Visceral Intricacy II
Architecture as Performance
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Final Fountain of the liquid stone (Ornamental cards and plan)
and I have included these 2 new drawings : the ornament cards and plan, in which I planned to do during the last semester.
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| Ornament artifact cards |
 |
| Plan of the project |
Friday, May 10, 2013
Final Fountain of the liquid stone (Beta)
Manifesto :
Water,
the driving force in nature,
a source of life,
a source of myth,
a foundation of human life
and
inseparable from faith
a source of life,
a source of myth,
a foundation of human life
and
inseparable from faith
Water in Hinduism is a significant ritual medium.. It has a
power to purify one’s soul. By bathing at the sacred river, lake or ocean, one lifetime‘s
sin could be omitted. It also has a power to unite people together. In Kumbh
Mela, the largest human gathering on earth, more than 30 million people gather here
every 12 years to take a dip at Ganges River, Indian River of life.
Water, in an urban environment, flows through city’s
infrastructure in various shapes and logics to the city inhabitants. Pipe
system is equivalent to our blood vessel that keeps the city alive; fire
hydrant is an object to ensure the city’s fire safety, water bottle has been
manufactured to ensure a cities’ water supply. With this type of containers,
people can access to more natural or pure water sources around the world. Water
becomes a valuable resource and it is expensive.
Architecture has performed its role as both spiritual and practical
purposes. In religious, architecture is an embodiment of God through massive structure, ornamented
wall, scared column, divine artifacts, and holy water fountain. In Hinduism, believers
are speaking to architecture, and non-believers are overwhelmed by this unique
experience. In pragmatic world, architecture serves through network of pipe
infrastructure providing supports and feeding the city.
Fountain of the Liquid stone has brought architecture to life;
it is breathing, groaning, sweating, shivering, singing, chanting, praying, greeting
and talking to you. It is a drinking fountain, a street cleaning machine, a heat
and cold generator and most importantly a space for Hindu spiritual practice.
VDO presentation :
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Final : Animistic Urbanism - The Synthesis Between Human Empathy and Human Creations
Interaction humans have with inanimate objects.
Main Isometric view of the overall project showing different forms of donation along Ladder Street
Section View showing sacred boundary inside each phase of Shinto shrine representation
Note : I really want to complete the project to a satisfactory level but I really have to be out of town for the weekend. I will come back to update this post as soon as possible.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Final : Avatars of the Diasporic Plateau or Hong kong's Interactive Dome for Public Intelligence.
Avatars of the DIasporic Plateau or Hong Kong's Interactive Dome for Public Intelligence. from Varis Niwatsakul on Vimeo.
Above : Final Video Presentation
Isonometric Illustration of the project, Avatars of the Diasporic Plateau or Hong Kong's Interactive Dne for Public Intelligence, illustrates scenarios of human activation and occupation of the space within, around, and beyond the project.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
FOLS_DESIGN PRODUCT 2: SECTION DRAWING
Section drawing, illustrate the atmosphere of the space during the Holi festival
The Redline is the future additional pipes and water tanks.
Friday, April 26, 2013
FOLS_DESIGN PRODUCT 1
Monday, April 22, 2013
Master Iso + Detailed Scenarios
AVATARS OF THE DIASPORIC PLATEAU
Hong Kong's Interactive Dome for Public Intelligence.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Manifesto Update
The Eye Line of Mind
Living
in a big city allows us to have a better quality of life and to have more
opportunities to do things. However, as the city grows, the more things happen and
many of them wants our attention, therefore they start to compete each other
for example, commercial signs, street signs and people. When there is a lot of
things happen at the some time, our mind is pulled in to many direction and
makes us feel distracted and overwhelmed.
A
lot of people who lives in the city become materialists, with all the things
that make their lives more convenient or brand name stuffs that allow them to
have better appearance, which they become adhere to those.
Zen Buddhism beliefs that in order to be free from
suffer is to reach the state of awakening by
meditation, which we just simply holding attention on something can make our
mind starts to settle down and become still. When our mind become peaceful, we
start to aware of our presence, observe the surroundings and understand the
rule of nature that everything is constantly changing, therefore, nothing is
permanent.
Hong
Kong is considered to be a chaotic city, where there are so many things happen
at the same time, it needs to be extremely outstanding in order to get
attention. And together with Hogarth’s theory of Beauty, that our eyes pursue
the curvy lines, can attracts our attention on an object in such a cluttered
atmosphere.
The Eye Line of Mind brought a new method of experiencing the
idea of still mind and the notion of impermanence as people can still continue
on their daily life. The idea of still mind is brought by our attention that is
attracted by the operation of a robot arm. And the idea of impermanence will be
recognized through the architecture that is always changing and the irregular
shape of the material used.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Manifesto - Animistic Urbanism
Manifesto
Animistic Urbanism
The Synthesis of Human Empathy and Our Creations
From Vitruvius to the medieval church, Mousgoum compounds in
Cameron to Sepik houses in Papua New Guinea, architectural designs around the
globe has proven that humans, no matter which racial or cultural background,
have an inborn desire to anthropomorphize everything. We want to put a human
characteristics on everything and be able to relate to everything as if they
are a member among the living.
Anthropomorphism in architecture is a rather
enigmatic phenomenon that runs like a thread through human history from the
very beginning to the modern world. Appearing in a great variety, it can be
expressed quite obviously or rather restrained, it can appear clearly
enunciated or an unconscious instinct. Overall, it is safe to say that every
designs in this world has been designed based on human attributes and human
needs alone and nothing else.
This fact is not surprising since all of us were taught to
believe in Animism, one of the world's oldest beliefs, with its origin dating
back to the Paleolithic Age . Animism in the broadest sense, is thinking of
objects as animate, and treating them as if they were alive and has a mind of
its own. This idea was near-universal, with scholars defining animism as "a
general belief in spiritual beings and considered it a minimum definition of
religion." All religions from the simplest to the most complex shared
some sort of animistic beliefs.
The justification for attributing life to objects was stated
by David Hume in his Natural History of Religion (Section III): "There is
a universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and
to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly
acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious."
Even the concept as intangible as gods and deities get
anthropomorphizes in animist beliefs and that we are able to communicate with
the holy spirits residing in nature. This idea evokes the ability in humans to
have empathetic feeling towards inanimate objects and encourages us, as the
creator of the materialistic world, to provide a place for spirits to inhabit,
especially in the form of an architecture. In 1886, Heinrich Wolfflin applied a
theory of empathy to architecture in his doctoral dissertation
"Prolegomena to a Psychology of Architecture", which sought to
account for the expression of 'mood' in architectonic forms to heighten the
human's empathetic ability. However Wolfflin's reasoning goes beyond the notion
of projecting emotions into forms. He suggests that an object can possess a
life of its own and speaks of how matter must be overcome in order that the
potential inherent in matter, its self determination, may be realized.
Animistic Urbanism explores the concept of human's
natural instinct to relate to our world through design of human-based
attributes by inserting "life" or human characteristics to an inanimate
objects in order to increase human empathy and the levels of interaction people
have with inanimate objects surrounding them and purpose a form of worship of
an animist belief into these objects. By doing so, not only do we increase the
human understanding towards those objects which will eventually promotes them
to function to their full potential but also increase the compassion we have
towards those objects as well. Ultimately, if everyone care for everything they
came across, the world would be a better place.
Final Presentation Video : The Script
(The script will includes details from the above manifesto
then continue on to talk about the Japanese animist belief in detail)
Shinto, the traditional religion of Japan, is highly
animistic and one of the rare religion with this kind of beliefs that survived.
In Shinto, spirits of nature or Kami are believed to exist everywhere, from the
major ( such as the goddess of the sun, the lightning god or the god of the
sea) which can be considered polytheistic, to the minor, which are more likely
to be seen with naked eyes.
Japan is exposed to this belief and was promoted highly as
national religion since ancient times until it is embed in the core of the
Japanese people mindset. Even in modern times, you can still see the idea of
this religion peeking out through numerous mediums in Japan, for example, traffic
signs with emotions, movies with Shinto subtext, or a rock that talks. The
Japanese people are being constantly reminded of the root of Shinto through
their daily life.
Introduction to Shinto
As stated before, the spirits that are possessing an object
(or a natural phenomena) are called Kami. They are not god per se but they are
divine being that can either be good or bad. Kami that are considered the most
important and significant that Japanese people pray to are representation of
nature such as the sun goddess, amaterasu, the wind god, sunasoo, the sea god,
and so on.
The life of Japanese people are bounded highly to the Kami.
As a baby, you will be brought to a shrine by your parent to ask the Kami for
protection. The baby will be force to cry so that the sound will attract the
spirit to take notice. Japanese people also have an obligations to go to shrine
once bounded by the Kami every given year. At
age 3, 5, 7(Shichigosan), 20 years old (seijinsai), 19, 25, 33, 42
(Yakudoshi) they must pay homage to their tutelary god, expressing their
gratitude for their life so far and pray to grow up healthy and strong.
Different shrines in different parts of Japan are also
dedicated to a specific Kami depending on the geography and hence making its
architectural structure slightly different. It is divided into 6 main types of
architecture, The famous Ise shrine is dedicated to the Sun goddess, Inari
shrine is dedicated to the God of Agriculture, Izumo shrine is dedicated to the
God of Marriage, Kasuga shrine to the God of Mountain, Usa shrine to the God of
Warrior, and Kamo shrine to the God of River.
The Shinto Shrine
Even though their geography and the style may be different,
the architectural arrangement of a shrine is fairly the same throughout Japan. I
chose to look closer at the structure Kasuga Taisha Shrine and its mountain
surrounding to see the layout of a typical Shinto shrine.
First, you must pass through a gate called Torii which
marks the entrance to a sacred area from the profane. A shrine may have any
number of torii made of wood, stone, metal, concrete or any other material as long
as they form a similar appearance. Secondly, you must ascend to a higher ground
with stone staircase, no matter the geography, a shrine will always be situated
above normal ground. You will encounter a water bath, before entering the
shrine, visitors are supposed to wash their hands and mouths at this fountain
to purify yourself. Then, you must walk a long path before actually reaching
the shrine, the parking lot that's placed far away from the shrine makes sure
you walk a considerable amount before entering. Finally, you will reach the
gate entering the shrine with a Koma Inu, a guardian guarding the gate.
Activities inside the Shrine
There are several activities that go on inside the shrine. Upon
entering the shrine you will see a donation box that you donate your money for
good luck. There is a central courtyard dedicated as a performing space with
ceremonial music playing on important days and festivals. On the innermost or
the main shrine, people will be coming to pay respect to a specific Kami. You
simply have to make a donation, ring a bell then clap 3 times to make a sound
to call upon the Kami and pray.
Main Concept
As you can see, the concept of having an interaction with
inanimate objects as if it was alive (calling the spirits, donating to the
gods, or having a guardian guarding the gate) and the concept of purification
and security (Torii gate, and the fountain) are highly apparent. For my thesis
project, I would like to work on increasing the interaction humans have with
the objects they see daily throughout the cityscape and bring in an abstract
interpretation of the overall shrine layout to let people experience the
process they go through whilst entering a Shinto shrine.
Hence, I'm creating a path where people acknowledge the
existence of objects around them by inputting communicative possibilities that
people can have with these objects while also experiencing the essence of a
Shinto shrine as they are walking through.
Project Location and Proposal
The site that the project is going to be placed is a staircase situated among Hollywood road and Queen's road which is considered a main road where high traffic passes through each day. The site is ideal for my project as it contains:
Project Location and Proposal
The site that the project is going to be placed is a staircase situated among Hollywood road and Queen's road which is considered a main road where high traffic passes through each day. The site is ideal for my project as it contains:
1. Many actors / street furniture that I can use
2. The site ascends to a famous pilgrimage for Hong Kong
people and tourists, Man Mo temple which makes it a spiritual path that people must go through before reaching the temple.
3. The site is not a continuous staircase but rather divided
into many different horizontal planes which will mark a clear distinction
between each phases people go through in a Shinto shrine.
Notable street furniture in the site are as follow :
- Street Light
- Electric Pole
- A/C unit
- Trash Can
- Street Bench
- Pot Plant
The street furniture is being assigned as a representation
to a specific Kami respective to its function and application. For example, the
electrical pole and street light will be a representation of a lightning Kami,
Raijin.
So how can we achieve empathy for these furnitures? By anthromorphizing,
giving these furnitures human characteristics, body language movement, and
communicative behavior of course. However, moving this many objects at once
require a considerable amount of electrical power, so not only will these
objects move and react but it will garner energy back in return through energy
harvesting device.
This can be seen as having a direct relationship with the
process of donation in a Shinto shrine.
Praying to a specific Kami Honden = Choosing a specific form
of donation
Making a donation = Donating your energy
Making a sound to call upon the Kami = The sound caused as a
reaction to your donation
Pray = Pray
Therefore, not only each furniture will be assigned a
specific Kami element but also a different form of energy harvesting as well. *sound
introduction here*
As stated earlier, the electrical pole and street light are
represented by Raijin, the lightning god. Inside the pole, an electrostatic energy
harvesting device will be installed and you simply have to rub this device back
and forth to make a donation.
The public bench, a thermoelectric conversion material will
be installed so that your body heat can be harvested when you sit. Hence, this
furniture represent the god of the Sun, Amaterasu.
You can also water the plant by bringing a water bottle with
you and pour the water down at a designated place so it can flow through the
tube and activate a water turbine which will water the plant and generate
electricity. This form of donation is paying respect to Inari, the god of agriculture.
Near the A/C unit, a small wind turbine will be installed so
that not only the users walking through the site is part of the project but the
residents around can make a donation as well. This action is a form of paying respect to the wind god, Fujin.
However, the site will be using a fair amount of energy in
order to operate so just the way of harvesting energy listed above will not be
enough. That is why the project needs a constant energy or an involuntary
energy donation as well.
That is the job of piezoelectric panels installed on the ground : Plenty of
people walk through the site all day, with the help of Man Mo temple being a
tourist spot. A piezoelectric panels can be installed along the path to collect
all the energy needed to keep the site alive.
Energy conversion : To give a little bit of idea, let's compare
the amount of footsteps to what we're familiar to.
1 footstep can provide enough electrical current to light two 60-watt LED bulbs for 1 second
Fortunately, the site is a spot where people chose to walk
up and down every day, have plenty of activity going on and also with the help
of Man Mo temple, the staircases are usually packed with people walking by and
merchants selling religious items.
The amount of
human flow rate (assuming 1
person can complete walking through the site in 1 minute and that there's at
least 1 new person every minute) The information is derived from deep
observation at the site:
People in the morning (9:00 - 12:00) : 30 people / minute
People in the afternoon (12:00 - 15:00) : 40 people / minute
People in the evening (16:00 - 19:00) : 10 people / minute
People at night (20:00 - 23:00) : 2 people / minute
People at dawn (4:00 - 7:00) : 4 people / minute
The amount of
footsteps to complete the site (assuming 1 footstep covers 1 meter in x axis direction and 1
stair rise) = 113
That means that on the
range of 3 hours in the afternoon we can gather as much as 813,600 footsteps,
enough to light an LED bulb for226 hours.
Phases
The site will be divided into four main phases,
1. The Threshold marking the entrance of a sacred space and
creating a clear boundary from the profane.
2. The Purification phase where you have interaction with water
as a form of drinking or cleaning.
3. The Main Shrine, or the energy core where energy will be
stored
4. The Sando, or the path to the shrine which will be
surrounded by nature.
Praying to a specific Kami Honden = Choosing a specific form of donation
Making a donation = Donating your energy
Making a sound to call upon the Kami = The sound caused as a
reaction to your donation
Pray = Pray
Therefore, not only each furniture will be assigned a
specific Kami element but also a different form of energy harvesting as well. *sound
introduction here*
As stated earlier, the electrical pole and street light are
represented by Raijin, the lightning god. Inside the pole, an electrostatic energy
harvesting device will be installed and you simply have to rub this device back
and forth to make a donation.
The public bench, a thermoelectric conversion material will
be installed so that your body heat can be harvested when you sit. Hence, this
furniture represent the god of the Sun, Amaterasu.
You can also water the plant by bringing a water bottle with
you and pour the water down at a designated place so it can flow through the
tube and activate a water turbine which will water the plant and generate
electricity. This form of donation is paying respect to Inari, the god of agriculture.
Near the A/C unit, a small wind turbine will be installed so
that not only the users walking through the site is part of the project but the
residents around can make a donation as well. This action is a form of paying respect to the wind god, Fujin.
However, the site will be using a fair amount of energy in
order to operate so just the way of harvesting energy listed above will not be
enough. That is why the project needs a constant energy or an involuntary
energy donation as well.
That is the job of piezoelectric panels installed on the ground : Plenty of
people walk through the site all day, with the help of Man Mo temple being a
tourist spot. A piezoelectric panels can be installed along the path to collect
all the energy needed to keep the site alive.
Energy conversion : To give a little bit of idea, let's compare
the amount of footsteps to what we're familiar to.
1 footstep can provide enough electrical current to light two 60-watt LED bulbs for 1 second
20,000 footsteps (approximately) can power the skytrain for 1
second
Fortunately, the site is a spot where people chose to walk
up and down every day, have plenty of activity going on and also with the help
of Man Mo temple, the staircases are usually packed with people walking by and
merchants selling religious items.
The amount of
human flow rate (assuming 1
person can complete walking through the site in 1 minute and that there's at
least 1 new person every minute) The information is derived from deep
observation at the site:
People in the morning (9:00 - 12:00) : 30 people / minute
People in the afternoon (12:00 - 15:00) : 40 people / minute
People in the evening (16:00 - 19:00) : 10 people / minute
People at night (20:00 - 23:00) : 2 people / minute
People at dawn (4:00 - 7:00) : 4 people / minute
The amount of
footsteps to complete the site (assuming 1 footstep covers 1 meter in x axis direction and 1
stair rise) = 113
That means that on the
range of 3 hours in the afternoon we can gather as much as 813,600 footsteps,
enough to light an LED bulb for226 hours.
Phases
Monday, April 15, 2013
ROBO-MIND: manifesto+description
Manifesto
Nowadays,
many people are living is a rush and hectic life which leads people to be forgetful of
the present; their mind is caught in worries, fears, anger and regrets
and that makes them suffer. Zen Buddhism beliefs that in order to be free
from suffer is to reach the state of awakening by using meditation as the
method to induce the mode of still mind.
Robo-mind is a project that
attempts to emphasize people’s experience on the idea of still mind and
impermanence through the operation of a robotic arm in a very chaotic condition of Hong
Kong. In order to encounter the experience of still mind, Zen meditation will
be used as the method, which is a meditation
practice by focusing our attention on an object to induce a mode of
consciousness. The movement of the robotic arm is very delicate and precise by
the accord of Hogarth’s Theory of Beauty that our eyes pursue curvy lines and
variety, which can also be found in the
sequences of tea ceremony and Canadarm2. The arm will perform the creation of
modular structures from leftover bamboo in order to accommodate Hong Kong
condition. Each module will have a heat
collector that collects heat and transform into
electricity that generate LED light at night.
During the day, the structure will be assembled together according to sunlight
to collect heat and also to perform as a shading device which can be dismantled
and reassembled as an extended gathering space.
In the evening,
each modular will also give out light for the
walkway. Every time the robot arm grabs the
module, the grabber drills holes into the bamboo to leave marks. The more it moves, the more holes it has, therefore, more light will be given out to the walkway, but at one point
when there are too many holes that the structure
become fragile and can not serve as the structure, it will be burn. The
structure can be dismantled, it changes every time there are adjustments, the
shade and shadow changes all the time according to the sunlight. the LED light can last until morning, and when the
structure become fragile and burn down these scenarios imply
the notion of impermanence.
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