Abstract:
The travellers journeying within a train inhabits inside an envelope of mesmerising, or rather, mindless space. The transition contains various sorts of views. From its anamorphic manner of perception seen from a human eye, its blurring scenery, or to occasional blockade of primitive earth, they all convey peculiar spaces which we travel past. The train is essentially a method of commuting. It is a contained space which acts as a threshold from one location to another. This thesis questions the dormant possibilities of the abandoned land along the edges of the rail tracks as they have minimal future development. This journey hopes to shift the existing pessimistic branded upon our public train into an optimistic look instead. By exploring its potentials, of its ‘mindlessness’ quality, it hopes to activate them into architectural designs. The thesis challenges the potential given around the space of the train tracks, rather than a train station; which is the ruling railway architecture. The research begins with a curiosity of daily train commuting, where the journey is commonly thought to be more appealing to children on their first train travel rather than the daily commuters of adulthood. As the essence of an attractive trip is travelling through a threshold of unknowing, the journey is appeared to be mundane to our norm commuters, and the surrounding residents. The research of a ‘train’ is a broad topic. So to begin, the thesis first outlines the perimeters of the framework by defining three, thesis specific, standards: the train, the passenger, and the perceiver. The relationship of the three defined standards is then explored through iterations of abstract illustrating, finding qualities of lightness, layering, decay, and repetition, which then translates to critical themes of mindlessness, and existence and nonexistence. Exploring these ideas provides a definition, for the space surrounding the rail tracks which is titled the envelopment. To change the perspective of our journey from a pessimistic stance, the envelopment proposes an architecture of therapeutic and cleansing for both the standard passenger and the standard perceiver. Where finally the four apparatus of architecture, the botanic teahouse, the vitamin d feeder, the forest of motion spiral, and the droplet bathhouse, thus accumulate into two separate purposes. One being a sensual amplification for a passenger within a train travelling pass. Second being a physical cleanse through concepts of domestic purifiers into public scenes for a perceiver, which is the community who live immediately next to the train tracks.’