BUBBLE.
As a designer deeply drawn to the sensory qualities of water, I’ve long been captivated by its transparency, reflection, and motion. Fascinated by the reflective and fluid nature of water, I began by studying bubbles—how they bend light, shift form, and create immersive spatial effects. This inspired my spatial modifier, a series of form and light distortion experiments using 3D printing, resin, and plastic sheeting. These initial studies informed early envelope tests, exploring how curved transparent layers could refract and diffuse light across space.
My Studio 3.1 design scaled this concept but relied on concrete for structural support, which contradicted the visual lightness I sought. Drawing from the Osaka Maritime Museum’s central dome structure and the Sendai Mediatheque’s vertical lattice tubes, I replaced heavy elements with a steel lattice frame supporting a double-curved, double-glazed skin. Offset floorplates emulate organic bubble clustering, each anchored by a transparent circulation core.
Underneath the elevated bubble forms lies an evaporative cooling pond, echoing passive strategies in the Water-Cooled House in Singapore. To preserve aesthetic clarity and minimise visual noise, services like parking, loading, and plant are concealed underground—an approach influenced by the Albert Cuyp underwater parking garage in Amsterdam. The resulting architecture balances environmental performance with experiential quality, using water not just as inspiration, but as atmosphere, effect, and embedded system.
