sypnosis

1. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (AUGUST 2016) [10 MARKS]
NAME: KEN WONG CHUN THIM ID: 0315534
LECTURER: MR NAZMI TUTORIAL TIME: 2-4PM
SYNOPSIS NO: 1 READER TITLE: In The Cause Of Architecture
AUTHOR: Frank Lloyd Wright
Wright starts off by saying how nature is important as a great source of inspiration and driver for
architects. He also explains his philosophy in architecture where simplicity is a measure of the true
value of art. As for his influence from nature, his stance on organic architecture is also articulated
where a building should appear to grow easily from the site and harmonize with the surroundings.
The colors and material should reference Nature and emphasize on the warm earthly tones. Nature
inspired architecture is a great catalyst for creating buildings which harmonize with its surroundings.
He is disappointed by American architecture not being true to the spirit of democracy where the
buildings has no spiritual integrity and is merely following fashionable ‘styles’ for the sake of it. There
is no individuality in the buildings. Wright states his ideal is democracy; every individual has a right
to express themselves within their own environment. This shows in his buildings where each has its
individuality and when seen in a bigger context does not disrupt the harmony of the whole. Wright
makes a good point here because even in our local architecture, buildings appear to have no
connection with its surroundings and often have no character to it.
Towards the end, Wright believes that an architects that designs down to the smallest detail will be
able to create an ‘individual work of art’ and that the details shouldn’t be left to another person.
Speaking of art, he mentions architecture should not be a scenic painting rather a product from the
spatial plan. A building put together with organic elements and right proportions will naturally
generate a ‘picturesque’ perspective.
To conclude, Wright gave many great examples and thoughts on organic architecture which highly
relates to its surrounding natural environment. It is very relevant in contemporary architecture where
a building has to be contextual and respond to its site. However, in an urban environment where
everything consist mainly of concrete blocks, it evokes the question of how does one respond to the
‘Nature’ of this environment. Does one try to trace back to the environment before all these
monotonous blocks were built? Or does one try to extract the ‘organic’ elements of the concrete
jungle? In Old Kuala Lumpur, the buildings in the district consists of several ‘styles’ of architecture;
modernism, straits electic, art deco. It begs the question what organic element can the architect
derive from this mixture of architecture that has become the ‘Nature’ of this place.
WORD COUNT 415
Key points (2.5)
Appropriateness of
Terminologies (2.5)
Clarity in Opinions and
Reactions (2.5)
Logical Progression (2.5)
DATE: TOTAL MARK & GRADE
ASSSESSED BY:

2. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (AUGUST 2016) [10 MARKS]
NAME: KEN WONG CHUN THIM ID: 0315534
LECTURER: MR NAZMI TUTORIAL TIME: 2-4PM
SYNOPSIS NO: 2 READER TITLE: Architecture where desire may live
AUTHOR: Eva Meyer
Derrida comments on how architecture as a possibility of thought rather than a representation of
thought. The idea of having a new ‘inventive faculty’ which would allow architects to explore different
possibilities. Architecture where it becomes self-representative without the theocentric and the
anthropocentric world view. These statements evoke the thoughts of architecture being a certain kind
of ‘experiment’ to find ways of evoking a diversity of new thoughts on how architecture can be
approached. Perhaps the conception of architecture for architecture’s sake. In a way, what presented
here is indeed deconstruction because it is the questioning and analysis of the current concepts
which are widely accepted.
Architecture is a language and in the text Derrida talks about how Modernism tried to strive for
absolute domination as a universal language of architecture. Then came post-modernism which
signified its end and perhaps its realization of its failure as a plan for domination. From the Greeks,
Romans and all the way to post-modernism, this shows how the language of architecture is always
‘on the move’, it is always changing, and it has no beginning nor end. There are many ways of
approaching architecture whether it may be a success or failure. “The method is a technique, a
procedure in order to gain control of the way, in order to make it viable.” This means that the method
is the effort of making it into reality rather than an exploration of the way. Method is a question
whether it can be realized or not. Architecture need not be realistic as long as it is finding new ways
to express thoughts and cater to desires of the lives of people.
Besides that, Derrida mentions writing as a way of living in which he means architecture as a form of
writing. The building notes the way of life at the point of time and era. He also believed that
“architecture must create places where desire can recognize itself and where it can live forever.”
What he means is a building should cater to the lives of the user at the point of time it was designed
and the architect should also bear in mind how his architecture may fit the desire of the users in the
future. Architecture can then be said to be a ‘spatialization of time’, whereby architecture as a
documentation of time in the form of a space.
WORD COUNT
Key points (2.5)
Appropriateness of
Terminologies (2.5)
Clarity in Opinions and
Reactions (2.5)
Logical Progression (2.5)
DATE: TOTAL MARK & GRADE
ASSSESSED BY:

3. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (AUGUST 2016) [10 MARKS]
NAME: KEN WONG CHUN THIM ID: 0315534
LECTURER: MR NAZMI TUTORIAL TIME: 2-4PM
SYNOPSIS NO: 3 READER TITLE: The Eyes of the Skin
AUTHOR: Juhani Pallasmaa
Juhani talks about the relationship between the body and the world. How places affect our bodies
and our associations, how we in turn affect the world. The body experiences the world by our sense
of touch where then the five other senses including vision is an extension of it. The sense of touch
allows one to perceive spatial depth to sense weight, resistance and three-dimensional shape of
materials. However, one individual may perceive the world strongly in another type of sense other
than vision or touch. Therefore, the individual experience of the world is subjective by what the
individual chooses to experience and has experienced before.
Architecture is not experienced as ‘isolated visual pictures’ but it has embodied material and spiritual
presence. It incorporates physical and mental structures; to allow the spaces and nature to affect the
mind of the perceiver of the space. The geometry of architectural spaces allow thoughts to be more
focused and enhances the mind’s sense of the outdoors. It is as if weaving the indoor and outdoor
nature via an architectural space. As the mind grows conscious of the inside and outside, it allows
imagination, memory and dream collected by the body throughout one’s experience of the world to
enrich the mind. The world ignites the imagination of the mind.
Every form of arts questions the relationship between the man and world and does it in its specific
medium, engaging every sense of the body to convey the intended thought of the artist. Architecture
is same in that way whereby it should question how body interacts with space and how the space
engages the world. Perhaps to create architecture that emulates the way the world affects the body.
Or perhaps to go beyond that, to have architecture that affects the spirit and mind of man.
WORD COUNT 300
Key points (2.5)
Appropriateness of
Terminologies (2.5)
Clarity in Opinions and
Reactions (2.5)
Logical Progression (2.5)
DATE: TOTAL MARK & GRADE
ASSSESSED BY:

4. BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN ARCHITECTURE
THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC61303/ARC2224)
SYNOPSIS: REACTION PAPER (AUGUST 2016) [10 MARKS]
NAME: KEN WONG CHUN THIM ID: 0315534
LECTURER: MR NAZMI TUTORIAL TIME: 2-4PM
SYNOPSIS NO: 4 READER TITLE: TOWARDS A CRITICAL REGIONALISM
AUTHOR: Kenneth Frampton
Critical Regionalism is a means of countering placelessness and lack of identity of the International style. On
the flip side, regionalism celebrates individual and local architectonics but it’s a double edged sword; it can be
used for liberation/reform or repression/chauvinism. A new architecture only emerge from new relationships
between the designer and user or the emergence of new programs. Therefore, critical regionalism is used to
‘mediate the impact of universal civilization with elements derived indirectly from the peculiarities of a particular
place.’ It requires a high level of critical self-consciousness of the local context to succeed. This practice is
important as it tries to retain local aspects while implementing the deconstructed world culture.
Since regionalism is based on and in tune with the emerging thought of the time, it changes with time and the
needs of the users. In the example given, New England surrendered to modernism after being resisted as the
past regionalism posed restrictions on the users and did not fit the emerging modern lifestyle of the users.
Therefore, regionalism poses a threat of the loss of identity of a place. If critical regionalism can be simplified
to the combination of the old and new, where materials are sourced from the old regionalism and fused with
the new emerging universal culture, in the future architects will just be repeating the process of deriving
elements from past regionalism. Long enough and they will be sourcing from previous critical regionalism
elements and slowly turn into something else that does not resemble what the place was in the first place.
There may be instances where vernacular features may just die off similar to a battle of the survival of the fittest
where elements which are unimportant, irrelevant or unused is disposed of. Hence, the extinction of certain
aspects of the culture.
Heidegger’s perception of space is defined by clear boundaries from which something beings its presence.
Boundaries or edges or intervals, these are all invisible and are experienced or felt by the perceiver. In
Japanese aesthetics, ‘Ma’ is appreciation of emptiness, void or interval of a space. The presence of void or
interval in a space makes the emptiness of the space more apparent which makes the perceiver more
conscious of the space. Hence, a space can only begin its presence in emptiness and this emptiness is the
catalyst for new activity and place making as the ‘condition of “dwelling” and “being” can only take place in a
domain which is clearly bounded.’ Since the space only begins its presence in the presence of a void which in
turn the void experienced by a perceiver, the place-form starts from people. Only when there are people that
the space becomes significant. To come to a close, in my opinion, critical regionalism is like walking on a tight
rope, there is a chance where in the future all culture is washed down or derived so far that it does not resemble
its parent or it can be a catalyst for creating new cultures while incorporating universal ideas. It is because
critical regionalism cannot exist with regionalism so to completely ignore or destroy regionalism is not a solution
either. Both has to go hand in hand to create a variety of architecture in the future.
WORD COUNT 541
Key points (2.5)
Appropriateness of
Terminologies (2.5)
Clarity in Opinions and
Reactions (2.5)
Logical Progression (2.5)
DATE: TOTAL MARK & GRADE
ASSSESSED BY: