The first project, the Preliminary Studies, is a preparatory assignment that focuses on investigating basic notions of the city and learning from examples of urban block and architecture for place-making around the world. This assignment aims to focus on urban study in order to find opportunities to promote an architecture for place-making in the given context. Therefore the project firstly introduce students to the basics in urban design and its relation to architecture, and secondly, studying and determining the programmatic function, societal role and spatial layouts and architectural responses for urban blocks.
The Preliminary Studies comprises of three components: Site analysis in macro and, more focused to, micro scales and Precedent Studies of urban blocks and programs. The Site Documentation and Site Analysis will equip students with a firm understanding of the site they will be working with this semester, while the Precedent Studies will provide an insight into architectural responses for designing a contemporary urban program for place-making. The students are to make a comprehensive study on urban form, activity and movement-pattern. Ian Bentley’s ‘Legibility Analysis’ (Bentley, 2013) which is a method through the exploration of Kevin Lynch’s Elements of legibility (Lynch, 1979) is employed here. The students are to establish possible opportunities (such as routes and attractions) to sustain the building.
The outcome of the Preliminary Studies will include the production of site documentation materials (drawings and models in both digital and physical copy for further use), a comprehensive analysis of the site, and a detailed case study of relevant urban block and programs. The study will exhibit a strong rigour in understanding theoretical explorations such as elements of legibility (Lynch), contact points (Gehl) and six dimensions (Carmona) in a city.