Memoirs of a Copper Sheet

Our forefathers that built us up envisaged a future that only we can call reality. In time, circumstances may change yet through generations our resolve and motivations remain the same.

If what we see today was the result of their labour, how then might we transcend deeper into the world they sought to change by investigating the traces they have left behind?

The Founder’s Memorial serves to address these questions by acting as a node that encapsulates all the traces our forefathers have left behind for the eyes of the pub- lic. The journey begins as one of discovery that provides fresh and deeper insights through the vivid evocation of the past.

To be able to embrace and thrive in tough circumstances like our forefathers did meant that the material of choice should not shy away from what gives Marina East Park it’s identity; the Singapore River.

Just as what remains of our forefathers are the traces they have left behind, my in- tervention seeks to extend the journey of picking up traces through the understand- ing and manipulation of the basic characteristics and properties of a single material; copper.

The analysis of the basic properties & characteristics of Copper, towards the discov- ery of how deemed weaknesses can become strengths.

Copper is weak as a structural material due to its malleability. However, this in- herent weakness can be manipulated to explore new ways of copper as deemed structure.

The malleability of copper can also be utilised to document the dialogue of move- ment of visitors and the varying concentrations of human densities due to differ- ent points of interests in the structure. This embracement & accommodation for change is celebrated rather than opposed.

Through the exploration of how the rolling of copper sheets can withstand com- pressional loads, a semi-circular column comprising of rolled copper sheets was derived. By investigating the portions of the column that were deemed unnecessary for compressional load transfer, parts were cut away, creating cavities that displayed the internal composition of the column.

The resultant form encompasses a centrifugal point upon a planar semi-circular face, narrow at the top, to transfer the compressional load down to a broad base that allows for stability.