ASIAN ARCHITECTURE

THIS IS WHERE I LEARN ABOUT CONTEXTUAL ARCHITECTURE

ABOUT Asian Architecture

The subject explores the history of South, Southeast and East Asian architecture as a whole within a systematic treatment of architectural design and construction, building science and technology, garden design and city planning through three key themes: sustainability, tradition and modernity & globalisation. These themes will guide the organisation of weekly lecture and projects, which will proceed from the establishment of a basic theoretical apparatus to the examination of specific cases. Students will develop understanding on Asian architecture and urbanism and interpret Asian architectural language through research poster and oral presentation.

PROJECT 1

Research in Asian Architecture

The project is research driven that requires student to research and discuss significant issues to generate a critical understanding of tradition, modernity and globalisation in the Asian architectural contexts. These issues are discussed in lectures and pre-recorded lectures to facilitate students’ group discussion in class. Students are required to present their findings in the form of a research poster and seminar presentation.

By forming a group of 6-7, we need to select ONE specific research area which we intent to investigate through extensive literature review. Once the research area is confirmed, we need to conduct extensive literature reviews, to identify the specific topic/ issues/significance of study and then define specific scope of study. We are required to generate a good research title that reflects the research intention and specific scope of study, within the framework of the selected research area and significance of study. We then need to produce a research poster to provide a visual representation of our findings.

We chose to study about vernacular & traditional architecture and our topic is "A Study on Passive Design Strategies Used for Climate Control in Traditional Malay House". We did a thorough research about this topic and created a research poster and presentation slides of it.

RESEARCH POSTER

SLIDES

PROJECT 2

Contextual Architecture Study

The Contextual Architecture Study project requires students to analyse how the selected architectural design responded to its contexts. Findings from the study is presented in the form of A2 presentation visual.

In the same group as the previous project, we were to identify a building in Asia which we intent to investigate through observation and readings on contemporary Contextual Architecture practices and issues in Asia. Based on the selected building, each member of the group shall each select one Contextual Architecture elements below to conduct analysis:

· Space organization and access hierarchy

· Sky line, compression and height

· Features related to the form of the building

· Building material and systems

· Image making elements

· Dimensions of history and social memories

We need to show findings and analysis in the form of a printed A2 presentation visual, with appropriate visual communication design and clarity of information. My group chose China Academy of Art's Folk Art Museum as our building to analyse. Below is our A2 presentation visual.