Architecture Portfolio 2012 - 2019

•Sharifah Safira Albarakbah •

A RP HO C HR I T TF E CO TL U I RO E •2012 - 2019 •

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Centre for Local Caraft Research & Development Sentul, Malaysia Porous Pavilion Florisdorfer Wasserpark, Vienna, Asustria.

The Growing Territory Wiener Gurtel Strasse, Vienna, Austria.

The POP-up Crowds Blaydon-on-Tyne, Newcastle.

Irving’s Play[Ground] Newburn Haugh, Newcastle.

Professional

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Forest Retreat Matang, Malaysia.

Beach House Lundu, Malaysia.

House Renovation Green Heights, Malaysia.

Extension of BCCK Exhibition Centre Isthmus, Malaysia.

SEDC Multi-Storey Carpark Isthmus, Malaysia.

Community

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Re-use is in the Air Claremont Tower, Newcastle.

Aldea with ConstructLab Asturias, Spain.

The Urban Street Library Old Court House, Kuching.

S EW LO E CR TK E DS

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Centre for Local Caraft Research & Development Sentul, Malaysia Porous Pavilion Florisdorfer Wasserpark, Vienna, Asustria.

The Growing Territory Wiener Gurtel Strasse, Vienna, Austria.

The POP-up Crowds Blaydon-on-Tyne, Newcastle.

Irving’s Play[Ground] Newburn Haugh, Newcastle.

CR en es tr ea e r c fo h r & L oc D a ve l el Cr o p am f e t n s t

This studio lets you dream of a future from a position you are comfortable with, and have had a lot of experience of, inside the University. It asks you to completely re-think what learning and the production of knowledge in society might look like in the future. We need to explode the status quo and punch holes in the traditional structures of the city. It asks to re-think, re-imagine and use our own experience to look at what learning in a ‘univer-city’ may be in the future that comes from all scales of operation, from strategy to detail.

“We need, presumably, to start with a much stronger articulation of what a “good” society needs, beyond a productive economy. How we address the big challenges of today and we need to clarify the outcomes we are striving for - fairness, social justice, civility and tolerance, health and wellbeing, lifelong learning perhpas....This goes beyond what is sometimes a rather mealy-mouthed framing of “grand challenges”. These are more than challenges - this is about the kind of world we want to help create, based on a deep understanding of the forces which shape our collective future”.

- From Wonkhe

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Univer(c)ity As a studio, we collectively build our understanding of future university by making a mapping study of our own campus of Newcastle University to analyse both the hidden and visibile issues that exist within the campus. These maps were covered into several themes such as campus history and its development, campus density, movement, edges, perceived boundary and existing hard edges, visible and invisible infrastructure that are overlayed with each other that helped reveal and uncover wider issues that exist within the campus.

The analysis study done for the primer has allowed us to expand our study into wider set of issues that is not just limited within the physicality of the campus but also its relationship with the city, political, social as well as cultural context.

Centre for Local Craft Research & Development

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It is written that accessibility of Higher Education in Malaysia has improved significantly from 14% in 1980s to 44% in 2016. To achieve a developed nation status, Higher Education is one of Malaysia’s important sector to propel talent development in socio-economic growth. Often times, the problems of “development� in Malaysia in terms of economic and social that enhance the welfare of the people is disassociated to the past experience we have had. Formation of ethnic structure and their mindset in Malaysia can largely be traced back to educational patterns pre-independence times (Hisrchman, 1972:486). We will look at a brief history of how Malaysia, its melting pot of multi-races and formation of its social structure came from.

Kuala Lumpur, the urban capital of Malaya then started its life as a tin-mining settlement by the Chinese. This was followed by Indian settlements who became laborers for rubber plantations and where they made to do construction of railway maintenance workshops for locomotives and were occupying mostly in the areas of Brickfields and Sentul.

Kuala Lumpur began to grow and then later became the capital of the newly formed Federated Malay States. The Malay ethnics were scattered in its residing where most of them were living away from the urban and were involved in agriculture and farming. After gaining independence, all the states were consolidated into single entity to form Federation of Malaya and later in 1963 to form Malaysia. A national economic policy (NEP) was formed to counter the tension after the riot but the unstable system it has placed in its education policy but it was/is still perceived to continue to contribute to the polarization of the society, which eventually led to the issues of brain drain in the country.

Centre for Local Craft Research & Development

Thesis Outline Malaysia has had a long colonial history from the Dutch, Portuguese and British with Japanese occupation since our independence in the 1950s, our identity and culture, pattern of education system has been influenced by our colonial past.

One of the impacts that it has caused were that some areas of local knowledge became suppressed over time especially with Malaysia being a developing country and it is moving towards modernization very quickly. The general consensus of traditional knowledge is that it is perceived to be not consonant with times because they do not contribute meaningful application to the modern day. Among some of these areas of local knowledge were traditional medicines, fisheries, forestry and local crafts. Kuala Lumpur, the urban capital of Malaya started its life as a tin-mining settlement by the Chinese followed by Indian settlements who became labourers for rubber plantations who were settling in the city as well. Whilst the Malay ethnics were mostly scattered and lived away from the urban, that are more involved in agriculture, farming and crafting. Due to the artificial occupational segregation in the colonial past, this has not only resulted in the disparity of socioeconomic status but these traditional skills, local and rural knowledge became contained only in the rural and the industrialised areas.

Based on a text by Homi K. Bhabha, in the light of postcolonialism, the concept of the ‘third space’ describes new “productive” space that produce new “possibility”, “identity” and an “innovative sites of collaboration and contestation” (Bhabha 1994:1). As we move towards constructing a new development of narrative, there is a need to flourish the ingredients of our local cultural identity comprised of rich plural society that also recognizes the past as a condition in the present. The thesis looks into exploring the provision that uplifting traditional local knowledge and bringing it to global significance that envisions an institute for the future of research of local crafts. Therefore, my idea is to bring the cultural force of crafts into the city to prevent them from disappearing. I see that there is a need to push forward the activities of beautiful Malaysian craft such as the batik making, rattan weaving, fabric weaving, pewter making. The importance of these innovation for craft making and bring it to global significance for the future.

Therefore, my idea is to why not bring the cultural force of crafts into the city to prevent them from disappearing.

I see that there is a need to push forward the activities of beautiful Malaysian craft such as the batik making, rattan weaving, fabric weaving, pewter making. The importance of these innovation for craft making and bring it to global significance for the future.The idea of this programme is to connect students, researchers, academics, craft makers and artisans in these field to open up conversations, motivate the young and next generation of craftspeople. It will run 2 things - a research initiative to advance the understanding of local and national crafts in both cultural and education

institutions allowing think tank programs, lectures, research and residency programme to run collectively. It will also have a community space for local artisans and craft makers of both the traditional and contemporary to incubate and do collaborative works together. Therefore, the facilities will be divided into 2 main parts which are the Craft Innovation and the Craft Makerspace.

The Craft Innovation houses open passive plan of administrative offices, collaborative workspace, conference rooms to incubate and grow progressive ideas for future of crafts. The Craft Makerspace facilitates the community of artisans themselves. There are collective studios, large and small production spaces of and workshops for craft makers.

Attached to these main spaces are material library, material storage spaces, community library and open learning studio for the public to come and learn to make crafts.

My first investigation and identification of sites began from the city of Kuala Lumpur where I have identified a collection of old railway workshops in the city centre. Brickfields was the site of the main depot of the central railway workshops, which has been transformed into modern KL sentral and the main railway hub of the city of Kuala Lumpur now. Then there is another collection in Sentul Works, located in the North of Kuala Lumpur and 18 minutes from the city centre.

Sentul West houses several number of derelict buildings. The more interesting part of these derelict buildings are that what is left of today are mixed old-century structures of colonial works and post-world war II after the Japanese occupation still remain intact. Because of this interesting mixed elements of works, with the size and scale of the my thesis on craft making and production, the proposal of this centre is to restore an old historic depot of a railway workshop and storage to give it a new function and narrative.

As the site is plunged into a lush forest in a concrete jungle of Kuala Lumpur, the idea is to weave local natural materials into the existing elements of the existing colonial brickwork to hybrid’ the different language of ‘craftsmanship’. The mixture of architectural form, technique and materials is also in a way a metaphorical response that recognizes the past and moving towards the future through integration of architectural elements of the old and the new, the east and the west.

Bhabha, Homi K. 2004. The location of culture. London: Routledge.

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KTM Commuter Railway LRT Light Railway Monorail

Centre for Local Craft Research & Development

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retaining the existing colonial brickwork

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removing post-war reconstruction steel works

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5. existing elements of the depot and warehouses

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KTM Railway and Sentul Station -boundary between Sentul West and Sentul East

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existing condition of the spaces

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imagination of spaces with colored and patterned screens

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existing condition of the spaces

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imagination of spaces with colored and patterned screens

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Centre for Local Craft Research & Development

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan [originally at 1:200]

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Centre for Local Craft Research & Development

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Cross-Section

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Technical Section

Insertion of Courtyards

Merbau Timber Structure and Shutter Open

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P or ou s Pa v i L L io n

Water is a source of life, a basic commodity and an element that is important to life on Earth. Directly or indirectly, water affects all facets of life. Without it, there would be no vegetation on land, no oxygen for animals to breathe and the planet would not exist. As important as it is to life, water is also an integral part of Danube Island (Donaukanal) and its surrounding area as water carries historical significance in flooding the city of Vienna.

Sited on the Floridosdorf Wasserpark, a green water park with an existing filtration bed that filters water of the Danube rivers, Porous Pavilion will be a integrated sustainable community pavilion for the People of Vienna - the Viennese, the migrants, the refugees, the asylum seekers and the community to resource, grow, process, access, consume, learn, create and recreate through the power of herbs.

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Panaroma of Donau City

Flood Map of Vienna Elevation (164mm) Donau City 1848

Donau City 1700-1724 Donau City 1900-1924 This studio will critically review the definition of sustainable architecture, as well as propose designs that address the current refugee situation in Vienna. The main g[host] for this studio will be the landscape & environment that hosts and embraces our building designs. Analyse and critique examples of sustainable Austrian design, and gather geological/ecology/climatic information about the site are made as a group.

The aim of this studio is to design community centric buildings that celebrate and foster an understanding of the different cultures of past and present migrants. The building should also encourage the gentle integration of current migrants into Austrian society by offering employment opportunities through social enterprise. The building will also act as a learning tool by being exemplar examples of sustainable design with the use of renewable energies.

In the early 1990s, the water quality of the Old Danube was massively deteriorated. The trigger for the unwanted changes in the already popular bathing water was overfertilization with nutrients (Eutrophication).

The restriction of groundwater dynamics by the construction of the New Danube resulted in a significant reduction of water exchange in the Old Danube. Nutrients were discharged to a much lesser extent and remained in the system. Existing pollution had a stronger impact on water quality.

The water intake passes through a new biological filter bed, the surface of which has been landscaped with water plants to enhance the visual attractiveness of the installation. The embankment enclosing the filter bed is topped by a promenade creating a new landscape design feature that serves as an “outdoor living room� for visitors to the Water Park. Appropriate conditions for different types of plant were made to be planted in the large park area to filter and increase the quality of water in the Old Danube.

Porous Pavilion

[ urban water analysis ] [ New Danube / Donauinsel ] [ River Danube / Donaucanal ] [ Old Danube / Alte Donau ]

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Site Strategy - Water Filtration The Old Danube is a natural beauty spot, highly popular recreation that attracts large numbers of visitors every year. It is an important ecological niche and body of standing water in urban area that is extremely vulnerable to even the slightest changes.

Submerged plants, so-called aquatic macrophytes are vital in maintaining the good water quality of the Old Danube. It binds nutrients, reduces turbidity & keeps the water clear Types of water plants in the Old Danube: 1. Aquatic Macrophytes 2. Spiked water-milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) 3. Charophyte (stoneworts) EU LIFE+ project “Integrated Lake Management of the Urban Lake Alte Donau has objective of safeguarding the quality of the Alte Donau, as an ecologically valuable waterside.

Porous Pavilion

“Fresh herbs really belong anywhere you put them�

- Alex Guarnaschelli

The Aroma of Herbs The images above from (L-R) shows the process of how I have prepared a a twist of Somali Cuisine - Malawah - a sweet cardamom pancake that is dipped with curry sauce. The cuisine was made after the making of the chair as part of understanding the culture identity of the migrant group.

The process of preparation - from the ceremonial aspects-washing, choice of ingredients, technique of cooking have allowed me to link the significance of water and herbs of middle eastern culture - or in most cases, all culture taking their taste buds back to familiarity; home.

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Site - Florisdof Wasserpark Mapping the water on the Floridsdorf landscape was made through building a 1:2500 blue foam of surrounding buildings on site, 1:1000 kraft card of contour model with series of site collages for an understanding of the water cycle flow from rivers as well as existing contours to catch water from landscape run-offs.

Porous Pavilion

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Integration of Nature Inspired from the philosophy of “The Ethical Kitchen� which recycles water and food waste to nourish a living plant, this has influenced the approach of integrating water, the landscape and the accommodations especially to how the herbs are fed by ethic accounts of those who inhabit it into the design of the proposed pavilion and how it should understand the value of nature and consumption are connected.

Porous Pavilion

Texture

Aroma

cardamom

dill

Herbs Selection These are the primary herbs that are grow in abundance in the community pavillion along other herbs that are significant in its usage in the Viennese Cuisines and Middle East Cusines. These herbs having healing properties.

Flavour

cumin

cardamom

Color

mint

lovage

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“deep plate”

“pore”

“structures”

“life”

Pore - Void Spaces The initial sketches of the design were a bind of different elements from the biological drawings and experiments of ‘pore’ structures with different strategies. Taking influence of how herbs emulate to produce food (photosynthesis) through its stoma pore, the organization of programs were developed through analysing the relationships between the voids spaces and creating a ‘life’ in it.

Image : Initial sketch derived from biological drawing Precedent Images (top L-R): 1. America’s Cup Building - David Chipperfield 2. Sendai Mediatheque - Toyo Ito 3. Vegetable Trellis - Cong Sinh Architects

Porous Pavilion

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Lower Ground Plan

[ community ] 1. Community

1a. Reception

1b. Children’s Room

1c. Communal Area

1d. Open Lounge 2. Office 3. Meeting Rooms . Exhibition

4a. Permanent

4b. Temporary 5. Services

5a. Washroom

5b. Market Storages

5c. Utilities 6. Irrigation Pond 7. Existing Biofilter Bed

dry

store

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Ground Plan

[ access & consumption ] 6. Market Pavilion

6a. Herb Market

6b. Open Market 7. Local Cafe

7a. Mezzanine Cafe

7b. Kitchen 8. Steps to Park

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First Floor Plan

[ production, processing, learning ] 8. Growing Herbs

8a. Soil Planting Area

8b. Preparation, Working and Cleaning Area

8c.Herb Bank

8d. Drying Herb Area

8e. Pickling Herb Area

8f. Herb Storage Area 9. Services

9a. Storages

9b. Utilities

9c. Washroom 10. Community Kitchen (11 Hobs)

10a. Open Kitchen

10b. Demonstration Kitchen

10c. Group Preparation, Work & Cleaning Area

10d. Food Pantry 11. Community Dining (100pax)

11a. Outdoor Terrace

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Porous Pavilion

INTEGRATED SECTION [ ORIGINALLY 1:100 ]

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Rainwater Journey Through Spaces

Level 3 [ Production, Processing, Learning ]

‘TELL-THE-TALE’ DETAIL [ ORIGINALLY 1:25 ]

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BioDiverse Green Roof

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Typical Wall

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Rotating Reflecting Mirror (to prevent birds flying all the way through tube)

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Suspended Ceiling System

-Hanging Wire

-Suspended Flourescent Light

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100mm Metal Ring Timber Sun-Shading/RainScreen Cladding

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50mm Cement Screed 10mm Plywood Board 100x50 Timber Joists 110mm Grill Covered Drain Galvanised Steel Balustrade 250mm (7 Layer) CLT Floor Slab 350mm CLT Ring Beam 5mm CLT Perimeter Strip Flushed Coffered Light around Ring Beam

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PTFE Membrane Layer Copper Rain Chain

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Hybrid Steel-Glula Timber Pinned Base Connection

-Steel Bolted to Base Plate

-250mm Glulam Column Concrete Footing

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Biofiltration System to Filter Water

Level 2

Plant Vegetation 200mm Biodiverse Substrate Filter Fleece Drainage Layer Protection Mat 300mm CLT Slab Suspended Ceiling System

100mm CLT Wall 50mm Services Void 25mm Timber Battens 12mm Plaster Board

[ Access & Consumption ]

Level 1 [ Community ]

Inflow Pipe Water Filter Medium [Gravel/Crushed Rock] Drainage Layer Film Liner Outflow Pipe Filtered Water- to Storage Tanks for Clean Water Storage/ Reuse for Irrigation Outflow Pipe Unfiltered Water - to Drainage

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Water Type & Filtration Strategy Used

rain-water/grey-water filtration using bio-filtration system

clean water

used for irrigation and some are stored in storage tanks for reuse

green-roof aid to filter particulate of any pathogen spores

bio-filtration irrigation/storage tanks existing filter bed

run-off to rainwater garden landscape run-off catchment

unfi

ater to ltered w

drainag

e pipe

excess water

is released to existing filter bed in Wasserpark > Old Danube

Porous Pavilion

Herbs Growing Conditions

Herbs can be grown outside in a raised bed or vegetable plot which allows harvesting easier and creates a rich scent on hot sunny days. Growing herbs indoors is a convenience and extends the season for annual herbs.

Generally, herbs require at least six hours of sunlight per day. During spring or long winter times when there is irregular access of natural light, artificial lights are used to grow the herbs such as flourescent light setup shown above. Lights are placed directly above herbs to mimic natural sunlight coming from overhead so that they grow up and evenly.

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Solar Gain & Solar Shading Because of the high usage of glass in the facade of the enclosed spaces of the pavilion, solar is gained at maximum especially during the summer thus the cantilevered floors and overhangs

Additional Device & Elements -Rotating Mirrors to keep birds flowing all the way through the tube -Flushed Drainage in Herb Drying Room to ensure the water drips are channelled -Timber Screen Cladding acts as a rain-screen and solarshading

Porous Pavilion

‘rain-water collection’

‘courtyard spaces’

‘services/lifts’

Ventilation Strategy In each type of the pore voids, they are not only designed to create a ‘life’ in it butscross-ventilation and stack ventilation configurations are incorporated as a strategy to ensure an efficient cycle of air flow.

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G ro w i ng T e r r i to ry

The Growing Territory is conceived as critical to provoke the an already dense inner-city development with large courtyards (the so-called “superblocks�), to provoke what is non-inherent to the communities of Vienna and to counter spaciously laid out settlements in the urban fringe.

The Growing Territory will be a housing project for the Urban Games in the year 2028, housing the urban athletes, urban tourists and urban generations to come.

Whilst the Olympics has its tendency to situate themselves in the in a suburb, drastically seperating themselves from the urban life, The Growing Territory for the Urban Games grows innately within the city, surrounding an urban life supplied with urban facilities. Designed to be adapatable in time and place for future communities, the Urban Games territory will blur the boundaries of the districts but strings visible in the cityscape of Vienna.

As an anti-thesis to mainstream avant-garde architecture of the urban fringe, the Growing Territory challenges that by growing itself in the urban city in unit blocks where they are built along the former fortification wall, now replaced with urban infrastructures running along it. Using the Gurtel as an urban strategy and catalyst as a driver to provoke the urban texture of Vienna.

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The Growing Territory In March 2013, Vienna’s Citizens resoundingly rejected the city’s grand plans to host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympics Games in a public referendum, where a majority of nearly 72% of its citizens said “NO” to a potential bid. Concerns on the estimated £10 billion cost and possible overspending make most citizens think that money could be much better spent differently.

This decision opened a trend that continued in other central European cities in the 2010s, such as Hamburg, Davos, St Moritz and Munich, whose residents also voted against bidding for summer or winter Olympic Games due in the 2020s. What used to be unanimously received with enthusiasm by citizens in the 1980s and 1990s seems to raise several concerns since the beginning of the financial crisis in the 2000s. In spite of the urban success of games such as Barcelona ‘92, recent failures like Rio ‘16 with several venues currently abandoned, seem present in the collective memory.

This studio does not pretend to ignore the popular vote and merely propose a conventional Olympic for Vienna. Quite the contrary, listening to citizen’s voice but using the games as an excuse, the experimental proposition aims to stimulate the capacity for re-thinking Vienna as a city, through experimentation that acts deliberately as a provocation aiming to erode the distance between the city, the Olympic Games and the citizens.

The Olympic games go beyond the spectacle of athletes competing in a stadium. They also offer opportunities to define and coordinate urban and architectural transformations, which are difficult to achieve under normal circumstances. Paradoxically, a sporting event whose timescale barely spans two weeks has the potential to make radical changes to the development of a city. Eventually, they involve the transformation of an entire city into a stage.

This Studio Semester’s provocation and leap of faith is that the Olympic Games will be coming to Vienna in 2028 where we will work on the hypothesis that the city decides to explore its options to revisit the Olympic plans reacting to the public vote. The site of the project will be determined by the Wiener, Gurtel Strase: Vienna’s main beltway.

One of Vienna’s former fortifications, the city is trying to overcome its reputation as red-light district, aiming to become an activating infrastructure of the urban space, a generator of architecture and, eventually, an Olympic Ring.

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Re-thinking the Olympic Village “The Mission of the Olympic Village is to provide necessary accommodation, services, and recreational activites for the convenient use and enjoyment of athletes and everyone from around the world to be able to live together in solidarity and friendship, forming a unique living experience. The mission of “Athletes first” is essential and followed through during planning and operations for the Olympic Village” (Olympic Village Technical Manual 1.1, pg 34_319) The Olympic Village statistically houses at least 12,000 athletes participating in the Olympics, which is usally left abandoned and neglected after. Using this as an excuse to densify Vienna, this allows me to develop my idea to the next stage which was to rethink the planning concept of a conventional Olympic VIllage.

50% Viennese have migration background, 34% were born abroad, 27% are non-Austrian passport holders. Vienna has seen the strongest population growth of Austrian provinces.

In 2016, more than 138,000 persons moved to Vienna from abroad or from other Austrian provinces. 38% Viennese that is 704,902 persons had foreign background, 27% that is 504,197 held foreign nationality. The total population of Vienna in all 23 districts is 1,840,226.

The Viennese population has grown by 11% from 1,652,429 to 1,773,000 where the population is expected to increase by another 250,000 by 2029.

More than 1/3 of new migrants come to Austria from abroad each year, move to Vienna where most of them come from European countries. As the second fastest growing city in Europe, we would expect an inclining growth of population in the city.

The statistics show a reasonably consistent number of visitors in 2000 and 2004, with a considerable increase in 2008 and a further slight increase predicted for 2012. These numbers show a considerable increase in interest over the last 12 years.

A number of conclusions could be drawn from this, with a possible one being that people are becoming more interested in sports, the athletes, the city and the Olympic games themselves.

Overlay of Site Collage reveals that not only the urban infrastructure drives to connect cities, but this has helped in revealing an idea to create a pattern of growth to hyper-densify the Gurtel using the Olympic Crowd (or ‘Density’) at a large scale.

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In the period of these years, the planning of infrastructures in context to the Gurtel takes place whereby the existings are retrofitted, adaptive reuse of the olds and vehicular re-routes take place accordingly to serve the crowd of the present in preparation to the 2028 Urban Games.

2028 Scenario

The project investigates to augment the ambition of an idealism of Urban Games that are enriched through interweaving of programmes that are adapted for habitation, recreating and transporting.

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Historically, in 1919 after World War I, the city erected 60,000 apartments for lowincome groups, a bold step taken in the political platform during the Red Vienna period by the social democrats to do a housing reform, which ruined the city’s private market in a way and monopolized the housing sector to radically reduce the density of development.

During the Red Vienna Government, properties had become so inexpensive that the city could afford to radically reduce density of housing developments that they were so cheap to be built on. The housing program during the Red Vienna period inverted the ratio between built-up and green areas, which was 20% and 80% respectively at the best-case scenario. The City of Vienna has seen successful shift in the housing sector since the 1970s from comprehensive renovation, urban expansion to a gentler urban renewal.

Vienna has neighborhoods, but density isn’t limited to just a few urban villages. The density of Vienna is largely centralized and relentless. Vienna’s zoning is broad and deep–generally six to eight stories over several blocks. Joe Copeland wrote in his piece describing Vienna housing policies that much of the new social housing in Vienna is low rise.

Overlay of Site Collage reveals that not only the urban infrastructure drives to connect cities, but this has helped in revealing an idea to create a pattern of growth to hyper-densify the Gurtel using the Olympic Crowd (or ‘Density’) at a large scale.

The existing infrastructure of the Gurtel is treated as an urban texture that acts as a tool and catalyst of urban densification to overpopulate the Gurtel. Loading the Gurtel with socially binding functions, in which living and recreating are concentrated and consolidated for the neo-modern civilization.

The Urban Games intervention wil also be a response to the increasing urban density of Vienna.

The Urban Games marks its legacy through leaving its marks throughout its territory (spreads across the city), evidently providing transformation in the urban fabric with its changing demography. This territorial legacy serves to occupy the Gurtel continously in a growing manner, leaving the host city of the Urban Games as not only as a piece of memory but to serve urban generations to come.

The Growing Territory

‘Density has always been important to the history of Western Cities: it has played a leading role in the development of urban space and community life’ (Jean Pierre, n.d page 9)

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2020 Urban Facilities Planning of the urban facilities are zoned through operational, international and residential zone which follows the planning data of the conventional Olympics Village with the Urban 2020 Scenario urban facilities planned 8 years prior to the Games.

The facilities are spread throughout the city, which co-exists in the city for the year 2028.

LEGEND urban facilities operational zone international zone residential zone material transfer area

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The Growing Territory

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The Growing Territory

The 2028 Scenario The 2028 Scenario here where storages, warehouses, material transfer areas along with urban sports facilities such as skatepark, soccer courts, play area with the construction of urban housings for the Urban Games are taken place, accommodating the large crowd it brings.

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Play Area

75M

6.5M 0.0M

-13.0M

Recreational Area

The Growing Territory

Outdoor Training

Sports Facilities

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Tower Type 1

Tower Type 2

The Growing Towers

The growing territory provoke Vienna’s pioneering “superblocks” further, where the accommodation towers are built not only for the purpose of the Urban Games but will grow metabolically in time and place. They will hyper-densify the districts within the city of Vienna, making the city as the fastest growing city in Europe.

The towers exist as part of the territory of the Urban Games whilst bringing radical changes to Vienna’s cityscape as it radically exists along the former fortification wall of Vienna.

The Growing Territory

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Treatment Centre

81M

57M

27M

6.7M 0.0M

Dining Area

The Growing Territory

Training Centre

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T he P O PU P Cr o w ds

The project explicitly explores architecture’s relationship with, and role in the production of, territory through the making of a small piece of architecture and this was done through to exploration of thick thresholds and thin limits, or how zones between spaces operate to encourage and enhance alternative territorialisations.

Territory is not the same as site. It is a particular field of influence, occupation, atmosphere and intensity. Taking the Blaydon Races as a territory, series of drawings were created which lead to the foreground siting of my intervention -

‘The POP-up Crowds’; an architectural proposition of performative ground that receives crowds for the film lovers, and for the performing arts enthusiasts.

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A set of drawing is created to draw a particular ‘territory of the Tyne’ whereby the ‘drawing’ here suggests and explores different media and techniques to represent a territory. The ‘drawings’ that I have produced was my response towards the legacy of the Blaydon Races taken as a means of conceiving architectural territory and as a method of representation.

The collage puts together a series of paper assemblages of horse races, characters, sword dances, hoppings, parades, calvacades and fictional account of the journey as well as laser cut maps and ‘confetti’ cut outs to lay out the narrative elements of the races. This was a technique I borrowed from CJ Lim’s collage in his Short Stories: London in two-and-a-half dimensions.

The collage was an intention I carried out to see how and where these form of mapping a narration would take me. A series of imaginative ‘islands’ slowly began to emerge from the multiple assemblages in the collage. These ‘islands’ read as moments of intensity that is hidden but exists and is felt within the city much like how the Blaydon Races song itself still lives and now adapted as football chants.

The POP-up Crowds

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Within these reading of imagined ‘islands’ of moments of intensity, there are possibilities of multiple sets of particular programme that could capture the larger agenda of the territory in the city. What it seemed to promise in this context is that there is a programme of scenarios and figure that interacts with each other.

“The new institutions of the city will perhaps occur at the moments of intensity, linked to the wider network of the urban field, and marked by not by demarcating lines but by thickened surfaces.”

(Allen 1999, p. 98)

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danceshoppings beer festival parades coffee johnny characters chaos

colours crowds races

The POP-up Crowds

tracing crowd route

extracting ‘islands’ of possible scenarios

characterising to materialise

scaling of crowd

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1. Ticketing Box 2. Projection Box 3. Performative Ground 4. Cinema Screening 5. Bar & Bistro 6. Seating Area 7. Outdoor Screening 8. Step seats 9. Crowd Control Entrance Barrier

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The POP-up Crowds Hanover Diaries

The Blaydon Centre Sentinel Garden Sheds St. Cuthbert Church hall

The Tectonic The trusses allow reflectors to be hunged and allow shows like aerial silk dance to be carried out. They can assess this through the stairwell in the core. Metal decks/timber board can be attached on the beams if required for performance that needs to be levelled off the ground.

Steel beam structures are introduced to allow different sets of performance that may require height to be carried out such as acrobatic show. It also act as a wall projection for film screenings and provides circulation route to the performative space. it can be cladded when it needs to or when it requires privacy.

Detailed Section of ‘Wall’ Screening 1:50

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The Concept

testing ‘islands’ of intense crowds as [blocks] to ‘form’ a distribution of people

Section 1:200

The POP-up Crowds entrance of crowds

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01[night film screening]

The POP-up Crowds

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02[performative ground]

The POP-up Crowds

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The POP-up Crowds

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The POP-up Crowds

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I rv in g s’ P l ay G ro un d

This project brings the territory of the Blaydon Races to rethinking of the city. What we know is that the territory is made by the city and created by the social conditions of the city. This project asserts architecture’s role in planning strategy of different social and ecological scales to address architecture territorially.

It also addresses questions of what form the production of architecture,what spatial arrangements that encourage the formation and co-existence of the territory and what material interventions do to promote and engender differing territorialities.

Irving’s Play[Ground] brings a different type of crowds - crowds of the city and by the city.

“assembled crowd is an anonymous mass, whose composition is unknown and whose allegiances are unclear” [2]

[2] Munro, I. (2005). The figure of the crowd in early modern London. New York: Palgrave Macmil-lan, p.10

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Irving’s PlayGround

‘Ridley Meeting!’ at Irving’s Play [Ground] 9th of June 11.34am 4.15pm

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...from Collingwood Street

The Racing Route

The identified ‘islands’ of intensity or now introduced as sites are each linked to one another. These sites would supply different components of programme that would attract different type of crowds.

The intensity of the imagined ‘island’ is captured through the formation of these crowds and then contained and assimilited with programmes that was culturally and socially conditioned from the past such as horse fairs, outdoor cinema, beer festival, gentleman’s club, the hoppings, social clubs, music festival, dance hall and stage-set factories. These set of programmes supplement each other and then constitute to the other ‘islands’ within the territory.

The Blaydon Races holds a unique place in the heart of every Geordie that the people actually petitioned in 2010 for Newcastle and Gateshead Councils to work together in an active engagement with the people of Tyneside to develop a fitting programme of celebrations and events to commmemorate this pivotal moment in their history.

To help deliver an appropriate celebration of George Ridley’s world-famous anthem of Tyneside, an on-street event on the actually anniversary of 9th of June, is now celebrated through modern-day athletic race, and some other series of additional “satellite” events such as a weeklong beer festival at the Hotspur Pub, and a “Geordie Oompah” event at The Ware Room. The Campaign Group continues to hold discussions with a broad range of other local organisations and institutions regarding additional events that they will hold to support a wider celebration of the anniversary.

Irving’s PlayGround

The proposal for this project is to introduce a new set of programme of event for the Blaydon Races that involves the scale of horses & crowds; a celebration that would bring the horse race back to life again.

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...along Scotswood Road

Irving’s PlayGround

binocular viewing

monocular viewing

attached for pitstop/shelter for social pub or trap repair

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...to Irving’s PlayGround

Irving’s PlayGround

setting out architectural elements from sets of ‘drawings’ and then filtered to establish inhabitation of spaces, enclosure, structures, lines, planes, and volumetric masses

stables lodge

the playground

The blotches in black box shows dispersion of the same nature connected to each other. The green box takes on a larger scale of possible programme of inhabited space that could accommodate 3,000-20000 crowds.

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atmospheric plan Academic

view of the playground in bringing scale of horses,crowds, landscape and structures

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The Open Crowd The horse racing track along Scotswood Road is introduced, whereby the crowds would encounter viewing towers and small social spaces as an implicit of the journey in the song by Ridley upon reaching the Playground.

On normal days, the site would be opened up as a playground for horses and as a riding centre for the community. The stables lodge would serve as a destination to host visitors who do not own trailers during the race day but serves as a hotel that would supplement visiting associates within the industrial estate.

Marquee Pop-Ups [Festival] on the event complex

Irving’s PlayGround

The Closed Crowd The ground plan brings together both the human world and horse world. Within an industrial ‘city’ projected by Newburn Haugh, the event complex in the human world will serve as an event space.

Within the horse world, there will be stables, carriage/trap workshop that will facilitate the race day especially, pastures, riding rings, pastures, paddocks, and the playground are fenced, paved, bounded by walls and blotches of plants to create boundaries and paths for the horses.

The riding arenas will be indoor and will be a mere open space to facilitate dressage, horse shows and other forms of entertainment bringing both men and horse together. The gantry serves to instigate events, connect the two worlds together.

Race Screening & Live Betting on bounded wall

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Section a.a

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1. 100mm clean angular stone sub-base 2. concrete 3.100mm sand 4. 50 mm rubber 5. insulation 6. steel beams 7. steel connector plate 8. gutter 9. drip-edge 10. damp-proof membrane (DPM) 11. roof sheeting 12. roof batten 13. rafter 14. wall-tie 15. 75mm x 150mm brick 16. porous asphalt 17. 100mm land drain 18. wire for light fixture 19. batten 20. fluorescent lighting 21. door

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The Event Centre

Open riding arena

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Stables Lodge Plan 1 lobby 2 toilets 3 bistro 4 kitchen 5 service entrance 6 horse parking 7 horse garden 8 lounge 9 laundry area 10 bedroom 11 bathroom 12 corridor 13 courtyard 14 security barrier 15 Storage room 16 services

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1 lobby 2 toilets 3 bistro 4 kitchen 5 service entrance 6 horse parking 7 horse garden 8 lounge 9 laundry area 10 bedroom 11 bathroom 12 corridor 13 courtyard 14 security barrier 15 Storage room 16 services

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P R O F F E S S I O N A L

Professional

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Forest Retreat Matang, Malaysia.

Beach House Lundu, Malaysia.

House Renovation Green Heights, Malaysia.

Extension of BCCK Exhibition Centre Isthmus, Malaysia.

SEDC Multi-Storey Carpark Isthmus, Malaysia.

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Collaboration & Community

2016 - 2017 COUNTRY REATREAT HOUSE, MATANG

[ PREPARATION & BRIEF - TECHNICAL DESIGN]

Collaboration & Community

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2017 BEACH HOUSE, LUNDU.

[ PREPARATION & BRIEF - CONCEPT DESIGN]

Collaboration & Community

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Collaboration & Community

2016 PROPOSED FOR HOUSE RENOVATION, GREEN HEIGHTS.

[ CONCEPT DESIGN ]

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Collaboration & Community

2016 PROPOSED EXTENSION OF BCCK EXHIBITION CENTRE, ISTHMUS.

[CONCEPT DESIGN]

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Collaboration & Community

2016 PROPOSED MULTI-STOREY CARPARK FOR SEDC, KUCHING. [CONCEPT DESIGN]

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C O M M U N I T Y

Community

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Re-use is in the Air Claremont Tower, Newcastle.

Aldea with ConstructLab Asturias, Spain.

The Urban Street Library Old Court House, Kuching.

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OCTOBER ‘18

RE-USE IS IN THE AIR | CLAREMONT TOWER, NEWCASTLE. [CO-ORGANISED A PROJECT FOR CHARETTE WEEK] IN-COLLABORATION WITH TIBO LABAT

Collaboration & Community

Our aim was to ensure every material we had salvaged from the fourth floor of Claremont Tower was included in some way within the design charrette. The material specification was a great exercise to get the students thinking of how we could reuse the materials in a way which would give them potential to be reused, dismantled and reused again.

We approached the design charrette with no confirmed design in mind. We were however certain that design of whatever we were to build must have the ability to be dismantled and reused elsewhere. It would seem a waste of such an amazing opportunity to use the materials from Claremont Tower if where they where to only be used once again and for exhibition purposes. As identified within the practice review, one of the failures of reusing materials within an exhibition concept, was that they tend to be something temporary. The message is there during whilst the material prototype is standing but then for all we know they can then be or will be dismantled and skipped having only been reused once again.

To ensure this was not the case for the materials of Claremont Tower, we came up with a modular design that would involve making boxes. These boxes would then be assembled and take the form of a miniature replica of Claremont Tower. Once the design charrette had concluded, we could then dismantle the boxes of materials and they could be repurposed elsewhere. We identified the need for storage within study spaces and imagined the boxes integrating themselves within our own studio culture. As well as this, larger boxes could be used as plinths in presentations or as seating in social spaces.

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Collaborative & Experimental Practices

Reuse in Practice

Research-Practice

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“Materials have their own biographies as they may become exchanged or end up within an entirely new project.� 1 Arjun Appadurai, The Social Life Of Things (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), p. 18.

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JUNE - JULY ‘18 ALDEA | ASTURIAS, SPAIN

[COLLABORATION FOR INFRASTRUCTURE OF ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE] INLAND.ORG & CONSTRUCTLAB

Invited by Inland, an ‘arts collective dedicated Collaboration Community to agricultural, social and cultural& production’ (retrieved from http://www.inland.org), and the support of the Goethe-Institut Madrid, Constructlab temporarily moved into The Art and Agroecology Center, a 17th century mountain village in the north of Spain.

The undisclosed set of rural constructions is an experimental model village for the collective. A rural base that welcomes the New Curriculum; ‘a multidisciplinary knowledge program around the relationship between art, farmers’ knowledge and agroecology’ (retrieved from http://www.inland. org). The practice-based curriculum seeks to foster active exchange between different areas of knowledge in order to reunite culture to nature, city to countryside and create synergy towards a sustainable rural development.

Presently undergoing the first phase of recuperation, the semi-inhabited village is to be fully restored in the coming years in order to welcome both a permanent set of residents (Inland group), and temporary ones (artists, students, scientists, researchers … ). The restoration process is to take place in parallel with the New Curriculum meetings, allowing for the development and direct application of the knowledge shared and created in these meetings to transpire through the activities on the site.

The village will therefore not only be recuperated through the renovation of its physical structure, but also through the cultural and social production that arises from the activities related and surrounding the construction of it.

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In preparation for the New Curriculum, Constructlab was asked to develop a set of infrastructures to welcome the first gatherings (from June until September 2018). Departing from the question of what it means to re-inhabit an abandoned rural space, the group set up to build the basics; beds, showers and toilets, a kitchen and a gathering area. Enough elements to house a temporary community, with its own set of backgrounds, needs and expertises.

Three out of the eleven buildings that compose the village were invested on throughout our intervention. First, by the setup of an outdoor atelier under an horreo (granarie) to support the rest of the building work. Then, by the restructuration of two horreos and a former barn into dormitories. The later being complemented by an open structure built as an attached extension; hosting an access to the second floor of the barn, a set of showers and sinks and underneath them a chicken coop.

By the end of the building site, the atelier was transformed into a kitchen connected to an adjacent meeting and dining place, defining a central space for cohabitation.

The construction, that first started as a solitary mission, was complemented and implemented through the arrival and departure of different groups of people throughout our stay, slowing investing other parts of the village. Sleeping, eating, living and working on site together, became an active way of exploring the village and its ecosystems. The construction weeks and succeeding gathering were moments that brought, in both a theoretical and active way, visions, questions and reflections about the village and its surroundings.

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JULY ‘17 - FEBRUARY ‘18

THE URBAN STREET LIBRARY | OLD COURT HOUSE, KUCHING [ ORGANISED + MANAGED CORPORTATE SOCIAL PROJECT]

Collaboration & Community

The Urban Street Library is part of Arkitek KDI’s campaign to spread awareness on literacy and cultivate a culture of reading regardless of time and place by providing a free literary experience for the members of the public. The project’s mission is to encourage reading, sharing and community spirit through a small-scale urban intervention in engaging public spaces of Kuching. Literacy is a basic human right, the most integral tool in building human civilization and development as a whole. Sarawak has consistently recorded the lowest literacy rates in Malaysia yearly, especially among the poor and marginalized indigenous demographics.

In an effort to narrow the education gap between rural and urban populations, Arkitek KDI Kuching implemented a literacy campaign as part of their CSR program for the year 2017. This started as a series of pop-up libraries filled with free books; an urban intervention in the streets of Kuching. Arkitek KDI decided to utilise their platform as architects to invoke community engagement and promote organic societal growth, all through design.

The literacy campaign began with the Urban Street Library Competition; with a simple brief - to design the most engaging and interactive stand-alone public library that can house 40 books within 5m3. The ‘site’ was the Old Courthouse in Kuching. 83 registrations were received from Malaysia, the UK and Australia, resulting in 37 library design entries.

Their design and construction were put to the test during the month-long installation period atThe Old Courthouse.This initiative is a testament to our youths’ talents and passion; judging from the public interest generated by this project so far. All three libraries are installed on the grounds of Old Courthouse for public enjoyment; filled with donated books that are completely free and accessible.

The philosophy of “Take a book, Leave a book,” creates a cycle of books from the people, for the people. At the end of the installation, the remaining children’s books will be donated to rural schools within Sarawak.

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