Hann's studiomate--i'm guessing based on the fact that he appears on be the change, Weixiong is attempting a Singapore Experiment in line with his thesis project.
i'm enjoying the angle of the spiel so far, though what's worth relishing even more are the discussions that have occurred at the blog. admittedly, various strains are off-tangent, but boy do i love strays!
it would be so much better if this "experiment" were actually a bigger project of gathering voices for sg's conservation efforts.
the possibilities...
help the lad, submit your imagination today.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
submit your imagination.
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4 comments:
Weixiong recently did a survey on a bunch of ah bengs and ah lians and asked whether they what to live away from home, and if so, what kind of spaces they want, how much they want to rent them for, etc. (The spellings on the responded survey forms make for a very good laugh indeed.) My understanding is that he will make use of all these data (and possibly interpretations from various imaginings of Singapore via the 'sporex' website) to design cooperative housing for these 'wayward' youth. Or rather, let the design create itself, and (only) mediated by the architect.
The premise sounds really good, and I certainly look forward to the design (more so, the process).
Bottoms up to bottom-up!
i've always enjoyed these bottom-up endeavours, but they normally fare badly in sustainability.
anyway, you should tell weixiong to update more. keep lines of communication open to allow the design to really "create itself". unless of course that was meant more as a metaphor.
i will. met him briefly at studio and he was wondering who solvent_d was. haha... i'm not sure if that website will be sustained for long though, given a slight shift in his thesis direction (i.e. specifically towards housing of non-mainstream youth, rather than "imagined" "Singaporean" spaces).
my take (well, it's not exclusively mine of course, it's quite commonsensical =P) is that bottom-up endeavours tend to be shortlived as funding is usually a problem. Those who do have the money want to have control, and want to retain their power; anything bottom-up is antithetical to that.
I do hope I'm wrong about this, though.
bottom up endeavours are short lived because they are operated by top down systems and regulations.
bottom up approach assumes a certain maturity of both the "bottom" users and "top" administrators in order for it to be sustainable. how often can that be successful in cultural context? do u expect "bottom" users to have the maturity to clean their own housing estates and the "top" users to condone individualised designs?
and how to reach this level of maturity? it is to cock up many times and finally reach a compromise as close to the ideal as possible. and singapore isnt exactly the best places to cock up and be proud abt it isnt it?
hope weixiong's phenomelogical tactic works. sounds kick really. "imagined singaporean youth spaces"... hip hop dancing with your MPs anyone? they rox.
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