HIGHRISE: VERTICAL ART CAMPUS

Art enables us to experience the past, see the present and anticipate the future. 

The proposed composition is an art collage owned by the client, Mia which is a non-profit making organization. The site is located in the intersection of the crossroad of Jalan Imbi and Jalan Sultan Ismail. It is a vertical university that consists of small commercial scale, office compartment, teaching facilities as well as the residential to the students. This project attempts to capture the essence of pattern of addition and transformation. It will become a point for place for students whom wish to evolve their love of art, artists, and art lovers, crafters, to come together, to develop and share their work and to stay in touch and move as the tool to Mia’s mission. The Institute makes every effort to integrate IT knowledge and multi-ethnic cultural values into its training programs to enhance the scope of learning and creative quality of the students through the quality of the learning environment. It is the Mia’s mission to provide the most conducive learning environment for an affordable and quality education in the field of arts and design. It is then also the building’s mission to be accomplished in the given site.

Context is seen as an enormous source for enrichment in the design of any project which makes it own unique originality .It is inspired from the spirit of the place and the atmosphere of the region. As in the site given, it shows a specified area which seems to be in the middle of a contradict environment on either site. It stands sandwiched between an area along the place with a strong symbol of strong closure and advanced consumption oriented culture and the old developed low-rise commercial. The building is intended to create a diversified landmark to the respecting contradict context which expresses good taste of culture and welcome the warmth of art to be breed in the building. Sharing a part of the building activity with the public, the composition suggest to invite people into an area where people don’t usually pass by due to the absent of communication. The openness of the lower portion of the building will allow for a wide range of visitors (art lovers, artist, and tourist) and students to traverse around. The art college will serve as a new attraction which continues giving new impulse to the city’s infrastructure. School structure should be more than just class room. It should incorporate multipurpose corridors or atrium where communication can flourish naturally. To understand the state of mind of people whom experience the inner architecture primarily the students is essential in designing a conducive educational environment.

 The overall internal planning of the building have been guided and inspired from the concept of human brain, the best god’s creation and the most defined of intellectual system. Brain is the most amazing self-organized system designed by god. Magnificently, this most amazing and complex creation has yet been designed to be organized by two different self admin parts which is the right and left brain. Each of this brain plays different role in organizing human’s intellect.Our brains use both of these sides, mixing and matching each side’s abilities for a fully-functional human brain but typically,they are both contradict to each other as in table:

Allowing variety of experiences as one traverse in  the brain:
Left brain	Right brain
Factual, reasoning , serious and problem solving moods	Playful mode and character-amusement
keep students focused and alert	Dramatic expression (exaggerated with the surrounding)
Formal form of education: class rooms, labs.	Informal form of education: studios, multipurpose corridors or Outdoor amphitheatre?
Leads to attention of details.	Evolve creativity
Analyze data	Synthesize data
Method: learning by reading	Learning by doing
Helped by lower ceiling height-focus	High ceiling height

"mentally literate" –when  you come to understand your brain, and acquire techniques for learning.

‘Concept and matter have to grapple one with another’.
Through out the concept understanding, it applies implementation on the proposed composition of the art college which requires both potions as in the brain. As the brain , as school of art require both of those needs, the needs of a serious understanding and wild creative imagination. Both of these working together will than produce an impressive result as in mia’s aim.

The vertical art university

The university plaza interior

The open gallery design of the university

DEGREE THESIS: PENANG CONFLUENEC CULTURAL COMMUNITY CENTRE(BOARDS)

The presentation boards of architecture thesis for the cultural centre: 

Board1: the issue study: The problem identification and design aim

Board 2: The Key location and site plan of the Penang cultural centre

Board 3: The Site analysis of Georgetown, Penang (study of site and people cultural norms) , surveys and   indentification for buiding program

Board 4: The illustration of internal perspective of spaces in ground floor of the cultural centre

Board 5: the ground floor plan

Board 6: The 1st floor plan and central cultural arena illustration

Board 7: other floor plans, section and further study of dancing studio with one side wall one side mirror material  approach. 

board 8: basement and technical requirement of the building

Board 9: the elevations with kinetic facade screening allocated to where  sunlight is strong that are porous to allow ventilation 

Board 10: A study of sight line in the theater crucial for  traditional performances that need attention to facial expression

Board 11: The study of theatre movement and formation to a few  identified potential need in the cultural centre

Board 12: the section cuts the lobby, linkages, cutural arena, training court and theatre with kinetic roof system study for the cultural arena. 

DEGREE THESIS: PENANG CONFLUENEC CULTURAL COMMUNITY CENTRE

The Penang Confluence Cultural Community Center is designed for cultural enhancement for the local community. The whole composition intends to bring back the society and community closer again to the local culture and customs which seems to fade especially within the local youth. This center intends to form a community based cultural center in interest of youth for cultural regeneration, enhancement and education. The 4 acre piece of land is proposed to be served and surrendered back to the use of the local community. The confluence cultural community invites the 3 parties to flow together towards sustaining the local culture between the cultural artist, tourist and most importantly the local residence. The location of the site suits the need of the building as it sandwich in-between the town of Georgetown and the residential area, not only for the local Penang cultural coordination but also engage a collaborative atmosphere and opportunity to draw people together from both, the town and residential area.  

The town, a home to the many retaining culture is slowly losing its significant over time as people moving away from the area over many other developments. The center shall be a capitalism to bring back the community into the old town and revive the old city, drawing people back together, the way it used to be with multiple programs from leisure, recreational, entertainment up to education and research.  The cultures in Penang from the era of the ancient Kedah sultanate until today being declared as a UNESCO heritage site, is very vast in type but most of them shares the same nature as it all started from the street which is in a big influence over 500 years of trading and cultural exchanges. In the idea of bringing back the culture, the building emphasizes on the nature of Penang culture, the ‘street culture’.

The whole forming of the building is kept simple to not over take the neighboring heritage shop houses but to rather compliment them. The building composition installs the character of the ‘street’ in to the architecture of the building by optimizing pedestrian connection and movement. For that purpose, building formation and special networking plays a significant role. The building form is designed to be ramping up to pull the vertical connection to the other floors. It also works as an open live exhibition to visitors as it displays the neighboring living heritage city as they walk up. With the extract of Penang old town, the center is designed with a wider pedestrian area and a central cultural plaza for open cultural activities, from weekend’s cultural trainings to school pupils, hawking, open performance, screening and etc. The overall design is to bond the community together in experiencing the vibrant local cultural activities, as a platform to motivate, enhance and inspire. 

the internal spatial design is composed to meets the elements of the culture. 

The cultural arena (the plaza) intend to bring back the photographic moment and the charm  of inner city of Georgetown, Penang with random hawkers on street, wide pavement for pedestrians and trishaw-like streets furniture.

The cultural game court

The traditional games used to be played as an entertainment during leisure times. Some of the games like 'galah panjang' used to be played below the 'on stilt house' as the house was raised. The stilts below the house was used as a part of the medium of the game. The design of the game court applies the elements of the game norms.

INTRODUCTION

This is a personal design compilation during the architecture education from architecture foundation in 2006 to part one bachelor of science architecture(2008) and finally part two (2011) in a Malaysian university.