To and From Asia with Love

An Invitation to an Exotic Voyage To and From Asia with LoveArchitecture for a CityA vibrant global city called homeA home, a place where one can live, work and playUniquely SingaporeThe studio will explore how it is possible to understand the image of a place, the qualities of a place: what makes it distinct, special, attractive, comfortable, a home. It will also investigate how this image of a place impacts the creation of spaces, which, when filled with people and their emotions, eventually become a place.The study will examine how a building can be created as home for art, a home that embodies what the place is, with art and culture as its central enterprise, while at the same time encouraging greater engagement and interaction with its immediate environment. Two sites are proposed: one is on the waterfront – Marina Bay (white site – reclaimed area by the waterfront); the other is the old civic district – the Padang with the old Supreme Court and the old City Hall (a site with existing fiber, grain and strong architectural character). Students will choose between these two sites.The studio will explore ways of conducting investigations: possible scenarios for creating a design while twelve hours away from \”home.\” Through films, books, magazines, etc., students will discover objects and elements of cultural production, images of a city, and homes conjured. It will promote establishing channels of communication between students at the GSD with other students in Singapore to exchange ideas about \”home.\” Students will be encouraged to develop a mental image of \”home\” and vividly imagine the site – to feel its heat, the hot summer sun, its humidity, cooling breezes, and sudden tropical rains; to see its soft morning sun, turning intense at noonday, and then golden at sunset. Through their images of \”home,\” students will bask in its clear evening sky, with its moon and stars above their heads, as they enjoy the sound of crickets and frogs singing their tropical songs.The studio will explore how such encounters could be expressed and transmitted, perhaps through a book, a monograph, a DVD, or other media. The intent is to hopefully open a path to explore and to communicate To and From Asia with Love.