KL-eaving

Three years has gone by. Three. 3. Three years ago, if someone were to ask me where I spent my life, I would say "Penang!" with excitement. Now, I almost feel an obligation to include KL, PJ, Subang, what have you into the list.

Three whole years has gone by. And in those three years, I know I have grown. My tastes, changed; My perceptions, altered; My ideals, rebooted. Old routines abandoned and new habits adopted. There isn't a specific point in time when this change occurred. It was a gradual process that went unnoticed day-to-day, only apparent when reviewed after a year or two.
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Yesterday morning I awoke at 6:15am in my aunt and uncle's home in SS23. My aunt diligently leaves for work at 6:30am. From the room I've been inhabiting for 2 years, I could just make out the noises suggesting my aunt is already awake and leaving soon. As my eyes adjust to the lack of light, I could barely make out the room I've grown to call home. It's the largest room I've had all to myself. Ever. The room seems different now. Boxes piled up next to the bed. My usually cluttered desk on the other side now spotlessly clean. It's just like the day I moved in.

I emerge from my room with a chill creeping down my spine and head downstairs. With the front door already opened, I peeked out at the porch and see that my uncle is backing the car out into the street which was still eerily silent in the pre-dawn sky, waiting for his wife. She comes down, all ready, work case in hand and wonders why I am up so early.

It's my last day in KL. I just wanted to see her off before I leave in a couple hours' time. We both exchanged well wishes and gave each other a hug and bid farewell. In just two years, I have gone from barely recognizing who they were to knowing that my uncle likes his cola and which brand of laundry detergent my aunt buys. I've grown to love them and their lives.

One last hug and my aunt leaves for work. My uncle shuts the door and we climb the stairs up to the bedrooms. I would sleep for another 3 hours before I clean up, load all of my stuff in boxes into the Corolla, bid farewell to my uncle and drive 400 kilometers North to Penang.
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Three years in KL can do alot to you. I'm so happy that I made the decision to study there. There is nothing I would change. The awesome fun times, the mishaps and everything in between are part and parcel of who I am at this point in writing. I want to think I've changed for the better. That my thinking has matured and my ways somehow improved. But what I appreciate most about the experience would be how KL has made me take a good hard look at myself. And I'm beginning to accept my virtues and flaws. I'm a work in progress, so bear with me here.


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.

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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.

Let there be shorts!

Hugo Boss | Spring/Summer 2010


Louis Vuitton | Spring/Summer 2010


Michael Bastian | Spring/Summer 2010

It's getting hotter these days in Malaysia, more so in the city where trees and greenery are leveled in favour of soaring concrete and glass buildings. We've all heard of the urban heat island effect where temperatures in cities (like KL, and what I like to call greater KL which includes PJ) are a few degrees higher than the outskirts. So, when I set foot in the new Taylor's Lakeside campus only to discover little signs on the doors of classrooms prohibiting shorts, frankly, I was a little outraged.

In this day and age, I find it quite pathetic to impose a ruling against the wearing of shorts especially when we're living in a tropical climate. Shouldn't the rule be made that one has to dress to a level to which is credible and respectable? Why must we be made to conform to formality and sartorial rigidity when it's thirty-over degrees Celsius out there on the street. Wouldn't one be better off looking and feeling comfortable in shorts instead of feeling extremely agitated and sweating uncontrollably in pants?

I do understand that there is some level of decorum which must be met in educational institutions but there should be a middle ground where shorts are an acceptable piece of attire and I think that middle ground is dress shorts. Those sleek smarter looking shorts like those pictured (above).

Just like how vernacular architecture produces buildings and structures which address local issues, why can't fashion rules be made to adapt to the locality in which climate would be a huge consideration. We live in a tropical climate where it's hot and humid year round. Let them wear shorts for god sakes!

If you're not convinced, read this.


Stay tuned for more.

New campus life

Classes have resumed as per usual if not for the drastic change in scenery. The new Taylor's Lakeside Campus is large. Three blocks about nine floors each with other facilities still undergoing construction. The building is.....well...meh. It's alright I guess. Well i'll only be here for another couple weeks before I finish off my diploma so I won't be here long.

The change in location doesn't really affect my driving route all that much since it's pretty much in the same area. The facilities have improved but that would probably come at a cost for newbies. Thank god this is my last semester. But here's the part which is rich. Food is priced higher than most places, our studios and computer labs which I need desperately to do my renderings and projects have yet to be properly set up, the parking areas are bursting at the seams, the 'lake' in 'lakeside campus' is actually an abandoned mining pool and the fact that the site is located directly next to what I presume is a cattle farm is...how shall I put it...an olfactory violation.


Stay tuned for more.

Update

So life has been crazy/amazing/wonderful of late. So many things to do in my last semester at Taylor's College. This week is the last week in the current campus I am in as next week, we're getting a week off as the entire faculty is moving to the mew lakeside campus which, although looks decent in pictures, I'm a little bit hesitant to go to. Hopefully it won't affect my journey there since it's actually about the same distance from where I'm staying. But I'm only going to be there for two weeks before my study week starts, then finals then the critique and that's the end of my college life.

I've been wrecking my brain over university choices. It's not easy trying to select the university I want to go to since I'm still weighing over two different continents. I still have a little time left, but I DO need to make my decision as soon as possible as planning and preparations take up so much time.

Although I'm having a one week break, it won't seem like it since I still have a million things to get done from I.P. to Studio work which is currently experiencing stunted progress. I'm going to try and spread out work evenly in the next week. Balancing out work and fun. And I am trying to make a trip back to Penang sometime next week for a couple of days.


Stay tuned for more.

Update

My weekends aren't weekends anymore. The times when I use to spend them taking it easy at home or hanging out in KL city or a mall has been abruptly replaced by hours and hours pouring over the computer screen and pages of architecture books working on on-going projects which seem to never end. Yes, I may be stressed and lethargic from the physically and mentally taxing projects, but the upside to it is that I spend less on shopping. Which is especially important now that we're already halfway through March and inching closer to the end of my embargo.

Instead, i'm spending a lot on food. But of course, it is no sit-down course meals or anything remotely like that. Lately, my meals have been condensed into 10 minute quickies trying to shove down greasy fried food from fast food chains, interspersed with Photoshop-ing.

This lifestyle is so not healthy. And a bowl of salad won't fix anything. It's not that easy. But maybe a tub of ice-cream will :)


Stay tuned for more.

Site Trekking

I love it when we go on site visits. It's like playing tourist in your own city. We visited our site in Semenyih today. The site which would be for our final Studio project. Semenyih is...far. We could not do much there but take a few shots since the vegetation was too dense to penetrate. And the weather was unbelievably humid. But it was invigorating being in a place so detached from the city.

I found it interesting that on the way to the site, we passed an ostrich farm. The same one which I had been to about 5 years before with one of my high school trips.


Stay tuned for more.

Bad Week

I've been having a pretty bad week. Firstly, the Chinese New Year break ended and I had to get my ass back here to PJ. Then classes started up again and I discovered that my Integrated Project was a catastrophe in the making. Then I got my results for the first assignment of Studio which I had nothing to complain about because I did below par. I really think I was about a week away from pushing my design forward to a much better state, but as fate would have it, time was just not on my side. And let's not forget about the shitty Environmental Science report.

Then I suffered from a cough which still last up to this second. And I'm wondering if I'm ever going to get my voice back. Then two days ago, my eyes kinda got a little swollen for no apparent reason and everytime I blinked, it freakin' hurts. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY TIMES AN AVERAGE HUMAN BLINKS?!?! But it has subsided since this morning and it's getting better.

And today I found out that I got summoned for running a red light back in Penang. Which is absolutely terrible. Good lord, I cannot believe this. It's just been a week and I've been encountering such misfortunes. And I still got so much work to do!

I swear to god, if there wasn't a party at Sophia's or the house visit to Jon and Kairi's, I would have spilled my marbles all over the god damned floor.


Good night. Stay tuned for more.

Roof

| On the roof top of Sunway Pyramid

There are so many assignments lined up. Some of which excites me and others not so much. Yesterday I just submitted some pretty crappy work for Environmental Science. I feel that subject is like the stepchild that I always neglect. I need to sort out my priorities better next time.


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.

Just Dance

Why can't we all just break out into a perfectly choreographed dancing frenzy.

I tend to have unusual daydreams when submissions are at my doorstep. I've got a few things which are to be completed in the coming week which includes; the submission of my Studio project: the memorial for a dead famous person, a presentation for Environmental Science and some other meeting stuff for Integrated Project.


Stay tuned for more.

Disappointment.

Results came out this week. And I'm very VERY displeased with myself. My abysmal performance this past semester can only be attributed to my lack in attention to detail and a terrible progress rate.

Another semester, another disappointment.

But in a couple of weeks, a new semester begins. And my last one in KL.

Crit shots

Pictures from Crit day!

- me, my model, my 75 ringgit presentation board(top) and my portfolio.



- "Yes, you're absolutely right, I say his presentation is so horrid that I want to throw up everywhere"
"Even here on my chin?"
"Yes, even there"



- "I wanted my design to...BOOMZ"



- The last crappy shots of my model because I only finished it at 1am and was too tired and totally forgot about photographing it and only got these shots in studio before submitting it.



- It was quite bitchy to construct the truss from balsa wood, but I like the end product. If I can't get the whole model back, I don't mind just getting that part.

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.

Painful to watch

So, yesterday was my Studio internal crit and that explains why over the past week I've been so frazzled and occupied and just oh-so-busy. I've been having late nights and am now sleep deprived. I consider food as that stuff that keeps me going instead of pure bliss like I normally do. Architectural ideas and drawings are all that I constantly see in my mind's eye. And I LITERALLY SLEPT ON MY DRAWINGS AND MODELS. I mean I woke up yesterday and found myself in my bed surrounded and I MEAN SURROUNDED by pieces of crumpled and rolled paper, massing models, scraps, paper bags and an array of stationary. It was just insane. I've never felt trashier than ever.

And to make matters worse. The crit didn't go well at all. During the presentations, the words that left the lecturer's lips include 'awful', 'painful to watch', 'utterly horrible', 'really really bad' , 'worse' and 'terrible'. It was a bloodbath that left us all soaked in despair.

But I know that I've got to just suck it up and do what I need to do to get things done for the external crit which be at the end of the month.


Stay tuned for more.

Panic.....NOW.

It just hit me today that I only have another week and a half before my classes officially end and the Study Week begins. Which means I only have 10 more days to finish up my Working Drawing Details and to RESUBMIT all of the previous ones with amendments. Which ALSO means I ONLY have 10 DAYS before my INTERNAL CRIT SESSION WITH MY LECTURERS WHICH CONSTITUTE A QUARTER OF MY STUDIO MARKS. WHICH ALSO MEANS that NEXT WEEK is the LAST WEEK FOR ANY KIND OF TUTORIALS FOR STUDIO BEFORE THE LAST 100 METER DASH TO THE END OF THE SEMESTER CRIT. WHICH MEANS I NEED TO DEVELOP, AMEND, PROCESS, AMEND SOMEMORE, PRODUCE AND FINISH UP MY STUDIO BY NEXT WEEK!!!

WHICH MEANS!!!!!

I. AM. SO. SCREWED.


Please throw me into the nearest ocean.

Stay tuned for advanced panicking.

Sunny Days Ahead.

Those two-three weeks of maddening work is over and gone. Models were made, re-made and done. Presentations were put together, presented and critically remarked. And all in all, those 2 whole long weekends, weekends with extended holidays and all, weekends which could have been used up for a leisurely stroll through malls with friends, paid off. At least I think it did. I'm happy with the way the site and zoning models turned out. They look pretty cool in a 1:500 scale. I HAVE to take some pictures of them.

To all the people who's calls or smses I ignored or did not reply, I'm sorry. Imagine living for nearly 3 weeks straight on a 9am to 2am work schedule 7 days a week. If that's not tiring I don't know what is. And on top of that, having to attend classes during the week days and listen to a 2 hour long lecture.

I have an exam this coming Monday. And a submission on Tuesday. But other than that, I'm already anticipating the upcoming Raya holidays. Life's starting to look good again.


Stay tuned for sunnier skies.