Typology Beyond Rossi, Christopher C.M. Lee,

Summary

In this engaging presentation, Christopher C.M. Lee explores the evolution of architectural typology beyond Aldo Rossi, highlighting different typological approaches across Western and Eastern cities. Through a deep dive into concepts like the urban artifact in European cities and the communal frameworks in Asian cities, Lee navigates through architectural theories and practices, emphasizing the need to adapt designs to socio-political and cultural contexts. Featuring projects like Singapore's Oasis Terrace, Lee illustrates how contemporary design can reflect historical philosophies and respond to current urban challenges. The presentation concludes with a thought-provoking Q&A, exploring the role of architecture in sociopolitical dynamics and urban development.

Highlights

• Christopher C.M. Lee opens with the intriguing notion that architectural episodes are not always linear but can be interconnected in diverse ways. 🤔
• He explores the Western concept of urban artifacts, grounded in Rossi's ideas, highlighting the rule-exception paradigm in European cities. 🏢
• Lee dives into Asian architectural paradigms, focusing on Chinese and Singaporean cities, and how they contrast with Western typologies. 🌏
• The insightful discussion on Singapore's Oasis Terrace illustrates the intersection of architectural design, community needs, and sustainability. 🏡
• The intriguing Q&A session dives into the philosophical and practical implications of merging Western and Eastern architectural typologies. 🧠

Key Takeaways

• Typology isn't linear; it's a mix of historical and cultural contexts unfolding in the architecture of our cities.
• The Western city thrives on the concept of urban artifacts, blending history and modernity in fascinating ways! 🏰
• Asian cities, like those in China, have a different narrative, focusing on communal and imperial structures. 🇨🇳
• Singapore exemplifies a unique blend of Western democracy and Confucian ethics in its urban design, setting a high bar for livability. 🌿
• Architectural typology serves as both a design tool and a lens through which we view the urban and social fabric. 🏙️

Overview

Christopher C.M. Lee's presentation sheds light on the evolving nature of typology in architecture beyond Aldo Rossi's initial ideas. He articulates how typological approaches are not confined to linear narratives but rather form a patchwork of interrelated concepts that vary according to cultural and historical contexts. Through examining European and Eastern urban landscapes, Lee underscores the need to view architecture as both a design practice and a socio-political commentary.

In the turning pages of architectural history, Western cities have often capitalized on the concept of urban artifacts — structures and spaces that encapsulate civic and historical narratives, offering continuity and identity within the urban fabric. Contrastingly, Lee explains how Asian cities, particularly in China, utilize communal frameworks rather than monumental exceptions, reflecting Confucian principles of unity and social harmony in their urban manifestations.

Lee brings these concepts full circle by showcasing Oasis Terrace in Singapore — a project that exemplifies the blend of communitarian philosophy and modern urbanism. Describing Singapore as an exemplar of hybrid governance blending Western democratic ideals and Eastern communal ethics, Lee highlights the city's architectural prowess in addressing community needs while maintaining ecological and aesthetic values. The session ends with an engaging discussion, exploring how the intersection of diverse typological philosophies can inform future urban developments.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The chapter 'Introduction' begins with an expression of gratitude for the introduction and appreciation for being present among friends and colleagues. The speaker sets the stage for presenting four short, interrelated episodes, noting that, while not directly linear, they collectively contribute to an overarching narrative or theme.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Presentation Overview The chapter titled 'Presentation Overview' delves into the speaker's approach to creating a typology in architecture that goes beyond the existing framework established by Rossi. It emphasizes finding coherence in complex architectural scenarios and describes methods to understand, describe, and project architectural concepts effectively. The discussion sets the stage for questions and further exploration of the ideas presented.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Typology Framework The chapter discusses developmental cities in Asia, specifically China and Singapore. It proposes a theoretical and pedagogical framework for engaging with these cities, promoting both involvement and critical analysis. The framework is intended to address the globalized production of architecture in these urban environments.
• 01:30 - 05:00: Rossi's Approach to Urban Artifacts The chapter delves into Rossi's approach to urban artifacts, focusing on the concept of typology in architecture. It discusses the need to revalidate the understanding of architectural types, originally rooted in Western Enlightenment traditions. The chapter emphasizes that the notion of type remains a useful tool in the architectural domain.
• 05:00 - 08:00: Irreducible Structures and Urban Artifacts The chapter discusses the heuristic nature of architecture, emphasizing Riddler's three typological moments. These moments focus on how architecture's agency and efficacy need to be constantly revalidated, especially in times of crisis. The chapter briefly summarizes these three typologies, which draw justification from nature, the machine, and the historical city for their political and social relevance.
• 08:00 - 15:00: Historical City from an Eastern Perspective The chapter discusses the notion of the historical European city from an Eastern perspective. It begins with defining key concepts, using 'type' as a heuristic tool to bridge commonly held ideas and ideals between tangible architecture and more abstract concepts.
• 15:00 - 23:00: Philosophical Underpinnings of Eastern Urban Design The chapter delves into the concept of 'typology' in Eastern urban design, describing it as a comparative analytical method. This method involves studying buildings with shared characteristics to identify their common features or 'typicalities.' The aim is to understand these structures as foundational organizational frameworks that can be adapted and reshaped to suit new urban planning and architectural projects. The discussion highlights how typology serves as a fundamental tool in the analysis and redevelopment of architectural spaces, providing a ready structure for innovation and adaptation in urban design.
• 23:00 - 31:00: Singapore's Developmental City-State Model The chapter discusses the third moment of typology in urban planning, starting from the late 1960s. It highlights the general disillusionment with the unitary master plan of architectural modernism, which was perceived as inadequate in addressing the complexities of urban life. This led to attempts to revalidate urban planning concepts, as reflected in Ross's 'architecture of the city.'
• 31:00 - 35:00: Public Housing and Urban Planning in Singapore This chapter delves into the architectural philosophy that seeks to reconnect with natural elements through urban planning, particularly in Singapore's context of public housing. It centers on the concept of an urban 'artifact,' as conceived by Rossi, highlighting two fundamental components: housing and its broader urban implications. The discussion explores how modern architecture draws from historical precedents to shape contemporary urban landscapes, emphasizing the significance of integrating historical and functional elements within the concept of urban planning.
• 35:00 - 43:00: Concept of Common Framework in Architecture The chapter explores the concept of a common framework in architecture, particularly in the historical context of European cities. It introduces the idea that these cities can be understood as comprising a mix of rule and exception. The 'rule' refers to the standard housing typologies that make up the bulk of the city, providing a backdrop, while the 'exception' refers to the more unique, visible structures like monuments, which stand out from the regular urban fabric. These exceptions are significant for their ability to punctuate the cityscape and provide distinctiveness amidst the uniformity.
• 43:00 - 51:00: Design Process and Adaptation The chapter discusses the concept of an urban artifact, illustrated with the example of Palazzo Ragioli. Rossi argues that a building becomes an urban artifact through its involvement in the life of the city, serving as a propelling element.
• 51:00 - 60:00: Final Thoughts and Audience Questions The chapter discusses the adaptability and enduring nature of a certain structure, which has served various purposes over time. Initially a military building, it evolved into an aristocratic residence, a marketplace, and a school. This adaptability is due to its stable structure, allowing it to accommodate various functions and changes in use, showcasing how buildings can facilitate different 'programmatic' lives while maintaining their core integrity.
• 60:00 - 70:00: Conclusion and Closing Remarks The chapter 'Conclusion and Closing Remarks' explores the concept of mnemonic structures in urban artifacts, particularly how they index the collective memory of a city. The discussion highlights a lesser-known aspect of Ross's work, focusing on a diagram described as a 'reducible structure of the Palazzo,' featured in Ross's 1972 article. This structure acts as a key element in understanding Ross's perspective on urban memory and architectural symbolism.

Typology Beyond Rossi, Christopher C.M. Lee, Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 so thanks again BB for the very very trained uh introduction um it's really a real pleasure to be here especially you know seeing all friends and and all colleagues so uh what I'm going to present is essentially four episodes uh short episodes they are interrelated but they on the one hand they do not directly run in a linear fashion but I think you can begin to draw a certain uh
• 00:30 - 01:00 coherence between them and from there on hopefully we can take take questions so I titled my presentation uh typology Beyond Rossi in part really um is to find a way really to looking at this image to find a way to uh when confronted with with with a situation like this when we started to practice is to find a way to understand describe and project an architecture but what I call
• 01:00 - 01:30 our developmental cities in Asia and in particular what I'll talk about today's China and in Singapore and that there should be in a way of theoretical and pedagogical framework um that one could opt into that allows a certain engagement but also a certain critical engagement and projection in in situation of a globalized production of architecture in in a globalized city so
• 01:30 - 02:00 obviously as you know so I've looked into the pedagogy and a theoretical framework of type and typology but of course an understanding that this understanding has to be revalidated as the concept of type in architecture is actually really firmly rooted and originated from the traditions of Western Enlightenment so what is instrumental for me at least is that the concept of type is most useful way
• 02:00 - 02:30 is that it is heuristic in nature and this is really made evident in in Riddler's three types three typological moments and in which architectures agency and efficacy had to be revalidated every time architecture is deemed to be in crisis so the first three typologies here very very quickly summarize here the first one found their justification for political and sociality from nature from the machine and from the historical City respectively and as time is short my
• 02:30 - 03:00 point of departure will really be from the third via the historical European city so but first before we okay so first I think I think some definition is important so that it could guide us through this discussion so for me the concept of type is a heuristic tool used to uncover or revalidate commonly held idea or ideal that forges a link between the concreteness of architecture and The
• 03:00 - 03:30 Wider context in which it serves typology on the other hand or the logic of type is the moment of analysis in architecture it is a comparative method that brings together buildings that share similar characteristic for study the goal is to distill their typicalities as irreducible organizational structure or give structure ready to be deployed into new main reaction and reconfiguration thank you
• 03:30 - 04:00 okay all right so the context that as I mentioned uh the third moment of typology from the late 60s onward was in a way a characterization uh characterized by the general disillusionment and fairness of the unitary master plan of architectural modernism in the way in which it fails to respond and reflect the reality of complexity of urban life so Ross's architecture of the city really brings is an attempt to revalidate the idea or
• 04:00 - 04:30 the ideal of architecture that could return to no longer through the machine to the nature and and as as we've seen that has run previously but recuperate the uh the validity of architecture from the historical city and what I mean by that is that the concept of the urban what is most important for us is the concept of the urban artifact and in principle the urban artifact for Rossi is divided to two uh he calls it at the moment of Housing and the moment of the
• 04:30 - 05:00 monument and the way in which he begins to talk about that um in very very simple terms I would argue that it summarizes the way in which we understand historical European city is essentially is a city made of rule and exception the rule being that housing typologies that surrounds and which is also separate that makes the punctuated building visible and the punctuated buildings are essentially exceptions exceptions because they are the
• 05:00 - 05:30 manifestation of collective will and the political space and in a way this could also be made more explicit in this page from the architecture of the City by Rossi in which you use the example of Palazzo ragioli to describe why this is an urban artifact now he argues that this is an urban artifact precisely because it is the building that has been involved in the life of the city and because it has been involved in the life of the city it is a propelling element and because it
• 05:30 - 06:00 is a propelling element it is also independent or programmatic failures that is to say that this the same structure has remained permanent but has allowed the life of programmatic life to a cure within the building it changes from a military ballot to an aristocrat building to a Marketplace to a school for instance and because it accrets and allowed different programs to filter through the building it also in a way
• 06:00 - 06:30 becomes a mnemonic structure that is to say that it is a a an urban artifact that was that that bears with it itself and indexes the collective memory of the city now one of the key things that I found that is usually not discussed much in Ross's work is the diagram that we see on the bottom right what I would call a reducible structure of the Palazzo in which we see that in Ross's 1972 article that is called the way
• 06:30 - 07:00 progress there was um written in Italian in which the same irreducible structure that we have seen in the previous slide is that you subsequently for the abstracted and then subsequently used in his other projects in which we could confidently say that they are the project of the city at the top essentially is the is his building of Milan trinale the middle two is the irreducible structure of galarata's
• 07:00 - 07:30 Housing and then at the bottom is San Rocco and this is what he says in in in in the first project he says that the site plan of the Milan project summarizes the form of every rectilinear continuous pathway and in which you could say that the same deep structure that we saw in the Palazzo here is transposed as an exhibition space with a spatial Dimension that contracts an expands if you move from left to right and also a space that has a certain
• 07:30 - 08:00 depth that begins to mediate between the street and and a stream a river at the back so I would say that in a way the same treatment of that irreducible structure of the city is also transposed in this very famous project in which you you should know this by now so what I would like to highlight is that here we see two moments of the urban artifact on the top floor are the irreducible structure that allows rooms that creates
• 08:00 - 08:30 dwelling but the same structure is then imprinted partially on the ground floor so that they are both particles as well as a stream and it is precisely the street which is a public space as well as dwelling space which is a private that brings together those two moments that have spoke to you about housing and Monument into a singular architectural project of the city and Rossi always says this he says that it is precisely a
• 08:30 - 09:00 building like this that is an open structure that is awaiting for social life to unfold so the next chapter chapter 2 I would call the historical City but is uh how and but of course it's looking at from the Eastern Point of View so I would say that returning to my question uh my opening question when we look at fast-growing cities like this in Asia especially in the past two decades it really requires us to further what we
• 09:00 - 09:30 understand from Rossi and I would argue that um ultimately Ross's idea of the city in a way corresponds that corresponds to the urban artifact or the Monument of housing rise rests really upon Aristotle understanding of the police right and I will run through this very quickly uh the the quote here is an opening sentence of Aristotle police essentially he says that observation shows us first that every city is the species of the association and secondly
• 09:30 - 10:00 that all associations come into being for the sake of some good so in other words we could say that the space of Politics the is a space that is once that is separate from the the moment of housing which is a uh the the space of Economics is the management of the family and in and the space of politics is the space of Freeman right Freeman women today that comes together for the collective life so it is not unusual to see that therefore the artifact of the
• 10:00 - 10:30 city resides in this moment of rule and exception so as a city of ruling conception the city consisting of urban artifacts becomes one of the key irreducible way in which we understand the historical European city now in the tradition of City making in Asia let's say in China I would use the Imperial City pre-1948 in Beijing I I would argue that the city is conceived less as artifacts but more as a common
• 10:30 - 11:00 framework so here you see that the the there is there is no exception but there's only room now why I say that is that you can see that there is only one dominant type within the the Imperial City and they are the uh what you would call the wall Courtyard house now the wall Courtyard house should not be confused with the courtyard block that we find in the European city the world Courtyard house essentially consists of
• 11:00 - 11:30 several Pavilions placed almost in a checkerboard way that is then surrounded by a wall now why this is important is that the city that is constructed through this dominant type really ratifies the ethics of Confucianism and the importance of of unity Community Harmony and balance and the closest Chinese counterpart to Aristotle is actually and it accounts this is written three almost 300 years BC and it
• 11:30 - 12:00 accounts for the origins of society and the state and in 2012 chapter it exemplifies the philosophical ethics of Confucianism that considers the family unit actually as one that is naturally harmonious and one that provides the training ground for Morality that serves as a bridge between individuality and society and it is the family structure as opposed to what Aristotle has said that is seen and is used as a model for
• 12:00 - 12:30 the state so in other words there is no separation from the space of economics and the space of city but it's actually one that is encompasses all under one heaven so therefore it is unlike the European city that has centers of concentration and marked by an architectural exception as monuments set apart by housing the Chinese City can be viewed as a monument in its entirety it
• 12:30 - 13:00 is made up of one dominant type as I mentioned and its architecture serves as a background a neutral structure that defines and accommodates the plurality of life so the Chinese city as such could be seen as a common framework so in this world view the Genesis of the city is the manifestations of a rural rulers authority to lead in all years of human existence although it requires labor and expertise in people the
• 13:00 - 13:30 Imperial City will not be possible without the test involvement of the emperor so here you can see that the limits of the city is set by walls and gates in a drawing or a diagram by the state and within in Rich online unfolds so the city is just a total construction of the reified universe that includes everything under one heaven so another important philosophical tradition that underpins the idea of the city is the bipolar by polarity of Yin
• 13:30 - 14:00 and Yang so these two terms can be explained only in reference to the other unlike the dualistic opposition so each term in a bipolar relationship requires the other Ying has no meaning without Yang so in Western binaries dualistic terms are autonomous so for instance nature can be understand uh independently from culture but in the Chinese polarism it is not dialectical it does not follow the hegelian
• 14:00 - 14:30 progression from contradiction to synthesis to to sublation so in the Chinese tradition the yin and yang are not dualistic extreme of light and God male and female but rather a point along a movement of flow so in this manner each of the term of polarism is involved in one or the other one that is in in reality is the shade and a gradient or an intensity of the other so in terms of
• 14:30 - 15:00 a philosophical and a political concept it is not about an enemy or a friend but it's an always and as a propensity to what's resolving a conflict via the accommodation of one to the other within a larger overarching framework so therefore it is in this description therefore it is not unusual to say that the imperial Chinese city is made up of rule with no exception the same
• 15:00 - 15:30 Courtyard house that houses a dwelling of a family is also used and for an administrative complex is used as a clinic as a school and when it is scaled up it becomes a huto and when it becomes scaled up again the same Pavilion with four walls creates the Imperial Imperial Forbidden City and if we scale up even further the entire city and therefore the entire life of
• 15:30 - 16:00 civilization itself is defined by walls and Pavilions okay so uh chapter four I would call it the developmental city state so the developmental statistic is a term coined by Manuel Castell to describe the model of City making and governance of Singapore since the 1960s and the way I wanted to be why I use the example of Singapore because I thought that Singapore is a very very unique has a
• 16:00 - 16:30 very unique philosophical and political culture that is a hybrid between a parliamentary democracy that is inherited by the British but one that is also in a way I would call a communitarian philosophical concept that still adheres very much to a Confucius uh mindset that is to say that the state takes on a moral leadership in the conceptualization and the transformation of the life of its citizens as a holistic project for the good so so
• 16:30 - 17:00 within in Singapore so perhaps you may notice within a short span of 50 years the small city-state has transformed itself from a third world country uh city-state two of us well it has been a permanent fixtures in the top spots of many city ranking symptoms of its livability competitiveness and so on and the success of the city in Pep Boys it's constant remaking by the state both as an idea of the city as well as the evolving contract with the shared common
• 17:00 - 17:30 knowledge of its dominant type that is used by every leadership to transform the city both as an idea as well as an artifact so so far there's three prime ministers in Singapore since its Inception and and for every prime minister in Singapore in their first national rally speech is always used to set out their vision of remaking the city and to relaunch each and every political project that each prime
• 17:30 - 18:00 minister wants to pursue so the first period of Lee kuania is typified by what we call the mode of crisis of survival this is because of the demer from from Malaysia therefore rendering the city-state without a hinterland and in which the provision of public housing as the nation building effort was on done on a mammoth scale the second coach of tongue in this Reign ushered in a more relaxed version of the city transforming the city into a resort like Virgin
• 18:00 - 18:30 Island with abundance of green that you see in Singapore today actually started in the 1990s and the current prime minister listen vision and reposition Singapore as a top Global City of the world with daring architecture as short business and this is still evolving so again with time very limited I will focus on the first one so the first period as I mentioned has to do with uh with the transformation of a a newborn
• 18:30 - 19:00 Nation into one that that has to take on the motor from a crisis of survival based on the demerger from Malaysia and the Housing and Development board was set up really is to rehouse these new citizens from slums to Modern high-rise apartment so this is this is essentially an secs in the foreground as the slums were being demolished you can see that construction X is actually starting at the very background itself so the first
• 19:00 - 19:30 generation of housing here were largely slap blocks 80 meter long 12-story all they are laid out to avoid the East-West sun in its most rudimentary way but constructed very very rapidly so this whole estate for instance was designed and built in less than three years and also uh quickly rolled out across the New Towns were 20 New Towns taking on the same uh project over the next 60 years so whereby transforming
• 19:30 - 20:00 tabula rasa sites like this with architectures like this uh right right up to this moment and I would argue that uh behind this transformation of housing donation were two dominant types the high rise uh the the high-rise slab block and the high-rise Tower Point blog and within that a transformation from uh over the past 15 to 20 years one could see that the
• 20:00 - 20:30 the irreducible structure of the apartment buildings and the apartment layout is used almost as a social contract between the state and the citizens to in a way index the growing aspiration of the citizen as one generation move into the housing to the other and this can be seen very very clearly here for instance from the top the top left right down to the bottom left is that the first generation of public housing started off with almost
• 20:30 - 21:00 like studio apartments with dual uh with a double loaded Corridor with a central Corridor running between and as families begin to grow aspiration begins to be higher you can begin to see the evolution of larger units and as the units become larger you could see that the transformation of a singular Corridor that is centrally located became a debt access on the side and as
• 21:00 - 21:30 the units even become larger they begin to inflect begin to bend so that they begin to create a more definable open space that that compared to the first one and it's only after about 15 years that the what we call the point block was reintroduced the point about it's only Possible only because we have here four bedroom apartments and that Evolution together with the point block created much of the project that we see today in Singapore It's a combination of
• 21:30 - 22:00 slab block a combination of high-rise blocks to create neighborhoods and to create enclosable space so by 1989 at the end of uh liquid news rain 87 of the total population of 2.1 million people were living in public housing so this is absolute until today it's about ranging about 82 so this is the highest uh public housing numbers that you actually see in the world so
• 22:00 - 22:30 the overwhelming presence of 2.3 million of completed flats and housing housing more than 80 percent of the population really is a stark reminder of the ability of the state to take on a moral leadership to create not only a nation but transforming all aspects of life and deep within this the dominant type of the high-rise slab as well as the point block for me is ideological it is a
• 22:30 - 23:00 powerful symbol of the state's ability to fulfill its promise to improve the living conditions and in the creation of a Nation so how do we learn from this so I'll just quickly finish off with an example what I call a common framework so this is a project that we have done completed about two years ago uh precisely within the kind of housing estate public housing estate that you see in Singapore that I've just mentioned to you uh earlier so when we
• 23:00 - 23:30 were first asked to work on this project as a competition the brief that was given to us by the simple development board was for the creation of a new typology an integrated Neighborhood Center that bring together communal amenities shopping and Polyclinic sandwiched between a LRT track at the South and then a Waterway to the north so the focus of the brief unlike other developer driven commercial development
• 23:30 - 24:00 is to provide a high degree of public space to strengthen Community bonding so when we were looking at this essentially there is a shopping component we ask ourselves where do we look from for president so this is what we call a the ubiquitous shopping mall in Singapore right a supercruise monument of assumption as a public activity and his role is really to internalize all activities drawing the live blood from the street and the city but then on the
• 24:00 - 24:30 other hand polyclinics and hospitals in Singapore are designed like this often designed as independent buildings set away from the other program and resources associated with the urban Realm so it is not unusual therefore now that you've heard me talk about the three episodes is that where do we look for president so we thought that with more than 80 percent of singaporeans living in public housing the architecture of Singapore's early hdb I
• 24:30 - 25:00 would say that have grown over the years that we that could be termed as a common architecture one that has a certain equalizing uh role as an artifact that is able to accommodate the plurality of life and the architecture of HTTP especially those in the 70s and 80s I would argue has this quality of an open framework an unassuming structural expression of what it contains and avoid that in fact is
• 25:00 - 25:30 one of the most successful container of social life in Singapore because on this ground floor is left completely open and only the structure from the above dwelling units are imprinted onto the ground and I really love this because it really sometimes I would say that it moves from a certain poetic emptiness in way for social life to unfold as Rossi say to here for instance in in a space of Celebration this is a Malay wedding in in in in the void deck but also in
• 25:30 - 26:00 the very same space sometimes it's also used in celebration or or in death so it is a space that is also used by everyone to be at ease so in other words I could argue that this architecture act tests this larger open framework a container of uh social life so our approach therefore is to draw upon this precedent and the architecture of public housing into a new typology and we wanted to create this by
• 26:00 - 26:30 suppressing the visual noise of the shopping center and the clinical architecture of hospital so the way in which we've done this is in three ways one is to incorporate landscape as a Horticultural activity that uh creates a sense of community the second is to use uh the to exaggerate in a way the void deck that I've mentioned to you and then the third is to reinterpret The Veranda space so this so the first move was
• 26:30 - 27:00 really to allow the neighborhood center to be conceived of a singular building that frames and cradles a garden so here you see that the garden almost Cascades down almost like and then opens up a proscenium to the Waterway and create a natural Amphitheater towards the water edge so the garden Cascades down the entire height and then with Rams that begin to zigzag up from the ground floor all the way up so as this as the ram
• 27:00 - 27:30 zigzags all the way up it begins to touch on every floor so that every floor on the building on the Polyclinic side as well as the shopping side is able to access the garden and to be a seedless space between the inside and the outside so shopping is visible but the activity always spills out into the veranda but they do not drown out the public Realm so here for instance as the garden matures in the past year you can see
• 27:30 - 28:00 that the ram now cuts through The Terraces and in with each turn revealing different pockets of communal space a hammock a seed a platform to stretch out and as you move towards the top and you turn your back around the space begins to Cascade down and the Waterfront opens up in the Horizon so the top floor of the building is also turned into a Horticulture club for retirees and it's very very active if you begin to visit it today so the second element is as I
• 28:00 - 28:30 mentioned is the exaggeration on a larger scale of the void that that was uh that I spoke to you about so it is four stories is sheltered from the tropical sun and the tropical rain and when the sun becomes more searing it will be covered from uh from the Sun by this roller blinds that drops down so we've made the facade deliberately porous and it so that it defines and allows permeation from the
• 28:30 - 29:00 outer space into the Inner Space with a certain dignity as one passes through the columns and finally uh The Veranda space is created almost as a thickened skin an environmental buffer between the interior space and the harsh weather of the tropical climate so you can see that the entire periphery of the building is created by this thickened skin so that all activities from the the Polyclinic as well as this the school
• 29:00 - 29:30 and the dining activities spills Out close to the Waterfront so on a metal level so we thought that the project offered us an opportunity to think about architecture's wider role in conceiving and cultivating a sense of community so more often than not architectures here like this ordinary architecture that are seen as restrained rational and repetitive is derided for its lack of exuberance but it is precisely this
• 29:30 - 30:00 quality that I would argue that it is an architecture that is familiar to singaporeans and we should understand this architecture as a framework for accommodation I'll stop here thank you Chris for this uh super interesting uh presentation and as I said before um introducing you
• 30:00 - 30:30 um it's it's very nice to see an architect that I mean as also we saw with the two previous presentations who are really able to um somehow uh juggle with the kind of theoretical inquiry and and design practice and I found actually uh of course it's always difficult to use a theory to justify design we know that it can lead to a lot of pitfalls but I I found that the project uh very very well sustained
• 30:30 - 31:00 actually by your uh by your discourse and especially how you know how you frame the the the concept of the Eastern uh uh CD you know as as a framework rather than as this uh Duality artifact uh let's say and then it was actually also Rossi's uh in a way understanding of the architecture of the city and it was very much based on this sort of dichotomy now the the type as a as something that is
• 31:00 - 31:30 more related to the urban Fabric and the urban artifact as actually the emergence you know the monument um now actually my uh my question to you is uh you know to what extent is uh model that you I mean this kind of return to this sort of balance you know the art of balancing that is really typical of confusion ideology to what extent this uh uh position is uh either
• 31:30 - 32:00 critical or I don't know accommodating kind of uh you know the the Asian way to know liberalism I mean to to basically uh a which of course Singapore is a is a bit of a exception I mean it twists things so at what extent this concept in fact that you put forward is uh um related to
• 32:00 - 32:30 a strange handle situation that is very difficult different from the west where somehow you have a very extreme market economy but you still have a state in charge basically uh so you know how how is is that you know if you would design some you know in in London what what what would happen you you would completely miss the whole framework that's a very good question people I think you're right if if um uh to stay true to a typological reasoning
• 32:30 - 33:00 and to use type as a heuristic device I would definitely work very differently if let's say our project is in London precisely or precisely uh because of all the things that you have described so uh that's why I chose Singapore both in terms of uh the historical framework vis-a-vis let's say looking at the Confucius ethics and then showing you the project is that a project that like we have done for instance uh Oasis
• 33:00 - 33:30 terrorists it would not be possible if it is a project that is purely driven by the market because all the provision of landscape spaces The Veranda spaces would be seen as completely inefficient too much a common area that is not that will not be able to produce a financial return but it is possible because we because this project in a way is the
• 33:30 - 34:00 client is a Housing Development board is the state and the way in which we draw upon the ideas that underpins the project of City making by the state they completely see it where we presented it so that is why for us we feel that the the heuristic device of type is so important because it is no longer just about the concrete repeatable elements and and shared elements that you look at but more importantly what is the idea
• 34:00 - 34:30 that rules over the model again right what what is the larger political and social project that the city in a way is that finds critical yeah and of because here with let's say the Oasis Terrace is to enable the housing project to be successful but also one that is driven by landscape for instance right and the way in which it a cultivate spaces that respond to climate yeah
• 34:30 - 35:00 any question is uh thank you for for this very very exciting presentation I enjoyed a lot and also your project so my question would be uh two things indeed I I think the Polyclinic also is a state public one right okay so it was a need probably in the in the area in the neighborhood so that's why it's in the program requested and the second
• 35:00 - 35:30 thing is because you started with Aristotle's politics so I was wondering because thinking about the Greek Agora or the Roman Forum you know this difference between the space of economics and space of politics which the the seasons are included but uh also I mean not not all seasons as we know but then what you suggest or then later we see as with the square or Piazza Plaza whatever is the space of politics itself and at the same time is the space of Economics so because you you said
• 35:30 - 36:00 that you were asked to produce a new typology and it it it is uh it it looks like it especially when when we consider the slab and Tower block yes which has nothing to do with either the traditional you know the community making practices or the the market economy of today so you really suggest an in-between or a hybrid situation but for instance your your Square this sunken Square I do wonder if you also
• 36:00 - 36:30 um or if if part of this community practices because Garden is very essential there and Polyclinic let's say represents the state and the shopping mall or whatever the shopping area I think they're all private shops or companies so then is it the square where this kind of political action in a way could occur or I I couldn't form a date but it's rather because I mean following what uh what
• 36:30 - 37:00 Pierre Vittorio said because it can be this typology also perfectly fit to the snail liberal scenario like it's kind of a public private partnership I mean you see it in in terms of architecture so then there is the the public here it's not the Polyclinic or it's not the housing provided by the state it is but still there is a very strong Market ideology so then maybe I I wonder like would you in a design process somehow
• 37:00 - 37:30 consider this squash is a space of political action or um I don't know uh yes so yeah I don't know if I could formulate it I'll try it it's pretty good question like to include it the very beginning in the beginning that you mentioned again in your project or new typology where is it is it the Garden or this square and I think it's the square but maybe maybe culturally or because I'm really ignorant in Asian
• 37:30 - 38:00 cultures I have to say never been and it's maybe it's a different context and so yes I see it less as a square actually I see it as an exaggeration on a much larger scale of the Void deck so I see I see it less as a let's say a political space that we associate with the Western notion of the political as a space of protest but as more of a social space a social space that is enlarged
• 38:00 - 38:30 precisely not because of the way in which let's say a plaza that you see in the Italian city that is defined by let's say the the facade that that encloses a negative space but here it is defined by The Columns right the columns that are enclosed on three levels and are exaggerated in a way that's so that when one uses that exaggerated space uh the residents or the citizens then uses it still finds a certain familiarity
• 38:30 - 39:00 that they have seen in the void that that one story void that that I've seen so in that sense it becomes an extension of the partially domestic partially common space that they have used so in a sense it's less the plaza but it's more of a scale that uh exaggerated version of avoid axis yeah but I I
• 39:00 - 39:30 thank you for the answer I asked this maybe this could be um a tool or uh the the thing that would solve this this or that would suggest the balance or I don't know if it's balanced because I am also for the controversies let's say for other reasons so this may suggest maybe if we add this then we may call it a new typology in my opinion because there is this very important political side of of the the thing but yeah it's very interesting thank you
• 39:30 - 40:00 foreign yes thank you Chris wonderful presentation really excited about the historical reading of the Imperial City and it's a bit of uh track with what you discussed now but I I'm just curious to know your opinion on this like transposition or
• 40:00 - 40:30 almost topology that the city becomes is endless reproduction of this relationships at very different scales and and I'm just very curious to know your opinion on on the subject right like what what kind of historical context um somehow frame this Evolution and if you can explain a little bit or tell me your your ideas on what the repercussions on the subject were precisely I don't know this is very broad but
• 40:30 - 41:00 yeah I'll try within a very short time so I would argue that uh of course I use uh the Imperial City uh pre-1948 before Communist Revolution of course with with CCP coming into Power this the the historical uh Imperial City change a little bit but what I would still argue uh that what Still Remains consistent is that uh the creation of the city and more towards the conceptualization of
• 41:00 - 41:30 the idea of the city is still very much State driven yeah although we seem to see that it is like from the outside it's Market driven it's capitalism but when you work in China you realize that you need to understand this role of the state as one that assumes the moral leadership to to understand the way in which the city is made and once you understand that I think one would work very very differently yeah I would in
• 41:30 - 42:00 other words I would say that it's the the conceptual framework of this idea of the city still persists today yeah yeah okay so thank thank you Chris thank thanks a lot um