informal / Chaotic

Formal / Order

Elevated off the ground for groundworks c learance

Architecture of Deceit

Disguising Functions Utilising the mass of the structure and architecture, functions can be concealed within the everyday industrialist components. An example is using a ventilation duct, connected to diferent rooms, to form a tunnel and bringing the displaced around the interior.

Hidden Areas Concealed areas within formalised functions can also be achieved such as the idea of a false ceiling, above a Services component. This allows the spaces above to be taken advantage of.

Social and Trade With the various spaces created around, other informal loosely constructed spaces like a Games storeroom, could also create housing spaces, And as the sizes increase, features like shops and social gathering places can be created with this informal function.

II climatic / experimental

[ unSTRUCTURED ] (pair work project) Tutor: Yuan Chao Painting in the unforgiving forest

(catch the short film here) http://y2u.be/sv8ARCinemM

Utilising the forest as his muse, our painter seeks solace beyond the concrete jungle into the peaceful forest, painting the forest rainscape. Inspired by the naturalistic forms he surrounds himself with, he turns to biomimicry to provide a simple shelter. unSTRUCTURED explores the adaptability of form, providing a lightweight yet waterproof envelope, shaping to its environment and providing comfort for the painter in the rain. Beyond physical responses, the envelope cocoons the painter, providing a hideout from the beautiful yet hostile forest ecosystem.

/ Establishing Persona

/ Site Analysis: Coney Island

Also known as Pulau Serangoon, Coney Island

is located off the coast of Punggol, spanning a 100ha plot of mixed reclaimed land, the

park officially opened on the 10 October

2015. Despite being a man made forest, the systems and ecosystems forged on the island cannot be recreated. The park is also home to many habitats and terrains and home to the

ubiquitous Casuarina Trees along with 86 other

tree species, 157 animal species and 80 species of birds.

/ Biomimicry: Learning from the Natives

O B S E R VAT I O N

Weaving Technique/Binding Scavenged Natural Materials

C O M M O N TA I L O R B I R D

Orthotomus Sutorius

D E S I G N C O N S I D E R AT I O N S

1. Climatic Strategies (Comfort) 2. Portability (Usability) 3. Weaving (Form)

01

03

02

/ Ergonomic Analysis

Painting and anthropometric considerations

Painting and anthropometric considerations

Ergonomic positions of a shelter

/ Iterative Process Interim Two Progress

Scaled Models

Final Production

III retail / experimental

[ The Great Forest Inter vention ] Tutor: Randy Chan Reinstating real estate back to nature through a fashion design studio

At the confluence of nature and the man made, a new fashion atelier emerges in the heart of the mecca of fashion, Orchard Road. Tapping into the site’s rich history, we pay homage to the trees and reinstate real estate back to nature, in a bid to redefine permanence in fashion. This biomimetic concept contrasts our development in the industrial age and moving towards a more sustainable future. Inspired from the form and the ecosystem of trees and forests, the spaces aim to serve, educate and inform the public, breaking down the esotericism of high fashion.

We marked the beginning of our Fashion House brief with an excercise of

weaving. Situated in an urban farm along Henderson Road, a handbuilt wooden

Wayang Stage is staged admist our concrete jungle. The excercise? To weave a

bodily enclosure integrated with the structure, and surrounding our body. With the only requirement being 3 rolls of twine, we began the process of weaving.

I found myself a small corner on the right-side of the structure, partially sheltered by a blue tarp. I positioned myself next to the many wooden bracings and handrails, tightly woven with synthetic straps. To my left, a maturing Ficus

Benghalensis, Indian Banyan Tree, growing through the hole carefully removed from the frail wooden structure. Beginning with the first thread, I began to

map the surrounding with just twine and my hands. Passing through gaps and

branches, I slowly created an enclosure within, perfectly fitted for a chair and my body.

Without the use of tools, I was still able to understand the measurements of my

body and through my senses and the tactile experience of weaving, I was able to grasp an understanding of my bodily relations to my environment. My concept

for the weaving was to create a partially dense enclosure, shading me from direct

sunlight and concealing me from others present. It was interesting to see how a continuous piece of thread was able to traverse two dimension and forming a three dimensional sensorial cocoon.

Courtesy of Kwodrent.com “ In The Stillness “

Woman on Woman: Lace Exhibition (2008)

Interpreting the language of the pleat like forms, I understood the theme of lace, and this construction represented a form of constriction. As described by

Grace, she was inspired by the action of threading a temporary thread through

the fabric to hold it in place, and when pulled it resulted in this crumpled form. This action of pulling, resulted in a form of restriction imposed on the

fabric. This constriction then felt like a pause in time, an action that froze the fabric in place. However, exploring twisting and wrapping the construction around a body, it gives it a new dimension and allows our eyes to travel along

the lines created by this latter action. This created movement without the construction actually moving.

Main theme extracted: Movement and Structured Organicism

Materiality In Fashion

Studying Grace’s projects, no matter the medium or site context, she explores

the iterative process to understand the material she works with. Also responding to each brief and site context, her design changes and shifts in language and

dynamics, adapting to each situation. This adaptive process is very intriguing for me as it showcases Grace’s respect for materials. She understands each medium

by using tactile senses to mould and shape it to how it wants to be manipulated.

This allows the medium to perform best in a materiality sense and to also be best

intepreted for the brief. This sense of materiality is also significant when it comes to producing fashion.

N. 254

Orange Grove Road

Site Map N.T.S

Programmatic Zoning & Traff ic Flow

History of Orchard Road When the British arrived in the 1819s, they wanted to make use of the suitable growing conditions in Singapore, to harvest cash crops, so they brought in nutmeg, which grew in Indonesia in similar climate. They then grew the crops and sold it back to Europe as spices.

9am

12pm

5pm

Tree Density Mapping & Line of Sight

Teaching Studio

Retail and Material Explorations

Side Ent ranc e

Fitting Rooms/ Lounge

Material Research Facility

Main Entrance

BASEMENT L EVEL

P U BL I C PA RK

Principle Designer’s Apartment

Personal Working Area Semi Private Corridor

D e si gn C o n ce p t

At the confluence of nature and the man made, a new fashion atelier emerges in the heart of the mecca of fashion, Orchard Road. Tapping into the site’s rich history, we pay homage to the trees and reinstate real estate back to nature, in a bid to redefine permanence in fashion. This biomimetic concept contrasts our development in the industrial age and moving towards a more sustainable future. Inspired from the form and the ecosystem of trees and forests, the spaces aim to serve, educate and inform the public, breaking down the esotericism of high fashion.

Mycelium Roof Panels

Meeting & Designing

Ramp to Private Clients Parlour Private Lounge

Private Fitting / Consultation

Entrance / Reception

DESIGN STUDIO PL AT FORM

A PA RT M ENT & P RI VAT E PA RL O U R

Sectional Perspective with Design Details n.t.s

02

01

01 Platforms Oblique 02 Public Park 03 Exterior Render

03

[Left & Bottom] Basement Retail, view of central lightwell

IV social / public

[ The Forgotten Collective ] Allowing the public to understand more about dementia.

This project calls for a design of a Dementia daycare

centre. Situated in the heart of Casa Clementi, the

project integrated underneath a HDB, the design aims

to bridge the gap between users of the centre and the community. The Forgotten Collective revolves around

curating the spatial experience through materials, language and generative design to produce a transient and reflective space. Imitating the degeneration of the

brain, the space brings about the duality of the emotions

felt by patients and allows visitors to understand them better.

/ site plan

Casa Clementi is situated in a fairly new neighbourhood with a demographic of more multigenerational families.

With this, the site has adapted to suit wheelchair bound users and elderly by having gentle slopes and ramps.

CA S A CL EM EN TI BL K 42 5

/ sun diagrams

9 A M

12P M

4PM

7 PM

/ what is dementia?

DEMENTIA PAT I E N T S

7 AM

2 AM 7 PM

8 AM

Ge n e ra l te r m f o r a d e cl i n e i n m enta l abil i t y s e ve r e eno u g h to inte r f e r e w i t h da i l y l i f e.

1 PM

5 PM

User Rituals.

4PM

1 PM

5PM 8 AM 7 PM 11 P M

7 AM

CAREGIVERS

/ Interactive wall details

Level 1 Plan

Basement 1 Plan

Basement 2 Plan

/ exploded isometric diagram

D O U B L E L AY E R E D FAC A D E

Public Seatings

LEVEL 1

P rivate seatings

Music Therapy Room

BASEMENT 1

Librar y

C o m m u n a l Pa n t r y

BASEMENT 2

MUSIC THERAPY ROOM

GYM

ENTRANCE/GALLERY

C A R E G I V E R ’ S P R I VA T E AREA

LIBRARY S E AT I N G / PA N T R Y

/ zoning diagram

SOCIAL / PUBLIC

P R I VAT E / P R I VAT E

S O C I A L / P R I VAT E

Staircase

Suspended Concrete Wa l k w a y s

Vo r o n o i C o l u m n with f itted functions

C LT P a n e l F a c a d e

/ s e cti on BB: Cro ss S ect ion o f Int er io r s h ow i ng the diff erent l ayers and fac ade

Entrance Render

Music Therapy Room

Librar y / Social Area

P r i v a t e C a r e g i v e r ’s A r e a