URBAN LOUNGES - WHERE ONE IS ENTITLED TO FRESH AIR, BREEZE AND SOLITUDE

Abstract

This thesis stems from a critique of the city’s obsession for air-conditioning that has transformed the way the city gazes at its panoramic skylines. Gazed upon a distance, this grand spectacle establishes a constructed picturesque image of the city. With our cameras and selfie-sticks, we are constantly in search for photogenic images for our eyes to consume and our cameras to capture. While the city gazes at the scenic skylines, the city ‘within’ reveals a different dynamism contrary to the static and tame image the city looks across to. The city within is the continuous movement of people, congestion of crowds, heat and exhausts from vehicles weaving through roads between buildings, odours of hot and oily air from food courts that stain your shirts, and smokers lingering at shady blind spots. Atmospherically, one encounters bottlenecks of heat (vehicular exhausts and metabolic heat from crowds), air (stagnant air and trapped odours), and noise (traffic and crowds). The thesis ambition seeks to posit the city ‘within’ as the new spectacle of the city. The thesis envisions a series of public urban lounges that celebrates the city within by investigating new vantage points of looking at the city in motion. At the same time, it is also where one finds relief with fresh air, breeze and solitude from the encounters of bottlenecks.