ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN V
The first project, Preliminary Studies, is a preparatory task that investigates the character of a place (town or city) and architecture for place-making through the ‘Townscape Assessment’ (see Appendix 1) exercise. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the character, identity, and uniqueness of a town and urban region in order to identify opportunities for producing responsive architecture design within urban context and place making led urban space in the given site. Thus, the project introduces students to the fundamentals of urban design by assessing the ‘content’ of the urban context within the proposed site.
Using the precedent studies, students explore the environmental poetics of the building enclosure that responds to the basic natural context such as the sun, wind, heat, cold, energy issue and existing building context (which has clustered built forms for example community centre, nature appreciative centre, research centre). Considerations should be given to the complexity of the program, site topography and vegetation, socio-cultural events, and variety of passive strategies for sustainable design.
Project 1A: Preliminary Studies - ‘Townscape Appraisal’
(Tutorial Group Project)
Townscape Appraisal is a method of evaluating the visual and aesthetic qualities of a town or urban area. It is a process that involves assessing the character, identity, and distinctiveness of a town or urban area and identifying its strengths, weaknesses, and potential for improvement. The Preliminary Studies through the Townscape Appraisal exercise comprises of nine indicators including:
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historical and urban morphology
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urban structure
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responsive environment
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physical evaluation
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place
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content
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landscape character
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behavioural survey
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S.W.O.T analysis (Micro).
The assessment includes the site analysis in macro scale, and microscale of the area. The Townscape Appraisal documentation will equip students with a firm understanding of the site they will be working with this semester. The students are to make a comprehensive study on townscape appraisal
Project 1B: Architectural Design Strategy (Individual Task)
Aim: to deduct a position for sustaining an architecture for place-making.
By this time of the semester, the students should be able to find their positions to develop the architecture for place-making. The students are individually to synthesised (from Project 1a) to identify the issue to tackle at the proposed site area and to develop individual sense of place as well as to discuss the relevant precedent studies for the project in depicting a good understanding design strategy within the urban context for both architecture and urban space. Further to this, the students are also expected to perform an analysis for the target user group of the urban heritage gallery. By the end of Week 7, students must attain a competency level of producing a schematic design, with strong exploration onto tropical and construction design ideas.
Project 1C: Architecture for Place-making (Individual Project)
Aim: To develop an architectural design for placemaking for the urban community within the urban context.
The architectural strategy should be resolved for form, activity, and circulation. The proposed building should be of an area of 1200 m2 and 3-5 storeys high in the given block boundaries of a corner lot. Apart from developing an appropriately formal and elevational strategy in response to the character of the street, the design should take into consideration a holistic application of structural, spatial, technical, environmental, UBBL & services requirements to address the user needs for an urban program. This will include a focus on tropical design, services, as well as the design of the façade and building envelope that is of a coherent language to the overall design scheme within the urban context. The design outcome will exhibit a strong rigor in underpinning and applying theoretical explorations such as elements of urban structure (Lynch), contact points (Gehl), responsive environment design (Bentley) and public places and urban spaces (Carmona) in a context.
