Photo credit: mollicles420.deviantart.com
Instructors
Ng Sanson & Aileen Koh
Introduction
The Shift of the Civic Realm
The notions, purpose and characteristics of the civic realm are shifting. Civic buildings can no longer perform its singular dedicated function but must act as an open system to embody the multiple functions, identities and needs of the community while continuously shifting and dynamically adapting to serve the users. They act as an open system of exchanges to form
the wider network connecting the functions of the neighbourhood and the city with constant opportunities for production and recreation through sharing and connecting, as opposed to being a singular container and being.
Shared Commons and Sharing economies
Coupled with global depletion of resources and growing population needs, sharing economies, enabled by technologies and social networks have also surfaced. The shift in value framework, where value is now created by users – sharing underused assets or human resource as part of a larger online network – instead of just the product, changes the way cities are perceived and run. This even enables greater interpersonal connections, interactions and a sense of community and social inclusion. Resources being shared include physical goods, spaces & civic assets and nonphysical services, skills and knowledge.
Studio Objectives
Mapping ebbs and flows of Communities, Resources and Information exchanges, the studio seeks to interrogate a sample neighbourhood with its civic/community buildings and their existing functions to intensify resource sharing and shared opportunisms. This exercise is further amplified through an assemblage of supplementary programmes and networks from the neighbourhood’s adjacent sites for a typological investigation into new spatial formats for the civic commons – the Intensified commons.
Studio Methodology + Schedule
Photo credit: Larissa Fassler Kotti (left), Chris T Cornelius (right)
Neighbourhood Exchange Cartography
Choose a neighbourhood (coverage of 1km diameter) and map the ebbs and flows of exchanges – both physical and nonphysical (ie: goods, spaces & civic assets, skills and knowledge).
Establish underlying systems, networks, excesses and needs of the sample neighbourhood. Consider and present these relationships.
Identify the social commons (instances such as mobility and transportation, spaces – accommodation, storage, recreational, skills, financing, utilities (telecom, information, energy), goods & equipment, food, learning, etc)
Precedence Dissection
Identify successful civic/public buildings/spaces precedences which involves intensification and sharing. Evaluate and critique their successes and failures.
Producible
- Studio related mapping and studies:
Varied formats of hardcopy prints and audio/video mapping are to be explored - Individual Brochure:
10-page concise mapping brochure of a specific relationship/exchange of interest on site
Week 6 – Interim Presentation
Site Identification
With the relationship of interest, identify a related site within the neighbourhood study (a civic building or a civic space).
Programme Opportunism
Interrogate the relationship for intensification and optimisation potential.
Further borrow overlays (supplementary programmes, systems) to formulate the brief and programmes.
The Vessel
Manifest the Intensified Commons
Producible
- The design of an insertion/building embodying your interpretation of an intensified commons
Area: Minimally 2000sqm.
Programmes: Minimally 2 core programmes - Map a revised cartography demonstrating the intensification
Week 12 – Final Presentation
