WEEK ONE

IDEAS

For the first tutorial session, we had to choose any topic and any theme that we wanted. When our lecturer said this, at first I drew a blank as too many possibilities made my head spin. Thinking of all aspects of the subject matter, medium and design made my head spin. However, as mentioned in the lecture, I tried to focus on something that sparked my interest and was an issue that people were facing as well. As I believe, design is best expressed with relation to their function. So I started researching these issues and came up with two ideas.

Shown below are two simple thought process diagrams I had in my head.

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HOMELESS SHELTER

Firstly, my idea was to make a homeless shelter for the people living on the streets in Malaysia. They become homeless for several reasons such as poverty or domestic violence so I wanted to make a healing/lively interior for the residents. I planned to incorporate a street markets culture into the area in the form of design and spatial planning and also areas for kids to thrive in their interests and education. However, following the advice of my tutor on the government dealing with such issues and this problem being a subject matter already been done too many times, I decided to choose my second option.

WATER POLLUTION

This is an issue I have a passion for as it is something that I see even in my own country every day. Marine pollution is a worldwide issue that greatly affects both livelihoods of the people and the animals.

In order to solve this, I had an idea to use the trash that we retrieve to make fishing gears or other recyclable gadgets. I also planned on making this area like a museum exhibition using the trash to represent marine animals and also have coral growing farms to save the oceans. As a medium, for now I have considered a fishing rod but have not figured out the way to incorporate it properly into the design.

I have a keen interest in the works of Lebbeus Woods and other robotics/gear like drawings/structures. This is what I want to incorporate into my design as he is my favourite architect and I enjoy conceptual designs. Right now I am a bit confused on how I can express this or combine these elements

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FEEDBACK

For the first tutorial, my tutor suggested to alter my idea to smaller fishing community issues instead of the larger fishing ones. He wanted me to research more about the issues facing locals in Malaysia in these remote areas and perhaps even pay a visit to locations like Kuala Selangor or even Melaka. This was a great idea and it filled me with excitement to actually experience this site and lifestyle. I have not gone yet but I plan on doing so, first I need to find someone to translate Bahasa to me. So after receiving this feedback, I plan on researching more on the issues.

ISSUES OF SMALL FISHING COMMUNITIES

This is the improved topic which I am researching about the smaller fishing villages in parts of Malaysia and even in my home country. These issues are more towards the smaller community lifestyles.