Year End 2018

At FuturArc, we have long argued that architects seeking sustainable outcomes must first rethink how a building talks to the world around it. Too many, for too long, have focused primarily on what happens within site-and-shell. In this pursuit of civic-mindedness and generosity (terms that architects WOHA use to describe outcomes of relational function), form is key. So what can be done? What should form do? How might it shape outcome? The Naiipa Art Complex and Inter Crop Office in Bangkok shed some light on this. Here, the building is fragmented or fractalised. With the creation of a green patch, occupants of the buildings have greater access to daylight and views, and can open up the interiors to natural ventilation. The new surfaces created here can act as spill-out spaces for occupants—they shade the envelope and become surfaces for food cultivation or habitat creation. Other projects ahead engage in similar acts of form innovation. The Surat Diamond Bourse is a fishbone arrangement of blocks that yields eight landscaped courts. The K11 Atelier King’s Road fractalises the lower half of the office tower for more inclusive public spaces and greenery....