CARNIVAL KITA

Idea projektu

The thesis project is envisioned through the dream of a Malaysian boy negotiating the complexities of Malaysian ethnicity and identity. Through an architecture of play, the project reimagines the rigid cultural and racial boundaries embedded within Penang’s urban fabric, transforming them into a shared transcultural space where interaction, participation, and exchange become possible.

Popis projektu

The thesis communicates its message through self-reflection rather than direct instruction. The proposal is therefore a set of quirky follies and activities envisioning communal acts such as dancing, exercising and playing on an existing boundary between two cultural silos.

As viewers encounter the proposed follies, they are prompted to question whether people of different races can truly participate together within these environments. In doing so, they confront their own assumptions surrounding race, culture, and belonging.

The project ultimately reveals a deeper root of Malaysian racial politics: the persistent refusal to share, accept, and recognise each other’s cultural practices and similarities as part of a collective Malaysian identity. By exposing this condition spatially and experientially, the thesis encourages viewers to reconsider conventional ideas of race, culture, and national identity, and to imagine a more inclusive and shared Malaysian future.

Technické informace

The construction of the follies are inspired and grounded to the site. They are inspired by local materials and crafts, therefore envisioning new forms that can potentially be built by the local community. For example, the field folly is imagined as giant bamboo marble tracks that deploy balls for people to create their own games.

Dokumentace

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