RUBANISATION rocks!

By a stroke of good luck, i caught wind of a rare chance to attend a talk presented by veteran architect - Tan Kheng Soon @ the National Library on monday night as part of Archifest 2010. www.archifest.sg

Though an apparel design student by training, the world of architecture has always been fascinating and I must say the ideas and insights shared in this 2 hour session inspired me in so many different ways. At first, public were refused entry at the door but some persistence and logical reasoning paid off as I sat through 2 golden hours of thought provoking concepts with some of the most talented architects and affiliated professionals in our country. Times flies when you are enjoying yourself. The 2 hour session that was oversubscribed whizzed by like 20 minutes. It seems they will be holding another session sometime soon to address this overwhelming response from both trade visitors and fans from the public. So do check out the archifest link for more updates.

The concept of RUBANISATION (rural urbanisation) is making waves in the world of architecture! To me it signifies a return to simplicity, back to basics and what works best! No complicated algorithms nor angles to figure out. Just harnessing the innate power of shapes and materials to their best effect beats a complicated yet ineffective man-made invention hands down anytime. Applying this concept to preserving dying crafts in the small town of Hue in Vietnam was really inspiring and should be adopted by many more rural communities that are losing the battle to mass production trends in mechanised factories in more developed towns. What a way to make a positive difference in the lives of our community and the world around us!

The use of concentric circles described in this concept is so versatile that I believe it will constantly ripple out gradually into many other disciplines like interior design,etc in due course.

Working in the regional headquarters housing 450 colleagues on different levels in a prime location in town, its quite alarming how cold and alienated we have all become in the name of productivity. Managers housed in rooms on the periphery of the rectangular office buildings and colleagues seated one after another back facing each other for the whole day. No wonder some of my colleagues seated on the same floor don't even know their fellow colleagues on the far end of the office. The current typical office layouts are just not so condusive to human interaction.

Think about office cubicles laid out in concentric circles. housing 4 to a circle sharing the same central resources (eg a printer/fax/stationery/plant/power point/etc). Facing 3 more people fosters easier communication compared to sitting in front or behind your fellow colleagues. At one glance, you can instantly communicate in real time with at least 3 people within your peripheral vision. Compared to having turn front and back to talk to 2people at the same time.

Being involved in the facilities administration at my current company, I am always hearing about lack of space as we expand annually at an alarming rate. What if staff were seated in quadrant cubicles instead of the standard boxed cubicles, will it then open up more space with the centralisation of common shared equipment like printers/photocopiers? Now we have to house 2 machines on one level and almost a dozen or more printers just on one level alone. Wouldn't it be more energy efficient if we housed these equipment dead centre and improving efficiency with less time wasted on walking to the far end of each side just to collect your printout/ make a photocopy?

And what about those mega hall exhibitions? It is both inconvenient and a waste of precious time to have to walk to the other end of the gigantic hall to get to the main stage of events. How about constructing the main stage dead centre and housing all other booths on its periphery, cutting the distance and time for trade visitors or public alike when they have to work through hundreds or even thousands of trade booths in a single day or two.

How about building food stalls dead centre and surrounding them with tables and seats instead? This way we wouldn't have to make our way inside just to get to our favourite noodle/rice stall. Segmenting them up with a cross junction walkway provides quick n easy access for the hungry diner looking for food to fill up their growling tummies. The closest dining concept I have seen so far in Singapore is that found in 313 Somerset's branch of the Marche Movenpick franchise. With its food/drink stations housed mainly in the centre, retrieving food from the self serve stations can be accomplished at faster speed compared to public dining outlets like cofffeshops and hawker centres.

This also brought to mind an episode on Donald Trump's - THE APPRENTICE. Competing teams had to find a best way to house all stationery/files/documents for each employee in a versatile organiser. The winning team came up with a cylindrical design that could be spun 360%, with pockets of different heights and sizes built around the periphery. This way, you can reach your documents and stationery in a flash instead of having to work through trays of drawers/myriad containers and folders all in a big mess. Should you need to move your work station to another place for an extended meeting, you need only grab this one organiser and be on your way to your other mobile workstation. This is a solution for time starved city folks where every second counts.

Compare our long rows of HDB flats all neatly laid out in lines. How many flat/families can each rectangular block contain? How many more families can a HDB flat built in cylinder fashion hold? All the families can share in the benefits of a common solar panels on the roof garden along with flora,fauna and gym facilities housed within the centre of the block. I was never good in physics but will laying out electrical cables in a cylindrical fashion make more economic sense or achieve greater energy savings in the long run?

And what about disaster control? Should a wave / strong winds strike our tiny island with global warming wrecking havoc on weather patterns throughout the globe, will the rectangular rows of HDB flats be more susceptible to topple over with the brutal onslaught of high speed winds hitting them in perpendicular fashion or will cylindrical blocks of flats have better resistance to the unexpected wrath of nature that can conjure up at a moment's notice?

The mention of using bamboo in the building of domes also made me glad! See my other blog entry on GLUBAM. It's about time we look into the treasures we all have in our backyard and discover the benefits of bamboo. It grows really fast with minimal care, absorbs more carbon dioxide and gives out more oxygen than any other plant, even after burning it. In its charcoal state, it takes on properties ranging from air / water filtration, absorbing harmful electromagnetic waves generated by man-made devices, creating a self sustainable environment in a plant terrarium and many more awesome uses!

During the slide presentation, this particular variety of the paulownia plant can grow up to a good size within a short span of 4 years and provides a quick sustainable source of wood for the hungry planet. It might just be the answer to the depletion of precious forest cover decimated at alarming rates, giving rise to soil erosion, sandstorms and harsher weather phennomenon eventually ending up as deserts or barren wastelands.

Pardon my amateur observations and thoughts here, but wasn't the whole point of this talk to inspire and make more individuals think than just accept? I recall my ex-director's comments years back during a brainstorming session. She remarked in jest that many of us were not "braining" enough and wasted too much effort "storming" in our own insecurities and thoughts.

As our planet Earth continues to spiral down the bottomless pit of dire consequences brought about by modern consumerism and greed, when will we finally learn how to live in harmony with nature and better harness the power of nature around us? Rather than wasting unnecessary time and effort wracking our brains out with complicated formulas or solutions for a simple problem?

All I know is that when a drop of water hits the pond, stream or ocean, it will eventually ripple out to ever increasing concentric circles until it becomes at one with the whole ocean. I only hope that we can embrace positive change fast enough before nature's wrath wipes out precious resources on our living planet.

Check out this awesome concept ! I hope we all continue to make "waves" in our various pursuits towards a better quality of life alongside nature and not at its expense. http://www.rubanisation.org/