cultural

Bleak House Books 2.0 featured a deep collaboration between SKEW and the owners of a beloved independent bookstore that was relocated from the bustling industrial Sam Po Kong neighbourhood in Hong Kong to the suburban town of Honeoye Falls. SKEW proposed the conceptual “relocation” of the original store into the new site, rotated at the exact axis between the Hong Kong and New York street grids. [+]

The proposed Permaculture Library is located in Sanhuai Village, a so-called “hollowed” village in Zhejiang Province, China. Such emptied-out villages have become common-place since the market changes in the 80s and rural land reforms from the 2000s on. This project acknowledges the changes to the rural, but aims to reinvigorate such areas by introducing new forms of cooperation between the local and transient populations.[+]

FAST (Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Social Support and Training) commissioned a feasibility and design study for converting an old 1960s school into a new hub focused on servicing domestic workers. The hub comprises not only dormitories, but also spaces for recreation, training, and areas where these foreign domestic workers can get to showcase their culture. [+]

This proposed mixed-use development at Geylang Lorong 18 presents a unique opportunity for the Char Yong (Dabu) Foundation and Association to create positive synergies with its neighbours. The aims of this development are two-fold – first, to raise the profile and fulfill functional needs of the institution, thereby revitalising membership and attracting youth, and second, to expand public outreach and services provided by the institution, and future tenants to the community. [+]

The Kowloon Fitness Park Masterplan looks to revitalizing an original fitness trail located in Hong Kong. The project looks to address various issues surrounding the park – from a rapidly aging population to engaging new technologies, sustainability, and accessibility and safety issues. Recognizing that the historical significance of the site, the project attempts to reconcile different time cycles and layers of temporalities. [+]

Xian Valley Art Masterplan is a masterplanning, architectural, interior and landscape design project in a typical “emptied-out” village located in Tonglu, Zhejiang. Working with local stakeholders, the clients are gradually converting several farm houses in the village into an artist village. The aim of the project was not to extract the maximum amount of profits for the operators at the cost to the locals, which is typical of many such rural regeneration projects in China. [+]

The Gwangju Public Library is about the creation of new civic realms within a respected and well-loved historical development of democratic institutions that support a free society. It is also about evolving with a complex site of large industrial forms transitioning into new cultural and civic programs. The site has many qualities, from the existing green buffer that used to conceal the industrial facilities to the promise of the new cultural institutions. [+]

This project looks to revitalizing an old abandoned nautical equipment factory in Changzhou city. The city of Changzhou has in recent years attempted to rekindle interest in its industrial history, particularly with the city’s relationship to the historical Grand Canal, an important artery connecting the capital to the hinterlands and trade routes. [+]

The theme “Exhale” is a timely one for Singapore. For us, “exhale” does not simply refer to a slow space for decompressing within a high density environment such as Singapore. Instead the act of exhaling grants the public agency through the act of reflection. Having passed SG50, we need to take stock of our current lifestyles in multiple ways, and to reflect on Singapore’s past, present and future, thereby forming a stronger sense of identification with the city-state. [+]

This project is located on Stonecutter’s Island in Hong Kong, within a military base. The strategy was to produce a building with 3 large themed areas through “peeling” the landscape and continuing the form of the hill behind as an accessible roof top park. By further cracking open the roof, light and natural ventilation is brought into the depths of the building, while a large central atrium orients visitors as they enter the museum. [+]

The Pingshan District Juntian Elementary and Secondary School competition focuses on new educational spaces and innovative learning spaces for children in Shenzhen. Eschewing the typical gated community and introverted design of most schools, the project aims to let the school participate more actively within the city, by carefully framing views to the landscape and creating a new kind of urbanism within. [+]

SKEW Collaborative was part of OMA and Olin’s finalist team for the competition to masterplan the Singapore Rail Corridor, a 24-kilometer stretch that runs from the north of the island to the south. The rail corridor was returned to Singapore as part of a land-swap agreement between the city-state and Malaysia, and provided an opportunity to radically change the urban fabric of Singapore. The programme included public amenities, cultural institutions and public housing. [+]

The “Building M+” Exhibition serves a dual purpose for the M+, the first museum in Asia about the visual culture in the Asia-Pacific region. On one level, it is the inaugural exhibition for the M+ building design, where the design process multi-year design process culminating in the winning entry by Herzog & de Meuron is first presented to the public. The exhibition is simultaneously the first display of the growing architectural collection of the M+. [+]

The One Smart Education Center uses colorful fabric and half-walls to ensure that young children do not feel cooped up within classrooms, thereby providing them an expanded field within which education can occur. The ceiling lowers dramatically to provide a sense of scale that is suitable for children, while tactile materials and reconfigurable furniture endow the study center with a sense of youthful vitality and fun.  [+]

While the Guggenheim has become a stronghold in the art world, it has also courageously declared that it is keen to interrogate its own canons and its current mode of practice. As the multiple and contested grounds surrounding the new site reveal, the only way for Guggenheim to enter into Helsinki is for it to invent a new form of “hinge” – third spaces that understand both the local context and archaeology of the city, as well as the global ambitions of Guggenheim. [+]

EF Englishtown is an adult learning center for languages. For the new center design, multiple furniture-scale pieces were designed to fulfil different uses. These are prefabricated and can be deployed for future sites, fitting multiple contexts. The pieces seem to grow from the walls, becoming lighting boxes, display, screens, seating, and desks. [+]

Located in Liyang city, this masterplan was an attempt to rethink tea culture, with all its cultural and historical baggage, within an increasingly globalized context. The client had specifically requested that the masterplan not replicate the Potemkin designss that often characterize such developments. For the project, we looked at variations upon a rotated grid to produce all different scales of city living required, including cultural, retail, residential and park spaces. [+]

The Suzhou Taihu Tourism Masterplan looks to use landscape as a form of infrastructure. The site comprises several office buildings and hotels sitting on a landscape podium that seeks to integrate the site to existing and new infrastructure, inculding mass transit. The podium also acts to connect the street with Lake Taihu, as it peels and undulates to create new indoor and outdoor programmes.

The design for the EF Kids School attempts to create a learning environment that is interactive, vibrant, and attractive to the students and staff. To this end, a comprehensive wall system was developed to integrate lighting, storage, seating, tables, as well as interactive panels and multimedia walls. Careful consideration was taken with regards to the ergonomics of children’s spaces, and heights were calibrated to maximize engagement of the system with the children. [+]