For your CRIT-ical consideration

As I had bitched about earlier, it took me a whole week to produce everything I needed for my final presentation board. It was strenuous and soul-sapping sure, but it was worth it since on the day of the critique itself, I had finished everything and only had to present my work to a panel of two architects.

What you see below is THE final presentation board. It comprises 3 A1s which is about the size of a single bed. And it cost me 75 ringgit just to print the thing. My bank account is tanking.

Click on image to enlarge

This project is to propose a Museum of Early Education in Penang. A project which sounds so boring I almost stabbed myself to death with a scale ruler. We were given a choice of a few sites to propose our buildings on and the one I chose was the teacher's carpark at St. Xavier's Institution. For that site, I was required to not only build the museum, but to also construct a pedestrian bridge across Farquhar Street as we were assuming the existing 'Boon Siew Honda' bridge is to be demolished. Oh, and a part of our museum HAD to be incorporated into the bridge.

My proposal was that of simplistic precast concrete interlocking blocks with a steel truss bridge with a maze-ish gallery. I'm happy with my work because it speaks to my own aesthetics of clean lines and structural expression but there is always room for improvement.

- the museum gallery in on the bridge with views out onto Farquhar St. features angled display panels to place exhibits and they create a zig-zag circulation.



- the pedestrian walkway (on the right) is an open walkway with protruding panels at the top which can be used for advertising and posters. On the left is the entrance into the gallery.



- exterior shot of the cantilevered Old Students' Meeting room on top and the outdoor cafe seating area on the wooden platform below.



- an aerial view of the overall structure. The other end of the building is a massive wall with a staircase leading down to the SXI field.

My critique session went satisfactorily. They did appreciate the over all structure and how it looks and were interested in the trusses and how I incorporated the display panels into them but they wished I had permeated that idea more into the bridge and perhaps not create a seperation between the gallery and pedestrian. They also thought I managed to put into consideration the axes of the building, how the bridge points North whilst the other blocks are parallel to SXI, and my addition of sun shading devices in relation to the orientation of the structure as well as the use of natural ventilation. But they did say that I should've air-conditioned the pedestrian as well.

I think it went well and I very much appreciated their comments and feedback. And so do I from you, if you're up to it.


Stay tuned for more.