Monday 28 July 2008

Our ...uh, interesting studio assignment.

Can I have your opinions on our studio project for Studio 4?




I've expressed my thoughts in my own blog, albeit a bit harshly, but I guess I may be pessimistic or over reacting? What do you guys think of our final assignment for this studio?

9 comments:

ian ng said...

What's the gripe?
seriously, i'm not knocking.
I had a reasonably long yarn with K when we (ac, V included off and on as well,) were trying to formulate programs for Studio 3 and 4. And i remember saying how much i liked his idea of the Bkt Nenas thingey transposed from Egypt...cmon Man give us some credit.
so what's wrong with it?

ian ng said...

what's ur url, neway? put me in as contributor

Joshua said...

I just personally felt that it might turn out badly, very Vegas/Dubai-like monstrosities. I'm not sure how we're going to respond to all the requirements, and further more, I have heard that some of us are getting tired of tourist-related stuff.

I'm not sure if I'm just not used to the idea yet or something. You know how when something out of the ordinary throws you off your feet.

I felt our Studio 3 assignment had a strong sense of purpose, promoting dying cultures in a heritage city, but transporting elements of an ancient civilization (of which remains are only monuments) into an urban project that relates to scale, environment, time...well, I don't know.

I have doubts of our ability to translate what we know of Egypt into a project, with only relatively intangible media (pictures and text). A genius loci can only be experienced first hand and many of us can't afford to go to Egypt. (Not to mention it's in the second half of our semester)

That's just my opinion, and I wanted to know what the rest of our huge class thinks.

ian ng said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ian ng said...

Yeah, so do i.
I mean, want to know what the rest think. Not that it's any of my business, technically, but architectural conversations always interest me.

J, i think you've put across far too negative a view. I can understand some feeling a bit jelak with another "tourist" project..but hey, Norman Foster never said No to yet another airport project..and now we have the Dragon in Beijing.

i thought the fact that there r only stones left would actually make the transposition of culture challenging. i mean, what if we asked you to design a centre for a city of the future, for the year 3010? Would u throw the towel in? And u couldn't hope to visit it even if u had all the money in the universe. And "precedents" is anybody's guess here. It's basically imagination la, what u need.

But ur point about the genius loci is very astute. i have no answer to that ..for the moment. And, anyway, you turned out one of the most entertaining schemes last sem: i'm looking forward to a repeat performance, or better. lol.

(Original comment deleted due to writer's misidentification: Apologies. Put it down to writer's blurr due to start of sem stress.)

Joshua said...

I never thought of it that way, having our imaginations fill in the gaps of what we don't know. I guess it's just the tension of it being our final project, and being thrown off my feet at the whole brief. I think it was unexpected in the sense that I had thought we would be doing something overly practical and "realistic".

It's not that I don't think such a centre is feasible in life, it's just that I assumed that the college would want us to do a library (knowledge centre), a large business complex, a hotel or something.

In a more positive light, I suppose if we can survive this (fulfill all requirements, with our design integrity intact and to the awe of our tutors, haha), we're ready for a lot more.

"What does not kill me will only make me stronger"?

Expect informal requests for tutorials from us!

(No worries about the previous comment.)

ian ng said...

"..... thrown off my feet at the whole brief. I think it was unexpected.." Maybe V writes a better brief than K...hahahahahahahah (V, r u reading this? hahahah)

".... something overly practical and "realistic". "
Hey, don't forget you guys r only finishing 2nd Yr, there's 3 more to go. so what's the hurry? if you don't go funny now it's very difficult to go funny later when you grey cells have hardened.

".... do a library (knowledge centre), a large business complex, a hotel or something. " boring boring boring...

"What does not kill me will only make me stronger"? that's what i like to hear...Yo!

"...Expect informal requests for tutorials from us! " as if i could stop u..haha

ST.chen said...

what does not kill you makes you...stranger.

ian ng said...

hahahahahahahaha