NATURE & CONSTRUCTION II
In my design studio 3, I design a museum for a Chinese new village, Jenjarom.
The question that my tutor asked me very frequent-
Why your design so Jenjarom?
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Yes, why your design so Jenjarom until it was the best to be there? Did you ever feeling about the building somehow “just belonged” to the site, or its form, material were somehow “just right”?
The environments we are tasked with design are intended to explore this connection between the natural and man-made realms, between building and its site, architecture and the place. Whenever we start design, we often start by the setting: its culture, history, surrounding, existing vegetation and even the weather in order to “tell the story” of the place for which we are designing.
In this Semester 4, my project was to design an ARTIST VILLAGE located at Balik Kampung at Balik Pulau, Penang with the title “Adaptive Reuse”.
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At my site, Balik Kampung was a commercial building which transform from the typical Chinese new village residential house. The idea of Balik Kampung was to enable the villagers and tourists to enjoy the memories of previous time and hence the owner had some tourist spot and activities around the building like visiting the mangrove and paddy field, playing at the pool, fish catching and others.
Talking from the perspective of Phenomenology and the requirement of adaptive reuse, I remain the original building of the site with emphasize the senses and elements that already in the site which is the river right in front of the building, the mangrove and paddy field behind and the pool that created. With the consideration of the site, I still remain the activities that the owner held for the villagers and tourist, keep the vision and mission of the original Balik Kampung.
As to relate with the site, the material I mainly use was raw material for example red bricks. As the expose of true material can bring out a feeling of belongings to the site and it would not bring an uncomfortable or unusual feeling to the villager. (The villagers are mostly elderly). Brick can also bring back the sense of memories that experienced by the user at previous day, everything is very simple in design. Besides, it also blends in with the existing building.
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The main concept of my design was “Keep the Original”
-The original activities they had
-The original facilities they had
-The original natural they had
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Hence, I remain the pool and emphasize on the river in front and the mangrove and paddy behind. A bridge is created in the middle of the site, when people pass through the bridge, they can enjoy the view of the road, the activity of the river (fisherman) and a glimpse of the mangrove and paddy behind. A pocket park is also formed to remain the natural of the site. That means, when you climb up the bridge you can have a fruitful sight of natural element. (Mostly tourists come to Balik Kampung is because of the beauty of nature)
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The space planning is design with the original facilities they had; they did have a restaurant and multipurpose space. However, due to an artist village, the restaurant is now transformed into a café and the multipurpose space is acts as an exhibition space together.
With the interpretation of the space and material from the existing building and site to my design now, the phenomenology of Balik Kampung is still there but now is more interesting as it become an artist village.
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“man received the environment and made it as focus on building and things.”Norberg-Shulz
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I categorized my design as a place based building as I am designing based on the existing site and building. With site analysis to follow, some others consideration also added to the design process; material chosen and the existing nature they had. For me, an artist village should not only focus on the artist but also the villagers as they are the soul of the village. And that’s why I keep the ORIGINAL of the site.
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"THE BUILDING BRING THE EARTH AS THE INHABITED LANDSCAPE CLOSE TO MAN, AND AT THE SAME TIME PLACE THE CLOSENESS OF NEIGHBORLY DWELLING UNDER THE EXPANSE OF SKY ” Norberg-Shulz