FORWARD | REPURPOSING A PETROL STATION

ID CONTEXT PART 1 | SESSION APR2020

BACKGROUND

Nowadays, the petrol stations in Malaysia are increasingly closing down and being abandoned. Thus, this project is about to repurpose the abandoned petrol station which is located in SS14.

ARTICLE

"Fostering Casual Collisions and Creativity in a Virtual World"

Unfortunately, the whole world has been affected by the pandemic COVID-19 recently and has launched many topics about it. It led to many issues which included creativity and innovative thinking were mess-up when working from home. After the discussion with my group members, we agree that this is because of the lack of communication between people during the pandemic and even in the usual. The reason behind this might be people are weak in communication, there are differences culture, differences interest and attitude.

So, there is an idea which is a communication hub that aims to help people to come out from a difficult situation and let people express their feelings and discovery joyfully through communication. Thereby, increasing creativity and innovative thinking through connection with others.

CLIENT

As we settle down the objective, we start to look forward to the market that is related to our projects. Then we found that the psychology industry is having a similar direction with us. They more focus on people's mental health problems and try to improve their communication skills as well. After some investigation, we found that there is a psychology centre which has a similar objective with us ----------The center of connection. It's a psychology center located in Pasadena, California. It provides multidisciplinary clinical practice which aims to help people to find joy and meaning in their life through connections with others. Dr Tina Payne Bryson is the founder and she is also the executive director of The Center for Connection, she established this center in September 2014. This center is formed by many professionals from different fields that relate to psychology. The center is more focused on educating about dynamic interactions and helping people change the way that they view and feel about and interact with their world to a large extent.

As it is a foreign brand, we had listed down the reasons that we think they should enter Malaysia.

·Provided multidisciplinary treatment

·Gathered expert practitioners from various fields

·Canada has more mature knowledge in this field

·The World Health Organization will provide foreign trade policy for foreign brands

CONCEPT MIND MAP

CONCEPT

My CONCEPT title is BREAK THE CIRCLE, which is to create a space to support the communication between strangers. In this concept, 'CIRCLE' means the friend zone or the comfort zone or the situation of being trapped. Besides, 'BREAK' means the very first step to take action to have self-help which sharing the annoyance with others and getting help from them to come out from the situation or zone. This means I would like to see people come out of a difficult situation or their comfort zone through communication with strangers. As they come out from the circle they will discover happiness in their life and increase innovative thinking.

It will be an anonymous chat. But communicating with strangers always will make people get nervous and be scared to speak. Thus, to prevent people from giving their full attention to nervousness, I think having some desserts, making the activities in a fun way, the isolated and lucky wheel might be helpful. The playful interactive activities in this center include blindfolded, Jenga blocks and describing and drawing.

Considering that the rooms are not enough and people might need to wait outside. So, there are some activities that users can spend their time on as they are waiting, such as information wall which can let people know better about this center, start a conversation with the staff around anytime, set a goal and hang it on the ceiling or enjoy a delicious dessert.

TARGET USER

My target users are students to workers as nowadays they encounter many problems and they are very stressful. But considering most of them are busy studying or working, they might have no free time to join the activities. So, I decided the user’s activities be conducted in individual and group. The individual sharing activity is a daily operation, but the group sharing activity is only operated on weekends.

CONCEPT SUBJECT MATTER

ACOUSTIC WAVE -- As everyone's voice is different, which means that everyone has their own story and the ways of speaking are different. I hope that this center brings in different voices to the users’ lives to help them break the shackles and then put on a new story in their lives, and let the world hear their voices.

SKETCHES

CONCEPT MODEL (2 versions)

SPACE REQUIREMENT

LOCATION | SITE ANALYSIS & RESEARCH ON PETRON STATION

BUBBLE DIAGRAM & MATRIX DIAGRAM

FINAL SPACE PLANNING

SKETCHES

MATERIALS

Nippon Paint is the main material in this project.

For the flooring, EZE TILES by Niro Granite is being chosen because it's unrivalled when it comes to producing a simple, effortless aesthetic for interior design. Eze will excel in blending with minimal look settings or partnered with a more complicated interior look. Furthermore, VINYL PLANK FLOORING is very affordable, durable and easy to maintain. Regular sweeping and weekly mopping is all you need to keep your floors looking great.

ACOUSTIC POLYESTER FIBER PANELBOARD is applied in each sharing room to reduce the noise.

1. The polyester fibre acoustic panels are environmentally friendly.

These polyester sheets are made of 100% polyester and are bonded by heat rather than chemical adhesives, they are 100% recyclable. There are many environmental advantages over traditional sound-absorbing panels such as:

• Formaldehyde-free

• No adhesive

• 100% recyclable

2. The polyester fibre acoustic panels can be exposed and installed as they are. because:

• No smell

• Clean and dust-free

• No risk of skin irritation

• No risk of respiratory problems

3. Polyester fibre panel is usually not expensive. We have some standard patterns which are surely affordable. Customized patterns are available with a minimum order quantity and higher price.

4. Fabric wrapped fibreglass is popular but they are expensive and not so eco friendly as its fibreglass. This is not to say that fibreglass noise panels do not look good or perform well – after all, they are industry standards. But historically, if architects or designers want an acoustic panel that is not made of fibreglass for any reason, they must compromise one of the following: an acoustic performance, appearance, cost, or durability.

PLYWOOD - easy to bend and shape

WHITE OAK WOOD - a strong material, good in load-bearing

MAPLE WOOD - hard and resistant to shocks

REDWOOD - light but strong, suitable for the ceiling/wall mounted furniture

CEDARWOOD - rot resistance and insect damage resistance

The materials of seating in this centre include white oak wood, cedarwood, fabric and polyethylene.

1. FABRIC

It's soft and comfortable, durable, highly absorbent and not expensive.

2. POLYETHYLENE

It's soft, sensual, light and functional. It's also easy to clean, chemically resistant, fire retardant and durable.

FINAL FURNITURE LAYOUT PLAN

Both of the entrances are placed like this is to increase more natural lighting and ventilation. The rooms are designed to be in the shape of the curve to express the status of the voice when people communicate. The seating in the middle is designed according to the rooms(circle).

FINAL OUTCOME

FACADE OF THE CENTER

From the facade, the element applies to the canopy, ceiling and window as well. I try to express them to look like the voice when people are communicating and the acoustic waves meet.

There is a counter in different height which are provided for people with disabilities and normal person as well. In the middle is the main entrance and next to it is the outdoor seating area.

VIEWS FROM DIFFERENT ENTRANCES

Once people enter this centre, the highlighted part will be shown. Once people enter the centre, no matter from which entrance, they would first see a column is designed to connect the ceiling to the floor, as a highlighted part. The ceiling design is designed to apply the hidden LED strip light. On the surface of the column, there is a lucky wheel with a slogan that can encourage and show support to users. It is for supporting people to choose the room randomly.

Visitors are encouraged to have order and enjoy desserts, make payments, and wait for the room in this area. Besides, considering that the limitation of rooms and people might need to wait outside. Hence, there are some activities that users can spend their time on as they are waiting. First, on the proposed column, there are the information screens that can let people have a clearer image of this centre. Besides, people can start a conversation anytime with the workers around. They also can set a goal and hang it on the outdoor canopy as they achieve they are able to bring it home as a souvenir.

PLYWOOD is applied in this centre as the partition wall as it is earlier to bend and to shape.

As there are more than 3 colours are applied in this centre, the floor is decided to be simple and use the tile in a lighter colour. EZE TILES by Niro Granite is being chosen because it's unrivalled when it comes to producing a simple, effortless aesthetic for interior design. Eze will excel in blending with minimal look settings or partnered with a more complicated interior look.

LOBBY

The wall graphics on the individual rooms are to show the meet of the voice of users and workers. People can enjoy desserts or wait here. Besides, staff can keep abreast of the situation of this centre and start communicating with the users in the waiting area anytime.

INDIVIDUAL SHARING ROOMS

For the individual sharing activity, by using the lucky wheel, people randomly pick a room to start a conversation. The first image is the rooms provided for the user and the second image is the worker's room next to the user's room. The user's rooms allow a user to express their feelings individually. In the beginning, they have to put on the headset before the communication starts. When the user is sharing, the conductor at the next door has to draw a drawing based on the conversation. In the end, the drawing will be received by the user as a gift. They can pass the drawing through the little window.

The wall graphic is to express the voice of the user delivered to the workers and they start to communicate. To reduce the voice from outside, the ACOUSTIC POLYESTER FIBER PANELBOARD is being applied in this area.

GROUP SHARING ROOMS

These sharing rooms allow up to 5 strangers in a group to communicate, blindfolded will be prepared to cover their eyes at the beginning of the communication. So people won't know who they are talking with. This might help to reduce their nervousness. After a short communication, people can start to play the Jenga blocks and answer the questions on top. So they can know each other better and share their own stories in this way. To reduce their nervousness, swing chairs are provided. The slogan on the wall and the wall graphic are to encourage people to actively join in the communication.