Get Occupied.

21st June 2012. Written by Xin Li.
No… I am not in the mood to blog yet but I think I should share this exhibition to any architecture fans or would-be juniors in NUS Architecture.

Friends would know me as a critic of my own school and its abysmal conditions. However, sometimes, like a war, good things grew out of such adversity in the near-absence of any assistance. It was like a group of people fending for themselves in a famine, hence, it is amazing to see what works has emerged from the studios in SDE.

The exhibition, a self-initiated collaboration between two Year 2 studios under the tutorship of Dr. Lilian Chee (NUS) and Mr Adrian Lai (Wilkinson Eyre Architects) shows a variety of approaches towards architecture under the theme “Occupations”, referring to the act of inhabiting a space or the job of its inhabitants (and hence lives of these people).

The project itself has strong social element to it as its site was based on a empty plot along Lorong 14 in Geylang, an infamous “red-light district”, yet at the same time a world beyond the typical Singaporean façade and perhaps a real piece of Singapore.

Populated by locals, foreign labourers and even sex workers. One could expect a really myriad of responses towards the kind of architecture to be developed at the site, surrounded by an equally colourful array of architectural typologies.

The exhibition also provide a rare opportunity to look into a fusion of the old and new in a traditional shophouse designed by FARM and KD architects including Tiah Nan Chyuan.

All in all, the works were the results of staying overnights in studio with a pile of rotting McDonalds, hours spent in front of computers cadding stuff, burnt or at times obliterated wallets (metaphorically), coolie-like working conditions, hours of inhalation of toxic, life-shortening fumes in the workshop, merciless critiques …….in short, “blood, sweat and tears” - Sir Winston Churchill

Occupations
22nd June – 25th June 2012.
1300 – 2100 Hrs
Geylang Lorong 24A, Unit 21