Remembering Perak: A Cautionary Tale of a Plastic Capital
Abstract
The project is a critique on the meaning of care in Ipoh, Perak. There is an intertwining relationship between a romanticsed landscape (nostalgia) and its commodification (human ignorance), initating a new pattern of care.
Remembering Perak: A Cautionary Tale of a Plastic Capital was inspired by my family’s nostalgic affinity to the landforms of their hometown. Despite Perak’s romanticised landscape, a culture of fragility is found at site - She is a dumping ground for Malaysia’s plastic waste imports. The thesis rewrites the lifecycle of the mismanaged material.
The architecture is an exploration into the “back door” of Malaysia’s Plastic import industry to create a cautionary symbol for human excessivessness through the lens of care and nostalgia. With this landscape, the material of the once deemed as “trash” attempts to confront our human ignorance.
Supervisor Comments
A landform is a powerful icon that evokes sentimental longing and wishful affection for the past. Placed in a limestone quarry in Perak, Malaysia and taking its scurred landscape as a site, the project attempted to recover its original landform by using plastic wastes imported from overseas. Unrecyclable plastic wastes assorted in a plant are mounted over a series of structures that model on the original landform, and the space below is dedicated for a trail for tourists. In the distance view, the structural surface is integrated with that of the existing landform, while in the close-range view from below the structure, the distorted unsightly plastics are uncovered. The sunlight admitted through such plastic material might be fantastical although the material itself is pollutive. The ambivalent and mixed feeling constantly reminds visitors about the environmental pollution while evoking the nostalgia.
- Assoc. Prof. Tsuto Sakamoto
Danette Choong Chu-Xi
Danette Choong Chu-Xi