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.