P2 + 3 : CLAN JETTIES / VIC

PROJECT 2 : GENIUS LOCI - SITE ANALYSIS & CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Task One: In a group of five from Project 1, we are required to conduct an analysis on given site which is Clan Jetties in Georgetown, Penang. We are required to produce a digital presentation with all the collective information recorded at macro site. Micro sites given to be chose for the final project, Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) include Chew Jetty, Tan Jetty and Yeoh Jetty.

Task Two: Individually, we are required to produce personal interpretation hand sketches of the impression and elements of Clan Jetties. Also, an analysis of the chosen micro site which is Tan Jetty. We are required to produce the initial conceptual design and drawings of the final project, VIC as well.

Tan Jetty : A Hidden Gem

Having been a home on stilts for the Tan Clan community more than a century and is still now, the Tan Jetty has withstood against the test of time and a strong testament of living heritage for Penang to be mesmerized.

Started merely as a wooden passageway and slowly created into a cluster of houses perch above the sea shores by stilts, this communal site is isolated to a time zone itself, disregarding the urban development that is taking place around it.

In the name of modernization, the young and able left the jetty to seek for greener pastures, leaving the aging population behind. Robbed of its youth, the water village starts to decay and slowly dies with its aging population.

Today, the diminishing indigenous Chinese Hokkien culture, sparse and old local community, aged and depleted wooden stilt-houses, and resilient spirit of the clans are what Tan Jetty left behind.

Initial Concept :

PROJECT 3 : VISITOR INTERPRETIVE CENTRE (VIC)

Task : The final project calls for an architectural response to design a Visitor Interpretive Center at the same given site in Project 2. The VIC should emphasize a strong engagement and relationship to the site, spatial experiences and programmatic requirements.

The VIC had to provide a physical point of reference with visual significance that keeps alive the culture & essence of the site and to provide accommodation to house and display relevant material and interpretive material for public access and information.