Studio Instructor
Daniel Whittaker
Overview
Clementi ActiveSG Sports Centre exists in a growing, maturing community with ever-increasing citizen use. Overcrowding, high reservation rate, full to capacity visitor volume during peak use hours have over-taxed its original design intent and service. The time is now to re-consider how can a sports recreational facility be reconsidered as a community centre, servicing the needs of a new, young adult generation, along with still meeting the needs of children growing up in young families alongside ageing, elderly adult patrons. A truly diverse community exists within is service area, Clementi is in strong need of highly imaginative architectural re-consideration, re-purposing, and new constructive ideas to prepare the physical asset to serve a growing community which values personal health, citizen participation in community activities, and a dynamic population which demands the best facilities to serve their physical and personal well-being.
Studio Objectives
- Identify issues of sustainable design in relation to socioeconomic, demographic and cultural trends, through the analysis of literature and review of architectural precedents relating to sports and community centres in Singapore
- Perform rigorous site analysis and map the site conditions surrounding Clementi ActiveSG site
- Critique a project brief and develop strong, generative sustainable design concepts relating to re-imagining the future of what constitutes an ActiveSG centre truly serving community needs
- Translate design concepts into meaningful architectural and/or urban propositions at
appropriate scales and levels of granularity - Create convincing arguments for the design propositions and persuasive visual and tangible evidence for multiple design iterations, as well as mid-term and final reviews
Measurable Outcomes
- Interpret the sustainable parameters and other issues of relevance to the Clementi ActiveSG design project using plan, section, elevation, perspectival drawings and diagrams
- Respond to the specific ActiveSG project brief and the specific Clementi site context with a meaningful design concept
- Produce coherent architectural representations and models at sufficient levels of detail
- Communicate convincingly sustainable design propositions in the form of renderings, drawings, simulations, models
Studio Expectations
Approximate segmenting of the design process:
Week 1
Introduction of the project: Brainstorm and mapping sessions: Asking the question, ‘What should an ActiveSG facility embody to serve the community as it evolves, matures, and changes?’ and ‘How has the past facility met the community needs / how have the community users needs’ changed over time?’
Week 2
Programming I: documentation of existing facilities and experiences. Creation of a draft, layered, hierarchical programme (part I)
Thurs 1 Feb at 3:15 pm arrival at Clementi ActiveSG. Site visit: documentation through photos, sketching, measurements, observations, user interviews
Analysis of demographics of current users, community demographics, users not yet ‘found’
Week 3
Schematic Design I: User groups, space bubble diagram creation, adjacency matrix mapping. Definition and re-consideration of what constitutes an architectural programme (part II) for an ActiveSG facility for 2024 and onward into the future
Week 4
Schematic Design II: Re-assessment of relationships of architectural parts to site integration and the preexisting urban plan: Examine closely: circulation, access, movement, served versus servant spaces
Week 5
Preparation for the Mid Term: Resolution of diagrams, drawings, site analysis diagrams mapping movement and circulation and these related forces upon an architectural programme (part III)
Week 6
Mid Term Review – Thursday 29 February (in studio space) starting at circa: 2:00 pm
Week 7
Post-Mid-Term Assessment: What was learned? What feedback and critique did the guests comment about?
How can this review be utilized to improve the design vision, the tangible design, the organizing principles?
Week 8
Design Development I: Move the space bubble diagram into a comprehensive architectural solution incorporating real-world architectural necessities such as a structural grid, means of egress + fire-exit stairs, clear divisions of served versus servant spaces with logical circulation paths
Week 9
Design Development II: Re-assess that the architectural solution, one of several iterative ideas, continues to serve the initial design goals, while refining the design to ensure cooperation with natural forces present on the site: sun paths, prevailing wind paths during monsoon (~ December through early March, with winds typically emanating from the N or NW) and non-monsoon seasons (~ late March through November, with winds typically emanating from the S or SE), with approximately two-month wind transition seasons in between
Week 10
Model interaction with the environment: Student to choose the method their building’s design is to maximize efficiency and cooperative existence with a natural force(s) of their choice, and create related diagrams and drawings to demonstrate this symbiotic co-existence, with the outstanding goal to minimize energy use and maximize thermal comfort of the occupant within their designed building
Week 11
Return to the Vision and Architectural Programme: Re-assess that the initial brainstorming which took place week 01, which identified the user groups and their needs, are being comprehensively met through architectural solutions
Week 12
Preparation for final review: drawing resolution: generate the work in final form: site plan, floor plans, elevation, section, section-perspective, exterior perspectival views
Week 13
Preparation for final review: model fabrication: Ensure models and maquettes match the plans, sections and elevation drawings; maximize communicative ability of the drawings and models coupled together to convey a comprehensive architectural vision
Week 14
Final Review – Thursday 25 April (in our campus Chinese Pavilion) time to start, in alignment with all other options studio II sections, TBD