A Chronographic Blueprint: Reinstating the Valley of Hope | FAP 2022 First Place
September 6, 2022
This speculative project attempts to transform a leprosarium into a ‘vivarium’, envisioned and presented as a chronographic blueprint to redefine the paradigm of heritage conservation through a time-based approach. The designs introduced can be seen as a series of adaptive reuse that adopts the notion of reversible architecture, ‘shearing’ layers of buildings for a long-term trajectory of the project’s lifespan. In this proposal, the architecture is constructed as a narrative body to those relics of the past and traces of time—it is both old and new; past and future; decay and growth.
Located at Sungai Buloh, Malaysia, the 90-year-old settlement has a rich history of leprosy prophylaxis, care and research. Over time, it became fragmented in function and use, with some parts overgrown by layers of wilderness. It is on the tentative list as a UNESCO world heritage centre.
A TIME-BASED APPROACH TO REIMAGINATION
This winning entry explores a time-based method to propose a trajectory of shifting programmes and architectonics that could complement the changing landscapes and communities, based on the site’s medicinal past and horticultural present, towards establishing a medicinal research frontier. By incorporating a set of integration principles as a manual of renewal, the overall design emerges as a chronographic blueprint to give new life to the dilapidated structures—such an approach could also be realised as a series of adaptive reuse that transforms the site in a progressive timeframe.
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FUTURARC PRIZE 2022: FIRST PLACE
Chai Yi Yang is an architectural designer born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Recently, he completed both his Master’s Degrees of Architecture (RIBA Part II/LAM Part II) in University of Malaya. His passion lies among the various aspects of art and design creation in architecture. His architectural projects span across various scales: from urbanism, place-making, sustainability to heritage conservation, community building, single dwelling; as well as sometimes speculative or provocative schemes.
PROJECT DATA
Project Location
Sungai Buloh, Malaysia
Site Area
70,415 square metres
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