Reimagining Urbanscape : From Art to Architecture
Yesterday, PAMSC* concluded their Design Festival (PDF 2024), which was held in conjunction with World Architecture Day (WAD)** 2024. The two-day event included key activities such as the University Best Project competition, the Secondary Students Model competition, the PAMSC Members cum Networking Night, and the Trade Expo, culminating in the Design Forum.
The theme for this year's Design Forum is ‘Reimagining Urbanscape: From Art to Architecture’, featuring both local and international speakers from diverse backgrounds. This is a review of the Design Forum that aims to explore how art and architecture create imaginative, vibrant, and meaningful built environments at various scales.
Nattapong Phattanagosai and Donlaporn Chanachai from Cloud-floor, Thailand, collaborate closely with locals to create meaningful community interventions. Their design approaches vary from integrating furniture design principles into architecture to address consumption and waste in Waste-Side Story, to mapping data to understand local behaviours in Kad Pad Pad and Co-Mapping, and considering the business models of the communities they serve in Street Food Pocket. They believe in using short-term actions to spearhead long-term changes; as such, their initiatives leave faint traces across Thailand, with the architects stating, “If you come to Thailand, you may not see our projects, as they are mostly temporary installations. However, our intention is to foster discussions that promote policy changes benefiting the locals.”
The next speaker, Feng Guo Chuan from SZAD, China, approached his presentation from both Chinese and Western philosophical viewpoints. He expressed his belief that while architecture may seem to have a predetermined form, it should not be confined to dogmatic practices, emphasising freedom through meandering pathways and the creation of sightlines within both physical and immaterial spaces. Feng's sharp wit and subtleties in addressing the leaders' relentless pursuit of rigid forms offered a delightful reflection on architectural practice. Although a practising architect, he is more optimistic about educating the younger generation through his Children’s Architectural Education initiative, encouraging students to think about architecture from an early age as a way forward.
Hailing from Vietnam, Tran Thi Ngu Ngon and Nguyen Hai Long of Tropical Space draw on lessons from vernacular architecture to inform their house projects, demonstrating how typologies vary from the northern to the southern parts of Vietnam. Their material of choice is red brick, sourced from the nearest local kiln and widely available in the region. By using different types of bricks—traditionally viewed as heavy, sometimes even dull—they weave them together to create textured walls and laced façades that allow air and light to enter, even turning them into shelving, fostering emotional connections between people and their surroundings. While their work showcases a contemporary use of local red brick, crafted with traditional techniques, it also extends beyond mere buildings to include small spaces, such as the Poultry Shelter, which provides a nurturing environment for chickens while encouraging interaction and learning for both children and adults.
Among the eight speakers, Eddie Putera stood out as the only visual artist specialising in ultra-realistic dioramas. Despite appearing seemingly unprepared, the only Malaysian speaker captivated the audience with a seven-minute video montage of his work, set to a cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’—if anything, he certainly knows how to make an impression. His vivid recollections of a life journey that took him from making millions to losing it all—before finding peace in day-to-day living and rejecting societal expectations—serve as a timely reminder for fellow architects, a regulated profession bound by constraints, that seeking personal fulfilment is essential. Eddie also speaks about 'bluff-ology'—he is quite the exponent, as it appears to have worked well with the Forum Convenor. With his architectural background, his humour reveals that he understands the unspoken truths of the profession.
The takeaway from Eddie’s presentation may not be as straightforward as one might hope, particularly since most speakers at architectural forums are typically architects with extensive portfolios. However, if we recognise that the original meaning of ‘architecture’ derives from the ancient Greek word for ‘chief creator’ (arkhitéktōn), we understand that to create requires creativity. Valuable lessons can be gleaned from Eddie's insights on observing the subtle details of everyday life and engaging with local cultures. His personal obsession with rust drives his relentless pursuit of creating memories, and his journey from crafting a small car to developing intricate cityscape dioramas illustrates how passion can fuel artistic growth. These experiences inspire fresh perspectives and innovative ideas, serving as a rich reminder that creativity cannot be learned, only cultivated.
James Shen from People’s Architecture Office (PAO), Los Angeles, integrates his background in product design not only into his building designs but also into interactive, whimsical installations that become essential parts of the spaces he creates. The Plugin House proprietary building system presents a creative and effective approach to housing issues caused by cost, space, or both. Its people-centric character enables him to gauge public reaction while convincing governments to adopt related public policies. Additionally, the temporary nature of his projects, such as People’s Canopy and Social Network Factory, allows him to experiment and take risks. The Learning Landscape of Wuzhou Primary School showcases how interstitial and liminal spaces can be expanded into informal learning areas, breaking down the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces for hands-on learning activities, all while displaying the same playful DNA as PAO’s other works.
The last speaker of the day, Ng Chin Yong from 10Design, Hong Kong, presented four projects to highlight the power of retail in China, where the current trend is to create public spaces within malls to attract crowds who might then shop. He talked about the balance, the tug-of-war of creating spaces while fulfilling the clients’ needs for floor space and user programmes. Examples include MixC Sungang, featuring a plaza that leads to the mall, and the Zhuhai Core Area, which incorporates an elevated activity space at the base of a cascading masterplan. Their collaboration with Heatherwick Studio in Xi’an attempts to honour the area’s history of ceramics by cladding the buildings in patterned terracotta, interspersed with a series of open terraces. Each scheme comes with seductive architectural representation and promotional video.
A prevalent theme among all the speakers is the central role of people in the presentations, although their importance varies from active participants in the design process to more passive contributors to the economic landscape. Tangible examples where people take center stage can be found in PAO’s Plugin House projects across China, which addresses how houses that have been left vacant and in ruins can be retrofitted with affordable modular buildings to rejuvenate heavily disinvested communities, while also tackling homelessness at the Esperanza Community in Austin, Texas.
Similarly, Kad Pap Pap which started off as an experimental project between the Creative Economy Agency in Chiang Mai and Cloud-floor, aims to serve as a prototype for a ‘Healthy City.’ By collaborating with local mobile grocery vendor Auntie Noi, the initiative reimagines the grocery tricycle model to address the needs of aging and vulnerable populations, promoting a healthy lifestyle through nutritious food offerings. This project exemplifies how community-focused collaborations can drive larger systemic changes, paving the way for a more sustainable urban environment.
In addition, both Cloud-floor and PAO use their experiments and temporary structures to engage with the public and test if their needs are fulfilled. One hopes that Cloud-floor can achieve similar success in getting their projects accepted as policy, just as PAO has done.
Feng’s presentations highlight a key aspect of architectural practice: when a project gets scrapped, it can still be realized in different ways. Balancing the demands of those in power while staying true to original design intentions is an unwritten rule in navigating the politics of the built environment. Focusing on locally available resources and showcasing consistent brick buildings by Tropical Space may seem limiting, but it also raises questions about our relentless pursuit of new styles and our fixation with constant reinterpretation.
On the other hand, some (of the) architects seem to have been lured into the honeytrap of a literal interpretation of 山水 (shān shuǐ), or mountains and waters. This approach often leads to an overemphasis on harmony with nature, featuring manmade trees, nature-inspired building forms, and misguided sustainability through solar panels on large concrete and steel structures. Has the urban landscape truly been reimagined, or are we simply regurgitating the same stylistic pursuits, hiding behind a ‘natural’ mask?
Perhaps, the most dangerous of all lies in the beautiful pictures. That is all they are—beautiful. When architects present with raw honesty albeit with exaggeration, even the simplest form of building can be the most thought provoking of all.
All in all, it was a successful maiden outing for this PAMSC PDF 2024 organising committee. Their choice of moderator, Assistant Professor Teoh Chee Keong, the Deputy Dean of UCSI School of Architecture and Built Environment, was excellent; it is a pity he was not introduced at the beginning of the forum. Perhaps he or the convenor could have reminded the audience of the forum's theme and thanked each speaker as they descended the stage. Teoh conducted the Q&A in good style; he summed up the speakers' contributions before turning the microphone over to them. The dialogue among the speakers was very candid and warm, helped along by some probing questions from the floor.
The design forum was attended by more than 260 people, including PAM Council members. It is a valuable resource for local practitioners who can earn 12 CPD points in the home state.
*Malaysian Institute of Architects Sarawak Chapter
**World Architecture Day (WAD), created by the International Union of Architects (UIA) in 1985, is celebrated annually on the first Monday of October. This day coincides with the United Nations World Habitat Day, aligning the architectural community’s efforts with global urban development goals.
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