ADS9: Aura - A Call for An Open Architecture
Loh Kong Liang Mervin
Mervin started his architectural journey since 2005 – graduated with a Dip. in Interior Architecture and Design (2008) from Temasek Polytechnic (Singapore), he worked for Ong&Ong Architectural department for 5 years before taking his BArch (2016) in University of Westminster (London). Spending the next 2 years working in FARM back in Singapore, he then moves on to take his March (2020) in Royal College of Art (London). Over the years Mervin is involved in multiple local Singapore projects that range from commercial, residential as well as community-driven projects that involved collective engagement with the public. His interest in collective living and extension of domestic spaces into the city developed from his engagement with the studios that he partakes in RCA, which the tutors have fostered his interest in something tangible and developed. Apart from new thoughts of Architectural design, Mervin likes to write about Singapore and the food culture that he so strongly attached to.
2020 have been a tiresome and challenging year for everyone; the displacement of students studying abroad as well as the architecture education is all affected by the pandemic that have impacted worldwide. Within the hustle and bustle of these trying times, the search for a new collective living as a new norm emerged as a new goal for me. After approaching the subject of interest for 2 years and informing the interest through rigorous study and extraction of a Singaporean context, the collective living through a new domestic space becomes a long life research goal for me. At least for the next 10 years, I will be approaching Singapore, as a Singaporean; to study and push the boundaries of architectural approach of domestic spaces as part of the larger collective city living.
The Delectable Axonometric — Axonometric of the Delectable and the estate interfacing as a new reading of the public space.
Exploded Axonometric — Exploded axonometric of the Delectable showing the layers of construction it builds upon.
Delectable smell in-the-air is a physical manifesto for the common people within the residential estate in Singapore, Toa Payoh. Occupying a singular large space of 80m by 90m, it could hold up to 1000 people eating and not doing anything else together. Within the city-state where the daily routine is highly structured and unproductivity is criticised upon, the delectable is a new plinth within the estate that allows for individualist self-expression without restraint. As the expectation of society piles up on young Singaporeans, the social affirmation cracks as the city’s typologies mold them into established routines. While they lack and struggle to seek after a non-prescribed / non-regimental space for relief within the everyday life.
Plan of Toa Payoh, Singapore — Smells are represented as an intense concentration of points to indicate the location of hawker centres within the estate.
Delectable Ground Plan — The typology of the hawker centre interfacing the delectable architecture.
The familiarities of the domestic spaces extend out to the estate in which the ‘Hawker Centre’ is integral to it, a public space in a form of an infrastructure for the common eating. The ‘Hawker Centre’ is an omnipresent typology within the everyday life of Singaporean, absent in idealisation but still operates within the city’s pandered reproduction.
Delectable First Floor Plan — The sensorial experience of smell within the chambers.
The Delectable is a playground of sensorial perceptions that works between the physiological, atmospheric, and gastronomic senses of people. To emphasis on its seemly weird sense of familiarity within the estate, the direction of entry, sequence of observation, and creation of smell composition within the architecture are chosen according to different impacts we would want Singaporean to experience – perceiving the hawker as a familiar setting interfacing with the estate.
Delectable Roof Plan — The smells exhausted from the domes eventually envelope the entire estate as a physiological changing aura.
As the domes segment changes with different height and size the different containment of air composition changes and so does physiological transformation in the occupants do. That will allow for different types of expression, activities, collectiveness, socialising and eventually not doing anything else at all across the field of the architecture.
Catalogue of Domes Architecture — Using the catalogue of domes to form the chambers of Delectables as a design language as well as an experiential module.
Smell composition simulation in Timescale — A period of time when smell composition take place.
The Domes are the main design language in the architecture. The catalogue shows the series of domes that are rigorously shaped and tested through different proportion of scales and size. These are then arranged as a spatial and geometrical organisation allowing different set of domes to house these air compositions.
Construction of Dome Axonometric — Building the Delectable in clusters and showing how the construction of the domes enables the support of smells as part of the architectural intervention.
Physical and digital testing of the domes allows for much more precision in creating spaces for the set amount of emitters within it. The wormeye axonometric shows the construction of the cluster of the domes and supported by the structure columns.
Delectable Sectional Perspective 02 — Section of the Delectable arousing the sensorial experience from the hawker to the chambers, creating an environment of delectables that allows for all kinds of anything to happen.
The 1st level is a field that allows of uninterrupted connection from point to point. Sheltering these uninterrupted fields are a series of domes that are placed to be the receptors and emitters of the air composition. Each group of domes covers a certain type of air composition that induces different behavioural changes to people who are within these segments. As the domes segment changes, with the different in height and size, the different containment of air composition changes so does the physiological transformation in the occupants do.
Delectable Sectional Perspective 02 — Section of the Delectable arousing the sensorial experience from the hawker to the chambers, creating an environment of delectables that allows for all kinds of anything to happen.
The 1st level is a field that allows of uninterrupted connection from point to point. Sheltering these uninterrupted fields are a series of domes that are placed to be the receptors and emitters of the air composition. Each group of domes covers a certain type of air composition that induces different behavioural changes to people who are within these segments. As the domes segment changes, with the different in height and size, the different containment of air composition changes so does the physiological transformation in the occupants do.
Delectable Elevational Perspective — Elevation of the Delectable approaching from the estates.
Entering the architecture from the estate, one can start to smell different composition of air as the smell is being expelled from some of the domes. The ceramic surface of the domes provides a clean reflection of the building while sitting on top of the familiar hawker setting. As people enter the building either from the ground level or the bridges, one would not expect the vast interconnected spaces within the domes itself.
Into the physiological altering machine — Within the Delectable chamber, the clay walls provide a covering for the interior of the domes. The emitters that emit the smells start to stain the clay walls, manifesting the air composition into something tangible.
Into the emotive-drive machine — Some of the domes are interconnected together to form a vast space. These spaces are interlinked not only visually but also by the smell that mingles across the field of architecture.
Into the dome of the Delectable — As times goes by, the stains that was created by the smell composition becomes part of the concrete wall of the domes. The air composition within the space become so intense that just by entering into the space, one can feels the physiological changes within.
The architecture is a new plinth that sits within the residential estate allowing for self-expression of individuals to do anything they want and not bound to the appropriation of the building. Openness in the project is then constructed through the unstructured/open routine that the young Singaporean will experience and do within the space. As a social condensing program, the Delectable project acts as a spatial utility that surrounds the estate, creating a landscape of casualisation across the familiar estates of the residential district. The signs of not to do thing guided, not to be pressured by the society which is uncommon in Singaporean society becomes a celebrated notion of which is open to all to see and observe – and eventually partake together. The project will then offer a subtle act of resistance against the normative.
Delectable smell in the air — The phenomena aura of air composition.
Inducing the smell composition is something highly personal and invisible. The reaction that one can experience within the space is something that cannot be described or shown – but what if the aura of the smell composition can be translated into something architectural.
Delectable Smell in-the-air — A research on everything delectable.
The architecture is a new plinth that sits within the residential estate allowing for self-expression of individual to do anything they want and not bound to the appropriation of the building. Openness in the project is then constructed through the unstructured/open routine that the young Singaporean will experience and do within the space. As a social condensing program, the Delectable project acts as a spatial utility that surrounds the estate, creating a landscape of casualisation across the familiar estates of the residential district. The signs of not to do thing guided, not to be pressured by the society which are uncommon in Singaporean society becomes a celebrated notion of which is open to all to see and observe – and eventually partake together. The project will then offer a subtle act of resistance against the normative.