Archifest Pavilion 2013: "House".

Archifest is a month-long festival celebrating the urban environment and the communities that make it come alive. Organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects, Singapore’s only architecture festival features programmes to engage a wider audience in conversations about the city.

Accompanying the festival, is the festival pavilion whose design is won through competition.  The pavilion is in its third year this year; in fact, it just concluded competition submissions last week, therefore results for this year's winning scheme should be out anytime soon.

"House", the winning scheme last year won by RSP Architects Engineers and Planners, was a structure built with construction scaffolding.

Archifest Pavilion: A House for Contemplating Architecture 

by Lim Sio Hui 27/09/13 1:33 AM EDT 

Organized by the Singapore Institute of Architects, this year’s Archifest opens today, September 27, with the unveiling of the pavilion. 

Like a house under construction, the scaffolding-wrapped structure of this year’s Archifest Pavilion reveals itself upon closer inspection. Set lightly on Dhoby Ghaut Green, the purpose-built venue is accessed through a main footpath leading from the MRT station exit, where a series of small installations invite and lead visitors into the main event area, whose pitched-roof form can be seen as one moves closer. It is in this sheltered space where visitors will find many of the festival’s activities taking place, from talks, tours to exhibitions.  

Titled “House,” the winning design by RSP Architects Planners & Engineers centers around a concept that contemplates the process of a building’s life, its carbon footprint and the larger landscape in which it resides, as well as building with common elements found in the industry, which gave rise to the scaffolding-based structure.

“Such structures loom large at every construction site spotted across the island, yet people often look past or through them for the final product,” explains the project’s lead designer Mark Wong. Additional reasons for choosing the scaffolding system was for its efficacy in set up and teardown, and more importantly 100% recyclability, and inherent structural logic also allows the pavilion to be elevated, hence reducing the damage made to the ground. “In essence, the Pavilion unapologetically evokes a sense of fleeting temporariness, even if expansive, with a grand hope that past its shelf-life and little to no waste is incurred on the land,” says Wong. 

Apart from the main event space, the plot has been designed to flow out into the surrounding landscape and internal courtyard, allowing activities to extend to the entire site with its existing greenery and trees. Visitors are also encouraged to explore and experience the pavilion in their own way, interacting with the playfully inserted elements that range from the very small to the extremely large, from the landscape blinker lights that are attached to scaffolding pipes, to the link-way installation and the main event space itself. 

“From our experience, Archifest is an excellent opportunity for architectural designers to explore new and unconventional ways of building, and to really flex one’s design thinking in a way that a lot of permanent projects cannot for an array of reasons,” says Wong. 

“We do believe that House lends a very different perspective on what architecture is and can be moving away from just a finished product, to the wonders of the smaller, transient and forgotten parts, processes and the people who contribute to the finished product.” 

 

(All images belong to RSP Architects Engineers and Planners Ptd Ltd.)

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References:

1. Archifest Official Website.
2. Lim, Sio Hui, Archifest Pavilion: A House for Contemplating Architecture, Blouin Artinfo, 27 Sep 2013

Building for sporting events and costs.

There're series of derelict sporting facilities photos floating about in view of on-going Brazil World Cup 2014.  Mostly, we see facilities that are abandoned once international games like the Olympics end because people in the host countries never/ don't gravitate towards the sports that these facilities are meant for.  In conservation, the quickest death to any building is in its disuse, for with abandonment comes lack of maintenance and care.

Here're some examples of two facilities build for the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008:

Beach Volleyball Stadium in July 2008:

 Beach Volleyball Stadium Now: 

 Rowing canals in 2008:  

  Rowing canals now:  

Other than the potential unsustainability of facilities for these major sporting events, there's also the question of whether or not the spending committed to the hosting of these events even begins to justify itself.  One of the key bone of contention in on-going anti-World Cup protests in Brazil is the obscene amount of money pumped into the event by the government, when the general conditions for workers, public welfare and facilities (e.g. schools) are not improving.  

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References:

1. "30 Haunting Photos Of Abandoned Olympic Stadiums. It's Scary To Think Sochi May Be Next...",  
2. "Striking Images of Brazil’s Anti-World Cup Protest Movement"

Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza and Philippine Independence Day.

(photo from by Calvin Teo, Wikipedia.)

Organisers cancel Philippine Independence Day event: Police 

SINGAPORE — Organisers have decided to cancel an event to commemorate the Philippine independence day at Ngee Ann City, the Singapore Police said.
BY - MAY 27 

SINGAPORE — Organisers have decided to cancel an event to commemorate the Philippine independence day at Ngee Ann City, the Singapore Police said. 

In a statement sent to Channel NewsAsia today (May 27), the police said the organisers, the Pilipino Independence Day Council 2014 (PIDC), had withdrawn their application to hold the event at Ngee Ann City. 

“This follows Police’s advice that there are public order and safety concerns with the venue proposed by PIDC,” the police said. It said the organisers had been advised to hold the event at alternative locations, such as Hong Lim Park and Suntec City. 

The event, originally slated to be held on June 8 at the Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza in Orchard, drew a barrage of anti-foreigner comments online. The organisers reportedly also received abusive phone calls after they posted about the event on Facebook. 

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote on his Facebook page on April 19 that he was “appalled” to read about the online furore. Singaporeans “must treat people in Singapore the way we ourselves expect to be treated overseas,” he wrote. CHANNEL NEWSASIA

My thoughts:

1. Ngee Ann City civic plaza is a commercial space that is used for all sorts of events: Subaru challenge, fashion shows, lion dance competitions, temporary discount setup, cultural events, etc.  Some of these events private, while others open to the public.  
2. From what I know, this space has never been so politicised, since a commercial space is--as  the name suggests--pinned to money.  You pay, you run.  Money sees no race, color, nationality, etc, just like so much of the imported goods people buy in that area. 
3. Orchard Road keeps getting more and more unpleasantly exclusionary, by the people who frequent the place (but feel that some other people shouldn't be allowed in their presence), the cost of goods and services, and now by people who may not go there even but somehow relate the shopping stretch--full of tourists--as a national symbol.
4. I can't think of another country in this region whose people and government are so virulently and proudly discriminatory, judgemental and elitist.

ETA 20160821:

1. A commercial space will, of course, discriminate against people who don't have as strong a spending power.
2. There has been a systematic erasure and disdain of low-wage foreign workers in the shopping stretch.  Read some past accounts of the sort of action taken against workers occupying and using public spaces in Orchard: Justin Zhuang's "Home Maid Picnic" (Reclaim.sg), Cha-Ly's "Observation Studies at Lucky Plaza (and vicinity) Singapore" (The Use of Public Space by Foreign Female Domestic Workers in Globalizing Asian Cities, 7 Jan 2009), or the crystal clear account by Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training (FAST) President Seah Seng Choon on the opening of FDW Befrienders Clubhouse, located off the main city grid, “You notice currently the foreign domestic workers congregate in various places of interest. Like Lucky Plaza, Gardens by the Bay, the Botanic Gardens, and sometimes even in the residential areas. We want them to go to a place where they can be among themselves, where they will not be disturbing the owners of the building or residents of the area.” (Olivia Siong, "Clubhouse for foreign domestic workers to open next month," Today, 10 Mar 2014.)

Urban Fabric.

urban fabric
English
Noun

urban fabric (plural urban fabrics)

    (idiomatic, literary) The physical aspect of urbanism, emphasizing building types, thoroughfares, open space, frontages, and streetscapes but excluding environmental, functional, economic and sociocultural aspects.

It is such a widely used term in and out of the architecture/ urban planning circles.  I probably have dropped the term one too many times myself, but I don't think I really know what it means. Maybe it's better used to coin clothes worn by people in cities, or clothes sold at big departmental stores/ big chain boutiques.

She wears this season's winter cape by Bugis Town Planners, while he sports the classic Punggol Town suit, a crowd-pleaser for all occasions.

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Bugis and Punggol plans taken from City Form Lab (http://cityform.mit.edu/projects/samples-of-urban-fabric)

Illuminate 175 (12 Mar 2011).

(Photos by Dave & Sio.)

"These people don't think of themselves as terrorists."

Following my entry about blowing state symbols, I've been wondering:

[A] If a country's people really hated a state building, feel that the building has no value to them whatsoever, blew the building up--in the process not hurting anyone--despite their representational government's disagreement, is that terrorism?

&

[B] If a country's government really hated a state building, feel that the building has no value to them whatsoever, ripe the building apart--in the process no hurting anyone--despite their constituents' disagreement, is that terrorism?


(Taken from Kontraband.)

"Mum seems cares more about brick and mortar than she does about people."

In this episode of Brothers & Sisters, the Walker family has to grapple with the fact that they have to liquidate their company, including sell the family office and warehouse building, in order to recover enough money to help their laid-off employees tide over.

In the early part of the show, mother Nora Walker learns that the prospective buyer is a carpark complex developer who intends to bulldoze the office building over to erect a complex to accommodate the many residential lofts that were growing in the area. Nora has a row with her daughter, Co-President of the family business:

SARAH WALKER
You told him to go away?

NORA WALKER
Yes, I sent him away, Sarah. How can you even consider selling the place to someone who just wants to tear it down?

SARAH WALKER
Because he made the best offer.

NORA WALKER
But Sarah, this building is the only thing left to show that we ever here, that the company even existed. How can you sell it to someone who just wants to scrape it off the face of the earth?



SARAH WALKER
You think I want to?

NORA WALKER
Did you even try to find someone else?

SARAH WALKER
Of course, I did, Mum, we're damned lucky we found this guy.

NORA WALKER
There has to be someone.

SARAH WALKER
It's a building, for god's sake. While it might hold some sentimental value for us, I can't let that keep us from making the right deal.

Failing to convince Sarah, and looks to finding potential buyers. Nora considers selling the building back to the originating architect, who has since then become a famous builder:

NORA WALKER
I was thinking, our building was one of the first buildings...

ROGER GRANT
The very first.

NORA WALKER
The first? That's perfect. I think you should buy the building, then you can keep it safe and protected from any horrible person who wants to tear it down.

ROGER GRANT
Are you kidding? I'll pay someone to do that.

Nora, I'm glad the building has been there for your wonderful business for many years. But it's never going to make the Roger Grant architectural tour, I mean it's just a pastiche of all the other buildings downtown. I was copying other buildings back then. The truth is, I'm more interested in where I've gotten to.



NORA WALKER
Yes, I see, you are now into newer, younger, more modern designs. Sleek and smooth. Yes, yes, perfectly clear.

ROGER GRANT
I have no idea you take my dating a younger woman so seriously.

NORA WALKER
I don't give a rat's ass about your girlfriend. It's the disdain you have for your own history that bothers me. You just want to plaster over all your imperfections of your career, as if you can botox your whole past away.

Look, I don't love my wrinkles and I'm certainly not fond of my neck. But I'm not ashamed of them, it's a record of the life I've lived. Our building is humble and simple, and I love it. And I'm just so sorry for you that you don't.

("Lights Out," Brothers & Sisters, Season 4, Episode 23, 9 May 2010.)