THE ARCHITECTURAL POTENTIAL OF RAIN-SHEDDING

Abstract

Singapore’s climate is characterized by its uniform temperature and pressure, high humidity and abundant amounts of rainfall. On an average year Singapore has 167 days of rainfall thus, designing to accommodate/dispose high amounts of rainfall has become a key aspect of building. The system has been conveniently hidden away and not expressed as what would be an architecture feature. The perception of rainwater disposal system has become a banal detail in crafting of an architecture often left to the last to be designed and resolved. Given the climate, architecture should embrace rainfall instead of merely trying to dispose it in the most efficient way. Rain-shedding can and should play a bigger role. There are many foreign and some local examples which celebrates rain in their architecture through the design of rainwater disposal systems. This banal system can be manipulated to create new and exciting possibilities. The study of rainwater disposal in architecture has not been extensive, generally in aspects of aesthetic, form composition and spatial experiences. Thus, this paper would like to study and analyze rainwater disposal in various foreign and local examples that have celebrated the poetics of rain shedding in their architecture. The dissertation will like to investigate how this system influences the outcome of architecture in various aspects from form composition to spatial experience. By doing so, it is hoped that this can change the perspective of banal rainwater disposal systems to take on a bigger role in architecture.