THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM
Introduction
Ar. Serina Hijjas is a 50 old ages old renowned local designer who has more than 20 old ages of experience in architectural field. She has done many high rise authorities undertakings in Malaysia and besides participated in several international undertakings. Having an astonishing designer, Hijjas Kasturi as her male parent, she was exposed to the architecture universe earlier than any other designer. This has helped her much to develop her ain design theory since immature. She has besides worked in Foster Associates for a few old ages in United Kingdom. Today, she is the manager of Hijjas Kasturi Associates and besides the foundingmember of Malaysia ‘s Green Building Index Technical Committee.
Menara Telekom, Kuala Lumpur is an office edifice designed by the male parent girl Serina Hijjas and Hijjas Kasturi in twelvemonth 1995, completion of edifice building was in twelvemonth 2001. Menara Telekom is an intelligent edifice rated with six stars for its design attempts on green component or sustainability. The tower is a 55 floors high accommodates a on the job population of about 8000. It has a 1500 place theater and a big exhibition country under the pes of the tower. Since the client of the edifice – TM Malaysia is a supplier of telecommunication services, this intelligent edifice has been designed to reflect their committedness on energy efficiency in the edifice direction and care system. To analyze Serina Hijjas’s personal properties of architectural theory in the design of Menara Telekom, analysis and observation is done physically and intellectually to speculate and understand the architecture.
3 EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTING FACTOR a ) Climate
The first external lending factor of Serina Hijjas’s design on Menara Telekom would be the clime. Malaysia receives abundant of sunshine throughout a twelvemonth. Hijjas has carefully designed the edifice by orientating the office edifice to confront the North and South side to avoid the residents from having direct blaze. To work out the incursion of sunshine from East and West, sky gardens are designed in between of the two office tower to shadow the indoor infinites. The gardens provide the users of the edifice the comfort and convenient to travel outside the edifice, off from the busy working floors, to humanise the working environment in this big construction. Besides, the South and North facades are installed with long and slender tinted glass window panels to cut down utmost blaze from sunshine. At the same clip, all the window panel on the edifice facade is besides able to supply sufficient daytime to the office tower to cut down the energy ingestion of the edifice. On the other manus, Serina Hijjas has done a great attempt in planing a good air circulation in this edifice to let the air current base on balls through the edifice fenestration. The air force per unit area theory is being applied on the sky gardens whereby hot air rises on the sky gardens ( which received sunshine from East and West ) doing high force per unit area, and the high force per unit area pushes the air making a uninterrupted air motion between the exterior and interior of edifice. Therefore, the edifice is able to have fresh air supply through sky garden and release exhaust air from air conditioner in the edifice to the outdoor through Windowss of the office tower. This careful design scheme of the Sun and air current working together has brought great advantage to the Menara Telekom, doing it an efficient intelligent edifice. The consideration of Hijjas on the orientation of edifice to the sunlight incursion and air current motion has shown her attempts on planing the edifice in response to the clime.
Figure 1. Air circulation in Menara Telekom
B ) Architectural Theory – Regionalism
The 2nd external lending factor of Serina Hijjas on planing Menara Telekom is Regionalism. Regionalism is an architectural theory which embraces modern architecture but at the same clip takes in the consideration of geographical context. Kenneth Frampton one time said “it should be on topography, visible radiation, clime, on tectonic signifier instead than on scenography.” Menara Telekom is a modern edifice which contain metaphor of local component that reflects the individuality of Malaysia. It is a ocular interlingual rendition of “bamboo shoots” into the signifier or form of edifice. The bamboo could stand for the individuality of Malaysia because it is a common works or building stuff used in local. Not merely with the edifice signifier that is able to reflect Malaysia’s individuality, Menara Telekom is besides reacting to the environing context with its concrete facade which fits in harmoniously with the neighbour edifice on the site. The look of edifice materiality shows the edifice respects the street context ( most of the neighbour edifice are built utilizing concrete ) and stands on the land in a low manner without overmastering the environing environment. Furthermore, as one of the tallest edifice in Kuala Lumpur, Menara Telekom is designed to supply different component of ocular signifiers, whether taller or shorter ; slimmer or broader depending on different point of view from the street. For illustration, when person is standing on the North and South, the full comprehensiveness of Menara Telekom is shown, making a broader position ; but when one is standing on the East and West, it looks slender and look to be taller. This interesting ocular perceptual experience has shown how much Serina Hijjas thinks about the ocular experience of the people on the street. She knows it is of import to see the position from different way when the edifice she designs is built this tall and many would see it from different manner. Furthermore, the orientation of the edifice has been designed to react good to the sunlight incursion and air circulation as what the clime factor explains. The sky garden is the scheme used by Hijjas to handle the hot East and West side. Furthermore, the immense transparent wall under the canopy which marks the chief entryway of the edifice, is designed to confront the chief route, Federal Highway as an ask foring mark to welcome people to come in the edifice. Serina Hijjas’s design has responded good from site context to climate factor, doing Menara Telekom a edifice that has regionalism qualities.
degree Celsiuss ) Socio-culture
The 3rd external lending factor of Serina Hijjas’s design is socio-culture. Hijjas Kasturi Associates has an involvement to plan edifice utilizing metaphor that reflects certain significance. Harmonizing to the lists of edifice that the house has done, there are a few edifices being designed to typify something. For illustration, Maybank edifice in Kuala Lumpur symbolizes Keris ( a Malay arm and besides an index of societal position ) , The Pod which represents the droplets of Mother Nature ( responded to the site context ) . Menara Telekom is no exclusion. Menara Telekom uses bamboo shoots as a metaphor to stand for Malaysia’s Identity. In Malaysia, bamboo is a common and well-known plantation that is being used often. It can be used in assorted industry for different intents such as building stuff, design stuff, nutrient, and many more. Menara Telekom is designed to stand for the “bamboo shoot” of bamboo to convey a message whereby immature bamboo has strong foundations at its root with its foliages unrolling one by one. This design construct is besides frequently associated with the Malaysia creative person Latiff Mohidin ; s image of a pucuk rebung ( bamboo shoot ) , but merely the thought for a contoured signifier had to be balanced against proficient restrictions. Serina Hijjas designed the edifice in a manner where she uses insistent elements on the facade and floor home bases in a tight nucleus planning to accomplish equilibrium but still keeping the form of a bamboo shoot. In short, the sculptural signifier of the edifice was developed by the design squad to sought out a form that can reflect the cultural individuality of Malaysia, doing the edifice an instant recognized skyscraper that people could see it as edifice that represents Malaysia.
Figure 2. Bamboo shoot
DISCUSSION OF ARCHITECT’S THEORY
By looking on the three external lending factors that have influenced Serina Hijjas in planing the edifice, it someway shows that Serina’s design principal is inspired by her male parent, Hijjas Kasturi, and some experiences that she has gained while working at Foster Associates in United Kingdom. Serina Hijjas who ever look up to her male parent since immature has the same design purpose as her male parent but she does it in her ain manner with the aid of more modern engineering cognition. Like her male parent, Hijjas Kasturi’s undertaking, she ever wanted to plan edifice which suits the local architecture linguistic communication whether by its expression or its map but she includes energy efficiency and sustainability characteristics into her design. This attack is of import to her because as an designer who has been exposed to different foreign architecture environment ( particularly Europe where she spent most of her survey clip ) , she realized the importance to plan a edifice that is thoughtful and responsible to the environment, doing the edifice lasts longer on Earth without doing injury. At the same clip, she doesn’t neglect the demand to travel on from modernism to the station modernism thought as she designs her edifice with more interesting elements in footings of signifier and materiality to interrupt out the box of planing a “machine building” . It makes her an designer who has a practical design attack as basic design construct which is inspired by her male parent, and besides has get the environment friendly quality in her edifice which has influenced her from her experience and realisation while working overseas.
In add-on, Serina Hijjas has ever got her ain design theory when planing a edifice in which she would stress the “lightness” of one edifice. By looking at the assorted undertakings done by Hijjas, it is shown that the ground of her on take a firm standing holding “lightness” component in a edifice is to do a edifice looks less monolithic and bulky. During the 1980’s when Serina Hijjas was working in United Kingdom, the edifice in the metropolis at the clip has shown assorted elements of post-modernism design integrating with new advanced engineering. The usage of steel and glass has become another of import characteristic to do a edifice looks modern and igniter. It was the clip where the two celebrated new stuffs were introduced to the universe and they received good response in architecture industry. Many people becomes fond with the new stuffs since so. Possibly being influenced by the architecture tendency in Europe, Serina Hijjas is utilizing the “lightness” as one of her of import design footing on her undertaking until today to demo her concern for Malaysia to follow the modern architecture gait in abroad once she came back working from United Kingdom. It is of import for her to plan a edifice which is less ocular load to make a feeling as if the edifice is take a breathing lively but non standing on land massively, therefore she likes to play around with “lightness” component in her undertakings design. Besides, while using elation on her edifice design, the edifice of Serina Hijjas has portrayed another key characteristic where she ne’er designed a edifice to overmaster the context surrounding. It is a low manner of her to allow the edifice regard the site context by utilizing the same architectural linguistic communication and component unlike some commercial edifice which is shouting for people to detect. It shows that Serina Hijjas is a considerate designer who thinks carefully on every possible factors that will non merely act upon the edifice itself but besides the environing context.
Decision
In a nutshell, Serina Hijjas is an designer or a interior decorator who portrays postmodernism qualities with energy efficiency and sustainability idea in her design that is based on “lightness” footing. As the girl of the local legendary designer Hijjas Kasturi, Serina Hijjas decidedly has the qualities that her male parent is celebrated for and she even make the attempt to make her ain manner of showing her architectural theory into her design. Her manner of planing makes her perfectly one of a sort in Malaysia architecture industry.
