Urban Fieldworks
Urban Fieldworks is an exercise that investigates the ordinary happenings and encounters found within an urban landscape.
The Seed
“The Seeds” reflects the greenery in a HDB estate. We explored how individual units surround themselves with flora and fauna in common spaces like the corridor to enhance the overall appearance of a space
Field Trip
Data Goals
Once our idea spark has been settled, we moved on to the activity field and decided our data goals. The primary goal of our urban fieldwork is to collect data of the units in a HDB estate who own potted plants. To ensure having sufficient data we listed secondary variables to consider such as; how many plants a unit owns, categories of fauna & flora and possibly the types of pot used .Photography was used to record our data, allowing us to refer back and tally the total numbers after leaving the precinct rather than loitering outside their units.
Our Field Trip Gallery
Data
Collect data of the units in a HDB estate who own potted plants.
From the graph above we can conclude the following: We discovered that the majority of units with plants are those staying in the higher level.
Below you can find an excerpt from the data we have used. Based on a data set on the number of plants each units have in three different HDB estates, we have extracted the following data points that we have worked with:
| HDB Blocks | Levels | Units | With plants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102 Sengkang | 2-11 | 90 | 49 |
| 741 Woodland Circle | 2-11 | 90 | 33 |
| 761 Woodland Ave 6 | 2-11 | 90 | 23 |
Artefact
Design Decisions
After debating whether or not to code, we decided on an artefact as a medium. Given the time constraints and our lack of coding capabilities, this was a unanimous decision among all members. The concept evolved from "expandable tree branches" to "ratio blocking with interactive slide functions" before settling on "stackable growing seeds." Visual data are represented by semicircle styrofoam balls painted in different shades of green and orange, signifying the range of plants on that HDB floor.
Issue
One of the issues faced is the clarity of data presented through the artefact. The orange seed was distracting and further confused the user on how to interpret the data presented. After removing the orange and central align the greens, the artefact immediately came together. The orange seed was indeed unnecessary as we already had 8 different hues of green to clearly represent our data. The second issue faced was the composition of the artefact, laying it flat didn't cut it and made the piece look 2 dimensional. It lacked the latitude aspect and did not portray the data collected from level 2 to 11. To fix this, we created a border using foam board and displayed it vertically.
Feedback
Right before the presentation, we managed to squeeze in a short consultation with Clara to check if everything is good to go and as mentioned above, the issues she brought up were primarily the difficulty faced to read the data. However we managed to come up with a solution and proceeded to a presentation where we received positive feedback. Andreas mentioned that we had produced a clear way of translating data, not only that, the final aretact looked aesthetic as well. The comparison image we included in the slides of the first and last draft was a good touch, it displayed the progress and our problem solving attributes.
Reflection
For us, the overall experience was indeed eye-opening. Of course, the prospect of having to go out and carry out urban fieldwork in week 2 sounded tedious. However, during our individual fieldwork, we uncovered sites in our HDB that we had never accessed despite living there for over a decade. Have you honestly strolled through the corridors on each floor of your HDB block? We haven't either till now. Walking past each unit and beginning to realize that behind every door is a family living their own narrative was a very riveting experience.
There is always opportunity for improvement, such as making the green color gradient indicating the number of balls more distinct. With additional time, we intended to improve the structure by modifying it into a pendulum-like artefact with a fishing line linking the balls together to create the illusion of a creeper plant. This wraps our urban fieldwork and hopefully we've taken away some valuable lessons from this series in which we can apply to upcoming projects.