Project 2a - Experiencing Place - 'Genius Loci’ - Site Analysis & Concept Development
Society, culture, history, memory and the landscape of a particular place echoes the meaning of that ‘place’, or its ‘genius loci’. These qualities will inform the architectural concept and generators for Project 2. In Project 2, the design brief calls for an architectural response toward the sense of place with a strong engagement and relationship to the site and programmatic requirements. The first assignment for Project 2 requires an analysis of the site context as a starting point. It is a fundamental need for any design project as it will suggest a series of parameters to suggest architectural solution, one that will be appropriate to the place and its meaning, and contributes to its context. The site needs to be understood, in both intuitive and personal ways, as well as quantitative and measured means. Techniques to record and understand the site are varied, from physical surveys to qualitative aspects of experience and personal interpretation of the place.
In groups of 10 students in the same tutorial group, we were required to perform the following Task 1, 2 and 3 as a group.
Task 1 : HISTORICAL RESEARCH / TRACINGS OF MACRO SITE
Task 2 : SITE CONDITIONS & DATA COLLECTION OF MACRO & MICRO SITES
Task 3 : SITE ANALYSIS OF MACRO & MICRO SITES
We also did a 5 minute documenting video on the selected theme with verbal narration. It consists of an in-depth historical background of the site based on our online research.
Individually, we need to perform the following Task 4 and 5.
Task 4 : PERSONAL INTERPRETATION
Task 5 : SITE RESPONSE & CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
WORKSHOP OUTCOMES
Throughout the workshops and assignments, I am able to generate design through conscious consideration of spatial typologies, section-plan relationship, contextual conditions and considerations of human scale, natural light, materiality and textures. Furthermore, I learnt how to document, interpret and analyze the physical conditions of the site and ‘genius loci’ of place and generate design based on the character and conditions of the site context.