Saturday 15 March 2008

what the stage site and some magical oil lamps can do..

site : the stage.
trade : oil lamps.


mr ian, heres my what iv done so far...



this is the south east elev
the three boxes you see on the left are of glass is like so to not cover up to much of the shopehouses, letting people going through it freely and entering the shophouses behind.
because the shophouses there are actually kedai runcits and trades like that, they helps to keep the place alive and serves as a communal space as well...benches will be placed inside the boxes on ground level as street furniture. at night the oil lamps inside the glass box that is actually part of the gallery will be lit.



the north east elev
im still not satisfy with this elev not as much as the one above. cuz i think 1. the scale is too large 2. its lacking some site context, will appreciate any commends from any one at all on how i can improve it.

anyway, the tall tall thing u see serves as a focal point for the building from afar and because the stage site is highly concerntrated with religious buildings, but its not very obvious i plan to have this vc serve as a landmark of landmarks around that area, and to inform visitors that there are actually so many relig bldg around. how i integret is by forming a bridge four to five story high, enuf to see above the skyline of the shophouses those relig bldg. so from the bridge visitor can relate oil lamps to each of the 8 religious buildings and be briefed about them as well.




ground floor plan
entrance into the building takes the visitor to a back alley kinda pathway (echoing the alley way that i intent to take away that leads from the carpark to the front of the shophouses) and then only into the double volume foyer.



first floor plan.
the gallery space, and quite a few large voids looking down to the ground flr. this part of the gallery will house the process of making the product and history of the product itself.
the bridge will lead into the tall tall tower and be able to see the shop selling oil lamps on the ground floor. i havent really think about the materials for this particular part (the tower). but i was thinking to have the inside dark with a few openings streaming thrh with daylight, so no matter night or day, people inside can have good view of how the lamp will be like b4 they buy it....and it gives me a chance to play with shadow and light as well..hehe

second floor plan.



plan of the bridge
any commends will be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance....as i always said : hehe..

3 comments:

ian ng said...

As you and your BoyGang are now up in Penang consolidating your extortion syndicate while you dig yourselves into the Seven Sisters CKT, I reckon your mind will be far far away from design work. So I'll give my comments tmr. after everyone else have thrown in theirs. Tentatively it looks pretty decent. It's one of those things...hehe

ian ng said...

Here's another way of looking at your building:

THEORETICALLY: This is ensemble architecture--a collection of form-components arranged in response to the influences of site, program and personal "desires". Thus if we equate Function=Component=Intention we might deconstruct the composition as follows.

1.Viewing platform=Bridge=To create awareness of the proximity of a multitude of religious buildings.

2.Foyer/Gallery/Carpark=Part cake=To give grandness for arrival, gathering and viewing of exhibition.

3.Shop=Tall wedge=To sell products dramatically & to create a landmark for the religious zone.

4.Glass galleries/pavilions=3 tall glass boxes=To display more lamps through street sculpture that also shelters the public.

If you want to take this ensemble approach you'd need to make sure each component is elegantly designed when taken on its own. Some of your kinks are a little awkward. And look carefully at the joints between components. When the components penetrate its not such a problem; but where they just touch or meet, you have to really design the junction to highlight the distinction between components. Just fusing them together usually doesn't work.

To emphasise this approach you'd need to see if anything else in the program can be componentalised---toilets? office?

FUNCTIONALLY: Expecting a grandmother to climb 5 storeys to view some roof tops is asking too much, even if she happens to be very pious.

We have to crane our necks a bit to appreciate the lamps (which I expect are mainly tiny pelitas) on the 1st Floor of the glass boxes. Or, to expect shoppers to go out of the shop and climb up the external spiral staircase to view the "sample lamps" and then climb down to buy them in the shop---haiya, they would probably have forgotten what the lamps look like by the time they get back to the shop. There is also the security problem here as it appears there's free access for the public up.

No doubt you will be looking at the carpark layout and gallery display layout and the shop layout to make sure things are "nicely" arranged.

Office is better under the gallery floor slab. Why? Tell me please.

"Back alley from car park to Foyer" not cool at all.

FORM & MEANING: Biting the cake and inserting 2 sets of double doors for a main entrance isn't too pretty. Better thought needed for the main entrance to celebrate it or ease in naturally.

HYPOTHETICALLY: Here's where most of you trip up. If I understand you correctly, your hypothesis is that oil lamps are a common symbol and/or artifact used in the religions housed in the 8 religious buildings in this area and therefore a landmark building centred on the history and production of oil lamps in this central location can/will highlight the existence of these 8 buildings.

Really? Are you very sure? What are the religions represented by the 8 buildings? Do they all use oil lamps?

URBAN PLANNING: I do like the way you are conscious of civic space and have designed an 'L' shaped building to help enclose a square which I'm very sure will be popularly used. And I do like how you are conscious of the need for visual and physical relationships between the 2 streets and this square in the seethroughness and walkthroughness you have provided. And of course it's nice that the 2 building faces respond to the characters of each side---rectilinear to the square with existing rectilinear buildings, and curvilinear to the side with existing curvilinear ones....Baypai baypai

BADesign said...

thank you ian for your very very very long and precise crit here...hahaha, i guess i need to justify more things and improve this design now. thank you thank you...hehe...