FORM SOLVE

Abstract

Since the beginning of civilization, man has been fascinated with floating/hanging gardens, even Corbusier the Master architect mandated a rooftop garden as one of 5 key principles for design of modern buildings. In Singapore, residents enjoy living in the city in a garden with a total of 4200 Ha of ‘green’ to be shared among it’s 4.5 million inhabitants. The green footprint per capita is estimated to be 0.001 Ha, a huge disparity from the world average of 2Ha / person required for sustainable living. The thesis driver is derived from two principal design processes namely form finding explorations and problem solving resolution. Hence the title FORM-SOLVE.It sums up two key thrusts in engaging the use of algorithms to augment the traditional design methods. The issues this thesis attempts to tackle is the search for additional green spaces between the top bottom extreme stratums of roof and ground to meet the ecological footprint and to counter the effect of urban heat island effect. Through the use of the mathematical algorithms that are integral in the various steps for form (solution) finding. The thesis test vehicle is a triangular plot of land at the juncture of various transit lines - Malaysia railway , Circle Line , East-West Line. It is sited within the One-north bio-polis masterplan includes three strict urban design controls for the building envelope, building corner heights and sky-void requirements. These parameters are taken on board the thesis as design problems. The resulting solution is composed of varying shapes and sizes of sky-parks inserted within a cheese form. From public, semi-public to private, they make up 5% of the total GFA compared to 2% if only the roof was utilized for urban greenery.