Breeding Ghosts in the Machine

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BreedingGhostsin theMachineB.Arch Graduating ThesisSouthern California Institute of ArchitectureFall 2010 / Spring 2011

Lennard Michael Ong Ee WenStudent#[email protected]



Lennard Michael Ong Ee Wen // B. Arch Graduating Thesis // Southern California Institute of Architecture // Fall 2010-Spring 2011

Dedicated to you, Danny Boy.

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Dec 12 2010v5.0




Foreword:

The thrust of this thesis is deeply personal. I came to SCI_ARC after completing my fi rst year of architectural education in Singapore.

“The limits of my life are the limits of my architecture” I wrote in the conclusion to my admission essay, “The Fear of Ennui”.

I came expecting something magical and wonderful, but I got something else. What that is, I’m not sure.

This thesis is a proxy to refl ect upon my experiences over the last fi ve years.

Hence, there will be a minimal reliance on precedents or affi liations to any particular schools of thought. Neither will there be an indulgence in arguments, relevence or theories.

Through this process, I hope to fi nd a confi dence in my own history to divine and propell my future work and investigations, wherever they may lead.

3 Rules

1) I will not make any explicit references to the work of other architects. No a-prioris.

2) all content is to be regarded as a drawing, and drawing to be regarded as a method of thinking.

3) no theoretical/sociological/academic arguments will be made. the project must hinge on a simple narrative, a logical buildup of pragmatic systems and its spatial consequences.

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Contents:

OverviewA1.0_Thesis StatementA2.0_Case Study -researchA3.0_Patch Test -research

WorkshopB1.0_System StudiesB2.0_Design Investigations

ClosetC2.0_Personal ExcavationsC1.0_Initial ExplorationsC3.0_Disciplinary PrecedentsC4.0_External References

Windows_Video_Blog


Fall of the Berlin Wall: the collision of bottled hopes, experiences and expectations.

photographer unknown. November 1989

“When I’m good, I’m very good. When I’m bad, I’m better.”

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This thesis is centered around the city.

I am interested in the space between planning, a paradigm of inevitable control, and spontaneity, a suspicious model for freedom.

Through this is an attempt to imagine the city as an unresolved spatial puzzle, a web tangled scenarios and a canvas of free associations.

The project ambition is for a three-dimensionally layered city defi ned by an undulating tempo of spatial sequences, narrative disjunctions and sensorial atmospheres.

The title of this thesis is “Breeding Ghosts in the Machine”.

Overview // Framework // Page (L, R)


Case Study45 years of Tabula Rasa... now what?

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Singapore is a total city.

Independent since 1965, it has grown at a speeds determined by the market economy. This growth is governed by a central planning authority. Entirely urbanized, planning through modernist principles of categorical effi ciency has resulted in the smooth segregation and compartmentalization of functions, a monotonous lullaby to live by.

Singapore is also a generic model for many emerging cities.

The cocktail of growth potential, capital accumulation and overt planning control has resulted in the proliferation of larger and larger scaled developments. These islands of contained urbanity create a programmatic thematization of the city. The city no longer functions as a buffet of experiences but becomes structured like a 10-course meal.

Breeding Ghosts in the Machine...

...is about a plan that undoes itself as a prescriptive tool. Instead of what it will be, extending known typologies, it is about what could be, an exploration of systemic relationships that might breed a different urbanity.

It is a voluntary plan for involuntary freedoms from the plan.


Pure Breeds

serving_

confetti_

served_

Residential w/ Commerical 1st Storylandscaped plazas recreation club

hotel recreation clubgolf course

Commercial & Residentialoutdoor pedestrian malls swimming complexchalet

//landed1.1.1_landed housing1.1.2_semi-detached housing1.1.3_townhouse1.1.4_strata-landed housing1.1.5_terrace housing

//airspace1.2.1_condominiums1.2.2_flats1.2.3_retirement housing1.2.4_student hostels

Residential (1.0.0)

Commercial (3.0.0)3.1.7_cinema

3.1.1_commercial

3.1.3_food center

3.2.4_offices

3.2.3_convention

3.2.5_bank

3.2.2_exhibition

3.1.5_entertainment3.1.4_recreation club

3.2.1_clinic

3.1.2_medical suite

3.1.6_market

consumption

prod

uctio

n

//2.02.3.1_biotechnology / 2.3.2_warehouse / 2.3.3_electrical substation / 2.3.4_vehicle repair / 2.3.5_industry / 2.3.6_gas installation / 2.3.7_furniture & fixture / 2.3.8_electrical apparatus

//1.02.2.1_computer software / 2.2.2_distribution services / 2.2.3_warehouse / 2.2.4_packing / 2.2.5_assembly and repair / 2.2.6_printing and publishingBusiness (2.0.0)

//megadevelopment2.1.1_business park / 2.1.2_science park

Open Space / Park /Beach / Sports & Recreation

Programmatic Voids (4.0.0)

beach

manicuredwild

4.1.1_water sports4.1.2_natural4.1.3_wooded4.1.4_river4.1.5_pond4.1.6_drain/canal4.1.7_swamp4.1.8_reservoir

4.2.1_marina4.2.2_zoos4.2.3_OBS4.2.4_campsite4.2.5_public promenade4.2.6_theme parks

House Climbing

Dirt Jumping

Study / Play

Deskar Road

Blue Lights

Hunting in the Park

Fishing in a Drain

Tunnel Dancing

Roads / Freeways

Transport Facilities / Mobile Rapid Transport

Airport / Port

Reserve Site / Special Use

Utiility

Civic Institutions Health &

Medical CareCultural Institutions

Educational Institution Places of Worship Community

Institutions

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opposite: spatial map of zoned areas studying connections between them, adjacencies and surface qualities

top:petridish diagram of existing zoning guidelines and categorization

left: source material: The Planning Act Master Plan Written Statement


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Top: (StreetView Collage of typical Buisness-zoned area.) Fenced off boxes, the road becomes residual space to interior archipelagos

Bottom:(Void Spaces in Singapore)Based on the Raandstad green-heart model, Singapore maintains a greencore. This is one of the only remaining topographical sites in Singapore. The rest has been levelled off for further landreclaimation.


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top:(Commercial District)The commercial district is what most tourists and inhabitants see. A stretch of shopping, commerce and entertainment, it is a more or less continuous interior drift.

bottom:(Residential District)85% of Singaporeans live in Government housing. These are based on racial ratios and systematized into 5 unit types. Based on a model pioneered by John Habraken, it is a polite form of Density without Urbanism.


Patch Test

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Project Outline

Existing Siting Proposal: Reserved Land

Counter Proposal: Existing Residential Fabric

Office, Retail, Residential, HotelRetail, F&B, Entertainment, Boutique HotelsWaterfront HotelsNew Science CenterHigh-rise OfficesMedium-rise OfficesNew Big Box RetailLuxury ResidentialRetailFuture Attractions

Distribution:

Office Space: 500, 000 sqmRetail, F&B, Entertainment: 250, 000 sqm

Hotel Rooms: 2, 800 unitsResidential: 1, 000 units

In the island state of Singapore, there are plans underway for a second commercial center in the Jurong district. 750, 000 sqm of bottled urbanism is being proposed as a towers in the park scheme, currently parkspace.

It will be the “biggest commercial HUB outside the the city”.

By using a 99-year public housing ownership clause as an opportunity to continually metabolize the city, this project proposes an alternative schema:

To smear it as a contorted tapestry of programmatic highways over, under and through the existing public housing landscape, thus tangling the parts into a continuous metabolic drift of varied adjacencies, hierarchies and spatial residues.


Overview of Public Housing in Singapore

The Housing and Development Board of Singapore was set up in 1 February 1960 to take over Singapore Improvement Trust for the responsibility of housing development (HDB AR 1960). Starting from 1960, fi ve-year plans were formulated to steer the pace of the construction of public housing. Originally, public housing was mainly developed in new towns, with Queenstown being the fi rst located in the west of the Central Area. In response to the problem of urban decay, HDB set up its Urban Redevelopment Unit in 1 August 1964 to facilitate the urban renewal process (HDB AR 1964). The Unit, which became a Department in 1967, was subsequently detached from the HDB to form the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in 1974. In cooperation with relevant governmental departments such as the URA and Land Transport Authority, the HDB is also responsible for the master planning of these new towns.

HDB housing was originally constructed to provide low-cost housing for the low-income group to improve their living environment and to re-house residents who were displaced during the urban renewal process. In February 1964, the Minister for National Development (MND) announced the Home Ownership for the People Scheme and entrusted the HDB with the responsibility for implementing it. The basic objective of this scheme is to encourage a property-owning society in Singapore, and to enable Singapore citizens in the lower middle income group to own their own homes (HDB AR 1964). Units with one room (studio fl at) to fi ve rooms (three bedrooms, one living room, and one dining room or study room) were offered, with four-room units being the most popular type from mid-80s (Wong and Yeh 1985) and accounting for the largest portion of HDB housing stock currently (HDB AR 2006/07). Currently, there are 23 HDB new towns and several HDB developments in the central areas, providing some 1 million units of residential units in Singapore. As in 2007, 81% or 2.98 million of residents in Singapore live in HDB (HDB AR 2006/07)

First generation – Basic design (1960-1966)The commencement of this generation is demarcated by the establishment of the HDB in 1960. Housing development in the generation is characterised by simple slab blocks with exterior access corridors. With only one layer of fl ats being lined along the corridor, each fl at was designed to allow cross-ventilation. The principle façade usually faces north-south but the rule was not strictly followed.

top: (Chronological Development of HDB Housing prototypes (L-R)Iterative design research and a deeply rooted belief in the relationship of space and society.

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Second generation – Introduction of built form variety (1967-1976)This generation is demarcated by the relaxation of population density in 1967, the setting up of Design and Research Unit within the HDB in 1969, and the standardisation of building layout design in the year of 1973/74. The population density of developments was relaxed in 1967 in order to provide more open space and amenities (HDB AR 1967). In 1968, towers with only four units on each fl oor clustering around the central lift core were introduced in Queenstown Neigbhorhood 4 in response to the demand for greater privacy. At the same time, height variations were introduced in order to exploit the contour and site features and to provide more open space on ground fl oor. As an experiment, buildings were construction up to 20-30 storeys to free up the ground fl oor space for recreational facilities and yet maintain the high density of public housing (HDB AR 1968)

Third Generation – Built form as a means for holistic urban design (1977-1981)This generation is demarcated by the introduction of precinct concept in 1977. At the level of the precinct, clusters of buildings focus on an activity centre including a children’s playground, games courts and play areas. As shown in Figure 9, these clusters are designed with varying heights. Intermixing of low and high buildings allows more varied spacing between buildings and the creation of a variety of interesting spaces. More liberal use of low-rise buildings was attempted to achieve a human scale within precincts. As refl ected by the following quote from the HDB Annual Report 1978/79, the form and layout of HDB buildings in this generation were determined as part of the bigger task of urban design for the whole community

Fourth generation – First Intensifi cation of land use (1982-1990)This generation is demarcated by the fi rst intensifi cation of land use for HDB housing in


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“The Jurong Lake District will become a mini city that is distinctive in character. The District may take 10 to 15 years to be fully developed but we need not wait so long to see the transformation. Many new projects are already in the pipeline. For instance, by the end of this year, Jurong Lake will be enhanced to facilitate water-based activities such as kayaking and dragon-boating. We will also see new facilities such as a golf resort hotel, new hospital, boardwalks and wetlands being developed here.

A new Big Box development by TT International is currently under construction near the Jurong East MRT Station. This development will be similar to the Warehouse-Retail development cluster at Tampines. When ready by the end of 2009, this Big Box development will add approximately 34,000 sq m of new retail space, similar in size to the Tampines cluster. The Jurong Entertainment Centre will also be redeveloped by next year. It will be home to Singapore’s first Olympic-size ice skating rink.”

Keynote speech by Mr Mah Bow Tan Minister for National Developmnent at the URA Corporate Plan Seminar at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel on 4 April 2008 at 9.45am

Opposite: (offi cial news release)Buzzword Bingo: “Largest Commercial Hub... Attract Billions of Dollars... World-Class... Lush Greenery... Distinctive in Character”

Top: (excerpt from speech highlighting Concept Plan for the next 10 to 15 years) The concept plan falls under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Master Plan, which guides development in Singapore.

Bottom Left: (Artists Impression of proposed project)Programmatic Thematization of the Urban Sphere

Bottom Right:


Systems Experimentation

Site Pochescale: 2.75km x 2.75km

Lennard Ong Ee WenB. Arch Graduating Thesis, FA201

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#01//Magic Carpet StudyStudy of undulating zoning datums and subsequent bundling as a way to orchaestrate organization.

Lennard Ong Ee WenB. Arch Graduating Thesis, FA2010-SP2011

Southern California Institute of Architecture


#04//Hierarchy StudyStudy of existing road hierarchy in subdivision of land.



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#02a //Pathing Study (L)Study of point to point connections between all buildings in a range of 95.0m to 105.0m.




#02b//Pathing Study (M)Study of point to point connections between all buildings in a range of 45.0m to 55.0m.



#02c//Pathing Study (S)Study of point to point connections between all buildings in a range of 0.0m to 25.0m.



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#05a//Heat Map Study (L)Reintepretation of information from study #04a to #04c




#05a//Heat Map Study (M)Reintepretation of information from study #04a to #04c



#05a//Heat Map Study (M)Reintepretation of information from study #04a to #04c



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Zoning Mapsource:

Urban Redevelopment Authority, 2010.


#03//Constellation Studystudy of land ownership, zoning and clustering vis a vis existing land parcels.

*note:_colours reference existing zoning map. _circles indicate goverment ownership_squares indicate private ownership Lennard Ong Ee Wen

B. Arch Graduating Thesis, FA201

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Des

ign

Stud

ies

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Plea

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#01_

Bre

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the

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(2’ x

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#02_

Syst

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’ x 3

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#03_

Arc

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, 2’ x

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#04_

Arc

hipe

lago

v2.

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DTV

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One

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Thro

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ClosetThe closet is where the search for a thesis began.

It is a collection of excavations- from old journals, thoughts, draw-ings, sketches and projects - and refl ections on where I want to go next.

It also lists several texts that has played a signifi cant role in my interests and outlook.


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excerpts excavated from journals.

top: Semester Journalright, top: Europe Journalright, middle: Mexico Journalright, bottom: digital journal, 2001 - present


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early presentations


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Play

Melt

Wildness

ResiduePossible Outputs?:

//DiscourseDiagram_positioningdiagram//ResidualScan_material/resource palette

//MeltMap_bandwidth of actor-network at play (programming?)//Playtime_

Old/New?

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Following Pages:

Textual Markers


World War II brought about catastrophic changes in western urban production. While it is clear that the complex fabric of traditional urban form has been replaced by equally complex contemporary urban space, it is less clear what role form continues to play in its present structural confi guration. Ladders attempts to identify the contemporary dialectic between urban space and form as the key to engaging the unprecedented qualities of contemporary urban space.

Pope forms the theory of a rational suburbia, although not a rationality of form (perhaps), but rational through the processes which it introduces into the lives of its inhabitants. The daily motions and movements which Houston imposes on its residents are exposed and itemized as a series of progressive turns which hold emotive as well as logistical separation and enclosure for the suburbanites.

Recombinant Urbanism develops the urban-modelling techniques, fi rst pioneered by Lynch, into a comprehensive framework for the fastgrowing discipline of urban design.

Covering the origins of urban design in North America and Europe, it discusses the main approaches that have evolved to deal with the fragmented contemporary city. It also looks at the infl uence of participatory planning processes, zoning codes, imagery, fi nance and marketing on urban form.

Providing a sophisticated and potent set of tools for urban designers and urban design students, Recombinant Urbanism also recasts urban modelling as an effective method of augmenting standard architectural design practices in an urban context.

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Requiem: For the City at the End of the Millenium is a short book of collected essays by Sanford Kwinter.

In this small, but sharply-pointed book, renowned theorist Sanford Kwinter addresses the sometimes subtle, sometimes brutal transformations that characterized the modernization processes set into motion at the turn of the millennium.

To quote from Thomas Daniell’s introduction, is fi rst and foremost redemptive: “Kwinter’s most negative assessments of the city are driven by a deep commitment to its sublime potentials--a desire to sacralize the most profane and fecund of human creations.”

Where does the nation-state end and globalization begin?

In Territory, Authority, Rights, Saskia Sassen argues that even while globalization is best understood as “denationalization,” it continues to be shaped, channeled, and enabled by institutions and networks originally developed with nations in mind, such as the rule of law and respect for private authority.

This process of state making produced some of the capabilities enabling the global era. The difference is that these capabilities have become part of new organizing logics: actors other than nation-states deploy them for new purposes. Sassen builds her case by examining how three components of any society in any age--territory, authority, and rights--have changed in themselves and in their interrelationships across three major historical “assemblages”: the medieval, the national, and the global.


In Subnature, David Gissen examines experimental work by today’s leading designers, scholars, philosophers, and biologists that rejects the idea that humans can somehow recreate a purely natural world, free of the untidy elements that actually constitute nature.

Each chapter provides an examination of a particular form of subnature and its actualization in contemporary design practice.

Subnature looks beyond LEED ratings, green roofs, and solar panels toward a progressive architecture based on a radical new conception of nature.

Geoecology investigates the structure and function of geoecosystems, their components and their environment. The author develops a simple dynamic systems model, the `brash’ equation, to form the conceptual framework for the book suggesting an ècological’ and èvolutionary’ approach.

Exploring internal of ècological’ interactions between geoecosystems and their near-surface environments - the atmosphere, hydrosphere, toposhere, and lithosphere - and external infl uences, both geological and cosmic, Geoecology presents geoecosystems as dynamic entities constantly responding to changes within themselves and their surroundings.

An èvolutionary’ view emerges of geoecological systems, and the animals, plants, and soils comprising them, providing a new way of thinking for the whole environmental complex and the rich web of interdependencies contained therein.

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Simon Singh ranges from Julius Caesar’s secret military writing to coded diplomatic messages in feuding Renaissance Italy city-states, from the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone to the ingenuity of modern security experts battling cyber-criminals and cyber-terrorists.

He clarifi es the techniques and tricks of code makers and code breakers alike. He lightens the sometimes technical load with photos, political cartoons, charts, code grids and reproductions of historic documents. He closes with a fascinating look at cryptanalysts’ planned and futuristic tools, including the “one-time pad,” a seemingly unbreakable form of encryption.

This became a primer into notational methods for a systemic and recombinatory approach to drawing.

Providing an extensive chronicle of the personal and academic development of Rem Koolhaas, this book helped me understand the incongruent nature between thinking, drawing and the story one might use to communicate a project.

It made me realize that maybe there is no such thing as theory and comfortable with the fact that architecture is an autobiographical affair dressed up.


“Terzani’s odyssey across Asia is full of revelations and refl ections on the dramatic changes underway in Asia. Having spent two decades on the continent, he brings a deep love for the place to his journeys, but also the eyes of someone troubled by the changes he sees.

Surrounded by the loss of diversity wrought by modernism, Terzani asks if the “missionaries of materialism and economic progress” aren’t destroying the continent in order to save it. Fortunately, there is a fl ip side to his occasionally dispiriting commentary, one that Terzani discovers in his hunt for fortunetellers.

Through his side trips to seers who read the soles of his feet, the ashes of incense, and even the burned scapula of sheep, it becomes clear that the Orient of legends, myths, and magic still determines people’s lives as much as the quest for money. By staying earthbound, Terzani lived to tell of an extraordinary journey through the ever-shifting kaleidoscope of Asia.”

This black comedy uses a science-fi ction-like premise to satirize Victorian morals.

Ostensibly the memoirs of late-19th-century Glasgow physician Archibald McCandless, the narrative follows the bizarre life of oversexed, volatile Bella Baxter, an emancipated woman and a female Frankenstein. Bella is not her real name; as Victorian Blessington, she drowned herself to escape her abusive husband, but a surgeon removed the brain from the fetus she was carrying and placed it in her skull, resucitating her.

Illustrated with Gray’s suitably macabre drawings, this work of inspired lunacy effectively skewers class snobbery, British imperialism, prudishness and the tenets of received wisdom

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Dan Eldon, who was only 22 when he was chased down and killed by an angry mob in Somalia, was one of the youngest photographic stringers in Africa. But his journalistic work, which had appeared in Time and Newsweek, showed only a small part of his talent.

Eldon excelled as an artist in his collages, which combined his photographs of Africa with paint, pastiche, pop culture images, advertising, and offi cial documents.

The Journey Is the Destination collects pages from the 17 scrapbooks that held his art. Chronicling his work from age 14 through his death at 22, this volume is startling not only in the intensity and thoughtfulness of the pages, but also in the fact that someone so young could have this kind of artistic depth and insight.

It is funny how I still found a connection with something written a century ago, under another political regime and outlook to life.

Maybe this means there is no such thing as progress, and the only thing left is change.


Windows

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Youtube as an interface for comments

An online blog to collate refl ections after each meeting with an advisor.




Documents

Breeding Ghosts in the Machine