Paradox Unity - Psychoterratic of the Symbiocene

The Batek is the oldest nomadic inhabitant in Malaysia that is currently facing global extinction and amongst the most neglected community that doesn’t not recognized their sovereignty. Forest(Hep) for them is their only world. The terrain, Kuala Koh, Kelantan is frequently encrusted with myths, legends, and religious precepts. The batek believes other than human being will become engraved if the site are being polluted. Hence, their emotional environment is in sync with the landscape and their identity and a sense of place is inextricably linked.

However, various relocation programmes to forest fringes, deforestation and avalanche of toxic pollution has gone beyond being an inconvenience and now has claimed the lives of 15 Batek members in just 2 weeks. This has led to tropes of fear, a collective worry about uncontrollable global processes. Batek emotional environment is now in crisis.

Psychotteratic is an emotion that people feel in relation to earth. Based on earth emotion written by Glenn Albrect, through creation of hopeful vocabulary of positive emotions can extract ourselves out of environmental desolation and reignite the love of life.

To prevent the tribes falling into the same fate again, a new memes called symbiocene, a period to reintegrate humans and the rest of nature is introduced to guide our thinking and provide inspiration to all generations. 

Using architecture as means of narration and emotion, the master plan of Kuala Koh using the concept of symbio(s)cene, focusing on using artistic tools, framing nature view, allowing visitor to foster a deep love of place.It doesn’t start from a building a shelter, but rather from creating an experience.It’s a journey to homeostasis awareness and present a new model of how human can relate to nature. The result is a highly poetic space that strongly influence the emotion of visitor.

Since then, the modern has forsaken the spiritual dimension and moral obligation. The idea was to create a memorial meditative experience centre and environmental awareness spaces that would cater to spiritual and tourism activities.

The building can be divided into three main part namely garden of demise ,garden of healing and lastly tower of Symbiocene. The building concept using two different contrary forces, Eutierria and topophobia to express a gradual change of emotion journey from fear to hope.Forces are being complementary and interconnected, unity of opposite forms a whole.

For form development, the project begins to take its form from avoiding cutting off tree from site. The form is established through a process of connecting lines between locations of different emotion space resulting into a unique underground building form. Besides, the wooden lattice unifies the building in a lightweight engaging structure, it extended in each direction blending with nature surrounding and welcome visitor approaching from all direction while emphasising its traditional thatching character.

On the ground floor, "Formal space" that is located under the lattice are used to cater cultural space while "organic blocks" in between are healing and therapeutic cubicles focusing on holistic well being for both batek and public. Transitional of materiality from rough (rammed earth) to smooth (fabric), dark to light, helps create a dynamically contrasting space throughout the journey. Besides, stilt on ground design with green pocket space, tapered form cubicles that allow forming layers of canopy and lattice roof that allow trees to pass through has reduced environmental impact to the nature surrounding.

Journey of the symbiocene, an underground experiencing centre, is divided into five main pathways, namely garden of demise, path of Tierratrauma,path of Solastalgia, path of Euterria and path of symbiocene. It was about establishing and securing an identity within the batek tribes, which was lost during the era of anthropocene. Conceptually, it was to express feelings of absence, emptiness and invisibility-expression of the disappearance of bateq culture as well as create sense of hopes through introducing new ideology.Visitor can experience contrasting emotion with journey that features zig-zag off balancing floor, routes of massive column to slim poles, dead end, direct nature earth experience and staircase leading to upper floor.It’s a pathway that tell batek history and lifestyle.

Entering the ground floor, the tower of symbiocene is a meditative tower that encourages people to look inside our center and seek for personal connection.

And lastly garden of healing where garden brimming with plants that promotes a sense of well being and hopefulness. It introduce Bateq healing and therapy method employing Batek medicinal technique both physical and spiritual form, spaces like natural experiencing space, herbs garden, exorcism spaces are being introduced.

All in all, it’s a building that tells story, the new design that keeps batek integrity as a people and a space for expressing earth emotions and a new ecology building typologies.Only through the acknowledge and incorporation of strong emotional response towards earth, feelings of insecurity, despair and hopeless faced by Batek community in Kuala Koh, can the Batek tribes have a continuous future.