IF YOU LOOK, YOU'LL FIND - A FIELD GUIDE

My semester project has finally started and here's the title:
‘URBAN HUNTER’ (If You Look, You’ll Find)

THE TASK:
To begin with, look around you – the next time you get out of your residence, your comfort zone or ‘hermitat’ (habitat) - IF YOU LOOK, YOU’LL FIND amongst you: the environment filled with man-made needs and provisions. The street, the trees, the car-parks, the bus shelter, the poster besides the bus stops, the lamp post, the banners hanging down from the lamp post, the banners hanging across the road, attempted graffiti left to weather conditions, the shops, their identity, the window display, the business, their products, the brands; and there’s the air we breathe in, the water we use and drink, the food we consume… but wait – there’s more to life than all these. What about urbanization in Singapore? What is the Singapore culture? They speak heaps, and we want you to get involved by designing its cultural and heritage landscape.

To begin, you will need to give some thoughts and ideas on our urban city to get a sense of direction. It’s your Assessment Project. Assume that a Client hands you this Project costing close to a million dollars to ensure that their Project works with the help of your creativity.

As a ‘Urban Hunter’, you must select ONE of the following topics:
1. Architectural
2. Environmental
3. Cultural


The week started well.. I started brainstorming with my classmates and we found quite a handful of issues regarding Architectural, Environmental and Cultural in Singapore. Having brainstormed about places related to Landscape Architecture, I've chosen Singapore Botanic Garden as my site and I had to come up with a design brief..


Children of today's context have buried their curiosity of the world around them into the hearts of advanced technology. They got themselves in contact with computer games at a very young age, getting younger in years to come, and lost total interest in the world around them.

Parents who have realised this fact will try to get their kids involved in educational trips like farm visits or tours, which tends to cost for hiring a professional tour guide to explain nature and bring the children around. In the other hand, the trip usually last for only one to two hours. Children may or may not take the information home with them during these trips and individual interactions for group trips might not be possible. Some schools have worksheets for the children to work on during these trips, to ensure that they have gained these knowledge, but it usually turn out to spoil the mood of the children.


I have a few proposals in mind but mainly revolving around the idea of a Singapore Botanic Garden Field Guide which allow children and parents to go down to SBG at their own free time, spending not only family time but also educational time together. The idea was either, to do an illustrated compilation of the plants, their parts and where to find them with a little animal mascot showing around, OR a story of a child meeting an animal in Botanic Garden one day and showing him/her around the place, OR make Botanic Garden into a fantasy world which MIGHT NOT exist but make the informations delivered in the story..

Well.. I believe, as a kid, everyone will choose the Fantasy World and I believe it will catch the most attention as compared to the rest. BUT! That will mean that I will need tons of informations and know Botanic Garden inside out within a short time frame. Good Luck to me then! haha..


References from Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantasical World Around You:









I was quite relieved actually that I can explain and know my project inside out, having no doubts about my concept (which so far has no doubts at all). I'm starting to love my current project..