4. Final Presentation Review
The Project emphasizes on ‘Sensing the City’: Designing an Urban Room, creating positive spaces for people in the city. The design should demonstrate architectural interventions, which are drawn from the needs of the people, place, and is timely and relevant.
In Chow Kit, the part of the locals live in cramped rooms right above the shophouses, the increase in rental fees, unemployment issues, especially due to pandemic has led to a worsening in mental stress, causing the locals to feel helpless and hopeless. The word 'distress' perfectly describes the situation of the locals. Most of the people go to Chow Kit for a specific reason, whether its to work or to buy things, but rarely to relax and chill. This is due to the lack in proper recreational space other than entertainments like karaoke, prostitution, taking drugs. Furthermore, the 9 to 5 busy working life of the locals filled their life with pressure without a space to relieve their stress and with all the negativity that keeps piling up in their mind.
In this world that often seems stressful and chaotic, especially in the urban district of Chow Kit, a sense of well-being is in scarce. Thus, the healing sanctuary is an urban park which provides spaces where people can take a break from their stressful lives, express their emotions and thoughts through different means, and serves as an anchor point that slows down people where they can breathe and pause for a little while before they continue their journey. The healing sanctuary also provides a calm greenspace within the suffocating concrete jungle, where the locals can heal within the nature.
