Concept and Structural Study Models

Initally, the materials that I was going to use were timber and steel, to combine both to create a harmonious yet an alienated building to the site. As I went through more research, it was apparent that a change in materials is needed, hence after a long thought, I am using bamboo as primary and rattan as a secondary materials. It is light, flexible and it is a sustainable material, boast to be as strong as steel, yet capable of disintegrating itself. It grows faster and alot in quantity in comparison to timber. After treatment, it can last for 20 years, a very respectable limit. Here are some pictures of a couple structural studies on bamboo construction, inspired by Vo Nga Trong Architects. While doing this model, I took abit of time to create my initial concept idea in model form.

My Concept Model: Inspired by Rafflesia

Structural Study 1: Dessert Bamboo Dome

Structural Study 2: Bamboo Wings, Vietnam

Structural Study 3: wNw Cafe, Vietnam

A3 Booklet (1-12 Draft)

These are draft of the first 12 pages of my A3 booklet. The template design is to emphasis on Malaysia's natural beauty. There are on going work on page 8, hence its not uploaded.

My Thought 01: The WAF 09

The World Architecture Festival which was held in Barcelona from the 4th-6th of November was very refreshing, enabling myself a wider perspective of the architectural and design approach at a global standard. It showcased seminars and most importantly for me, presentations of buildings by international architects on a Powerpoint format with 10 minutes time limit. This was an opportunity for them to sell their shortlisted projects to juries, to be crowned 'Building of the Year' in their category. What was rather suprising is, some of the presentation was rather, bad to be honest. English may not be their 1st or 2nd language, but it is quite obvious that they are either unprepared or just nervous. Other great presentation, the concept and ideas are actually comparable to us students, the poetic architectural language that is used to describe the shape and feature, but what makes them stand out, is the approach, the understanding, solving and coming up with innovative strategical method that is simple, yet complex. The simplest way of how I understand it is, there is always a reason behind every curve and orientation. I believe that design development has to be thorough, and instead of saying, I want, its more of a, it needs, they need, we need, to solve and enhance an area. Some projects are exceptional, Foster+Partner, LAVA and Rafael Vinoly posted some intriguing experimental innovative design that would be on going soon. I would definitely want to visit the festival again, but not with a £200 receipt, but with an invitation from the EDAW S.O.S Competition or shortlisted for a building I designed in the near future. This has truly inspired me to work hard and be a part with the big boys.

Here are some pictures I took during the seminar and presentation:

Main seminar room

[Managing Explosive Urban Growth] Arturo Ortiz (Director, Taller Territorial de Mexico, far left), Sanjay Puri (Founder,Sanjay Puri Architects, 2nd from left), Meng Yan (Partner, Urbanus Architecture & Inc, far right)

[Governance: Obligations and Opportunities for Architect] Phillip Follent, Queensland Government Architect

Keynote Speech by Farshid Moussavi, Function of Form (co-founder of FOA, Foreign Office Architects)

There are 8 rooms which consist of 3 judges in each room. (from left to right, Charles Jencks, USA, Nabil Gholam, Lebanon [i think] and Simon Allford, UK)

[Making the Uninhabitable Habitable - Masdar City, The Most Radical and Ambitious Urban Development in the World] Chris Bosse (co-founder, LAVA, left) and Gerard Evenden (Senior Partner, Foster + Partners, centre)

Another judging panel (from left to right, Will Alsop, UK, Paul Walker, New Zealand and I do not recognize the guy on the right, sorry)

Keynote Speech by Rafael Vinoly on the 2nd day.

The Human Camera

This is something very interesting that I saw on bdonline, an artist drawing an aerial view of a city after just 20 minutes of looking, without refering back. I'll be quoting what bdonline said in the article.

Quote:
"Most architects have an eye for a nice building, but try looking at a building for twenty minutes and then going away and trying to re-create a life-like drawing of it. Now try a whole street. Now try a whole city.

Seems impossible, right? But British artist Stephen Wiltshire does just that and his latest exhibition features an 18 ft panorama view of New York as seen, for twenty minutes, from a helicopter.

After months and months of CGI's pinging into the straining inbox, these hand drawn images are refreshing and a reminder of just how amazing people can be, even without computers."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAfaM_CBvP8

If link is not possible, go to youtube and search Beautiful Mind, Stephen Wiltshire. Kudos to him.

Sketch 1.1 - Design Impulse

A few more design sketch impulse.

Sketch 1.0 - Design Impulse

Some quick impulse sketches I did while reading through some analysis and books.

Aerial Views - Site Dimension - Narrative

At this stage, we are currently doing a group project which tries to incooperate our thesis ideas within a certain theme. At the same time, I have been looking at my given site, scribbling and measuring the dimension to understand my site better.

...my Narrative in 25 words
"Expanding the development of tourism economy whilst providing rural villagers handicraft business opportunity towards a vision of the most liveable city in Asia by 2025."

...Aerial Views
...Site Dimension

...Superimposed on Site

Site - Concept

The site i have chosen is about 20 minutes drive north of Kota Kinabalu city, Sabah, Malaysia. It is a site that will be undergoing a masterplan development to expand the city tourism and industrial economy. The company in charge has agreed for me to design a conceptual idea for their amphitheatre. The amphitheatre is an initial idea that might change towards performing art as the design develop to suit the criteria. It is also very close to the Karambunai Resort and a golf course. The site has beautiful scenery with white sandy beaches to the West with clustered villages around.
My design concept towards the site would derived strongly based on the natural element of Sabah. I want to take an element that stands out and reflects itself as Sabah unique asset. As the site is in a village with virgin lands, the new development would be an alien, almost parasitic to the area. It tries to engulf the resource and opportunity but still maintain its natural beauty and keep visitors intrigue. This has urged me to use nature for inspiration, to be precise, Rafflesia as the base design concept as it reflect similar attributes to the development. Being the biggest flower in the flower, Sabah has 7 of its species out of the 27 around Asia. It is an endoparasite that has no leaves,stems or root. It is an alien to the nearby tree but it blends beautifully as part of nature. I want my building to have a similar feel which would only fit here contextually, creating a unique personality for the site.
There are other inspiration I could look at from Sabah's vibrant ecology but nothing is more fitting than the Rafflesia.

2nd year Project Dilemma - Resolve

After discussing my options with my personal tutor, i came to a decision to design an Amphitheatre which indirectly links itself to the resettlement programme, through the essence of culture, community, economy, medium and social infrastructure.

Things to do:-

- More background study and site analysis

- Start of my drawing concept and design development

Some precedents that i have been looking at:-

Asser Levy Amphitheatre, New York

Chene Park Amphitheatre

The Scoop Amphitheatre

2nd Year Thesis Dilemma

We were asked to think for our 2nd year project thesis during the summer holiday, and after awhile i confronted a dilemma towards a few project which would hopefully be interesting and at the same time, help contribute towards my profession and my hometown in the future.

Dilemma 1:
My first initial thought was highly influence by my Briggate project which concentrates on the oversupply of flats and the lack of understanding towards the masterplanning of Leeds, which led to the bombardment of flats and apartment without 'community' in mind. This created a high percentage of vacant houses which resulted to a 'ghostly environment', soulless living as Maxwell Hutchinson might say. This problem is reflected on the same problem back home in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. But instead of just oversupplying houses to the masses, there are oversupplied offices and shop lots as well. In fact, studies showed that, the supply of houses are apparently under control with more demands which i highly doubt of, based on personal experience. Here in Sabah, you experience the bombardment of shopping complex, where a long list of buildings are currently being constructed and expected to be finish at the same time. It is just the same here in Leeds where many apartment buildings are being constructed and expected to be done, nearly at the same time as well. So, i wanted to find a way to solve this complex barrage and try to redirect people's perspective in Sabah, with billions being injected into the city for projects, there are better ways of improving the city and shopping complex does not create any uniqueness or personality that reflects on the city's tradition and history.

Dilemma 2:
The wrong decision and lack of understanding of a site can normally lead to problems. Sabah, Malaysia is a state that concentrates on tourism as their 2nd main income. However, as the state develop, as stated in dilemma one, the construction of many shopping complexes which they think would bring prosperity would only bring more harm in my opinion and lead to vacant lots and eerier surrounding. Taking Briggate Street as an example, this small area of shops is bound to be more successful than, its shameful to say but, 5 shopping complexes in Kota Kinabalu. A city does not have to be big to be recognized, like York, UK is small but dense with history and culture, voted as one of the best city in Europe. In this dilemma, i am given the opportunity to design an Amphitheatre that would become a new focal point for tourist attraction to enhance the state's art dancing tradition and culture. Not only does it provide a better tourism economy, a design with architectural merit would highly benefit the city. It is something that i would promote in comparison with the shopping complexes. It also teaches the younger generation about our own culture that is being overshadowed by their clouded mind set. There is not enough exposure to influence and motivate teenager or kids towards history and culture.

Dilemma 2.1:
Apart from building an Amphitheatre for cultural purposes, there is another option given, where i could design a Cultural Centre, housing Art, Dancing and Language and a mini Cultural Museum.

Dilemma 3:
Although there is an oversupply of houses and shop, this has been concentrated towards the low, middle and high class people. For the ethnic society which i believe to be really poor, there is a resettlement programme that is being done for them, where they would be provided with a new house and a stall to sell their products to tourist. In the nearby settlement, there would be tourist village houses where the rents would contribute towards the society. This might sound like a cheap project, but it can be very interesting because its very sensitive towards the surrounding and villagers. This would also bring me towards detail design, a far cry from what i have done in the past, big buildings, general design that lacks intimate details. Based on some older news where resettlement programmes were done before, each house that were being constructed would need to cost Rm21,000 only, which in £ is just over £3,000 on the basis of the current currency. However, the problem that i face is that, this project is on a 110 acres land, and base on my understanding, there would be a variation of design instead of just the one and being copied. This is also a project that has been realized in the past before, and more are in store for the future to solved the poverty issue in Sabah.