ARTICLE READING 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Back in 2016, semester two, final project, we have to produce a small miniature village, working with 6 other group mates together. Before entering this project, everyone of us needed to choose a different occupation or job, study throughly the characteristics to fit in our individual dwelling, then we need to combine our different ideas becoming a small village. Working in a group was never easy, we have different perspective of view, different design idea, different way of thinking, different expectations and different sets of skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wanted our buildings to look identical but in the same time, we also want special features to seperate from other people. But after a lot of discussion and meetings, we decided to make the village as simple as possible. Imagine if everyone of us want the complexity and richness in the individual dwelling, every dwelling stands strongly with their own character, not tolerating to each other, it would turn out complicated and does not look like a harmonious village, and it may lose the linking and connection of each other dwellings. During the whole design process, we work together so we can know each other well, and that made our relationships better. When we think about simplicity, we can quickly link a quote from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to our mind, “Less is more.”. During semester two, I haven’t read the 3 articles we studied on theory class today nor read much books about simplicity design, our own interpretations for “less is more” are just no ornaments, no playing crazy forms, big walls, big openings and just look as simple as possible. We made an agreement to have a moving facade on each of our own dwellings front facade, to show connection between each neighbourhood. We used mainly concrete and timber, two materials to construct our own dwelling, to simplify the design, in the same time we try to fit in the site context, as our site was surrounded by forest and trees, so timber was important for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Designing a simple building has become a very complicated problem. Working in group we had to learn to sacrifice, to be selflessness, to be open minded and accept different ideas. So for a person who likes to play with crazy forms, introduce richness in characteristics and promote complexity like me, this was a really tough job. To able to minimalize elements and maximize meanings, it was a challenge. To emphasize connection and linking in a village, most of my dwelling are open and semi-open to public, so other villagers can come visit, and share the space of my dwelling with others. Most of my space were open floor plans so I can maximize the sunlight penetration and natural air ventilation, but not open as many wall as possible you will get maximum of your needs, I studied a lot about how to link the interior spaces with exterior environment, using less elements but still preserve the requirements needed. To allow easy access for other villagers, I did not design any internal wall at open spaces, so I can maximize the gathering space. Large wall with floor to ceiling openings allow me to have visual connection to the outdoor from the space in my building. No decorative elements, just a simple wall and big opening defines the connection with the village. In the end, we came out with different dwellings, but looks identical and simple as well, the simplicity allows us to bring out the harmonious of our village and maximize our connection with each other. Even with lesser, simplicity gave us more.