Week 6: Hungry Ghost Festival

Hungry Ghost Festival

Hungry Ghost Festival is a traditional Buddhist and Taoist festival. The Ghost Festival is on the 15th night of the seventh month of Chinese calendar. So, the seventh month is called the Ghost month. The Buddhists and Taoists believe that on the seventh month in the lunar calendar, the souls of the dead roam around the earth.

All sorts of offerings are made during this period. People will offer food offerings such as oranges, apples, pears, rice, pig and so on. They also will offer joss sticks on proper altars or some will just tuck them at the side of walkway.

 

 

 

The relatives also will buy stacks of hell money and paper offerings like cars, watches, bags, clothes and shoes to be burnt and offered to their deceased family members. They believe that this is to provide material needs for their deceased family members in the afterlife.

 

In Singapore, metal bins are being provided by the town council around residential areas for people to burn the hell money, paper offerings and so on.




During the Hungry Ghost Festival, many people believe that there are certain rules to follow. For example; young people should not wander around too late into the night as spirits would follow them home, it is bad luck to kick or disturb offerings made for the spirits, it is best not to swim during this month, it is inauspicious to get married during this month and many more.

'During this month, there will be performances such as Chinese operas and 'getai' (live stage performances) being set up for the dead and the living. Large tents are built in open fields to host the concerts. The first row of seats in front of the stage are always left empty. They are believed  to be served for the wandering ghosts.

 

In conclusion, although I do not celebrate Hungry Ghost Festival nor believe in the taboo as I have different belief, I respect those people who are celebrating Hungry Ghost Festival. For example, I would try to avoid stepping onto burnt papers or ashes from the offerings that fly to the walkway. Hence, even though not everybody has the same beliefs or religions, we still have to respect one another's beliefs or religions as everyone has freedom to choose what they want to believe in.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5: Finalising of Our Model Making House

Finalising of Our Model Making House

 

 

 

This week, we are supposed to finalise our model making house. At the end of the lesson, we need to do small presentation in front of the class. Hence, to maximise the time given to us, we divide our jobs.

 

 

 

We decide to design the door of our house by using the idea from paper shoji screens. So, we draw the pattern of paper shoji screens on plain white paper.

 

 

 

We use black garbage bag to be the walls and the base that cover the structure of the house.

 

 

 

The four pictures above are the front view, the back view, the side view and the top view of the completed body of our house.

 

 

 

Next, we build the roof structure of our house by using satay sticks and twine rope. Also, we cover the roof structure with masking tape.

 

 

 

This is our finalised roof.

 

 

 

We also add some trees to the surrounding of the house, so as to give organic characteristic to our house.

 

 

 

Here it is! This is our finalised futuristic Japanese house. The concept of our house is actually a fusion of traditional Japanese architecture and modern features. We can sense the traditional Japanese architecture from the style of the roof and the entrance of the house. As for the modern part of our house, we add solar panel features to the door and the roof of the house. The solar panels provide the energy to generate heating during winter season and generate electricity in the house.

 

 

 

People may ask...

Why do we still keep the traditional Japanese architecture for our futuristic Japanese house?

This is because in the future, every house will be so modern in its architecture and thus, traditional Japanese architecture will become extinct. Hence, to make our Japanese house survive in the modern architecture industry, we have to make it unique to other modern houses of the future. That's why we still keep the traditional aspect of Japanese house but at the same time, we add futuristic features to it.

 

 

 

Every group gets the chance to do presentation. It is a really good experience for all of us to learn how to promote our products (the model making houses). They are all so creative in their designs and they have done a really great job. They manage to convince the viewers about their awesome houses and the viewers are also able to guess the origin of the houses correctly.

 

From this exercise, I learn about teamwork and time management. We can finish our work on time because we divide our jobs. We also learn to apply our creativity into different situations such as how we apply it into future context. We gain communication skills too.

 

 

 

 

 

After we are done with all the presentations, we are given another task to design a watch for a friend sitting on our right. So, I design a watch for my friend, Prabhjit. I discuss with her about her preferences for the watch. She likes her watch to be simple yet elegant. She loves nude colour and 'mickey mouse' cartoon character. She also prefers her watch to be made of leather material.

 

From this task, I learn that as designers, we have to fulfil our customers' satisfaction. We are the middlemen for them to achieve the products they desire.

 

 

Week 4: Model Making - Different Countries' Houses

Model Making - Different Countries' Houses

 

 

 

 

For this week, we stayed in the same group as our group last week. We were asked to choose randomly the country in which our group would be working on to create a model-making house. Through the lucky draw, our group got to create a futuristic Japanese house. However, we were to stay silent and not to tell other groups about the name of the country that we had gotten. We were supposed to present our miniature house to the class and let them guess on the origin of the country of our house.

 

 

 



 

These were some of the materials that we used to build our miniature Japanese house. They were satay sticks, scotch tape, masking tape, twine rope and large garbage bag.

 

 

 



 

Firstly, we were brainstorming about the Japanese culture, trademarks and its house 's characteristics. Japan are known for its sushi, samurai, recycle bins, futon, tatami mats, culture of sitting on the floor and many more. Next, we broadened our scope to Japanese architecture. We found out that Japan often used Taoism and Zen Buddhism for many of its buildings' interior design. Besides that, Japan put a lot of attention to details when it came to its interior design. Japan also commonly used neutral palettes such as black, white, grey and off-white; and neutral materials like bamboo, rice straw mats and paper shoji screens for its architecture.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

Another key point that we discussed about was Japanese organic characteristics. Japan was associated with bonsai, sakura, lakes, pond and its eco-friendliness. After we collected all the information that we needed about Japan, we compiled them into a mind map. This was to help us organise our thinking process. Then, we tried to apply all the information into our miniature Japanese house. Not to forget that we had to make it look futuristic, we tried to modernise the characteristics of Japanese house that we had found; but at the same time, we tried our best to introduce Japanese culture to our house. This was so that when other groups looked at our model-making house, they would be able to tell straight away that our house was a Japanese house.

 

 

 

 

After we discussed on how we were going to build our house, we separated our jobs among the group members. Some of us were doing the body of the house. While some of us were making the roof of the house.

 

 

We used twine rope to join the satay sticks horizontally. We also used scotch tape to glue the stay sticks vertically together.

 

 

 

 

This was the structure of the body of the house. After this, we were going to combine the body and the roof together. Then we would decorate the house in such a way that it showed the Japanese characteristics and looked modern at the same time.

While doing our project, I was also observing other groups. They were so enthusiastic in what they were doing. This encouraged me even more to give my best for our group project.

 

 

 

I realized that each group had their own styles in creating their miniature houses. This group, for example, used cardboards instead of satay sticks for making their house.

 

As for this group, they did use satay sticks just like our group. However, I found out that our group and this group had different starting point and methods of building the structures of our houses.

Overall, this was a fun exercise.



Week 3: Singapore's Architecture

Singapore's Architecture

 

Our lesson for this week was about Singapore's architecture. We were again separated into a new groups. The task was to take pictures of buildings or furniture which could be found nearby NAFA Campus and then we were supposed to talk and share about their architecture to the class. My group decided to choose Singapore Arts Museum because we found that its architecture was very interesting.

 

 

 

http://sg.asia-city.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/item_image/sam-facade-2008.jpg

 

Singapore Arts Museum was formerly St Joseph's Institution. It was first established as a boys' school in 1867. This explains why the museum has a classical style reminiscent of the European Renaissance as it was built in the mid-19th century. The building captures our attention as it looks like European castle. It is refreshing to see such an old classical building in this modern era, especially in a metropolitan country like Singapore.

 

 

 

The museum's building is decorated with beautiful tall columns which have captivating Rosette design on them. Rosette design is derived from the natural shape of the botanical rosette, flower and plant. It commonly serves as a decorative ornaments for architecture and furniture found in European Renaissance era. I think that this building looks antique due to its pillars and the rosette design on them.

 

The museum has a very interesting traditional air ventilation. It possesses a primitive sense to it due to its pattern. It seems like the crafted motifs of the air ventilation are inspired from the shape of a four-leaf clover. In the modern world, this type of air ventilation is rare to be found. I am glad that this building preserves it.

The museum has many different patterns of floor tiles. Different rooms have different motifs of tiles. I think that it is a good idea to have various patterns of tiles for different rooms as it will bring vibrancy to the building, preventing a boring look. I find out that the floor tiles are Moroccan ceramic tiles. Moroccan ceramic tiles use triangles, squares, rectangles, diamonds, hexagons and octagons, to form elaborate and colourful patterns. By using Moroccan ceramic tiles, it gives a vintage look to the building.


 

https://touristinmyownland.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/architecture-and-art-at-singapore-arts-musuem/

 

When we were exploring the building, we could find the lamps all around the compound. The lamp is so beautifully designed. When I look at it, it gives a very European look. The two light bulbs in the interior part of the lamp resemble the shape of ancient candle and its holder as seen in the below pictures.

 

http://www.123rf.com/stock-photo/ancient_candle.html

http://www.aliexpress.com/cp/decorative-candle-tins-online-shopping.html

 

I think, in the past, instead of using light bulbs, it used to put candles in the interior part of the lamp. Over time, the building tries to adapt to the modern world and hence it uses ancient-candle-inspired light bulb for the lamp to maintain the European look.

 

 

 

 

 

As we were heading back to NAFA, this uniquely designed chair, which located around the museum compound, attracted my attention. it is not ordinary as it has different design as compared to the usual design of what chair is supposed to be. In my opinion, this chair is inspired from the shape of unstill water surface. It may not be comfortable to sit on it as it has no back rest. However, it is richly designed with its simple look. 

 

 

 

In conclusion, many buildings and furniture around us are actually inspired from something. "There is nothing new under the sun". So as a designer, we have to be smartly creative.