Studio Instructor(s)
Joshua Comaroff & Ong Ker-Shing
Program: Good Class Bungalow
Scale: 1000 m 2
Site: Bukit Timah, Singapore
The Singapore House, as an architectural question, seems to be prematurely closed. Where the demands of intense environmental conditions might have forced an ongoing exploration of design possibilities, the type seems instead to have been fixed into a few pat solutions-with relatively little ongoing formal or programmatic innovation.
In this studio, the basic matter of the tropical house will be revisited to see whether constraints of climate and sustainability can lead to the development of experimental typologies. To do so, students will investigate a range of climatic pressures, including weathering, ventilation, lighting, shade, hydrology, and relationship to the landscape. Each may be selected – alongside the challenge of sustainable performance – as a driver of change.
Within this framework, each student’s design will address a specific, clearly articulated topic, presenting the answer to the question in a complete house design. Each participant will also be asked to propose multiple versions of a typology, to show a process of development by which one approach might be considered optimal.
