Idiosyncratic Imaginary : BETWEEN DICHOTOMIES

Nik, Nik Ariff Azmee and Mohamad, Kalsom (2009) Idiosyncratic Imaginary : BETWEEN DICHOTOMIES. Sustainable Tropical Environmental Design Exhibition (STEDex’09), 1. p. 55. ISSN 2180-0685

Abstract

The project begins by addressing the three elements within a dichotomy; the two elements that make up the dichotomy itself and the third element that exists between the two. The immediate dichotomy in this case is with the site conditions of water and land. The element between them is the transitory processing unit which is essentially the function of the Custom Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex. Further dichotomies presented include between public and private, the processed and the unprocessed, the local and the foreign, the transient and the non-transient, etc. The objective of is exercise is to evolve design solutions that are borne out of two elements of the dichotomies; e.g., the CIQ Complex is a processing centre for those entering or leaving the country via water where it is necessary to understand the requirements and procedures involved in the process. From here, students should have been familiar with the necessary parameters pertaining to spatial sequencing and circulation for the patrons that can only be known after a comprehensive research on the inner workings of the CIQ. Due to the historical siting within Melaka, students are expected to continue the past architects’ attitude of actual progressive change with every architectural makeover and not merely replicating past styles. In other words, their priority should be to fulfill their desiderata for the centre in terms of spatial environment, comfort, safety, durability and sustainability rather than be overtly concerned with issues of ‘heritage’. Students are required to be sensitive to patrons’ expectations perception and comprehension in their design and to be critical of existing CIQ centres including the proposal that has been prepared for building on the very site. The brief for the centre’s components was developed in consultation with the present CIQ in Melaka. The processing area’s requirements were very much left intact but certain streamlining had to be done to the working areas for the CIQ staff so as to maintain a manageable scope for the project within the given duration. However, the priority was purposely to create interesting and more innovative working environment rather than to fulfill empirical spatial requirements with regards to staff’s working areas. The success in the project was primarily with the students’ reassessment of the image for a CIQ Complex centre and the spatial qualities of the spaces within. As to the latter, students displayed sensitivity to the act of waiting, queuing and processing involved in such a centre and strived to produce more perceptually, physically and psychologically pleasant environment around these activities. Regards to the image of the centre, students were very much committed to exploring attributes like sense of welcoming, sense of approachability and arrival while not compromising the necessary senses of security, safety and authority. Overall, the project displayed the students’ acumen in designing not simply public spaces but also their relationships of such spaces to complementary facilities despite the stringent zoning required in such

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