“Belonging almost always involve(s) diverse forms of mobility. So people dwell ‘in and through being at home and away, through the dialectic of roots and routes’.”

Responding to the PG15 brief ‘dwell’, the project explores the dual meaning of ‘home’, which can be both familiar and foreign. The project constructs a territory that transcends national boundaries. Moving from Malaysia to the UK is compared to the psychological curve of cultural adaptation, where the building is designed to have spatial qualities that reflect the users’ adaptation to a foreign place. Malaysians are studied as one of the foreign communities that possesses a growing influence within London, their own ethnic diversity challenging even further the notion of ‘belonging’.

The spatial arrangement references unique traits implied by the Malay term rumah, which could mean ‘house’ but also ‘space in a house'. With this blurred definition of in and out, the project is not only inward looking, curing homesickness and ensuring familiarity, but also exposes users to new contexts. The interior is designed to emphasise the moment of appreciating London from a Malaysian perspective, such as the moment they first see snow in their courtyard.

Quote: Savage, M. et. al. (2005)Globalization and Belonging, London: Sage Publications.