NATURAL AND CONSTRUCTED
From the article we know that "Phenomenology of place is the interpretive study of human experience. The aim is to examine and to clarify human situations, events, meaning, and experiences as they are known in everyday life but typically unnoticed beneath level of conscious awareness"
Relate back the phenomenology of place to my current project which is an artist village that located at Balik Pulau, Pulau Penang. I would said my design is more focus on the sense of place-based but also having the idea of placelessness.
Let's start with the sense of place-based in my design, this project is talking about the adaptive reuse on the old building. It is a traditional Chinese house and the first idea come out from my mind is I would like to keep the origin of the existing building, the culture, the story and also the mark of time.
I would not using the word "renovate" in this project although I have to redesign some parts of the buildings. First of all, the site is surrounded by the greens and beside of the durian mangrove, it let me wanted to have more openings to bring the environment into the house.
I keep those ventilation devices or opening that we called since they are still can be used and well-functional. It did not change much from the outside but some changes from inside. There is also not much of facade or ornamentation applied in this house.
The original purpose of the house is residential and now it is a combination of gallery and also the workshop. The part I have redesigned is the entrance, it is because the existing entrance is too small and not enough of
attractive for a gallery.
Having the elevated platform inside the building gave the feeling of journey and also took out part of the roofing and the structure just appear in front of everyone. By showing the existing structure, people would appreciate and try to figure out the story behind it.
The purpose for this building after upgraded is to introduce Balik Pulau with the hanging old photo and also the historical items. All of the changes is based on the existing building and having the purpose that really related to the history and culture of the site and also the house.
This is the new building I have created for the exhibition and it is purposely design for fulfil the needed and requirements as an artist village. I is more concern in the ventilation and natural lighting into the exhibition area to make sure the appearance of the exhibition item in a good way.
The new buildings is connected to the old buildings by the different level of elevated platform. This new building is more focus on the placelessness since I would like to create a feeling of journey from inside and outside of the building. It gave the same elements and characteristic with the old buildings.
There is also a cafeteria which is the tallest building in the site. It is also a new building to provide the space that visitors can be chilled out when get tired. The reason why it design in double storey is try to have a better view from the highest level since the site is surrounded from the greenery.
Both of the placelessness and place-based can be find in myd design and also having the combination in the same building. It is good to have the design based of the story and culture behind the site and also the people here. Sometimes the sense of belongings is even better than the appearance and the experiences for us.
