THE MASSING
Self-driven Evaluation +
Stimulating Curiosity
#01 - Placemaking
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//ABSTRACT
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‘Placelessness’- culturally unidentifiable environments that are similar anywhere
Simply put, they are indistinguishable surroundings with another due to the lack of character and identity.
A decade after the economic crisis, the urban development began to skyrocket. People were constantly faced with changing lifestyles and the technological advancements. The urban context of is gradually diminishing. Countries are on the race to become megacities and the consequent is slight deviation of Architecture in various parts of the world. People suffer from a sense of ‘placelessness’ or a lack of identity to call their own.
In this edition, we are tackling the issue of placemaking, how public spaces able to aid in the formation of urban identities, influence or cause certain human behaviours as well as sparking interaction between the architecture and its users.
Can an urban identity be injected into a place or is simply an effect of the past?
What are the physical and ambient features of the build environment that shape public spaces, and how do they affect people's behaviour and experiences?
In architecture, we constantly conceptualize and explore ideas and opinions through making massing models. In the same way, The Massing aims to keep this explorative nature in our work by providing an archive of images that delve into the various aspects of architecture. By promoting self-driven evaluation and stimulating curiosity in our readers, is why we are called The Massing.
In 2018, The Massing began as an student initiative, to inculcate the collaborative spirit between architecture students across the different years. Through the creation of a student community that values sharing of their knowledge and skills, we hope that others will continue this initiative for many years to come.