FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE AND FINE ARTS

DESIGN632 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN 6
Due: 16 April 2018

2 Plate The Uncolonized Universe

Designed Environment and the Cultural Context

Rationale

Cultural context is the territory of competing ideologies that enable the zeitgeist, and people spirits be driven in the
locus of space-time relativity. This impalpable nature of cultural context surrenders itself to the conveying
environmental objects as manifestations of the human actions, hence its being a coefficient to its outward
materiality: a designed environment where the human stimulus intervenes. The physical space confronts an
individual with its formal immediacy, preempting the human perception and oftentimes delimits the thrusts of the
senses from going beyond the surface where beliefs, principles, aesthetics and myths are masked by the physical
things. As an important field of learning, culture is being centered as a consideration in this activity that endeavors
development of a perspective towards a context that is usually overlooked in an architectural design proposition -
the cultural terrain.

Physically Oriental yet predominantly Western. Evident in our preferences and tastes, the Hispano-American
culture that we inherited from the colonizers transforms the Filipino into a hybrid individual as Asians with Western
constructs. Three hundred years in the convent, a hundred years in the Disneyland, makes a relevant period of
consignment with the West obtaining a different culture amongst the region where we adhere - the Southeast Asia.
Most cultures in the region aim at resisting the Western influences, though others have served as colonies to the
hegemonic European powers as well, pure cultures remain significant, not to orientalize, but as a preservation of
the people spirit.

In the age of globalization, a Filipino faces the struggles of cultural economy. He or she might have acquired the
ability to explore different cultures in the present, still a vulnerable Western framework of consciousness has been
retained in its individuality. Filipinos have been worldwide as migrants and workers, in the search of unavailable
opportunities in the country resulting into diasporas. In 2015, the ASEAN made a call for its members to enggage
the industries of the entire region in the light of re-creation of an integrated regional culture. Once again, it opens
another opportunity for a Filipino to re-explore the region, the cultures that are geographically proximate, yet
remained unfamiliar for so many aspects: The cultures that are more Buddhist or Islamic rather than Christian,
who worships in temples or mosques rather than churches. The region where majority eats differently, using sticks
instead of silverwares, and would choose football over basketball for recreation. Writing in their own alphabet,
widely speaking their languages, and thinking in a more Oriental framework - where the concepts of tall, white and
blonde is outside the perimeter of their aesthetics. The places where most people convenes with the nature, and
are not being seduced by the artificiality of built forms derived from the colonial and plural Western world.

From this vantage, a compelling question arises among Filipinos in the forefront of the ASEAN Integration: How
does a Filipino architect imagine and approach a Southeast Asian cultural context?

Challenge

Thailand has been uncolonized as a country with a strong and powerful monarchy among its neighbors in the
Southeast Asia. A glorious kingdom with abundant nature and rich culture that constitutes its territories, the people
and its ideologies. It can be said that in the global age, Thai culture remains pure as it adapts to modern technology
without compromising the wealth of its culture. It is for this perspective that foreign tourists from either east or west
have become fascinated to see the country over the years, for the fact that Thailand has the largest number of
annual tourist migration. The preponderant peripheral tourists would come and see the country as exotic, most
RASAM EDEL S. RAÑOSA
Instructor
Far Eastern University
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts
 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE AND FINE ARTS
probably because of its resilient beauty that positions itself as power that restrains the hegemonic forces who
would contain them as an othered culture, like what its colonized neighbors have become under the Western
supremacy.

Over the years, Thailand has become a significant player among Southeast Asian cultures and even in the global
economic affairs as a repercussion of its tourist influx among the temple-rich capitals of Bangkok and Ayutthaya,
the emerging northern cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, and the beautiful beaches of Pattaya, Koh Samui, and
Phuket.

The project poses an exploration of a culture and creation of an architectural proposition for a pure culture like
Phuket island in Thailand as a context. Together with a partner, be able to construct an accommodation house
facility which will be situated in Surin beach and it shall be a built architecture to serve travelers who will take the
island as destination. The design shall adapt a cost efficient scheme that can operate with a minimum
accommodation price ranging from THB400-1350 per night, without downgrading construction solutions and
design approach. Technical descriptions of the site will be presented in class. It is expected that the design shall
comply with environmental restrictions. It shall be innovative, redefining, and distinctly Thai.

Pointers for Research

Culture, Traditions and History of Thailand and Phuket

Geography and Climates in Thailand and Phuket
Architecture History of Thailand and Phuket
Economy and Industries in Phuket
Political Structure/ Thai Monarchy
Architecture and Environmental Planning Related Laws and Ordinances in Thailand
Zoning and Local Planning Policies of Phuket
Flora, Fauna and Marine Life in Phuket
Beaches and Nightlife in Phuket
Contemporary Residential and Commercial Beachfront Architecture

Requirements and Guidelines

 Research Paper with Case Studies

- Follow standard outline and layout.
- Enclose everything in a black folder or have it compiled in a soft-bound black cover

 Design Concept Development

- Drawings and tables are allowed for this item.
- Architectural Program showing areas and percentage or ratio between buildable to open areas
- Site Analyses
 Plans
- Floor Plans and Plans on Site Development
- Scale shall be legible proportionate to the paper and shall be color rendered
- Labels, and areas are required, as well as furniture and equipment layouts

 Sections traversing Slope

- Heights and areas must be determined in the elevations.
- Make blow-up layouts if necessary.

 Perspectives
- Shall illustrate the essential elements and significant spaces, showing emphasis on the unifying
components of the design
RASAM EDEL S. RAÑOSA
Instructor
Far Eastern University
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts
 FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE AND FINE ARTS
- Aerial and spot perspectives

 General
- Use A2/15x20 boards for presentation.
- Use standard title block for all layouts.
- Manually rendered, colored, and provide graphic scale for all scaled drawings.

RASAM EDEL S. RAÑOSA

Instructor
Far Eastern University
Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts