To Talk of Many Things...

When we think about ourselves as the human race, what really differentiate us from the other species are the "things" that had made up our society. Looking back beyond the prehistoric time, the "threshold" that defined us as "human" is when the apes discovered the use of a tool - that tool is a "Thing" in which we have used to build civilization, creating cultures and eventually it's the "things" that is responsible for our arrival as a species today. why are things so important? as mentioned, "things" although unanimated, played an important role in shaping our behavior and our society. The simplest thing like the hinge on a door actually made a lot of difference in terms of how we interact with a space. In this case if there's no such thing as a door hinge, it would take a lot of effort, energy and time to firstly, destroy a wall in the order to get inside, then rebuilt it to closed it - all of these "humans" use to perform the same task of getting into a room and closed the opening is replaced by this non-human "thing", a door hinge. In a way, a hinge contains the essence of those humans needed to do this "operation". Thus, in another way, these "thing" in our life is actually part of who we are, we are so accustomed to these "thing" that many times it has been embedded into our nature, this relationship between human beings and non-human "things" played such a large part in our life that when this relationship is broken, as in the case of the Israeli troops "walking through wall", the relationship between the wall and human has been broken - the wall is unable to perform its "function" as a "thing" that would protect us from the danger outside no longer, thus, humans loose the trust in the "thing" and its why this theory was so successful in creating trauma.

Besides from responsible for our humanistic progression, the "things" in many cases also define who we are and how we are seen by others, in a way, it's almost as if these "things" are heterotopias where it would allows us to have a better understanding. The things can also define  how we perceive others as well from their interaction with the things and how that interaction, relates to us. Vice versa, our interaction with the things also indicate how others will perceive us as well. Moreover, in some cases, it's the non human "things" that can determine our human action / interaction, such as uniform, students wearing uniforms and lecturers do not - this uniform - a "thing" automatically suggests a hierarchy in which we, humans tend to follow.

The interesting role of the "things" in our life is highlighted in the film "objectified" where it took us through some of the "behind the scene" production, seeing how  each "thing"/product were designed and manufactured. One of the main thing I saw is that there're a vast amount of time / thoughts being put into the production of these "things" that sometimes, it may seem so small and unnoticeable but actually responsible for making our life much easier such as a handle of a scissors for instance. One of the most successful "things" right now is the Apple products and the main thing I got from seeing Apple's design process is that they tried to make their product as related to the users and users friendly as much as possible. In fact I feel that the reason behind the success of Apple product might even come from the fact that they understand the relationship that these non-human things have with us and that these "things" actually shaped the way we behave and shaped the society in which we're living in.

System & Deep planning architecture...

The word "system" is introduced to us a while ago, often to increase the awareness of its importance and hopefully influenced us to how we adapted the idea to increase our performance in different aspects. We viewed system as being well-organized, well-established, anything with a certain form of system insisted "order" and  act as a structure that usually help the place to survive and outshine the others that don't. Nevertheless, many things around us have their own systems which is unique to the region, this system is the structure of the place, it creates the place and it's what made the place unique in itself. As architects, we looked at "places" differently than others, to view the place for its physicality is common but to understand a specific place requires the understanding of the "system" of that place.

 System of the place could be linked to many aspects such as social and environmental. In a way, understanding the "system" of the place is a crucial point in "deep planning" architecture, where not only the holistic quality of the site is taken under consideration prior to the designing stage but the architects would look at the ecological aspect of the site and uses that as an influences or concept of the building. Thus from my point of view, deep planning will helps create a more of an "empty form" architecture as the form of the building would come from its context in terms of its surroundings etc. , hence, its ability to survive over time as it has a better understanding of not just the physical aspects of the place but also a more ecological way of understanding which means that it is much deeper in context. To my surprise I actually think that many of the successful buildings today are somewhat relate to this concept of "system" and "deep planning" and similarly the trend of new architecture projects today also shifted to be more site-related and somewhat with an influenced from the ecological aspect of the site.

One example that I could think of is the project called "Geotube; Vertical salt deposit" by Faulders studio in the text "On Farming" as a text about how to use new architecture to improve our farming industry. I'm interested in this concept of farming because in itself, lies a many systems - the system of operation and production as well as the need to understand the environments and the ecology of the area of the farm as well. Thus when combined with architecture, many of this aspects will influenced the design which is a lot more interesting personally. Geotube is a project proposing a new way to create salt farm that would take up less space and allows multiple programs to be held in the area. The interesting aspect of this project is that it is very site-related and that it required the deep planning and an understanding of the ecological aspect of the site to come up with this architecture. located in Dubai, where the salinity level in the sea is higher than many other places, salt are traditionally collected horizontally and the space has no other uses. The proposal is to build a tower with an external mesh facade, being nearby to the shore, the sea water would then be pumped to the tower and releases down the mesh facade. With the unique extreme dry climate of the area, the water would evaporate fairly quickly, leaving the salt which can be collected on the mesh, by doing this, it is a quicker method to produce salt and required a lot lesser space. The way that the salt can be collected is also a lot easier and the tower could be used for other program as well. Thus, to me, this seems to be a very creative yet possible project which displays how the "system" and "deep planning" could be combined to the project to create a unique architecture that goes beyond the normal aesthetics and functions of but also reached out to being a part of the already established "system" of the place and being a part of its ecology.

The site took advantage of its placement by being nearby to the shore.

The combing functions of a salt farm with a tower.

Diagram explaning the system of puming the sea water then sprayed the water onto the mesh facade.

The salt deposit on the mesh overtime.

The Hungergames

The concept of Utopia, Heterotopias and Dystopia has been introduced to us from the very beginning as seen in the bible, the ideal Utopia is the Eden Garden - where there's no pain and suffering and every species live together in co-existence. However, the word Utopia poses two underlining meaning - first is the obvious meaning of "good place" while the second meaning "no place" - or a place that does not actually exists, nevertheless, it allows us to understand ourselves better. A contemporary example of this concept can be seen in the Hungergames, a famous novel which has been put into films, The two main settings the capital and the districts are vastly different in terms of the way they operate yet, there are subtly related and we can see this more importantly in the annual Hungergames, where participants from different districts dual to the death for the entertainment of the rich in the capital. To the workers in the districts, where life is about making money to live by each day and working for the capital - the idea of the capital is almost like Utopia, it is grand with people who don't need to worry about anything walking around in glamorous clothes and riding in fancy rides - the luxurious lifestyle seems alluring yet untouchable by the workers in the districts except for that this seemingly Utopia is in fact, real and the way to actually experience it is to become a participants in the brutal Hungergames and that is what Katniss Everdeen, a girl from district 12, got to experience.

For Katniss, she got to experience the capital in the form of a Heterotopias, where it is touchable and real, yet it is representing and reflecting the vast difference that the capital has in relation to her hometown, district 12.Infact, through the Hungergames, where the game is broadcasted to the workers in the districts - it becomes a heterotopias for them - as in their world - it exists and with this existence it emphasis the harsh reality of living in the district. In a simpler word - the capital is the heterotopias of the districts where the image of people living in luxury , not having to work hard or worry about anything reflects the harsh reality and the struggles of lives in the districts. Katniss got to experienced this heterotopias first handed, but more importantly she also realizes that underneath of the glitters and luxury of the capital lies a world which is so twisted and cruel, as if the capital is not real, such place could be describe as being almost like a Dystopia.

 A dystopia is a "bad place" of non existence which is sort of what the capital in the Hungergames is to us, in reality. The capital is a bad imagination of our world in the future where people will be separated by classes and that the rich would be powerful to the point of death of the poor or the insignificants are viewed as a source of entertainment. In fact, there is similarity between the culture of the capital in the film with our society that made it even more so a good example of a dystopia that display the bad vision of the future of our world, In the past we have the gladiators in the Roman time, where death would be viewed as a source of entertainment for the rich and the display of violence is counted as a heroic act, and thus, today we would like to think that we've moved beyond that act, which is viewed as cruel and inhumane, however, the film reminded us that humankinds are still filled with this dark desire and this influenced a dystopian view of the capital in our mind since it made us realize that there's actually a possibility that the "capital" could become our future.

To sun up the concept of utopia, heterotopias and dystopia can be seen in the "capital" in the "Hungergames" where, from the character's point of view, the capital is real and hence, it is a heterotopias which helps the witness able to reflect on themselves and understand themselves better, meanwhile to us in the real world, the capital is sort of like a dystopia which is waiting to come true as we see some possibilities as it depicts what would the world be if justice and kindness is overtaken by greed and selfishness. the capital being something unreal yet, it warns us about our future and made us more aware of who we are, making it, an example of a dystopia. 

The capital (Capitol) in the Hungergames seems grand and luxurious at a glance it appears to be like a Utopia for us the viewers but for the character, its a Heterotopias that helps emphasizes the vast difference between it and the districts. Also, as it turns out - we later realize that the capital is more like a Dystopia - a bad imagination of our society in the future....



The district seems almost like its from another film - in fact, the character Katniss Everdeen will get to experience this vast difference when she visitted the capital which in return - made her more aware of the condition in her district