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(Re)-Defining the dichotomy/demarcation betweenContemporary LIVING + DYING sphere

Part 2 Project 2004
Looi Chee Kin
Natalija Radosavljevic
Milica Naumovic
 National University of Singapore | Singapore
The mechanism of storing ashes (columbaria) & books (community library ), used as an instrument to address present criticism of contemporary living & dying which has been neutralized to an extent purely mechanical, a storage system-like.

Instead of conceiving solutions, the thesis seeks to take advantage of this condition and use the mechanism to differentiate these 2 contrast event by JUXTAPOSING the ritual/act of browsing books(living) and worshiping the dead(dying) are inherently different in nature(architecturally in event & space/materiality) and yet moving along with the prevailing condition in Singapore that efficiency/capacity has inevitably neutralized disparate events be it living or dying.


Although Looi Chee Kin’s “Columbarium in Housing District” is apparently considered as a subject under taboo, it also can be a quite realistic scenario in Singapore if we take its current interment policy into account. The merit of the work is in a sensible yet bold arrangement of a civic library and the columbarium. The library parallel with the linear columbarium mediates a conflict between housings and columbarium, yet through its book stacks, the library introduces the uncanny and imposing scene of columbarium behind it. This setting expresses a sensuous aspect of the project, namely an exploration of real “other” within the Singapore’s homogenized landscape.
Tutor(s)
2004
Design strata : Program : Extension community library + Columbarium Issue : Homogenizing and nullifying the disparate elements in the form of locale and characteristic, even the living + dying spheres are potentially dissolved and overlapping.
Re-emerging of old elements in a new identity. Demarcation + juxtaposition + overlapping between the living & dying activities.
Unveilling the site narratives : history & prevailing condition/ contemporary phenomena
Interface between the 2 spheres ( Living & Deathopia.)
Concept : Virtual Wall system Book shelves( Living mechanism) & Columbaria niches (Dying Mechanism)
Diagramatic analysis of site historical development, present condition & programatic zoning.
Interstitial space: ground floor plan- overlapping /interactive space & event between living + dying activities.
Cross -moment / living + dying events - they exist independently yet have effect on one another both individually and collectively.The emerging culture has been translated into a spatial experience.
Cause - Effect relationships. Possibles Event created between architecture + context + program.
Spaces - unified within one locale yet differentiated in mood, spatial quality & tactility.
Materiality- hybridity of components - serve as building skin/ mask to the dying zone behind, an analogy to the funeral conducted at void deck using canvas as a shield.
Columbarium - a modern brutalist construction system to evoke the phenomena of dying/dissolution in a contemporary urban context.
Detail of the columbarium modular niches - the dead contesting with the living spatially resulted in spatial & experiential transformation.
Aerial view showing inter-relationship between old and new buildings such as existing community center and police center as well as proposed community library and columbarium.
Living + dying - interface within one zone/ form/system (modernism) yet demarcated by event, spaces and materiality (culture- modernity)
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