TROPICAL A(IR)ESTHESIS: VISUALISING THE INVISIBLE

Abstract

Tropical A(ir)esthesis is a thesis project that explores architectural representations of the tropical air - the nuances of its presence situtated within domestic spaces. Employing representational techniques familiar with-in and with-out the discipline, the thesis identifies each technique with a specific trait of the tropical air: the story-telling and the story itself. This allows for a development of a critical methodology for documenting and representing the author’s personal day-to-day experience with within the tropical atmosphere. The new methodology relates to the discipline through a critique of the universal idea of architectural scale, attempting to tropicalise the universal scale figure and resulting in a modification of ubiquitous furniture and architectural fittings. The easily duplicated HDB layout is transformed. Translation of the design exploration produces a rsidential prototype that defies norms of present public housing in Singapore. The idea of home no longer equates clean air. Hence, this criticism extends towards an alternative way of living in the tropics.