Topic outline

  • /// General Info: Studio “Singapore - Immersive Data-Corridor"

    Studio banner 2023


    //// Welcome to an EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN STUDIO focusing on immersive Data-Interaction! Join the COURSE INFO on  30st of August 2023 starting at 13:00h in zoom (email was send by Hossam Hewedy)

    //// Please note: this is a combined studio, after successful completion you will get 15 ECTS: ARK-E1020 Computational Methodologies - 12 ECTS + ARK-E5522 Digital Speculative Urbanism Lecture - 3 ECTS 

    //// 1. TEACHING SESSION > Tuesday 05.09.2023 - 09.15h - 16.00h > J302!


    //// STUDIO BRIEF

    Virtual Reality has created a new frontier in content creation, narrative, and storytelling in a myriad of disciplines and businesses. Architecture, however, has not yet unlocked the full potentials of the technology as its counterparts in media and game design. Hence, this studio will attempt at coupling computational design with data-driven narrative and storytelling in VR. The studio is a collaboration between the professorship of Computational Methodologies in Landscape Architecture and Urbanism and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), including a field-trip to Singapore.

    The studio will delve into various environmental phenomena in Singapore, namely water and air quality, and attempt to visualize their temporal aspects as spatial narratives experienced in VR. The aim of the studio is to explore the potentials of VR as a design medium and attempt to go beyond its current use as a mere tool for visual representation in architecture. By using VR we step outside of the realm of physically probable and are able to play with perception and experience more directly. Furthermore, using this medium it will be possible to interact with data and complex phenomena on an intuitive level, bringing forth aspects of the data that would otherwise remain undetected.

    The design will be grounded in the Rail Corridor in Singapore, a former railway line that stretches 24km from the North to the South of the island. Since 2018, the line has been planned to become the new ’green artery’ of the city, linking together a slew of green areas as well as nearly a million of Singapore's inhabitants as a vast communal space. By using an extensive point-cloud model as a base, the design will consist of a series of spatial interventions along said corridor, the main vehicle to introduce new narratives within the territory’s intricacies. 

    The studio will be organized as an experimental design lab. The teaching will be supported by a series of skill-building workshops as well as reading and discussion rounds. Students will learn a variety of skills including laser scanning, point cloud modelling, data gathering and manipulation, parametric design tools, and the basics of VR and Unity. Additionally, a one week excursion to Singapore will be organized at the end of October to deepen the understanding of the design context. The course is aiming at the rethinking of fundamentals of contemporary architecture and landscape architecture and can serve as a starting point for a master thesis research. 


    FURTHER INFORMATION: 

    • Teaching Team:  Prof. Pia Fricker, Tina Cerpnjak, Raphael Weidhaas in cooperation with SUTD (Singapore University of Technology)
    • for general questions during the studio, please contact Tina Cerpnjak: tina.cerpnjak@aalto.fi
    • Prerequisite: completed Bachelor studies; basic modelling skills in Rhino; basic knowledge of Grasshopper and Unity beneficial (equivalent to ARK-E2512 Parametric Design)
    • Credits: 12 ECTS (studio course)+ 3 ECTS (skill building course)
    • Participants to the studio will be registered in parallel to the following courses  - it is not possible to take only one of the courses: ARK-E1020 Computational Methodologies (12cr), ARK-E5522 Digital Speculative Urbanism Lecture (3cr)
    • Number of participants: max. 15
    • Time: teaching period I - II: Skill building lectures only in period I, Tuesday 9h - 12h. Design Studio in period I and II: Tuesdays 13h-16h

    //// QUESTIONS?  contact: pia.fricker@aalto.fi