Architectural Design IV
This module emphasizes 'Engaging environment and community' in architecture. The module aims to introduce students to an exploration of harnessing environmental qualities and conditions for human sustainability through a project with a specific community of users within a given context. The objective of this module is to allow students to develop awareness of environmental sustainability within context in architectural design, imperative and inter-related environment and social needs as well as make poetry through creative use of materials and structure.
Project 1: Disability Experience pavilion
In groups of 3, students are to design a simple structure such as a pavilion, folly, playscape, relief, or an architectural installation which is themed around a Disabilities Experience Pavillion as the subject of exploration for Project 1. The exploration is centered around the notion of addressing universal accesibility as well as the spatial experience of physically disabled users in this project will relate to the programmatic requirements in Project 2. The objectives of this project is to develop awareness of environmental sustainability in architectural design, develop the students ability to meet imperative and inter-related environmental and social needs, as well as make poetry with materials and spaces, and to develop understandings on human scale, proportion, ergonomics, and materiality.
Site Analysis and Design Response
The site analysis and response establish an understanding of the context for Project 2. Using the provided site data and information, as well as further information gained from site visit, students will identify the intangible qualities together with the physical inventory that shape the character of the site. In their respective tutorial groups, students will identify the tangible qualities, together with the physical inventory that shape the character of the site. Students will work with their tutorial group to reorganize the demarcated site area - The Wellness Zone - through the design of a Wellness Masterplan, which will serve as the base for their Project 2. Wellness Center PLUS.
Project 2: Wellness Center PLUS
Project 2 calls for the design of a Wellness Center PLUS within the Kepong Botanical Gardens, bordering the suburban neighborhood of Taman Ehsan. Students are required to provide full design proposals incorporating findings from precedent studies and site analysis. Students will generate narratives that respond to the environment and community as user group within the given context and explore environmental poetics of building enclosure’s design solutions that reduce environmental impact utilizing various complex typologies of spatial organisations and a variety of passive strategies for sustainable design. The design should contribute to and merge harmoniously with environment and site and provide the best of spatial experiences in fostering a sense of community. Students are required to demonstrate applications of knowledge gained from Architecture and Environment module from prior semesters and integrate research from Asian Architecture module.
Reflection
Throughout the course of this module, I realized that there are further ways to convert research into the design instead of just designing based on the reasoning of the research. I learned that by diving deeper into the research by narrowing down the questions, I will be able to decide my design concept with more solid evidence that can relate to the site context. This method of the design process will allow me to explore more variations of designs that relate to the site instead of designing only with surface-level research. I also realized that my presentation planning on the boards needs a lot of adjustments as some drawings are just repeats of what I have already explained at the beginning of my presentation. In future projects, I should try to make each drawing emphasize certain features of the design and try to decrease repetition.