The Xenitia Express
BY Chua Ming Hao
SUPERVISED BY Assoc. Prof. Thomas Kong
STUDIO THEME TEN MODEST SUGGESTIONS FOR A NEW ATHENS CHARTER (IN SINGAPORE)
Abstract
Neo-nomads are an increasing demographic of people whose work or living constraints are fluid and therefore are not bound to physical locations. This has resulted in the rising popularity of the liminal temporal spaces such as coworking spaces and airbnbs. Therefore the thesis examines this tension between hypermobility and rootedness in an increasingly nomadic world where the detachment from sedentary modes of living manifests itself through the vehicle of railway urbanism. The train typology and rail infrastructure are reimagined as a mobile settlements for transnational neo-nomads. Situated predominantly in South East Asia, the proposal is a form of rail urbanism which comprises a thousand carriage long train and its accompanying infrastructure. The thesis traces the trajectories of different nomads along the perpetual loop around South East Asia and explores the various synergistic and possibly insidious urbanistic and architectural interventions as a result of the Express. It questions the desirability and legality of this growing nomadic lifestyle by investigating how housing, infrastructure, and a new, moving human settlement can be continually distributed, sited, and transported in an endless journey of movement and stasis.
Supervisor Comments
The thesis speculates on the future of rail urbanism in an increasingly nomadic world by reimagining the train typology and rail infrastructure as a mobile settlement for the transnational neo-nomads. Sited in Bangkok and across different scales, the proposal brings together neo-nomads who are no longer strictly bound to fixed physical locations or material possessions. The nomadic nation proposed in the thesis imagines how housing, infrastructure, and a new, moving human settlement can be continually distributed, sited, and transported in an endless journey of movement and stasis.
- Assoc. Prof. Thomas Kong