A candid interview with the architectural designer Cheryl Yew’s one academic year journey of doing the Kampung Kerinchi Primary School project focusing on the why, what and how of her design thesis journey. We asked on “why she thinks the project is important (personally) and what were the challenges that she faced with dealing with the project”. Other content includes, her take on the design thesis tutors’ approach in architecture education and studio-based learning; and this informal discussion provides a fresh feel for the approach and we are grateful for Cheryl to give us the insights she shared. (Apologies for poor audio recording in the first six minutes due to poor internet connection as we were using online meeting tool). (32 minutes long recording)
The images above are courtesy of Cheryl Yew’s drawing collections; from top left clockwise; classroom design; axonometric of the site, collage poster of the concept of the school, zoom into part section of school block showing spaces; and plan of classroom.
Cheryl’s project although it was solving the problems of an existing site and structures of an underused religious (agama) school and hall, she combined these sites to create a necessary primary school, otherwise the parents have to cross the highway to send their children to school. The project is also a master planning of the education facilities in this area for the low income population (B40 population) which is part of the studio agenda on how to make Kampung Kerinchi into a proper community, with the problems of rapid development and encroaching from developers to over-build and gentrifying the area.
Life is a Design Thesis 