UNCOVERING THE UNIQUE AND THE UNSAYABLE : POTENTIALITIES FROM A STUDIO EXERCISE IN BALI

Abstract

This dissertation studies a recent architectural studio exercise conducted in Bali, Indonesia. Bali’s struggles in dealing with the problems of globalisation has received much attention, especially with respect to a supposed rift between the indigenous local population and a transient, globalised community over differing interests. With an understanding that the studio exercise is less restricted by the contingencies that professional practice must deal with, this dissertation wishes to explore the studio’s solutions, in terms of their potentiality to address Bali’s issues. With a variety of paths that the students can take to meet their challenge, decisions made at every point of the design development are critcal to proceed. Unavoidably, some possibilites are discarded, while others become actualised. What happens to those that remain unrealised? Do they simply disappear from view? Through Giorgio Agamben’s paradigmatic method, this dissertation will attempt to analyse its mechanisms and effectiveness to elucidate the forms of potentiality that arise from the studio exercise. Each aspect of the studio exercise – the masterplan and the individual project – is the subject of the analysis. The role of potentialities is also used to inquire their relevance for architects in developing a suitable architectural language, which would and could act as a framework for a generative architectural mechanism that bases itself on and is open for approval, refusal or further transformation.