Order as Architecture

Order as Organization

The master architect Le Corbusier once said, "To create architecture is to put in order." Order has always been an underlying organizational principle in our practice. It helps us to explicitly differentiate between spaces with different programmatic requirements. Programmatic relationships between "Servant" and "Served" spaces (using the language of architect Louis Kahn) are defined and organised through the use of elemental shapes such as squares, circles and cubes. Service and function are clearly delineated and expressed with different materials and contrasting volumes. Using order as an organisational tool allows us to indicate where one programmatic mass starts and ends. It also allows us to focus on creating an impactful experience of the "Served" space.  

Order as Clarity 

The orthogonal box is arguably the most efficient and economical baseline of architecture. It expresses enclosure with an inherent and familiar structural logic. In our work, order and clarity are achieved by organizing spaces into geometric groups, expressed three-dimensionally using a language of lines, volumes and planes.  The simplicity of this vocabulary allows a high degree of control and can create organizational hierarchy when afforded thoughtful composition. Order and clarity can be achieved through a common design vocabulary or an "architectural toolkit," so to speak. This helps to drive an idealised geometry, one that is resolved and can sit as comfortably within a picturesque Arcadian landscape or a dense urban environment.  

Order as Repetition 

Repetition helps to organize space and give it order. In its inception, the Classical styles - Doric, Ionic and Corinthian - were basic units of a proportioning system in construction and deployed in repetition to generate idealized spaces. Similarly, each architectural language establishes and hones its specific rules and systems of proportion that, if expressed correctly, can create an authentic sense of place. The repetition deployed in our work does not express a relationship to symmetry or equilibrium. Rather, it is a rhythmic repetition of architectural elements that frame an underlying compositional datum. This perceived datum allows us to express and highlight key programmatic elements to create visual hierarchy and achieve compositional harmony. 

Order as Procession 

Procession is a journey, a sequential experience of space that is rooted in a deep sense of place. A well-choreographed sequence of experiences can imbue space with a sense of hierarchy and order. Thinking of programmatic space as an episodic experience allows our studio to achieve the tension between modes of duality like lightness-vs-darkness and compression-vs-release. In addition, changes of axes provide opportunities to frame internal and external viewpoints. 

We conceive our projects in a holistic manner, focussing on the processional experience that seamlessly weaves together the interiors and landscape.  A well-choreographed architectural procession can heighten the user's phenomenological experience of the space, transcending its programmatic requirements.

Order as Transition 

Transitional spaces are a subset of the concept of procession, effectuating a more gradual passage from interior to exterior and vice versa. What is typically a boundary between two spaces becomes an opportunity to order and heighten the in-between or transitional spaces. 

Our interest in transitional spaces has pushed us to further explore the architectural boundary like the decomposition and dissolution of the building envelope, and the development of an expanded kit-of-parts that comprises more than just walls, screens, ceilings and floors. The physical limits of a building should not be the limits of its architecture. 

The perceived delineation between the built and the natural in architecture stands in contrast to the tropical vernacular, where openness is a tested measure to enable natural ventilation. Issues of a pragmatic or climatic nature, often brought about by location and geography, have given rise to balconies, terraces, verandas, loggias, solariums - intrinsic elements of vernacular typologies. Vernacular elements like the five-foot-way of traditional Straits Settlements shophouses or the intricate ironwork balconies of New Orleans represent a melding of western architecture and craft with the demands of the hot and humid climate of the tropics.  These examples best demonstrate the influence of transitional space on architectural form. 

Some closing words: 

It is important to note that my argument for a language-based architecture does not preclude intuitive and process-based design. My argument is that rule-based architecture is far from limiting. Rather, it can substitute self-referential wilfulness with logic and clarity. The shared understanding of a common design methodology is important for a studio in order to maintain a cohesive design direction. 

My work has been informed by a conscious distillation of Classical and Modernist principles, which have contributed to the formation of an increasingly personal architectural vocabulary. When deployed with skill and eloquence, these universal principles of design have the potential to transcend the determinants of site and program, while maintaining the essence of culture and place.