What's the thesis about?

Current approaches toward city developments involve certain scenario planning methodology. Politicians, economists, even businessmen of big corporations alike, hold the veto power to changing the value, the image of the city. While these approaches is valid in various applications and research, they have often neglected the contributions that architects made or could have made. Hence, this often relegates the role of architects to just ‘face-uplifters’ and icon-branders.

This thesis aims to be a polemic investigation of new methods of urban, city developments and strategies distinct from the normative perception of city operations.

The intention is to explore how previously ostracized influences and strategies can ‘re-infect’ the city through virtual parallel universes activated by parametric-like scenario planning mechanisms, inserted with deep understanding of the political, economical and social issues. A retroactive manifesto, it is hoped that this thesis will cause a rethinking in the current city’s cultural, architectural and populace development, thus empowering the citizens to take responsibility for the development of their cities.

In the site selected, the Marina Bay development of Singapore, the architecture investigation seeks to generate a whole host of temporary LOCAL BREAKS, GEOGRAPHICAL BREACHES, SPATIAL SHIFTS, AND TEMPORAL CONTRACTIONS. I will explain in later posts to justify the site selected.

Below is a conceptual diagram showing the retroactive process I am taking on to simulate the scenarios based on the past, the creating a parallel timeline to propel it forward to the present and beyond. More explanations will come in later posts.