Marine Info Kiosk

The white sandy beaches and mesmerizing blue sea water of magnificent Pulau Redang provides the site for the final project for the Year 1 students. A marine park with colourful sea creatures offers snorkelling activities for the visitors to experience and appreciate the marine life. However, without knowledge and special guidance, the activity can be harmful not only to the divers but also to the marine life and the precious coral. The objective of the final project is to design a marine info-kiosk facility that can promote the awareness of preserving and appreciating the marine and coral life. It also provides a place where visitors can hang around to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

The Student Centred Learning (SCL) approach used in the architecture design class calls for the design project to be divided into two major parts; the group work where collaboration and cooperation between groups and among each member of the groups and the individual design part. Peer learning is evidenced in the running of the design project and this further encourage active learning amongst the students. For the first part, the students worked in groups to conduct a site investigation. Four different plots of site were earmarked for the students to investigate which included measuring the size of the site, topography, climatic and environmental factors as well as social factors. They gathered, discussed, analysed those information and made recommendations or suggestions as to how those site factors might have an impact on their design later on. Experiential learning is definitely applied in this process, especially when the students are immersed in the actual site study and analyses.

Timber construction is the main construction technique to be applied in this project. Visits to various locations in Kuala Terengganu focusing on the traditional architecture allowed the students to observe the fine timber detailing and experience the ambiance and spatial qualities of timber buildings. They also conducted precedent study of the visited locations and similar buildings. Knowledge and data that they have researched on the precedent studies and site visit are to be used in the design of their marine info-kiosks.

Roslina Sharif & Shafizal Maarof