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.