Assemble to Assembly | Comm’UNITY’ activation
Helping the Underprivileged Community
Kampung Datuk Keramat is located in district of Ampang in Selangor. Keramat’s residents are lowerincome folks up against the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and the mighty City Hall. According to ketua kampung, there are always crime activities happen in the community.In 2015, AU2 ROLPOP Community Garden is constructed and launched in the kampung. This community garden not only raise awareness of river pollution issue to the community, but also function as a key element to improve the security of the kampung. It is because the garden has improved the relationship among the villagers and they have mostly known each other, which they had been working on their own before that. To make the relationship in the community progressively improving, Ketua kampung emphasizing diverse of activities among the villagers, while children plays an important role achieve the goal as the community garden are located just beside their kindergarten.Prior MCO, Ketua kampung has extended their friendship to us (architecture students) and ask if we could help initiate and to build a library for their children to hang-out and read, as most of them has very limited room space in their PPR flats. These would also ease the worries of woman communities that would like to work in the community farm, growing food for their families.We would like to extend the brief to research and build with CNC fabrication system (easy-assemble plywood system), to allow villagers to be involve in the building process with us with knowledge exchange, and for a better bonding and belonging towards this little public reading space.
Overview of Issue / Background
Kampung Datuk Keramat is located in district of Ampang in Selangor. Keramat’s residents are lowerincome folks up against the Mayor of Kuala Lumpur and the mighty City Hall. According to ketua kampung, there are always crime activities happen in the community.
In 2015, AU2 ROLPOP Community Garden is constructed and launched in the kampung. This community garden not only raise awareness of river pollution issue to the community, but also function as a key element to improve the security of the kampung. It is because the garden has improved the relationship among the villagers and they have mostly known each other, which they had been working on their own before that. To make the relationship in the community progressively improving, Ketua kampung emphasizing diverse of activities among the villagers, while children plays an important role achieve the goal as the community garden are located just beside their kindergarten.
Prior MCO, Ketua kampung has extended their friendship to us (architecture students) and ask if we could help initiate and to build a library for their children to hang-out and read, as most of them has very limited room space in their PPR flats. These would also ease the worries of woman communities that would like to work in the community farm, growing food for their families.
We would like to extend the brief to research and build with CNC fabrication system (easy-assemble plywood system), to allow villagers to be involve in the building process with us with knowledge exchange, and for a better bonding and belonging towards this little public reading space.
Project Objectives (Vision & Mission)
1. To promote unity, protection and spirit of collaboration within villagers.
2. To provide public reading space for educational diversification amongst underprivileged children.
3. To bridge relationship between kampung community towards public to promote shared knowledge and intelligence.
4. To create awareness and attentions towards underprivileged community around us.
5. To build a modularize library/space, to be able to extend and duplicate towards other underprivilege communities.
Project Details (Activities and Tasks)
Our community library procedure includes:
1. Co-Design process, a workshop between youth designers and local communities in search of potentials of architectural design and participate-able fabrication.
2. Design Development: develop design and build a 1:6 architecture model
3. Community Engagement: Bridging relationship to better understanding of community needs.
4. Fund-raising & Asset sharing
5. Conduct building workshop, invite student volunteers to fabricate the modular structures from UCSI makelab or woodwork studio, and workshop on assemble on site with student s& community volunteers.
6. Assemble to Assembly: Distribution construction with collaboration among villagers and student volunteers.
Our tasks mainly involve UCSI architecture and interior architecture student and alumni volunteers,, and the local villagers. The installation date of the community library aim to be around the month of November.
Expected Project Result & Outcomes
1. Strengthen unity of the village by providing essential public spaces, reduce crime rate in the community when healthy relationship of the villagers formed.
2. Children will have a safe reading book space, while parents are farming and gardening at their side.
3. The kampung and the AU2 ROLPOP Community Garden will be connected to greater public.
0% of RM1.00 Goal
Project Information
| University name | : | UCSI University |
| Project leader name | : | Alvin Ng Poow Foong |
| Facebook link | : | https://www.facebook.com/colllabsabe |
| Instagram link | : | https://www.instagram.com/colllab.sabe/ |
| Location of project held | : | UCSI Makelab & Au2 Taman Datuk Keramat |
| Beneficiary | : | Au2 ROLPOP Community Garden |
Section I
- Project Goals:
To create a safe reading book space for children while parents are farming and gardening in the community garden. Besides, this is a pilot project, a stepping stone for developing a successful fast fabrication construction that will benefit any community.
- Fund-raising support & Other external sponsorship:
- Au2 ROLPOP Community Garden
- YB Hee Loi Sian
- Asia Roofing Industries Sdn Bhd
- Decorus Furniture Sdn Bhd
- Big Bad Wolf & Book Xcess
- How the project work?
- Project Flow Summary:
- Received Grant from Khind Starfish Foundation
- Engaged with the local community
- 15 Oct – 21 Oct
1:6 Prototype Making & Structure Simulation by SABE Engineering Department
- 24 Oct – 31 Oct
Site clearance and preparation by local community
- 31 Oct – 12 Nov
Volunteer Recruitment
- 2 Nov – 6 Nov
Bending Column Structure Testing
- 7 Nov
Concrete Foundation Casting
- 23 Nov – 27 Nov
Participatory Bench Workshop in UCSI Makelab
- 28 Nov – 10 Dec
Steel Work on Project Site
- 11 Dec – 19 Dec
Assemble workshop on Project Site
- 9 Jan 2021
Site re-visit.
- Received Grant from Khind Starfish Foundation
- Difficulties:
- Budget control on material and tools.
- Time consuming increased due to high frequency of rain.
- Extra time in experimenting construction method because most of the participants are first-timer in engaging in live-build project.
- Language or cultural barriers
- Project Flow Summary:
We communicate well with the local Malay community. During lunch time, the community prepared Malay cultural meals, which were actually delicious, some of us learn how to eat by using our bare hands, as we tried to adapt into the local culture.
-
- Beneficial person
The children in the Au2 Taman Keramat will benefit from our project. This space will increase the opportunity for the community to practice reading culture. Besides, people in the Au2 ROLPOP Community Garden and the kindergarden next to the library, may make use of the library as a making space to hold some simple events, such as reading event.
-
- Future
The benches modular components are one of our R&D of fast assemble construction, which hope to develop into disaster relief construction and typology. By using basic industrial materials such as structural ply, steel & metal structure, this allows easy source of materials and kit within any local context. Besides, an important consideration are to develop modules and assembly method to suits less experience builder & volunteer, our bent-ply structure is our first experiment to adapt to on-site discrepancies!
Section II
(a)
How does or will your project contribute to happiness? Short-term? Long-term?
This project increases the chances for the children in Au2 Taman Keramat to practice reading habit. A lot of research has shown that early childhood is very important. The most important period in the whole life of a person, is between the age of 0 to 4 years old. Some the children’s daily life in the Kampung is slightly different with the children in the most other places, although we are in the same city. Although some books are sponsored, the created library space is giving possibilities for the local community to occupy as a reading space, a gathering space, or even a playing space for the children.
The element of happiness not only can be foreseen in the future usage, but also during our progress. During the build, children are hanging around, watching us and also having fun with us. They knew that this is for them. While participants and the local people enjoying the process, we knew that this not the end, but a start for future engagement in different ways.
In short-term, it is a library full with books. In long-term, the library might full of plants, people, animals, this is vitality. As what the president of the Community Garden, Encik Halim had said,” This is not an ordinary library, in the future, birds and herbs might become the books.”
Has your project changed the way you think about the world? How has it changed you?
Keramat Library is a pilot project, which means, there are plenty of development possibility in this fabrication, in terms of building construction and modular benches. Hence, instead of being proud in contributing something to the community, we should appreciate the community to offer a chance for us to begin our future R&D research through this library project. We predict, deny, and foresee that how this making space might change, by conducting site and community analysis.
This project has elevated my understanding towards architecture, which people and local culture is the most important part to encourage future development, instead of the building itself. Hence, this project will be the beginning of the entire research, which there will be an enduring observation on the community. We are looking forward to surprised changes on the community.
Section II (b)
" It’s something beyond our ordinary architecture studies in our school. While experiencing top-down and bottom-up during the community engagement, as we know that somehow the local community are more experience than us, especially in self-built aspects, while we are contributing this library to the community.”
Alvin Ng Poow Foong
"It’s not just the final product where a safe space is created but the process itself held value.”
Emmelia Anne Quek Yuen May
"This is just a start. I’m looking forward to more future engagement in the same community. I have foreseen many possibility to happen in this space”
Miao An Nan
“I have never known is how volunteer events can really foster social participation until I joined the project. For us and the people of Taman Keramat, this is a valuable project as we get to engage the people to come together and construct something that belongs to their community.”
“Chua Li Cheng”
"'Blessing to learn how to solve the intricacy, to decline running away from intricate, and to realize that the intricate it's to make things simple.”
Irvine Kuan Sook Lam
Image Gallery
