Design Follies 2a

In my previous post about "Design Follies" last April, I blogged about this short curly bicycle lane complete with bollards on each end, in Pasir Ris, Singapore.

To my surprise, I found that they have removed the bollards. Could it be that someone had read my post and persuaded the authorities to remove them?

However, cyclists are still not encouraged to use them - still a folly!

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Seen any follies where you are? Let me know.

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Design Follies 2

This is another in the series of "Design Follies". To read my earlier post on the topic. Click here.

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Design follies take different routes. Not all of them are designed to be silly from the start. Sometimes they started out as being useful design, like this entrance to the bus, which has done away with steps and is so low that a wheelchair can go up easily.

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This one I managed to capture, is a city sight tour bus for tourists. However, I think the design merits must have not been communicated widely enough to bus companies, as when it comes to using them for public buses, they put a barrier up!!!

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Why do they need the handrail in the middle obstructing the access of wheelchairs and prams?
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This is the rooftop of a bus stop. The part I am focusing on is at the end of the red tiles where the gutter used to be. It is now filled up with concrete. The gutter drain used to be there to direct the rain water orderly down to the ground. That was a very appropriate design, such that rain water won't be dripping all over the place when it rains.

This gutter is now filled up because it collected dead leaves and choked up, leaving stagnant water there and breeding mosquitoes. With the high incidents of dengue hemorrhagic fever and people dying, I think we can put up with water dripping everywhere. So, this is still a good design that has even kept up with the times. :)

You can figure this one out yourself from the pix. I haven't seen anyone cycling up the bicycle lane. With the slope, the short run and the bollards, who would bother. (Note: When you are pedaling the bicycle yourself, every little slope requires extra energy. And the narrow space in between the bollards can be a painful path if you hit them. )

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These government apartments in Singapore were built ten years ago. At that time, they built the flats with elevators going to every alternate floor. Sometimes, in between two floors. However, as the population ages, the government realised that there will be more old weary legs that can't take them even one flight of stairs, not to mention the occurences of more wheelchairs in the near future. They now realised that they need the elevator to stop at every floor.

That was a "pennywise pound foolish" design savings. In order to save a bit of money, now they have to spend a lot.

However, don't expect the government to own up to this folly. When it comes to politicians, trust them to package something to their advantage when they need to. This correction is now sold to the people as "upgrading". That is, upgrading of the value of their property and enhancements of their assets. The majority of the people were sold.

As if this is not enough, if you are in the Opposition constituencies, you will not be privileged enough to enjoy the benefits of the upgrading. "No upgrading for you because you did not vote for me." Now they are even using their design folly as a weapon against the Opposition, knowing that there are also old people living there on the receiving end of their design folly.

This is an elegant glass vase of contemporary design. Good to look at but difficult to carry around. I broke the previous one, when washing them with detergent. It slipped off my hands and slammed itself on the sink, breaking into bits.

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That is the reason why old style vases always have a 'neck'. The 'neck' is there for a reason - to hold. But as it has always been there, we gradually take them for granted and design something more modern, arguably better to look at, but difficult to handle. Does that sound familiar?

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This one is familiar. To end your Windows session, you click the "Start" button. Steve Balmer's (Microsoft's CEO) mother picked this design flaw out. She picked a flaw many of Microsoft designers somehow missed!

Probably equally familiar is this humble air-con remote control. It has the start and stop controls on the same button. As a result, it is difficult to know whether the air-con is on or off sometimes. Occassionally, after coming home from work, you would realised that you have unwittingly left it on the whole day.

Design Follies

I have seen some design follies around. This one, the Esplanade in Singapore, almost became one. It was a glass dome in the tropics. When it was finished, they realised it was too hot and went to design those spikey shades, earning its nickname "The Durain", which ironically becomes an architectural marvel and charm.

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A design folly to me is one that has no specific purpose, or that it uses building material and energy excessively and inefficiently. However, there is allowance given to architectural merit and character of the design, so it is not all science.

This is the City Hall MRT exit to Raffles City Shopping Centre in Singapore. For reasons known only to the designer, this short span of space is supported by an excessively heavy and deep beam.

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For a single storey structure like this, the size of the beam is clearly an over-design, waste of material, space and it is unsightly.

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The other exit is better. This shelter has the same span as the one at Raffles City, but uses a lot less metal.

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With five toothpicks and four pieces of candy, you get three triangles in a tetrahedran. With six toothpicks and six pieces of candy, you only get two separate triangles. So you can literally have your extra candies and eat it! See the efficiency yet?

In a truss structure, there are only axial forces that runs along each constituent member. Therefore each member has only longitudinal stress, but no bending stresses, no shear stresses or torque. It is like a woman who only needs to work in the office and not having to rush home to take care of her babies and also clean the house. Much easier isn't it?

The next folly is my regular coffee shop at Pasir Ris, in Singapore. This one has a topee roof that tapers upwards and then an opening at its apex for ventilation. The idea of such geometry is so that as the hot air rises, it is compressed as the roof tapers and therefore hastening the air to exit through the opening at the tip of the roof. Thus creating a rapid convection current and refreshing the air underneath, cooling the sheltered area below.

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However, recently they renovated the place and very ignorantly built a false ceiling under the topee roof.

They even sealed the ventiation shaft. I think they wanted the false ceiling to insulate them from the sun, but I think it acts to the contrary. It now traps the hot air in between the topee roof and the false ceiling. That is using more to achieve less.
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The moral of the story here is not have anything stale in life. Energy needs to be circulated. Air needs to be circulated. Money needs to be circulated (by investments). I learn from Tao that as we circulate, what goes out will come back with more vitality. But this will only happen if we get our system correct.

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We need to fix the system though, as too many trees are cut now, and too much carbon dioxide are emitted from cars and industries.

The next folly is the Downtown East extension at Pasir Ris, Singapore. They have decided to cover the multi-storey carpark with this giant iron girdle. Look at the size of the girdle compared with the workmen. It has no useful purpose. I don't think it look very pretty either.

See how thick the metal pieces are in comparison with my bicycle?

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They could easily grow plants on the multi-storey carpark. If they did, it will look more like this building at the Singapore Management University downtown. It looks alot gentler and kinder; and also it would let out more oxygen.
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There are other follies around. I found many useless or frivolous parapet wall structures in many residential estates. Look around you. They are very common. They serve no purpose and have no architectural merit. Most of the time, they look unsightly. It also covers the earth with more concrete increasing surface run-offs during a storm, instead of the water percolating into the ground.

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The purpose of this post is to raise your awareness of the design follies around us. Poorly designed buildings use more to achieve less. Ask your architect how much the building he designed weighs and he probably doesn't know. Bucky asked that and got a blank look from architects. In these days of acute climate changes and threats of ecological damages done to Planet Earth, it is important to think of ecologically sustainable dwellings.

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The extra metal used at the Downtown East carpark could be better used for a bridge that will cut travel time or a telecommunications ground transmission station or a satellite dish, that will aid communications and reduce the need for excessive traveling. These deployments will serve more people and thus create more life supporting wealth.

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I used to think the 'market' will take care of everything, but now I beg to differ. A perfect market place does not exist, much as and because perfect information and knowledge of the market does not exist. Otherwise, we wouldn't have spewed so much carbon dioxide in the air thus far.

So look around you. Tell me if you spot any more follies. :)