ARCH 5112b

New OrganiCity : New Territories 2016-17 Term II

Instructor: Thomas Chung [tchung@cuhk.edu.hk]

credit: Filip Dujardin

“Organic architecture is a simultaneously social, technical and artistic endeavour that aims to create a climate for a new democratic civilisation. Organic architecture means human architecture, designed according to human proportions and the spiritual, psychological and material needs associated with mankind.”

Bruno Zevi, 1945 DESCRIPTION This studio attempts to rethink the notion of OrganiCity in response to the converging fields of urbanism and ecology, framed within the global imperative of sustainability. In particular we will explore possibilities of an ‘organic architecture’ for the 21st century post-materialist society, one that emphasises values of inclusivity and self-organisation while aspiring to an equitable commons. We will investigate current metabolism of the urban-rural interface to understand the complexity and contradictions between the various life-cycles. We will draw from the existing context and seek out sites of challenges and emerging opportunities. Our aim is to propose innovative urban-rural scenarios that integrate both natural and programmatic ecologies, and our focus is to employ architecture as the catalyst for transformative reconfigurations between architecture, infrastructure, active and productive landscapes. We will examine existing Organic analogies in architecture, as well as emerging paradigms of New Materiality, bio-design, regenerative design. Your individual design project will build on previous analyses to imagine an alternative ‘ecology of tectonics’ – an inventive fusing of material, technique and form that adapts and augments a specific combination of ecological, economic, social and cultural cycles of exchange at these liminal, peri-urban and rural agricultural zones.

STUDY SITE + DESIGN PROJECT New Territories constitutes a diverse landscape of ambiguous territories – from bird migratory wetlands, natural habitats, farmlands, village settlements, to new towns, brownfield sites, car dumps, waste recycling sites, container storage, etc. It is an area with vast untapped potential, as well as complex contentions played out between policies, land ownership, development rights and individual land speculation; between resident villagers, farmers, factory owners, developers and government. Our study site will be the area of North East New Territories (NENT) - including Kwu Tung New Town proposal area, Long Valley, Fanling and Sheung Shui, Mashipo - which is earmarked as a New Development Area (NDA), sparking major controversies and large scale protests because of planned new developments. We will explore an alternate approach to current planning, and not consider land plots as real estate solely for the maximisation of economic profit, but emphathise with the wider potential of the entire eco-system: both urban and rural, economic and cultural, human and natural, in order to engender innovative and regenerative ecologies. After site analysis, contextual mapping, and programme/scenario -making, your individual design project will distil a clear field of intervention and programmatic detail in a specific architectural scale and scope. You will be guided to go through an intensive design development to realise an ‘ecology of tectonics’ at different scales. You shall emphasize on embodying architectural ideas into material elements of your design, from a comprehensive design to partial detail drawings / models. ORGANISATION We will understand the socio-political, economic and cultural contexts of our study site. We will learn about existing and conventional Regulatory frameworks for development in Hong Kong. We will refer to more progressive and forward-looking ecological evaluation criteria and terms, both locally and abroad (BSAP, BCP, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Stewardship, etc.) We will equip ourselves with relevant contemporary thought – from deep ecology, landscape urbanism, ecological urbanism to rethinking architecture into landscape. We will have a series of short seminars covering intellectual ideas such as aesthetics, poetics, phenomenology. On technical and regulatory aspects of design, we shall have invited guests to give talks on relevant local issues related to NENT and Ecological evaluation criteria. We shall have workshops on other aspects - mapping, models, plan/sections, composite drawings.

credit: Filip Dujardin

‘What we call organic architecture is no mere aesthetic nor cult nor fashion, but an actual movement based upon a profound idea of a new integrity of human life wherein art, science, religion are one: Form and Function seen as One, of such is Democracy’

Frank Lloyd Wright, 1939 OBJECTIVES • Develop understanding the various components of an architectural idea, capacity to synthesize these

elements into a critical architectural concept and proposal. • Acquire proficiency in an expanded range of spatial organizational strategies, tactics and diagrams. • Develop an analytical and intuitive awareness and understanding of the correspondence between

design approaches and processes, particularly as it pertains to spatial generation and development, visualization and representation.

• Use significant architectural precedents tactically and critically in development of proposal. • Acquire proficiency in working with various building systems including: spatial, structural, material,

sustainable and environmental. • Develop a comprehensive building design, a coherent and articulated final architectural proposal. LEARNING OUTCOME • Able to perform a comprehensive site analysis, considering both architectural aspects such as scale

and urban fabric as well as social considerations • Able to translate an abstract concept into an architectural design proposal, through defined process • Able to develop appriopriate representation methods to characterize spatial and material quality • Able to use photography as a design tool to articulate design • Able to design in Section, articulating space beyond a plan reading though drawings

ASSESSMENT SCHEME • Process 10% • Group work, Mid-review 20% • Final Project 70%

COURSE FORMAT Mondays + Thursdays, 13:30 – 18:15 Studio desk critiques, seminars, workshop, in-class presentations by students. Attendance required FIELD TRIP A field trip to Taiwan to see related projects is being planned, including tentative visits to Ruin Academy, Taipei, and Fieldoffice Architects, Yilan. SCHEDULE Wks 1 Site analysis + Programme confirmation Wks 2-3 Group model + Concept design Wk 4 Preliminary review (Lunar New Year) Wk 5 Mid-Review 1 Wks 6-9 Design Development Wk 10 Mid-Review 2 Wks 11-15 Detail Design + Design Resolution (Easter) Wk 16 Final Review - Portfolio and Documentation submission (date tbc) PRE-REQUISITE Students need to take ARCH 5331b in Term 1, which will cover most of the intellectual background and practical preparations required for the Studio. FINAL REVIEW REQUIREMENTS Site analysis: drawings or diagrams Site plan with Landscape Strategy: 1:1000 / 1:500 Building plans, sections, and elevations as appropriate, 1:100 or 1:200 minimum Detailed Section and elevations as appropriate, 1:50 or 1:100 minimum Site model 1:500 (group) Building model 1:200 minimum (partial 1:100) Detailed model showing material and construction idea 1:50 (partial) 3D: Perspective, collage or axonometrics Evidence of design process

REFERENCES

Stan Allen and Marc McQuade eds., (2011) Landform building: architecture's new terrain. Charles S. Brown and Ted Toadvine eds (2003) Eco-phenomenology: back to the earth itself. Balmori, D. (2011) Groundwork: between landscape and architecture. New York: Monacelli Press. Brook Muller (2014) Ecology and the architectural imagination. New York : Routledge. Chow Sung-ming and Yiu Chung-yim eds., (2015) A Reader on Local Agriculture, The Pursuit of Ecological, Adaptive, Low input community. Hong Kong: Land Education Foundation. 香港在地農業讀本: 追尋生態、適切、低投入、社區農業 : 土地教育基金 Hayward, T. (1995) Ecological Thought: An Introduction Barbara Imhof, Petra Gruber, eds., (2016) Built to grow: blending architecture and biology. Heidelberg : Birkhäuser Verlag AG. C.J. Lim + Ed Liu (2010) Smartcities + eco-warriors. Abingdon; New York: Routledge. Lewis Mumford (1961)The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects. Mostafavi, M. & Doherty, G. (2010) Ecological urbanism. Baden, Switzerland : Lars Müller Publishers. McCullough, Malcolm (2013) Ambient commons: attention in the age of embodied information. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Anne Beim, Ulrik Stylsvig Madsen eds., (2014) Towards an ecology of tectonics. Stuttgart: Axel Menges. William Myers (2012) Bio design: nature, science, creativity. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.,. Peg Rawes (2013) Relational architectural ecologies: architecture, nature and subjectivity. Oxon, Abingdon; New York : Routledge, 2013. Ian Thompson (2009) Rethinking Landscape: a critical reader. London; New York: Routledge. Kelvin Yuen & Marco Mak (2014) Struggles for Land: NE New Territories Developing Stories, 106 mins. (電影：巨輪下的新界東北)

IMPORTANT NOTE TO STUDENTS: ATTENDANCE: Class attendance is required in all courses. For an excused absence, the instructor must be notified and presented with documentation of illness or personal matter. Please note: Three (3) or more unexcused absences may result in a failing grade for the course. ACADEMIC HONESTY: Attention is drawn to University policy and regulations on honesty in academic work, and to the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to breaches of such policy and regulations. Details may be found at: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/. With each assignment, students may be required to submit a statement that they are aware of these policies, regulations, guidelines and procedures. STUDENT WORK: Submission of studio documentation in correct and complete format is required of each student. Without submission of the documentation folder no grade will be submitted for the course. This may result in a failing grade for the course and may delay graduation. NOTE This course outline is subject to refinement and elaboration at the start of term. Updated handouts to be issued in Week 1.