HETEROTROPICA

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Heterotropica is a speculation on the capacity of architecture, technology and landscape to harness tropical climate in ways that produce new architectural and urban forms. It encourages a range of experiences that tie buildings, landscapes and cities to bodies and their comforts. Heterotropica resists a clear classification of building or park, but instead draws on the megadiverse Malaysian biome to present miniatures of a Mountain and a Cloud Forest. These microcosms renders the city and landscape visible and hence a possible domain of reflection and action. Their forms are used to produce wonder and marvel; they inspire the viewer to look beyond normative practice and strict economic values.

The project looks to a forgotten goal of architectural modernism: to connect interior and exterior experiences without distinguishing between corporeal health and sensuous pleasure. The Mountain and the Cloud Forest are rich sensoria that orchestrate climate, technology and physiology into formal, spatial and experiential systems. The Mountain recreates three natural Malaysian hot springs—Air Hangat, Banjaran and Poring—into a hybrid balneotherapeutic experiences. the Cloud Forest fosters a wide spectrum of experiences under its iconic roof based on differences in temperature, humidity and enclosure. Between the facts and uncertainties that characterize the complex web of environmental relationships, these microcosms bring abstract scales, uncertain futures and intangible scientific concepts to the personal realm of experience.