ACKCMS
ANDREW CHEE KIONG CHEE MAN SHING
ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO
PROJECT 1: REPRESENTING ME
For the very first project of my architecture courses, I had to present myself. So the assigned work was to choose any medium to communicate and represent my abstracted sense of self. This can take form as a piece of artwork (be it fine art or sculpture), or a performance (poetry reading, mime, short film, dance, experimental live performance etc.). This project has helped me to expand on initial ideas by referencing artworks and expressions of varied art forms to my personal interest.
I chose Georges Seurat and Paul Signac's Pointilism to draw a portrait of my face, because for my opinion, pointilism is a very time consuming work, which requires also a lot of patience. Similar to the stippling technique, I spent a lot of time doing it. This medium represents my hardworking personality and one of my good qualities as a person, which is patience. I chose the 3 colours: blue, red and black, because I took reference to President Barack Obama's poster for his campaign to the presidency. At the bottom of the poster, there was written "HOPE". So I always link up these 3 colours to hope. So for me, I really has that hope that I will achieve my goal, which is being an architect.
PROJECT 2: SELF EXPRESSION THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL SPACE
As a group of 3 students, we had to interprete our personalities and characteristics and express them spatially. In Project 2, we had been introduced to basic design principles such as the rudimentary ways in which to order and organise spaces and forms. This is to allow us, students, the ability to articulate and dictatewhat their designs are as we move on to develop the ideas and interpretations of the self. This development was via a series of tests and investigations involving scaled models (also known as study models). The final design was produced as a full 1:1 scaled installation in the Uni square.
My group and I chose simplicity over complexity, openess over enclosure. We chose a square base on which stood 4 boards being of different shape. This implied that those 4 boards had to lie to each other and remain like this all day long. Successfully they stood. Simplicity was our main focus, because my group members and I shared the same thought that in life, we should sometimes think simple. Looking for more really make everything complicated. Openess was for the open-minded thought that we all had. We easily welcome all ideas.
PROJECT 3: SPCE FOR THE SELF
In Project 3, we were required to design a dreamspace for ourself by ‘grafting’ or engaging it to the walls of an imagined “city” on an empty abandoned plot.
Our first task was to choose, among a selection of movies, a movie and to select a site found in between buildings from the movie or an abandoned plot. In a group of 5, my friends and I build up the site using cardboards at a scale of 1:50. First we had to understand the site. Then using scale and proportion, we mounted the site model. Also we had to choose a character which would or would not have any relationship to the movie. We had to create a story for him, give him personalities, likes and dislikes, and using him to make the movie more interesting.
Tasks 2 and 3 are the remaining design exercises that see the exploration of the Narrative and Spatial Design. This aims to build upon the key themes of conceptual development, scale and proportion (anthropometry), and basic design principles in spatial organizations and relationships. In addition to that, we also explored the notions and experiential effects of materials and the senses in this final design project.
I had to design a space that embodies and expresses the conceptual narrative of my character. I was able to distinguish and discern the role of scale and proportion in the relationship between the human body and a designed space or enclosure. I was able to identify, articulate and apply basic design principles in spatial organization andrelationships.
