Create Your Happiness

Create Your Happiness

Project Description

This creative process is driven by my ultimate ambition to save the earth which sounds ambitious as it really is! Among the methods used are papercutting, model folding, beading and braiding thread. Meanwhile, for the material wise, watercolours are first used to do initial design iterations inspired by sea elements and motives before being cut and folded into desired shapes, forms and curves. A range of ocean-themed matching colours yarn, fairy floss, threads and wooden beads are being used for beading and braiding. Bubble wrap and plastic are being used to portray the feeling of sea surface. Aside from that, certainly not to be left out are important tools such as scissors, paper cutter, transparent tapes, all-purpose adhesive glue and a supporting metal stand.

So here is how the story begins, ever since my childhood times, I have been having this ambition to save our planet earth after being exposed to many of the textbooks and campaigns teaching us numerous lessons on environmental issues and sustainability knowledge. The ever-increasing warning signs have been indicating the imperative urgency to seek for an immediate solution to overcome climate change and biological degradation occurring at a global scale.

The question to ponder here is that how can we provide the most feasible solutions or agendas in designing for the future where the entire ecosystem is rejuvenated, restored and regenerative? How can a proposed design development go beyond the state of self-contained self-sustainable to create various innovative solutions in coping with climate change, depleting resources, and escalating demand by population growth?

This project is a craftwork done by me during the month of May, depicting an architectural intervention locating at seaside, inspired by elements from the sea itself, for instance, coral reef, algae, seaweed, and seabed patterns. The inclusion of these inspiring elements via biomimicry approach is naturally driven by the ocean as the chosen context. I chose ocean as my site due to the fact that ocean makes up earth surface by 70% which is a biosphere that is capable of supporting lives with rich ecosystem. I truly feel that there is an urgent need to resolve the waste and energy issues as well as environmental issues such as water pollution, global warming, sea level rise and so forth.

The design intent of this project aims to provide an ecologically responsive and resilient design intervention with the integration of waste or plastic processing plant in order to remedy and overcome the demand for waste and water treatment as well as to revitalize the many of the polluted ocean.

This project focuses on the enhancement of human experience and cognitive process via contextual framing and bringing out most of the atmosphere essence where flourishing and flowing form floating patterns which blend into the site context itself. The combination of flourishing, flowy and floating nature of the organic elements come together in a blending mould, creating a sensational and aesthetically pleasing structural variants or forms. Organic and unconfined, this opens a vast opportunity for exploration and design variants. Spatial, shading, and light quality are explored here with the playing of contours and contextual settings.

Apart from that, exploration on the correlations and circulations amongst each structure to the pre-existing site conditions, being it floating, half- submerged or fully immersed in the ocean. Bringing all elements together is like a knitting and stitching the ocean of urban contextual fabric. Every part of this architectural design intervention are consolidated yet individualistically unique and functionally separated in which the coexisting Interrelationship between the pre-existing and new intervention to establish a new ecosystem for the betterment of environment, intergenerational equity and future.

This project is introduced as a Regenerative Settlement which provides a community inclusive clean energy powerplant via assorted waste treatment and water treatment meanwhile inviting visitors to its underwater Lodging & Knowledge Hub. It serves as an Ecological Remediation with Evolutional Spiral and Immersive Elements of the ocean, enhancing the overall experiential quality and atmospheric essence. This is an establishment of a whole new ecosystem to preserve and conserve the intrinsic quality of local context, minimize the ecological impact, and to promote intergenerational equity. Flourishing, flowy and floating organic structural forms and circulation can blend into the site context well to suggest blooming or blossoming effect as well as the harmony and synergy co-created between nature and human interaction. Biomimicry design produce aesthetically pleasing forms and shapes which can be either form inspired or functionally driven. The self-regenerating or self-healing processes of nature will recreate or rejuvenate the ideal living conditions of the once depleted or overly consumed biosphere. Creativity provides a whole new world to the tourism industry by providing novel experience and enjoyable facilities to indulge and educate visitors with various activities such as underwater lodging, underwater walking, diving, guided clean energy plant tour, cultivation of coral reef and so forth. Positive influences via promulgation of environmental consciousness and will result in a sustainable community and culture towards the betterment of future.

Unfortunately, this newly established settlement might be out of place without a sense of placeness due to the introduction of novel typology. Unfamiliarity might cause alienation of space which fails to attract crowd and attention. There are limitations for large scale intervention or expansion due to site constraints, government and municipal guidelines or setbacks as well as building height restrictions. On the other hand, too much organically inspired structures might result in inconsistencies and complications in building due to the variant and lack of orderly forms. Besides, advancement in technology need regular high maintenance and knowledgeable technical staffs to operate. The interrogation of whether forms follow functions or functions follow forms result in incomplete partiality in architectural interventions and design responses. Last but not least, the process of engaging and forming multidisciplinary frameworks to result in an overarching multidimensional remedy will be overwhelming and complicated.

All in all, I truly enjoyed each and every process undertaken in completing this project. Although it is yet an overly ideal utopia to be attained with current advancement in technology, I truly hope that I can realise this dream in the future as a professional architect. Perhaps not in the ocean but on the land itself, who knows?