Design activity starts with words

In the forthcoming mixed use, retail-cum-residential design project, someone asked me what does "Sky House" mean? Is it another new project? Before I try to explain, let's explore one simple but important concept. "You can design whatever it is, only after you have described whatever it is....." As suggested, language and design are heavily related, and you will need your verbal description to come up with the physical design of form and function. If I ask you to design a house, obviously you know what to do, because everyone has one's idea of a house. If I ask you to design an apartment, you will probably know what to do. So what about a single residential unit on top of a retail premise? Should I call it an apartment? No, of course. It is only one unit. Therefore I need to invent a name for the residential. As discussed during studio, it needs to be a house, with garden, entrance foyer, grand stairwell, library and study rooms, formal dinning room, entertainment room as well as servant quarter and kitchen, plus bedrooms and ensuites. So how should I call this. A house on top of retail? As a result, let's invent something to describe it. "Sky House" becomes the idea of your design. In this case, words precede forms; and designing with words become part of the design process. Therefore, you can be as creative to words as to design. By adding "Sky" in front of the "House", I am describing some specific characteristics which are not just a house landing on the ground, but something more. Please use your imagination in design as well as in words. Soon you will realize writers on art and design are in fact, word designers.   T

How many ideas can you put into your project?

By now, everyone should realize that your project is the formal narration your ideas; and very often, we describe your main idea as the "intention" of your project. However, what if you have more than one idea, such as an idea about urban setting, another idea about lifestyle, a third idea about beauty and aesthetics, in addition to the programmatic requirement like retail or service, then what is your intention? Therefore I want to introduce you to another term "hierarchy" (you need to google a bit this round). Hierarchy in design is about the ranking of the most important function or purpose to the lesser ones. And this can be shown or realized in the design itself.

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Story telling from city scale to building scale

Much has been said about the city and how immediate urban conditions can affect the form of a building. The second half of this studio is to design the building that echoes the parameter you have discovered or established.

In order to capture the right sensation, I need you to prepare a few sketches by next Tuesday that describe:
1. Retail entrance;
2. Retail interior;
3. Residential living or dinning area;
4. Residential foyer or entrance;
5. A special or feature space of your choice; in ways that similar to your first project.

With these sketches, we shall be able to envision the inner workings of your building, such that plans and sections can be designed. You should be quite familiar with this approach as you have been designing interiors in this manner. Although you do not need to start with any literal concepts, you are expected to create interesting and meaningful interior space. We shall devote the coming three sessions to explore your vision of these spaces that will make up the design of your building.

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What is your point?

While you will not be presenting your entire project with all the necessary drawings during the interim review, your audience will not be able to understand your intention unless you point it out directly. So please be precise about your most important idea, demonstrate it through the model, and perhaps support such possibility with sketches and plans.

To make this process more effective, you shall be presenting in groups of four to five, all designing for the same site. Hopefully we should be able to vote for the most effective and convincing "parti". In this way, you will learn and realize where our priorities are.

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Great if you do and great if you don't

Someone asked me after class what you should read to supplement your design skill for the studio project. For our purpose of this session, I still recommend "Collage City" by Rowe and Koetter as your first inroad to understand urbanity and architecture. However, after almost a month of discussions and presentations, you shall find what you have learnt and acquired in your next project again. So at least read this book before commencement of your next project.

Honestly speaking, I am quite happy with some of the solutions presented in the rough models. They offer possibilities for new and creative inventions, that have not been seen before. By Tuesday, you should realize how this point echoes with my previous request for a new "de"+"sign". But for someone who is still struggling, do not be afraid. You are just a bit too ambitious to create something original without resorting to the problem. You see, solving a problem is quite different from creating something out of the blue. So do it a step at a time.

After mid-term, we shall focus on the use of plans, sections and elevations, and how elements in architecture present your intention through space, form and material. Therefore it is important for you to have your idea ready in model and plan by Tuesday. Good luck!

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Design through models

Within my group of students, I start to see a few that try to use the site model as a tool to visualize and realize what can be applied on the site of their choice. After today's session, I hope everyone will play with the model, and the key word is "play".

While most of you think the model is a 3D representation of your idea, just like any other 3D softwares, instead the model should be the beginning of your idea, the beginning of a form or forms that interact with the other elements on the site.

To demonstrate design ideas through models, you need to be brave enough to leave your pencil and notebook aside, and explore possibilities through adding and subtracting, as if you were the little kid playing with 'Lego'. So free yourselves from the constraints of the mind, and let your eyes and hands do the job.

Because you are designing with the site model, you will inevitably design with urban considerations. Hopefully by the end of next Tuesday, you will all realize that you have spent a month learning about urban design issues in architecture, starting with the very ambitious site analysis and design through models.

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What is "de"+"sign" in this design project?

We had some heated discussions on what to expect in the upcoming mixed-use. At the end, I need to clarify my view on what constitute design, and the direction to take in order to achieve this design.

A literal interpretation of "design", which made up of "de" and "sign" can mean the deconstruction of a known sign. Therefore, if we simply apply the established typology of the Wanchai mixed-use by having retail on the ground or lower floors, and residential on upper floors, this is not much of a design as far as dealing with the contemporary relationship between retail / residential and their corresponding usages.

To explore its contemporary application, we invented the notion "retail maximum": what will be the maximum deployment of the retail elements in terms of sight-lines, accommodation, accessibility, etc to achieve the maximum retail attraction? This view of retail is being supported by the emerging usage of upper floors in most CBDs, such as Times Square, Causeway Bay, whereby signboards, sight-lines, accessibility, etc are important considerations for retail viability.

As the process goes, a different set of considerations will emerge for residential viability that may run into conflict with the retail counterparts, such as the need for light, air, green and open space, circulation as well as accessibility and privacy. As a result, your design is to show the balance or synthesis between "retail maximum" and "residential maximum" based on your own findings.

The resolution of this conflict may result in a "de"+"sign" that fits my expectation of a design and at the same time, new.

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