Community Service Initiative module requires us to design a proposal of architectural value addressing an issue on a selected community. This module has taught me various new skills and was an eye opener for new experiences. I believe that my ability to work in groups has greatly improved as i was able to brainstorm ideas on how to make a contribution to a selected community. Firstly, all our group members individually worked on potential communities, where help is needed. Out of all, we chose Jinjang Utara longhouse because, we felt that a design of architectural value can bring about a change in this community.

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To start with, i learnt how to develop a holistic awareness of the variety of problems such as poverty and discrimination,that call for action.  For instance, developing a proposal to counter social problems within the Jinjang utara longhouse community. The proposal was designed after conducting different interviews, meetings and site visits. Initially, research was conducted within the group on the selected community (Jinjang Utara longhouse) to find a relative issue. This was done in the form of interviews, questionnaire’s and online research.

Being involved in this task taught me, how to engage with the local community of Jinjang Utara in terms of communication. For instance, ways to approach and introduce the design proposal and making questionnaire’s for survey purposes.  I was also reminded basic manners on how to greet the locals and communicate with them, barring all cultural, social, and racial differences. During the site visits, I had numerous conversations with the residents of the community, and played fun activities with the kids. This help me get an extra glimpse of the atmosphere within community. One other important lesson I learnt was that there were ways in which we could contribute to the community even without spending money. When the materials are so scarce in the modern world, I realized the importance of using recycled materials to achieve this.  All in all, I feel that this demonstrates my ability and commitment to work with the community.

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In addition to this, this module tested me in applying all my architectural knowledge from my lifelong academic learning into developing the design proposal. This aided me to design a proposal with an architectural value. In order to accomplish this, we had to perform an intense site analysis. One of the key issues to address was the ‘increased rate of school drop outs within children’. Therefore, different meetings and brainstorming sessions were held within our group members to design a proposal addressing this issue. As a group  we worked on how this issue could be addressed through an architecture. As a result, we decided to propose a space to read and a space for tuition (blackboard) in our design proposal but in a more playful atmosphere. The main intention facilitate education in a more fun way. Therefore, in addition with the reading space, children have to go through fun activities such as jumping, etc.

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Being the group leader for this project, I was assessed on my leadership skills during the project. Throughout the project reminded I myself to consider ideas from all group members and to arrive at a conclusion only after conducting all group members. Our solution was to propose a playground for the children emphasizing on education which was derived from ideas by different group members. Furthermore, I personally took initiative in helping the group get organized and setting times, places to meet, assigning roles. Whenever confliction of ideas takes place within group members, I constantly encouraged them to mutually respect each other.

One of the new experiences from this module was to find suitable materials that for the design proposal. In order to respond to the cultural context, we decided to use materials which were readily available from our site. To achieve this, we carried out different tasks like monitoring the activities of the locals within the community emphasizing on the work they do and the materials they use. We also emphasized on which materials were found on site. From this study, we concluded to use wooden planks and rope which were easily available. 

 

 

Furthermore, exposure to real community living in the real life situation was also a new experience for me. It was very interesting and inspiring for me to get feedbacks for our design proposal by the community. I was inspired as the kids got excited by seeing our design proposal. Also, I noticed the importance of getting feedbacks from the targeted users as it clarifies which areas of the design that need to be strengthened. I believe this is extremely important in the field of architecture.

However it order to achieve this we had to overcome a fairly difficult task, which was making the prototype model. Due to the scale of the prototype and time management issue, I had some difficulties in accomplishing the task. For example, having to use carpentry work machines for the model was farily difficult for me as I don’t have much experience in the field.  Nevertheless, with the help of my group members, we were able to complete the task. Different models were proposed each week from different group members. The final design proposal was decided after discussion with all group members. We decided to use 1:10 as a scale for our prototype as it enables to transport the design easily with easy visualization of spaces.

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Although one of the the two aims of the 'Reading Hut' was to foster the longhouse community together, I believe that we have somehow improved the relationship between the residents while we were proposing our ideas there as this design is something that solely belong to the children of Jinjang Utara longhouse. I feel that it is something that interests the community and are hoping it will become a reality in the near future.

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