Mapping Dumpsters and Scents in Brick Lane

One thought that came to me when I was compiling my portfolio at the end of the semester was how much I enjoyed the mapping exercise that I had to do sometime during the first semester here at Brookes. Previously at Taylor's college, my mapping and analysis of the site was merely limited to the gathering of raw data of the environment and circulation and other observed aspects which was then slapped on an A3 layout and presented and often forgotten afterwards. I never really understood what my tutor, Mr. Alvin, wanted when he kept saying to us to digest the information. Everytime we finished presenting our site analysis, he always went "So what does that mean?" And I was constantly rendered speechless.

Here, my tutors encouraged each of us to make use of the site mapping task creatively. Sure, there were still the usual observations like the ones I mentioned, but we were also required to produce our own 'personal mapping' to communicate and interpret our observations of the site. And it was this exercise that gave me a new outlook and perhaps understanding of this whole effort in mapping and site analysis.

Walking along Brick Lane, I was struck by the contrast in the atmosphere. Brick Lane was a place famed for the vintage clothing stores which littered the street. It was a place to go to hang out and take a break at the many alfresco cafes and dining venues especially around the Truman Brewery area. It's where the whole indie-chic scene is at. Just taking a stroll down the lane on a Saturday afternoon in summer, one can't help but notice the vibrant crowd hanging out around the area. Yet, all of that was located in a place which was dotted with trashcans and those large dumpster bins which were sometimes brimming with trash and situated just alongside notable eateries. And all of that made a distinctive gritty neighbourhood like no other with a more than subtle hint of stench which conflicted with the aromas from the curry houses.

It was then and there that I came to the realization that I wanted to map out the scents and smells along Brick Lane. After a little bit of discussion with my tutors, and a couple more trips back to the site during the bitter cold of November to record some data and literally sniffing out the area, I managed to churn out two maps. These maps were quite well-received by my tutors and eventually led me on to my design project. Apparently when they saw these maps, they were quite convinced of my observational methods. Do click on them to enlarge.

| The Dumpster Catalogue of Brick Lane



| The Scent Analysis of Brick Lane

I'm already looking forward to do some mapping and even catalogue-ing for my own record. Maybe in Oxford, maybe in Penang when I get back, who knows. But one thing's for sure, I'll have fun doing it.

Nearing the end...

| model of chain mail



| sketch of chain mail linkage
the Wallace Collection, London

I've just finished cleaning my room, and I've yet to sort through the mountain of scraps of papers, random models, printouts, folders and files. The final studio submission has gone through and that's a large load off my shoulders.

It's been quite a hellish ride here, but at the same time, the intensity and pressure the tutors put you through usually results in you pushing yourself a little more then you're used to. I'm not saying I am doing better than ever, but I'm just happy to be doing certain things I've never thought I could do. Like for instance: portfolio layouts. Oxford Brookes seems to have a different style preference for their portfolio submissions which I'm obviously not accustomed to, but I've tried to adopt some of the presentation techniques and I hope it's come through a little in my work. And the amount of work we have to pour into compared to when I was in Taylors is appalling. Back in Taylors, I had to print about 4 A1 sheets for my final crit. Over here, they expect you to do a maximum of either 30 A1s or 60 A2s. I managed a total of 35 mixed sheets of A1s and A2s. And don't get me started on the printing, but I will ballpark it around £100.

It's been a hellish week that I've gone through, spent several nights in the studio and only had a maximum of 2 meals a day. And they mostly consisted of cookies and water. While I look forward to the holiday, I can't help but to look back at the things I've submitted and regret some of them. The phrase 'there is room for improvement' is a huge understatement.

But for now, it's back to work mode as I try to whack out a couple thousand words for an essay I've to hand in in a few days. And after that, well...who knows...

| Ornament Against Crime: Pollution mask



| Ornament Construction

Stewing

I've been stewing in my room for the past three days. I've rarely been out let alone travel in these past two weeks. I'd like to think of this as my reward for the insane amount of time and energy I put into my work in the last semester, then again, to think of the fact that I'm rewarding myself by being idle is utterly pathetic. I think I should be feeling some sort of guilt remaining in this state of inactivity seeing as I've actually got quite a bit of work to be done over this so-called 'holiday'. I should be working harder than ever, with my back bent over the desk hard at work. But interestingly enough, I'm not. And I'm not feeling any remorse or guilt over it. I'm merely.....existing.

It's moments like these when i take a step back to evaluate myself. And it just so happens these moments tend to occur at the end of the year or during some significant event on my calendar. It's like wriggling out of my skin to just take a broad perspective on the things that I've done, people who's life I've crossed, places I've been, things I've read, sights I've seen. It's reading my diary in reverse.

My views on the semester that had just ended several weeks back: I'm beginning to take more chances. And I think I need to push myself to the boundary and take more bold choices and risks. I've yet to find my stride but I'm feeling my way. I need much much better time management. I'm disappointed in myself for procrastinating at times and not setting my priorities straight, but at the same time I'm glad I handed all my work in on time. The studio design work is a very interesting topic and I'm very glad I chose this unit. I need to cherish and take advantage of it as I've only got one semester left to spend in that unit.

I've lost some part of me in the design, but can I find myself back again? Will I change? Someone once told me that you have to lose yourself before you can really discover your true nature. I hope he was right.

Don't worry about me, I'm just having alot of thoughts in my head right now that I need to vent out to someone. But funnily enough, I don't want you to tell me everything will be alright. Because you probably don't know what is really going on in my head and in my life. Just say "It sucks to be you right now" and give me a pat on the back.


Stay tuned.

More work

I was tied to the swivel chair in the studio for the past 3 days and 2 nights, working my brains out on this one Technology report of the building depicted above that just would not finish itself. It was a real pain in the ass from the very beginning of the semester. I spent the last two nights in the studio, far away from the seductive lure of my bed and duck-down duvet. It was certainly rough, but i'm glad I did it. Had I not been in the studio and stayed a wake for almost 48 hours with only a brief nap of 4 hours in the wee hours of today, had I not only survived on hot chocolate and fruits and deprived myself of a proper sit down meal, AND had I not sacrificed a good chunk of my sanity, I probably would have handed in the report late and potentially, single-handedly destroyed all that i had poured into this module in the semester.

Before my mother or other concerned family member finishes reading this post and start ranting to me to eat a proper meal and stop procrastinating and concentrate, I must reassure them that being here in this somewhat foreign land with the added workload WILL cause these effects. There is not really one person I know who has not gone through these sleepless nights. It's just part and parcel of being an architecture student.

But anyway, now the bed beckons. And I must get sufficient sleep tonight if i even want to be able to wake up tomorrow and continue working on my studio project of this semester which will be assessed in a week's time. In other words, the gates of hell are creaking open inch by inch.

I will see you on the other side.

Stay tuned.

Mask

Sewing this was a b*tch.

Stay tuned.

Project Finale II

Here're my boards! I've finally been able to compress them to a suitable size to be posted up here. DO click on the image and magnify it to get a better look. Sorry if they're a bit pixelated due to the compression.

*click on the image*




*click on the image*




*click on the image*

Mean while, by this time tomorrow, I'll be soaking in the sun, sand and waters of Redang on our little class trip. Photos will come in due time.

Cheers!
Stay tuned for more.

Project Finale I

| The Semenyih Funerary Center & Plant Nursery

The theme for my Architectural Studio 4 throughout the semester revolved around the ideas of death and memories. For my final project, I was required to design a funerary center in Semenyih, Selangor of about 1500 sqm. which would also accommodate a complimentary facility which shares spaces and rituals with the funerary home and must be somewhat co-dependent with one another while being economically self-sustaining on its own.

My proposal for the complimentary facility was a plant nursery. Plants obviously play an important role in all funerary rituals and the relationship between a plant nursery and a funerary center would make perfect sense. The funerary center exists on its own, holding wakes and other funeral related rituals including a columbarium whilst the plant nursery provides flowers and plants during those rituals, renders services to the site in the form of landscaping and can also exist on its own for the sole purpose of selling plants.

Thus, my proposal centers around the ideas of plant life as a counter balance to death.

| The plant nursery consists of cores which cut through the building and form courtyards with timber strips which rise high above to give that sense of void and loss. Each void caters to a specific plant family.



| The ceremonial hall where funerary rituals take place is set against the serenity of waterplants in one of the nursery cores.



| I turned the typical columbarium and interpreted it as a garden. The place where a loved one is interred is made into a thriving landscape where people can come to converse, have a moment and perhaps come to terms with their loss.



| The staircase leading up to the topmost floor, an eatery. On the right as another plant nursery cores, dedicated to bamboo.



| The eatery at the top floor with views out into the surrounding lush landscape and hills of Semenyih and beyond.



| My hand made 1:200 scale model.



| A close up shot.

It may have been incredibly stressful to do all this work, but I'm very happy with the outcome. Of course, I do acknowledge that tremendous improvements could have been done, but that is always the case. You can just never stop designing because perfection could never be achieved.

| My pin-up and presentation spot. My boards are the three panels on the bottom half.

I shall upload my presentation boards soon.

Stay tuned.

May-hem: Over

In case I didn't say it already, the theme for my Architectural Studio this semester is DEATH. The first project, a memorial. The second, a newsletter. And the third and last project which I just finished presenting this afternoon in college is a funerary center.

It was an amazing semester with a challenging theme which I found extremely refreshing because the architectural typology concerning death is very much underrated at this point. I'll post up some renders of my final diploma project in the coming posts.

Stay tuned for more.

Up somewhere

Again, going on a site visit to unprecedented places. This time we took one of those construction elevators up. You know, those outdoor exposed ones where you have to manually operate the door. I had no idea how high we were after climbing rail-less staircases, walking along dusty unlit hallways and traipsing through brick and cement strewn floors.

| In a building under construction, somewhere in Brickfields.

By the way, those safety boots I got really came in handy this semester. I don't regret them one bit.


Stay tuned for more.

Could Have

My first assignment for Studio is done, presented, critiqued and over with. It was abysmal. I definitely felt I could have done better had it not been a 4 week long project. One more week would probably have given me the opportunity to really push my design to the next stage where it could go. My lack in effort was also to be blamed but then again, I fell completely ill in the critical days before the crit and that really screwed up my timing because I am confident I could have come up with something better had I not been lying practically lifeless on the bed for 12 hours on the day when it mattered most.

I think it was sabotage.

I think i'm paranoid.

No, actually I'm to blame for not eating healthy.

Anyway, It's over now and I'm back in Penang all ready for Chinese New Year. I'm just going to take it easy for a while and take in the festivities for it's only going to be a week before I'm back in the hell hole that i call PJ. Yay!


Stay tuned for more.

10 Floors Up

It's awesome when you get to explore places you wouldn't ordinarily go. Like yesterday when I had to go for a site visit in Jalan Raja Chulan. We somehow ended up at the rooftop of a dodgy hotel, which had a good view of the surrounding. It was worth scaling up the billboard ladder up to the very top eventhough I was standing on these metal bars which were wobbly and the edge of the building was exactly where my bum was rested on.

| 10 floors up

I've got a ton of things to do although I'm only taking 3 subjects this semester. It's hectic but I'm quite excited over the course of projects which are going to be presented to us. The first project from studio is already halfway through and my submission is pending just a few days shy from Chinese New Year. And the assigned brief is to design a memorial for a dead famous person. It's harder than you think.


Stay tuned for more.

For your CRIT-ical consideration

As I had bitched about earlier, it took me a whole week to produce everything I needed for my final presentation board. It was strenuous and soul-sapping sure, but it was worth it since on the day of the critique itself, I had finished everything and only had to present my work to a panel of two architects.

What you see below is THE final presentation board. It comprises 3 A1s which is about the size of a single bed. And it cost me 75 ringgit just to print the thing. My bank account is tanking.

Click on image to enlarge

This project is to propose a Museum of Early Education in Penang. A project which sounds so boring I almost stabbed myself to death with a scale ruler. We were given a choice of a few sites to propose our buildings on and the one I chose was the teacher's carpark at St. Xavier's Institution. For that site, I was required to not only build the museum, but to also construct a pedestrian bridge across Farquhar Street as we were assuming the existing 'Boon Siew Honda' bridge is to be demolished. Oh, and a part of our museum HAD to be incorporated into the bridge.

My proposal was that of simplistic precast concrete interlocking blocks with a steel truss bridge with a maze-ish gallery. I'm happy with my work because it speaks to my own aesthetics of clean lines and structural expression but there is always room for improvement.

- the museum gallery in on the bridge with views out onto Farquhar St. features angled display panels to place exhibits and they create a zig-zag circulation.



- the pedestrian walkway (on the right) is an open walkway with protruding panels at the top which can be used for advertising and posters. On the left is the entrance into the gallery.



- exterior shot of the cantilevered Old Students' Meeting room on top and the outdoor cafe seating area on the wooden platform below.



- an aerial view of the overall structure. The other end of the building is a massive wall with a staircase leading down to the SXI field.

My critique session went satisfactorily. They did appreciate the over all structure and how it looks and were interested in the trusses and how I incorporated the display panels into them but they wished I had permeated that idea more into the bridge and perhaps not create a seperation between the gallery and pedestrian. They also thought I managed to put into consideration the axes of the building, how the bridge points North whilst the other blocks are parallel to SXI, and my addition of sun shading devices in relation to the orientation of the structure as well as the use of natural ventilation. But they did say that I should've air-conditioned the pedestrian as well.

I think it went well and I very much appreciated their comments and feedback. And so do I from you, if you're up to it.


Stay tuned for more.

Hell and back

Just a little teaser to my Studio 3 final project. My critique was held today and I hope everything went smoothly as I think it did.

I came early to set up my presentation board and models and clear up the studio a little a bit. I managed to print said presentation board and my portfolio AND also construct a simple model all within yesterday. I did not have to pull an all-nighter like I did the semester before (which left me looking like deranged psycopath lurking along the college grounds) and got sufficient sleep yesterday night! It was a good day for me.

As for the week before, THAT was a whole other story. I went to hell and back all within that god forsaken week. Infact, I went to hell, stayed there for a little while, watching my sanity chip off one piece at a time and crawled back to life with my two bare hands. I suffered 17-hour-days in college and only got up to 5 hours of sleep. I was deprived of proper meals (I remember one of my lunches was comprised of a delicious piece of bread...white bread with a good spread of nothing). I was cut off from the internet (it's just so distracting). And my best memory of last week was when I found a solution to resolve the issue of circulation in my gallery bridge by having an adjacent pedestrian walkway.

That was one hell of a week.
Literally.


Stay tuned for more.

Game face

Get my seat up-right, put on my game face and strap myself down secure.

Because tomorrow, it's gonna be a rough ride...



Stay tuned for more.

In 3D

I spent hours and hours experimenting with Google SketchUp today. I'm finding it quite difficult to maneuver and create forms because it's very much different from 3DS Max which I took a class in last semester. I pretty much still suck at 3D modelling and computer generated renderings, its just way too complicated. Nevertheless, I must try to get a hold of the knowledge. Hell, I must grasp that knowledge, put it into a food processor, blend said knowledge into bits of information and shove it down my own throat and up into my brain. Well technically it can't reach my brain through my throat, BUT YOU GET THE POINT!

Anyways, this is the experimental 3D model for the first assignment of Studio earlier in the semester. It's a group effort and we were proposing a sculptural entrance to KL's underground railway line (KTM). So imagine if you will, an underground train station with its tracks and trains. And above ground, there would be a sprawling park with these entrances scattered throughout.

Stay tuned for more.

Urghhh

Why god...WHY!


Stay tuned for more.

Craftboard Models

Here're some snapshots of the task which kept me and my coursemates busy for two whole weeks (weekends included thank you very much). So busy that we were on the brink of losing our marbles and to some, our cool.

It was hard work but I think it pretty much paid off. I think the site model looks awesome. I mean we built a part of Georgetown out from nothing but craftboards, UHU glue and corrugated cardboards. I have a feeling people are easily amused by things which have been scaled down or scaled up. But I like that feeling. It's hilarious.

- the whole site model


- City Hall


- Shophouses on Chulia St. (at the corner of Love Lane where 7/11 is)


- Shophouses on Chulia St.


- The junction at Penang Rd, Muntri St. and Chulia St.


- St. Xaviers Institution.


- Shophouse roofs.

After this project was done and over with, my workload continued to rain down on me with a short Project Management test this past Monday and a Working Drawings submission yesterday. But now, all of that is done and over with and I am already looking forward to the Raya holidays. I think all of us deserve this much needed break to pick up some of our said marbles.


Stay tuned for more.

Models

THIS. IS. WHAT'S. KEEPING. ME. SO. BUSY.




Stay tuned for more.

Tea Visitor Center

Here're some of the stuff I rendered for my final Studio project. Our clientele was a tea company and we're supposed to propose a small tea center with a dining area, kitchen, toilets, office, store room, gallery and a gift shop. Kinda like a visitor center. I do admit that this semester I tried stepping out of my comfort zone by trying something different. Something I wouldn't normally do, because if I don't try I'll never know.

I'm glad that I took a gamble even if the person who critiqued me said (in her exact words) to my face "I don't like the entire structure." At the end of the day, I learned something.

- the model I built (The layers of foam which look like steps are actually the contours of the hill)

- the tea center

- the kitchen counter where you queue to get your tea and food.

- the gift shop would be in the empty space on the left and at the far end is the view point.

- the dining/seating area where you can enjoy the great view

This project was also a competition in collaboration with a company producing different finishes (tiles, paints, etc.). I managed to get a meritorious award for my application of different materials creatively into the structure. And don't for a second think that I take it for granted; I'm extremely grateful towards everyone especially my friends for being so helpful and supportive. There's pizza on the way...in August.


Stay tuned for more.