PORTFOLIO akarpint chomphooteep

INDA | Chulalongkorn

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Phase 4 - Expansion

When the project is expanded, the application also allows for users to grow flowers at their home from seeds collected on site. This allows for a healthier environment for moths, and promotes awareness to people. To connect Lumphini park to other parks of possible expansion, homes and streets along the way are encouraged to change lights to orange and purple, with flowers under the purple light, resulting in a route for moths to travel.

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PHASE 3 - Project Mala Tree

The project Mala Tree proposes a clean environment of flower garden as a spot where moths can rely on, and furthermore to for urban people to be more aware of the environment. The project is like a resting spot in the heart of the urban for moths and humans to create connection. Mala Tree, meaning ‘flower’ and ‘night’ in Thai is a night flower garden located in Lumphini park, consisting of 2 main elements which are artificial and physical, and interactive performances. The project introduces 3 different towers dealing with different invisible aspects of the context including breeze, humidity, and smell, forming different performances, shapes and height to each one. The towers are adjoined through a circulation of suspended ramps, creating different spaces on the ground floor to allow different scale of activities to happen. The project includes an application for users to interact with the tower, while storing these datas to identify certain conditions that leads to moth appearance on site.

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Project 1.2 - Future Exchanges

- Material - Component - Attempt in combining Component + Material - Exchanges between 2 subjects - 2 small scale architecture and its operations

Tarpaulin was chosen because of its very iconic aesthetic referring greatly to the brand, and corrugated steel because of reusing the front container surface discarded from the FREITAG flagship store.

For tarp, the qualities of the material would create a great shelter. A raincoat suitable for bike riding was the first idea, and is created mainly by folding. The method could be developed into architecture scale by sewing too.

Corrugated steel was taken from the flagship store, so the idea of making a store component came up. Bike rack was the first idea, since the brand targets bike users but their are no parking for bikes. However, along the material testing period, components such as fitting screen and product stand could be developed from different techniques of bending corrugated steel.

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Project 1.1 - Brand Logics: Operational Decision-Making

- to be able to analyze the brand’s identity - to be able to analyze the brand’s decisions and why - to be able to analyze the brand’s design logics - A2 2 plates of logistic overview - A2 3 plates of various elements of the brand - diagrams representing informations

FREITAG is widely known to be a messenger bag brand from Switzerland, founded by the Freitag brothers. There are 3 branches from its brand: Fundamental, Reference, and F-abric, each focussing on different target groups but shared similarities. 

The brand’s rectangular logo shape refers to the truck tarp; main material of the fundamental bag, and resembles mobility. The font is bold, portraying the durability of their product, and also is readable while in motion. Black and white helps with the reading in motion, as well as being an international color.

Fundamental line is probably the most popular out of the 3, as it is the oldest and made FREITAG well known. The bag is made from 3 main materials, truck tarp, inner bike tube, and car’s seat belt, all material referencing mobility. Since the bag uses recycled materials, it is considered a second-life product, and hence its color may refer greatly to trash cans, with colors specifying what product type goes in which bin. The production of the bag has 5 main steps, each included traveling back and fourth to factories around Europe, using human operated machines and several decision making.

F-abric line started a few years ago from the need of strong clothing for the FREITAG crew to wear. The materials to create the fabrics yarn are from 3 types of plants: linen, modal and hanf, with tag nut as buttons. The production process again has 5 main steps and takes place around Europe, sending the product-in-process back and fourth. The 3 main resources together can create 6 different types of fabric, each fabric suitable for various kinds of clothing piece. 

FREITAG finds new ways of marketing.Via website, they did not only post things about their bag, but traveling stories, events, and videos about their crews working. Moreover, they write like journals, giving a sense of nomads and making customer feel closer to the brand. Meanwhile, they organisms events like biking, or even being able to DIY own FREITAG bag online, making customers experience something individually that other brands don’t have. In addition, the bag’s packaging is made from cardboard boxes having the one-in-the-world product’s picture on them, and can also be recycled. However, the product and the packaging shared a relationship. Both started from being a flat 2D net, passed through processes to make the 3D, and transforms differently.

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Project 1.3 - PAVILION

- pavilion A (100sq/m) - 1:1000 map - 1:200 site map - scaled plan - elevations - sections - renders

The nature of human is that when we are in the city, filled with tall buildings and roads everywhere, stress and pressure occurs. Noticing the surrounding reduces, and only cared about self. 

The site is located in a small park amidst residential / business area Yamadacho, Yokohama, Kanagawa. The area is considered dense and does not have much park or a recreation space. 

The area also lacks nature. This playground is to help reduce stress in individuals, and increase awareness of self and nature, creating a new perspective of the city in a version that is equivalent with nature.

Circulation is taken from the context of the site, where it is a flat land with buildings rising up. The area is divided by squares, very formally. Therefore the platforms are divided formally, and rises up steeply just like buildings.

The pavilion consists of 5 platforms, commuting by climbing. The lowest platform climbs up only to the second platform, and the second platform only to the third. This creates a playground-like action of climbing platforms to get to the next level, but moreover slows down user’s action to then focus more on the suroundings. Nature will always be closely no matter what platform it is.

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Project 1.3 - PAVILION

- pavilion B (300sq/m) - 1:100 model - 1:1000 map - 1:200 site map - scaled plan - elevations - sections - renders

The nature of human is that as we approach new places, we get overwhelmed by them for a while and does not fully enjoy the surrounding enough, perhaps overlooking what they contain. 

The site is located in Lake Miyagase Park, Aiko district, Kanagawa. The beautiful features this park includes a manmade dam, a stair large field, a long bridge and some gardens. However, the park is considered to be a man-made landscape composed of nature. 

This tourist view point is to help narrow down human visions to be more focusing, especially to notice the delicate nature’s movement inside the park that maybe forgotten.

All the pavilions or the walkway does not have the same height from the ground or heading in an x or y direction. This is taken from its site context of a mountainous landscape; unpredictable heights and not-straight paths.

The pavilion consists of 5 smaller pavilions, all tilted towards their natural subject:

1. Specific: Seeing part of the mountain, giving importance and power. 2. Panoramic: Focus on the lake as a continuous line. 3. Collage: Framing small parts of the large field. 4. Human: Speculate movements of tourists in the park. 5. Detail: Feeling the movement of the bushes.

Having only one side of the wall dedicated for openings framing their natural subjects allow dramatic changes to occur: the space relies greatly on the opening, so as the scene changes to dark, or the season changes, the whole space changes with it. This way, nature plays an important part to transit the space.

Volume of each pavilion goes with its subject. For example, Panoramic Pavilion frames the lake continuously, therefore it is a semi-circle with low ceiling, and has a narrow and long opening.

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Project 1.2 - MACHINE

- 1:1 machine that can create work, just like the chosen architect, under their code - Manual on how to operate the machine - Input / Output

In this project, I divided the process into 3 phrases, including 2 concepts from Ishigami. 

The 1st phrase is ‘getting inspiration’, having to do with the concept ‘inspiring from nature’. The phrase is about finding a natural pattern, and tracing the pattern to instead, getting its texture and bumps using pencil. Then dots are applied to where the user thinks is the spot that is outstanding, or resembles the pattern best.

The 2nd phrase is using the previous dots marks as a starting point to create 2 types of space; nature and man-made, working on the concept ‘blurring boundaries’. Blue sand represents nature and white sand represents man-made. Spots where the blue sands are would be the same as the dots from pervious space, as it represents nature. The fragile man-made structure of the machine would then react to breezes from the surrounding (environment), shaking the sand box and mixing the 2 coloured sands to create a light blue colour: in-between space.

The 3rd phrase duplicates the pattern of blurred boundaries sand onto acrylic plane by using permanent. This second machine is used for making sense of the output from phrase 2, as the output may be too ambiguous and abstract on what ‘space’ is. So models of trees and perfect geometric shapes are introduce. Trees represents nature space and can only be distributed on the blue area, whilst geometry shapes can only be in the blank man-made space. The in-between space is left bare. The arrangements of these models can be moved freely inside their limited space, creating several possibilities.

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Project 1.1 - THE CODE

- Dossier - Matrix - Slide Presentation

Junya Ishigami has 5 main concepts to his works:

- Characteristic of Nature into Design - Equal Value between various aspects - Transitional Space - Relationship to nearby Environment - Blurring boundaries between architecture / nature / environment

Some of his method to a concept may lead to the next, for example, in Japanese Pavilion, by making columns same thickness as nearby plants, achieving Characteristic of Nature into Design, the work turns out to also gain Equal Value between various aspects, that man-made (column) and plant (nature) are the same in size (diameter).

To conclude, he creates a fragile and dependent work, allowing nature and the surrounding environment to access and transit his work, for example, in Lake Project, his work is the man-made unequal topography in the lake, and his project is a success because nature (independent) caused the water level and vegetations on the mountain to change, causing to park space to reduce or increase (dependent on nature).

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Study on Table

Study on Cuboid Balloon

Study on KAIT workshop

Study on Japanese Pavilion

Study on Lake Project

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Project 2.2B - HABITAT

- 1:50 model - 1:200 model - 1:100 drawing (plan, 4, elevations, 2 sections minumum)

The main concept of this habitat is called ‘Living Together’. This came from the mojority of the space of this habitat that although two users may be living in different spaces, one another can  communicate or sight one another, whilst still obtain a level of privateness.

Clients are 2 inhabitant, a daughter who always want to stay alone, and a mother that is easily lonely and wants to connect more to her daughter. I interpreted the mother as the public space, whist the daughter as private space. 

Hence, I began to simplify the space into grids, forming a rule that all movements must follow the gridlines. The first box was created. It is the public space.The grey box in the concept diagram represents the private space, which gets extruded (but not fully) into the public box. Floor splits along the gridlines and elevates up to create floor with different heights.

The 2 things that defines the space are platforms that differs, and columns on the space’s corners.

Private space such as bathrooms and bedrooms are the only space that can be shutoff on their own. Other spaces (public) has no walls in the interior.

This gives a sense of public and private at the same time; public because there is no surface blocking the view, private because the user is in the defined space alone.

As for the materials, they are chosen in each location by how and where the space is. For example, people would want to view a landscapic scenery rather than a very near neighbour’s house. Only the wood partition can be a closed space or open space, depending on the inhabitant occupying the space at the time.

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Project 2.2A - CASE STUDIES

- 1:100 model  - construction drawing - study concept of the architecture

NA House by Sou Fujimoto architects. The house in in Tokyo, Japan, surrounded densely by neighbouring buildings. 

- Movable objects with various functions, making the space look like they have more steps - Maximise the few-views of the crowded city, but kept private on the neighbouring side. (back, left, right) - Structure acts like trees; goes up a step (branch) to find a new space. - Floors lay on top of one another on a grid-like system. - Relation to the context - several small houses in neighbouring area = house composed of small fragments. - Free space - differenty corners for different behaviors, always moving around, no specific space.

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Project 2.1B - PLOT

- 1:200 model with habitat massing - circulation and relation - concerns exterior of the plot

The main concept was to create a contour line from topography, and make all surface boundary follow the contour. This rule applies to only the x axis. The y and z axis goes straight on their way.

There are 2 inhabitants - a mother and her daughter. The mother owns a flower shop so her work space is outside, creating a lot of balconies for flower planters. Meanwhile, the daughter dislikes the outside, so the shady seating area close to the habitat would encourage her to come out.

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Project 2.1A - MASTERPLAN

- 1:200 model - individual plot of 600m^2

The location of this neighbour is on block number 6. Our main concept was to create a spot at the centre that can view every part of the town. The solution was to have a valley in the middle as the public place, and private residences sits on the hills around.

A one way tunnel runs below the hills to reduce accident and pollution in living space. The residences can be approach via either from the tunnel, or from the recreation zone using the stairs surrounding the park.

There are 3 zones in the public park; quiet zone, activity zone, central zone, and all serves for different purposes. Since the block is beside the wide canal, there is a sala on the corner for relaxation.

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Project 1.2 - VENDING DEVICE

- 1:100 model - construction drawings - collages

Popcorn vending device; Adapted from the arcade games box. The customers can bring up to 4 friends to play and a team. The more player, the more chance there is to win more popcorns.

The players will have to buy a bag for 20 baht from the vendor before  starting. The players get 30 seconds to tap the yellow buttons, 360 degrees around the game box. Fresh popcorns would fall time to time in the game box, by a transparent tube connected to the popper.

There is no bagged popcorns for sell, since the purpose is to create a game base on popcorns + reduces stress in a creative way + building relationship.

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Project 1.1 - DOCUMENTARY

- documentary video focusing on the relationship between seller and vender - 1 minute long

The documentary concerns a vendor and his device selling popcorn near Sala Dang BTS station.

Problems -

“ Not all of his stuffs are stored in the cart. Things such as bags of raw popcorn, plastic bags and stool are placed beside the cart and transfer back on to the cart, which makes it less convenient and slow. The floor is also a street paving, so it is quite unhygienic. ”

“ The window box isn't fully closed, so as the kettle. It may be polluted by the surrounding, but moreover could be damaged if it rains. Fresh popcorns would be soaked while the kettle may cause electrocution and go out of order.”

Tasks and challenges for next project -

- Able to store and grab everything on the cart easily without needing to use the outside space. - Develop a way to protect the popcorns from the outside (pollutions, dust, rain, etc.) but also allow the smell to spread out .

- How to expand the space on the cart? - Only the vendor can control the expansion or not? - Are there any audience interaction towards the device?

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Project 2.2 - ELEMENT WORLDS SPATIAL SEQUENCES

- 1:25 model - use the element used in 2.1 - create minimum of 5 spaces in the element world - sequence must include 2 human inside - 15 x 15 x 15 meters - air: airflow direction changes 3 times a year (every 4 months)

What I continued from my recent project was theme of wind hitting something, making that item move in the same direction. This time, that item is the ‘sail’

The sails are the medium between wind and human.

In different space, sails plays different roles in creating an impact on human experience, in collaboration with the space’s height and width.

My purpose in this project is to demonstrate an alternative of how wind could make such impact on us, other than us just feeling its breeze, knowing the direction and the strength of it.

Commute from one space to another through poles; full experience of the air since nothing is blocking.

SPACE A: Paranoid

One entrance, one exit. Some sails are fixed, others change with wind direction, creating alternative maze depending on different wind direction. Humans may get lost. The sails are placed densely, therefore humans would have to tilt side ways and walk, in the dark due to having SPACE B on top.

SPACE B: Free Sails stood sparsely, enabling the 2 humans to walk around separately. Sails are fixed, except at the exits which acts as doors. The doors openning and closing depends on the wind direction. Therefore, there are 3 exits: to SPACE C, SPACE D, and SPACE E.

SPACE C: Endless Low ceiling and narrow, long space, impacting on how the humans get through the space. They will have to crawl, in single files.

SPACE D: Relax The only area in the space that has no sails is in the middle and the ceiling is low. These 2 factors resulted in making the humans move themselves to the middle and sit closely together, enabling them to have a chance to interact. The sails play no major role in this space.

SPACE E: Blind In this space, the sails are fixed. However, they are transparent. The humans would have to touch and glide along the sails to short sails which allows them to get through. They will also need to use teamwork: guide each other out requires speaking and hearing. Furthermore, the sails at the exit creates a sound when hit by wind. The humans will have to look out for that too.

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Project 2.1 - EXPERIMENTS + INSTRUMENTATION (2/2)

- 1:1 model - elements: fire / air / earth / water - each instrument must focus on only one element - keep in mind about: 1. human sensory expeience 2. element state(s)

This instrument measures air, from the point of view of sound.

Usually liquids should be more still when the frequency is low and more crazier when the frequency gets crazy as well, cornstarch works contrastingly.

By turning on the speaker to noise out the frequency, the liquid would dance. The findings of how high the cornstarch form went were noted and created into a graph.

Also, researching the average frequency of different types of music and referring back to the graph as a finding that is actually quite interesting.

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Project 2.1 - EXPERIMENTS + INSTRUMENTATION (1/2)

- 1:1 model - elements: fire / air / earth / water - each instrument must focus on only one element - keep in mind about: 1. human sensory expeience 2. element state(s)

This instrument measures the element air, with the aspect of wind direction and wind speed.

It works simply when wind blows and hit the foam ball in the middle, the pole would swing in the same direction as the wind. This movement makes the pen below hit the tissue paper curled around them, creating a mark. Now we know the wind direction. With the wind strength, the stronger the wind, the more the ink dissolves on the tissue paper.

To develop this even more, I put  the instrument outside and change the tissue paper every 3 hours.

Then I looked up today’s weather on wind speed, and tried to make sense of my findings by adding vector of miles per hour in it, and plotted the results in a graph.

The graph could be overlayed to easily compare the wind speed of each direction in various times of the day.