My concept is about water. When I first went to Kampung Pulai, the first thing I realized is the color of the water, it looked like polluted and brownish. I wonder why in such an isolated place without heavy development, the water still got
dirty. After the penghulu explains to us, then I know the water is actually in green but will turn into brown when it floods due to the contact with soil. I saw it’s brownish because the time we went to is almost about the flood period.

 

 It is like a natural cycle of the site, also the cycle of landform when there is no flood and submerged when the flood comes. So I develop my idea with the flood. What I am trying to express is , when people talk about flood, we normally define it as natural disaster, but for me, the flood in Kampung Pulai is the gift of the ecology, it’s the beauty of Kampung Pulai, It’s how the nature behave, so we shouldn’t try to be aware of or prevent it.

 

So when I come to design, I think instead of elevating the building to prevent a flood, I rather the building itself built to be flooded and to appreciate nature. My design strategy is subtracting and backfilling, the site itself is surrounded by mountain, it is a natural river basin. The river site was subtracted by the mountain to form a landform. Derived from this, I designed an underground exhibition to be submerged to contribute the feeling of the submerged cultural heritage under water. By doing an underground space, the VIC itself will be a flood indicator, when the underground is submerged by water, means that flood may be coming. The subtracting part is about the formation of the underground, while the backfilling part is about during flood, the underground part is backfilled by water. It’s a cycle of landform and water; as well as green to brown. That’s why I name it as land water mutualism.

 

The site itself is very meaningful to me, after understanding the history of Kampung Pulai: I think it’s an important event that how the culture in Kampung Pulai starts, our anchestor travelled across the sea far away from china to kampung pulai by boat. So the highlight of the VIC will be the boating activity, It acts as the secondary approach to Kampung  Pulai, connection between temple and cave, stopover during journey.

 

Bamboo could represent the strong bonding between kampung pulai and the people there as bamboo is local material, people used to construct their house using bamboo. To target the flooding issue in Kampung Pulai, the bamboo would be the best material where can be found at the spot, as it is the best plant to live in the flood-prone area. It can act as a natural buffer that conserves the soil when such disasters strike, it can survive in spots where the floodwaters flowed as high as three to four meters above the ground level and it is the best cost-effective method to check erosion as they can withstand damage due to floods. It is effective for brackish waters. Cconcrete is used for the underground structure as the underground exhibition is supposed to be submerged, concrete's sustainability and durability allows the building to work in this way.