Legibility in architecture comes about through a design which allows users to develop a mental image of the spatial relationships and enjoy ease in wayfinding through a building. In urban design, spatial legibility is defined similarly, focusing on a coherent and patterned organisation of the environment.

Rational and geometric compositions support this sense of wayfinding and systematic organisation. Through the repetition of simple shapes and forms, and the overlay of detailed architectural considerations, compositional arrangements are contoured and become habitable.

Luis Basabe (Arenas Basabe Palacios) introduces rule-based design in his ‘Flexible Urban Supports’ (MSDatHome) talk. The garden is identified as the ‘symbol of the suburb’, which he looks to translate, for this architectural environment to become the core of urban buildings and planning. In this sense, squares are elements which form communities and structures space as the city expands in blocks within the grid of gardens

Seen in my design studio Epsilon project - the Microcosm, the recognisable structural hierarchy of the circulation allocates and establishes the degree of privacy and activity on site, mirroring the sophisticated urban sizing of streets. Along these streets, the clusters of square-shaped units are aligned, establishing a rational urban pattern.

Within the A-Z Library, my design studio Delta project, the arch is a salient similarity in both Chinese and Australian architecture, simplified down to its most basic form to become a key feature of my design. Past the library’s solid wall at the street interface, the space opens up to become a playground of arch forms - the result of experimentation and accumulation, and seeing multiplicity as humour. Every arch is unique in its own way… the form, the size, the openings, the material. As a result, every arch creates a different spatial condition, and suggests different ways of interaction - one may frame landscape views, while others may focus on details, provide shelter or encourage movement through them. This field of frames and thresholds, with the additional evocative effects of light and shadow, provides visitors with endless discovery and ever-changing experiences of views and spatial conditions. Here, the concept of temporality is emphasised, whereby, the scene you perceive at one particular moment will change and differ in the next.

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A common approach to design across my projects is the translation of contextual or traditional elements into a contemporary and site-specific interpretation. I aim to simplify, modernise, and appropriate the concept or component to suit without compromising its principal characteristics.

Social and cultural life are diminishing in Melbourne. Today, people can live isolated, relying solely on technology to satiate their social needs and work obligations. The Microcosm becomes a modernisation of a rural village lifestyle to blur traditional distinctions between public and private, work and play, rest and action. The inner courtyard clusters and portable carts are examples of this, as the private yet shared courtyard between six households encourages social interaction and establishments of strong bonds between neighbours, while the cart brings private life, work, and bonds outside into the larger community through activities of exchange or pure display.

As for studio Delta, I named my design proposition the A-Z Library, taking the first letter from the Chinese character Ao(澳), for Australia, and integrating it with the first letter of the character Zhong(中), for China. The A-Z Library exists as a public attraction, social space and cultural institution for residents and visitors, to celebrate the diversity of the people and the culture of Melbourne, through the synthesis of traditional Chinese architectural elements within a contemporary Australian landscape. The reconciliation and appropriation of Chinese heritage and Australian architectural design emerges within the proposal through the integration of the existing building with the new, the synthesis of the brick with the concrete facade, the enclosed walls with the alleyway activation, and the reference to the Chinese Siheyuan plan in the programmatic organisation.

Ultimately, behind the legibility of architecture and urban communities are geometrical spaces and rule-based organisations. Therefore, although the product may appear intricate, once simplified down to its core, what is left are simple geometries, straighforward patterns, or traditional concepts.