Architectural Design 4

In Semester 4, themed “engaging environment and community”, the studio explores design by harnessing environmental qualities and conditions for human and environment sustainability through a project with a specific community of users within a given context. The projects involve studies of precedents on design projects that are responsive to the environmental conditions and sustainable issues.

Using the precedent studies, students explore the environmental poetics of the building enclosure that responds to the basic natural context such as the sun, wind, heat, cold, energy issue and existing building context (which has clustered built forms for example community centre, nature appreciative centre, research centre). Considerations should be given to the complexity of the program, site topography and vegetation, socio-cultural events, and variety of passive strategies for sustainable design.

Project 1: Design Esquisse – Disabilities Experience Pavilion

Project 1 deals with the understanding of materiality in relation to use and experience:
Materiality is seen as a setting for communal activities to convey meaning and associations
as well as a function of structure and construction. Students will be required to design a
Disabilities Experience Pavilion, which is intended to showcase architectural form and
materiality for a proposed set of activities. The exploration of themes centred around the
notion of addressing universal accessibility as well as the spatial experience of physically
disabled users in this project will relate to the programmatic requirements in Project 2.

Site Analysis & Design Response

Site Analysis & Response establishes an understanding of the context for Project 2. Using the
provided site data and information, as well as further information gained from site visit, students will identify the intangible qualities together with the physical inventory that shape the character of the site. In assigned tutorial groups students will identify the intangible qualities together with the physical inventory that shape the character of the site. As a conclusion of the Site Analysis, students will work with their tutorial group to reorganize the demarcated site area –the Wellness Zone - through the design of a Wellness Masterplan, which will serve as the base
for their Project 2: Wellness Center PLUS.

Project 2: Wellness Center PLUS

The project calls for the design of a Wellness Center PLUS on the fringe between a suburban
neighbourhood and a botanical garden. Students are required to provide full design proposals
incorporating findings from site analysis and precedent studies. Students will generate narratives that respond to the environment and community within the given context and explore
environmental poetics of building enclosure’s design solutions that reduce environmental
impact utilizing various complex typologies of spatial organisations and a variety of passive
strategies for sustainable design. The design should contribute to and merge harmoniously with
environment and site and provide the best of spatial experiences in fostering a sense of
community.