Phenomenology
Based on your current design project on which you are working on. Discuss the characteristics of the project in regards of it having a “phenomenology of place”. How does your work illustrate a sense of being “place-based” or does it focus on “placelessness”.
Phenomenology of place in Architecture are related to the sensory reaction to built space or more simply how does the building or space make human feel. Architects use materials, textures, and colours to produce phenomena while other architects use the building itself to achieve the same effect. Phenomenology may be the reason that I like Minimalist design best. There is no clutter or ornamentation to interfere with the design which make the space inside more useful. Phenomenology demonstrated in architecture is the manipulation of space, material, and light and shadow to create a memorable encounter through an impact on the human senses.
Design Project semester4....
Current project , design a artist village in state of Balik Pulau , Penang Island . As brief , the proposed artist village would need to serve as a suitable habitat for the local artist , as well as a gather point for exhibition of the art and crafts display . In general , it will be consisted of several main component which the artist rest place , workshop , exhibition area , cafeteria , and many more. The objective of this project is to design and develop a given site into an artist village through the concept of adaptive reuse.
So, my building design is basically based on site context and old material that found in site or around Balik Pulau, by not designing very modern form that totally different with the local cultures .
With the site is in kampung area, a kampung house building with timber works , traditional gable roofs , will have more nicer look to be blend in together with the existing building around it.
Starting from planning, I use back the old building “ the space “ as my artist resident area, which having kitchen, living , dining and bedroom in it just like a home design that we are staying, it also provide comfort zone for artists as the place is private. I want artist to have their own comfort zone, so as brief says need 4 room for artist I have provided 2 on ground floor and 2 on 1st floor.
The façade of the artist resident is mainly remain old façade but bring in some new element “ naco window and c-channel lines”, in the same time to suit back the context. Gable roof are remain as old, just the 1st floor are the extention of the building. ( shown below ) :
Wherelse the art gallery is located behind the artist resident and the café is located right next to the resident too. Which I wan having some linkage among the 3 building as my design idea start designing out from the existing building.
For the art gallery, I align the whole building with the site set back and create a middle courtyard and sculpture park beside and in middle of it, so it can create a feel of having connection of inside and outside.
As water feature play a big role in my design , it serve as a cooling and also design the water feature to suit back the surrounding as 1 river is just infront of our site, to make the buildings like floating on water. Façade design and site planning have take consideration of the sun path, wind direction and also based on the look of the existing building.
My design is a place based building , as my planning is based on the site surrounding or so call as context. In conclusion, the relationship between building and surrounding is important as the space to create is also based on the surrounding. Not only the space and façade create nicely, but also need to take consideration of creating a nice place for humans. As place-making is a very wide and difficult to achieve the goal because of the unpredictable human behavior and environment changes. As an architect, this issue cannot be ignore and have to take the responsibility to design better and better for the community.
