CSI | archidegree

COMMUNITY SERVICE INITIATIVE

INDIVIDUAL E - JOURNAL

( WEEK ONE )

Before the launch of the project brief, Gary told me about his experience after going back to his high school – SMK Methodist located at Banting. He felt that the green area located near the science labs was not managed well and it was a place which brought back memories of his high school days. So he decided to contribute to his high school by improving the condition of the site and make it a potential space for students to utilize it. He approached his former teacher, Ms.Liew and proposed this idea to her and she agreed to it while proposing other potential sites to him as well.

Prior to the briefing of this project, we assembled a team of seven and presented the proposal to our tutor Ms. Ann and was approved as our CSI project. After that, we came up with a weekly plan and task distribution in order to achieve the purpose and completion of this project successfully.

( WEEK TWO )

We went on a site visit to SMK Methodist to conduct a site analysis and visit around the school grounds to understand both the site and school better. We’ve delegated our task as to carry out the analysis efficiently and effectively. Lee Yih, Wei Shuen and I were assigned was to interview the students on their thoughts about the site and their needs for this project whereas the others were in charge of measuring the site and meeting the person in charge of the school to discuss the viability of the project.

From our interview with the students, it is known that they wanted a private space where their group of peers can gossip or spend their free time between classes and recess time. As the amount of seating areas were insufficient to cater the students, most of them would end up roaming around the school grounds are sitting on the corridors instead.

The site was located beside a science lab and it was an existing herb garden which was formerly an award winning project accomplished by the students of “ Green Rangers “ SMK Methodist but it was not maintained well after that. This brings out the weakness of the site which is filled with mosquitoes and being located far away from the offices might cause vandalism to happen. Other than that, it has a large compound area and excellent climatic qualities due to its openness which allows maximum sunlight and wind to circulate around it. In front

( WEEK THREE )

For this week’s task, we analysed and studied the data collected from our site visit last week and held a brainstorming session which we looked up to some garden pavilion precedent studies and how we could built a simple pavilion that could cater the students and teacher’s needs while being built in a low cost budget.

We’ve drafted a site plan followed by SWOT ( Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. After looking into the site analysis, we’ve came up with an idea to create a resting area with components that can enable the students to customize according to their needs and accommodate different groups of students.

This is one of the proposal by Amos.

Vertical fins are attached to the railings could be moved around to create partitions whenever groups of students need privacy from others. is week, we looked through and analysed precedence studies of other low-cost, garden pavilions.

( WEEK FOUR )

We’ve submitted our proposal to our tutor Ms. Ann. The proposal mainly covers the objectives of the project , site issues and mostly importantly the needs of the users. The initial design was put into the proposal as well even though it was not finalize as it is to show how we’ve took the site analysis into a count and spatial design which caters reading and resting area for the students. As our groupmate Anna, has done several precedent studies before hand, we had a clear direction towards our spatial design overall form. looked

( WEEK FIVE )

For this week, we continued to explore the design by taking in suggestions given by our tutor Ms. Ann. As the area of the site was fairly wide and long, we’ve decided the incorporate cuboid spaces that are put together to create a fun and interesting area. Since the design consists of cuboid spaces, each cubes serve a different purpose according to the individual preference and needs. We’ve kept the initial idea of movable components that can be customized according to the student’s needs. The core of the new design mainly consists of a study pod and we’ve implanted the previous idea of movable components into it. Other than that, planter boxes are incorporated alongside the study pod to maintain the herb garden initiative that was create by the previous students but we’ve decided to revitalize it. To solve the mosquito problem, we’ve found out that Lemon grass could solve the problem by using its scent throughout the cuboid spaces.

As the design consists of several cuboid spaces, each of us came up with individual design for the cuboids as to further explore the potentials for each proposal. Since the pavilion will be for the students and teachers to be used, we’ve decided to have the students to be involved in the design and fabrication process of the project as for them to have a sense of ownership and have a first hand experience of architecture ( in a simple way ).

After we’ve decided on the first finalize design, Gary and I went back to SMK Methodist to propose our design to Ms. Liew and received some feedbacks from her. The feedbacks were fairly good and she hope that it will be built and students can fully utilized it. Some amendments had to be made after taking in the considerations of vandalism and also weather conditions. Both of us proposed the idea of having the students to join this project to Ms. Liew and she relayed the proposal to a group of students and they were excited after looking at the design and eager to joined us. The workshop will be held on Week 11 at SMK Methodist and we will further enhance the design together with the students.

( WEEK SIX )

After receiving the feedback and suggestions from the teachers and students, we’ve further modified the design to suit user’s need and the weather issue ( roof ). We’ve also developed a better design to counter the vandalism problem by taking off the modular components. It was also the maintenance issue , cost and budgeting that were take in a count as so we’ve decided to remove the modular components as well as deciding the materiality of the structure by using wire mesh.

Our final design now consist of a vertical garden and study pod. The vertical garden becomes a separator between the spaces, acting as a shield for privacy purposes but also serves as a permeable element to the spaces. The vertical garden will also serve as the herb garden initiative as before. Different height of the cuboids to create dynamism, tables and chairs made from wood and wire mesh act as seating and resting devices.

( WEEK Seven )

This week we've submitted our E-Poster with our finalized design. We've delegated the task before hand and I was in charged of connection detail drawings.

( WEEK EIGHT )

The second site visit to SMK Methodist was held to record shots for the video submission. As the school was celebrating Teacher's Day, we had the opportunity to explain our design and proposal to a few teachers after the celebration ended and asked for their feedback. Majority of the feedback was positive and mianly excited for the structure to be built as they too felt the site could be revitalized and utilized by members of the school. All in all, it was a very positive reaction from the teachers and headmaster, Mr. Woon as it would be a potential benefit for the students.

Prior to the video shooting, we've met with the 21 students that volunteered to joined our workshop to show them the finalized design and they gave us some suggestions such as changing to a darker color to prevent vandalism , however they were too very excited with it. Both students and teacher's satisfaction survey were recorded in the video.

( WEEK NINE )

During this week, our team focused on the final submissions for the project. Philia was delegated the task of building the prototype model in scale 1:20, Amos helped with the video editing , Leeyih went around Klang Valley to survey market prices for the materials and come up with a rough quotation for the person in charge of SMK Methodist, while the rest of us would complete the construction detail drawings and prepare the workshop for Week 11.

( WEEK TEN )

The video was completed and submitted this week. Our job here is not done as we will be carrying out the workshop with students of SMK Methodist next week and lots of preparation had to be done. All in all, I was glad to be part of this team and I've enjoyed the process and fun all the way. I was happy to be able to communicate and connect with the students which reminds me a lot of my high school days back then and I hope this project can bring more joy and fun towards their future schooling life as they really care for the environment and compounds of their school. We hope that we can inspire them by introducing design process throughout architecture journey through the workshop as well.