My New Concepts

The concept of my tree house was inspired by a seed. For me seed is like the very heart of the tree, it is the starting point of every flora in nature’s environment but before it became a full grown tree it needs to be protected, pampered, raised and nurtured by its physical ecosystem. I am inspired by a seed because of its simplicity and its ability to protect the embryo inside them. Although it looks like a dead and lifeless thing, it usually bears and resurrects a new life inside it. That’s why I would like my tree house to function like a seed, although it is not literally to be like a seed which protects something like an embryo inside. A seed in other context for me, it starts the beginning of a new life and it will begin to nourish until it became satisfied and for me it is connected to our life every morning by which our life is renewed and will start a new chapter. I want my tree house to be a restaurant that arises in early morning, because like a seed it will give life and energy to the people and nourish them until they are fulfilled and contented.

The concept of my Dwelling is wind because for me wind makes me feel relaxed and solemn. Just like a wind, I want to make my dwelling to be a relaxing place where one can find peace in mind and soul. The wind has no definite shape but I can picture in my mind that I can use wavy, curvy and flowing like lines and shapes in order to depict the wind. I also want to use many windows in order to naturally ventilate my house and to help support my idea so that they can feel the wind in their presence. I would like to make rotating doors, walls or even windows by which they can feel the sensation on how a wind simply works.

The concept of my Compact house is a CD. I chose CD because for me it is compact in a way that it became reliable and useful to anyone. I also want my compact house to be simple yet very dependable and I find out those characteristics in a simple disc. The CD, in spite of its very simple, flat and round appearance it has the capability to hold many and various information inside it such as songs, videos, games or even important documents. That’s why I created the idea of my compact house to be somewhat resemble like a CD that is very feeble but inside it you can find sort of areas that you wouldn’t imagine that those will fit inside it. I also want my compact house to show smoothness through its form that’s why I want to deconstruct the curved sides of the CD and I will show and project them in both exterior and interior. I also want my compact house to show not only transparency but I also want it to be reflective just like the appearance of a CD yet not losing its protective skill. 

The Compact Effect

Simple but complete, that is the first thing that comes up to my mind when I hear the word compact house. For me, without knowing what a compact house is at the first place, is that it is made up of various things that are intact to complete a house. A minimalistic house but it can give what the inhabitants want; it protects, it comforts, it gives peace and relaxation, gives privacy and it easily access with its surroundings.

My design concept about my compact house was inspired by puzzle pieces, because puzzle pieces were so many but when they are impacted to each other it produces an extravagant wholeness that can satisfy a person’s feeling the moment he assembled it. Like puzzle pieces, I want my design to be composed of many parts yet it gives a whole appearance. I want that every part has its own purpose instead of just being a design or added ornamentation. But I still want my design to have a homely ambiance, an environment that makes you feel at home, a sensation that makes you feel serene but at the same time playful.

Tree House Processing

On the very first session of our ARCDES class, we started to already begin a very surprising task. We already have to generate our brains in order to produce an excellent output for our very first mission. We have to design a tree house, sounds funny but it is mind boggling enough for our summer stricken minds. We only have one hour to design and for me that isn’t long enough or short enough to come up with a design. But as time goes by, what I thought was simple became difficult, because at that time I really don’t know how to be inspired easily or I mean how to get design concepts easily. I really don’t know what I will draw so I just designed a very simple tree house and I just relate a part of it to my concept which is “simple yet producing the feeling of having both privacy and openness”. I really don’t know how to strike up with a strong concept because I feel insecure about my drawing because I saw that theirs are really good and have easily come up with unique design but mine just looks like one of the normal things that they can easily defy.

Now I have this concept that comes up to my mind, because I thought that although it is simple enough it has this distinct look for me. My inspiration is onion; even though it is simple I find inspiration in it especially about its look and defense mechanism.  Its physical look attracts me because it is so slender and seems so simple and that for me it is very ideal for a tree house. Regarding about its defense mechanism, I realized that an onion has many skins when you peeled it off and I realized that it was there for some reason, to protect the young and fresh nutrition inside it. By looking at how the defense mechanism works, I realized that it can greatly affect my floor plan and can work as partitions inside the house. But my problem is that how can I keep my concept without giving an output that is very literal in the human eye.

My Manifesto

Designing, it is the first and also the most dominant word that pops and shows up on my mind whenever I hear the word architecture. Basically I easily connect the word architecture with the term “design” without any specific reason and basis, because that is what I believe before. I thought that in architecture you will just design whatever style you want, that you will just put all sorts of things you want, that you will just plan according to the ordinary and usual manner and that all the creations of architects normally starts with a box and ends like looking like a box.

“Architecture is the art, science and profession of designing, creating and building structures that range from petite to colossal one”. “It normally gyrates about planning and designing”. “It is also the practice of stylizing both exterior and interior to make a simple shape and form into an excellent edifice”.  These are the typical meaning of the word Architecture when you look up on some reference materials. These are the usual definitions that almost everyone knows because of its commonness. These are the only explanations that I have in my mind before without knowing that there’s something more.

Well those are my first impressions in this field of arts, shallow notions that I have always kept in my mind for years, superficial beliefs that I have within me and weak perceptions that I knew before I took the risk to enter the training ground on becoming an architect.

At first, dealing with architecture for me seems like an unending interrogation; it seems to ask so many things that I thought were not important, things that likely want to make me feel confused and mental blocked, things that leaves me speechless at all times and things that make me think that those are impossible. I thought that architecture is just all about clever and excellent play in designs; that it has no basis, that it has no specific character, that it has no meaning but just a stylized and sugarcoated structure that only wants to impress.  I encountered some architectural problems wherein I must apply many skills and knowledge that I have learned from my architectural subjects, though I solved them, I still feel like I’m lacking something. I feel like I’m lacking things that architects must possess within their mind, I feel that the absence of those materials makes me feel useless and incompetent, I feel that without those things I would never be successful and I would never survive on my own. What are those things? Those things were the one that I called unimportant but ending up to be so significant and vital in this field of arts, without them you can only have the body but without the mind and the soul , without them you will still remain to be mental blocked, puzzled and bewildered on your own. Those things were just architectural concepts and philosophies they were the mind and the soul in architecture, they were the one that can make you feel unique in this competitive world and they were the one who holds the key to success.

As time goes by, I am continuously learning about the real nature of architecture; that it has a motive to begin with, that it has a meaning to understand with, that it has a concept to display with, that it has a function to serve with, that it has emotions to express with and that it has a life to spend with. Then I realized that architecture doesn't really stick up with design, but it is also linked and associated with many other things. Architecture, as a form of art, can also be a representation of anything that we wanted for them to signify. Architecture can be a glimpse back in our history; it can bring us back to the period where once it belongs to, where once it reign and recognized and where once it became extraordinary to someone’s eye, it can also make us lost in time and space and drown in nostalgia. Architecture can be a culture weaver; it can produce and establish a civilization, it has both the power to reinvent and condemn styles and the ability to provoke power. Architecture can be a language; it speaks for what is it meant to be and it communicates by the way it wants to express. Architecture can be an outlet of emotion; it can reveal different feelings and affections and it can expose the story of the connection between the architect and his/her work. Architecture is something that not just depends about designs but also gives way to emphasize and highlight hidden pasts, cultures, stories and memories that were once was there but now were locked up on those structures. Architecture is something that needs inspiration and also gives and serves as the inspiration. Architecture has its own reason, every curve, every line, every shape and every detail in it unfolds a certain explanation. Architecture is not just only about knowledge, not just only about skills, not just only about imagination, not just only about concepts, not just only about philosophies, not just only about patience, not just only about confidence, not just only about will but it is a combination of all of those things.

As an architect I should be more imaginative and creative and should not limit myself inside a box of rules and regulations. I would like my design to be molded upon the precious illusions in my head. I should know how to easily think outside the box and learn to easily defy normal and ordinary things in life. I should know that possibilities are endless; hence every problem has its very own solution. I should now discover my own capability to find out and determine my own exclusive design concepts and philosophies. I will now stop thinking about imitating or creating mediocre works, because those things just perpetuates a lie that will always remain.