POG: Pod Off-Grid

Sherleen Nio
May 2, 2016
3 min read

Last Tuesday evening, on May 3rd, my school was the host venue for the Design Green! event. The event was exhibition and design talk on the newest project of Pomeroy Studio about explorations into low energy waterborne communities, Pod Off-Grid. The exhibition will stay until May 30th which will also be the POG book launching day.

The reason that the event was held at Raffles Design Institute Gallery is because some of our students proudly took part in the project when they were joining the study trip by Pomeroy Studio in Venice last year.

The talk of the event was the head of the project, Jason Pomeroy. He did a presentation of the project which included the case studies, the problem, the solving, the design steps and finally the result. POG or Pod Off-Grid is something that was created based on the concern that the high demand of living spaces could not be fulfill by the condition in present condition. Since 2007, half of the population settle in urban areas and it will increase to 75% by 2050. This could be a global problem and moreover, the climate change is also an issue. Most of the mega city is located on the tropical line and climate change is like a Pandora box,

Jason Pomeroy explained a little on the sustainable caveman theory, where evolution is always happening. It started from caveman to better human. As human will always discover new things, they found stone and took benefit from it. Human had already found the way to make building and the human will now explore way to make architectural even more amazing. There are also two types of designer: animal laboran and homo faber. Animal laboran is referring to those ambitious designer whose focus is only on building and realizing the design on time no matter what. The other type of designer, homo faber is designers that are deep in thinking and planning, but very cautious when it comes to actualize the idea. Between the two types, there is no better designer. What we need is a balance from the action of the animal laboran and the planning from the homo faber. And sometimes, as Jason shared, we designer are too immersed in our design that we forgot the impact. We also need to consider Social, Economy, Cultural, Spatial, Technological, and Environment in order for to bring the sustainable design stronger through out the time.

Based on those thinking and theory, Pomeroy Studio answers the problem by embracing nature in their design methodology. By doing case studies, the team found out that actually area such as Cambodia, Thailand which is less permeable are actually working well with water. Inspired by floating houses and markets, alternatives method of urbanism are found. Why not build a city structure outside the land?

The Lexis Hibiscus located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is one of the project that success in connecting hub, spine and pog in one design. The flower pattern of the design is actually the idea from the client.

The students who joined the workshop along with students from Venice teamed up to do project for the POG design. There are total of five design solutions; The Lagunatory, SEA (Sea, Eat, Enjoy), Venice Research Centre, The Ancient Mariner, The Green Mask. All of the students project, even though varies, were all applying the hub, spine, and pog in the design but still preserving the culture of Venice. The Lagunatory is aimed to achieve zero-carb0n system in cultivating the sea. SEA is devoted to attract Venice visitors by providing variety of restaurant where people can see, eat and enjoy. As for Venice Research Centre, it is a floating, flexible and self-sufficient research center dedicated to tropical diseases. Inspired by the rich naval history of Venice, The Ancient Mariner is set to be the largest naval institution with comprehensive facilities and technology. And the last but not least, Green Mask is all about modular office as well as social and leisure space. B combining whole idea from every project, Pomeroy Studio created the infrastructure and final design to the extension city that could be applied to Venice, Singapore or maybe other cities that is exposed to water such as Abu Dhabi, Miami and so on.

This event held by Pomeroy Studio definitely opened my eyes to a new design approach. I am amazed by how the team solved the environmental problem with fresh unconventional ideas. It also made me more aware of global issue such as climate change. All the exiting and beautiful 3D rendering images produced by the team inspired me to do as better as them. At the end, I am very happy that I attended this wonderful event.