AMOS TAN CHI YI 0318330
PROJECT 1 - JOURNEY OF THE 5 SENSES
Project 1 is an introductory project by which you are required to explore issues of spatial typologies and poetics through simple design exercises. Working in groups of 4-5 students, you are to propose 2 schemes for a Walkway Space themed ‘journey for the 5 senses’. You are required to design the space in the form of semi-open architecture by using two contrasting spatial types of your choice. There is no specific site for this design work. The story of your design should translate the literatures given by your tutor, and it should be informed by precedents studies.
In this project, we as a group of five, are to design experential walkways of linear and concentric typologies based on literature given. Each tutor had given us a selection of literature in terms of a poem, a song and a short story. Then, we were to choose two of these literary pieces and translate them into architecture. We chose the song My Name is Luka, and the short story There Once Was a Free Bird.
Before we begin designing the walkways, we first have to conduct precedence studies on existing buildings of linear and concentric typologies. We chose to study the Hagia Sophia and the Berlin Jewish Museum.
There Once Was a Free Bird is a short story about a bird that had a habit of collecting stones to signify each passing memory. Over time, this habit bogged it down and left the bird unable to fly, eventually causing it to die. Thus, the design of the Linear Walkway reflects on the nature of memories, how we corrupt them and in the end, manifest itself in our lives not as a benevolent helper, but a dangerous entity.
Luka on the other hand is a song about child abuse, and how it seems endless to the child despite a few small reprieves. Thus, we chose this song to be our concentric design, due to the unending nature of circles. As such, the design represents the stages of child abuse, how it never truly goes away, and that its impact is long lasting and hard to comprehend.
