Asian Architecture
Project 1 : Research Paper
Kampong Bharu
Kampong Bharu is known as one of the oldest settlement that still exist in the city of Kuala Lumpur.
In this project, we aim to find out the qualities of Kampong Bharu that affects the way their residents behave as a community which is now very lacking in any ordinary residential housing areas nowadays.
During the introductory period of this project, we came up with multiple directions that were very practical. It was like any other projects, looking into things that everyone else had looked into. But later on, we were slowly carried away by a few questions that were given to us. What are the real issues that are actually happening nowadays ? We had a long discussion, from the slowly diminishing vernacular cultured houses to the preservation of entity of each specific type of Kampung Houses. Until when we finally reach at Kampong Bharu, everything starts to sprout out its own questions. It was like we have hit a whirl hole that keeps drawing our attention in, we on the other hand keep asking ourselves about what possible treasure we might be able to get from this topic. Turns out none of us know deep enough to answer each others doubt, except for Aden, who has been to a talk regarding the history of Kuala Lumpur and the stories behind these amazing places. Even with his knowledge, we couldnt reach very far from our topic.
Slowly, we started looking into google maps to have a more realistic experience of the place, it was quite extraordinary, ina sense that the place dosent seem very match with the city just over the street. Though among the odds, some questions sprouted in our minds. Why are most of their gates open when the "google car" drives by ? And the kids could just run around, this place is just literally like any situation that we could ve imagined as a true kampung.
This became the inspiration for our topic, to find the key features of a place, of how it is crafted, to become the very piece of canvas that allows people to interact with each other, despite being in an urban settlement, despite the plummeting security factors in our country, despite the slowly diminishing culture of a community without the boundary of race.
Eventually we did it !! After squeezing out our brain juice to look for the answers that lies so obviously in front of us. Its the little details that we put in our fencing, our walls, our gates, our outdoor spaces that made all of these work !
Project 1 : Contextual Architecture Study
Harbin Opera House
Harbin,China. The city of ice. Enveloped by two seasons of freezing temperature, this place is known to have extreme weathers that strikes difficulty of construction in another level.
First glance at this magnificent building by MAD architects, it looks quite literal from its form, to be imitating the mountains covered in snow and ice. But the beauty of this building lies in the versatility of building in interacting with its visitors.
Instead of looking at its form, which is derived from the Northland Scenery. A masterpiece which suggests a strong relationship between the foreground and background of any scene. This building became a combination of both, which could become the background of Harbin miles away from the building, and also the focal point that stands out effortlessly when a person approaches the building.
Along the sweeping curves of the facade, are some walkways that allows the users to seep through the spaces and view towards the outside, strongly bringing in the experience of a man standing at the edge of a mountain, staring at the outside world. Its observatory, with a smoothly curving roof, forming two huge openings which lead the users viewpoint towards the city of Harbin and also the river Hei Long Jiang.
This is truly a wok of art that stands out among the pure white background of Harbin city during the winter season. A living artwork that breathes through the freezing climate.