Pillars of Expression

Today I happened to browse through Marlene's and Melissa's blogs and found these wonderful pictures. It is the project we have been talking about for so long and it has finally materialized! This is indeed one of the best news I ever have since I left KDU. I'm really touched to see these pictures because they reminded me of all the struggles everyone have been through in the Design Department.

Maizul jokingly said that these columns are dedicated to me, however I would rather think that it is a contribution from all of you to show the importance and relevance of art in our society. Thanks to Maizul's creativity and the hard work of the students, the execution of these art works marks a big step forward for KDU aspiring to be the premier art school in northern Malaysia.

Well done and once again thanks to those involved for making this possible!

The Japanese Spirit

Just back from Tokyo and my god what a great city! It is a huge city with a population of 12 million people! What intrigued me was not the size of the city but the culture of its people. With so many people living closely in this mega city, Tokyo somehow is an amazingly clean place! People always say that Singapore is clean which I never deny that, but one has to think about the size of Singapore which is way smaller than Tokyo and easier to be maintained. Furthermore Singapore managed to achieve its cleanliness today by way of heavy handed enforcement on the part of the government. We were told by our tour guide that the police in Japan are quite lenient and courteous to the offenders. The city's cleanliness is completely attributed to the Japanese culture and education.

Speaking about culture, one can't help but respect the Japanese spirit when it comes to the level of commitment they put onto their work. Everyone from waitress to driver to hotel staff, all were so absorbed into their work and maintained the positive attitude and cheerfulness the entire time they serve you. When we disembarked from our bullet train at the Shin Yokohama Station, I saw 3 Japanese cleaners diligently wiping the surface of the stainless steel compartments along the boarding platform. You can feel that kind of energy and seriousness they possess even doing such task which most of us would think as trivial. With this kind of working attitude, no wonder Japan is a country destined for greatness.

Mahathir was right when he adopted the Look East Policy when he was PM of Malaysia and encouraged all of us to learn from the Japanese. However, when I compare the working attitude of the Japanese with the Malaysian, I hate to say that we still have a very long way before we can catch up, that is IF we can ever catch up at all!

Tokyo Here I Come!

On my way to Tokyo in about 1 hour's time. Now happily blogging using the free internet service available inside Changi Airport. Malaysia airports should seriously have this service, after all what's the point of bragging about the Multimedia Super Corridor when people can't even surf the net while waiting for their next flight!

Anyway very excited about the trip. Will snap lots of pictures of interesting places and buildings and share with everyone here!

Lagos, Nigeria

Just came back from my working trip to Lagos, Nigeria last week, my first visit to the continent of Africa. Culture shock indeed especially when the city is so congested and chaotic. There seems to be a lack of order in that country and we were advised not to wander around alone especially at night. The time I spent on plane was indeed more enjoyable than we actually ended on our destination. Picture above shows me with our client.

Design = 70% Thinking + 30% Drawing

After a break of 3 years from the architectural industry, it is such a coincidence that my first major design project is related to education. I’ve always believe that education and profession must have strong link in order to push the industry forward, that was exactly the reason why I decided to teach 3 years ago. It is interesting to note that when I get myself involved again in building design after a long period of absence from the industry, I noticed that my approach in making architecture has somewhat changed from where I stopped. I found myself able to look at the entire scheme more holistically and with a more tranquil mind too.

I guess the management skills that I’ve learned from KDU College really benefit me after all. 3 years ago, I used to design building in a very ad hoc manner, in other words chaotically and without any clear sense of direction. The painstaking scheduling exercises that I’ve been through as the Academic Department Head of KDU College really transformed me to be a more organized and focused person. Now, I treat the design process as management of problem solving exercise.

I was trained that drawing is a very crucial exercise in designing. I didn’t understand this when my lecturer first told me that our drawings will have to ‘speak’ for themselves. He was right but what he forgot to emphasize to me was that thinking is inherent in drawing. Whenever we draw a line, our minds are actually processing various information about that line such as:
Is it a wall?
Is it transparent?
Does it have rough or smooth texture?
How will it affect the perception of the space?
What is its impact in three dimension?
Has it got any cultural significance to the place?
etc……etc………etc………

In other words, if we spend 3 minutes drawing perspective of a room, we actually have to spend 7 minutes conceptualizing the spatial significance of the room. After this thinking process, we may decided that what we’ve drawn does not work at all and we spend another 30 minutes amending our drawing which lead us to think for another 70 minutes of a revised design! This is the truth about designing. No one ever said that design is easy, it is tough and time consuming. However, once we clear all the contradictions in our minds and convince ourselves that we have arrived at the best solution at the end of the day, it will be a rewarding experience to just sit back and enjoy the creation of our design endeavor.

Personal Space

I've been procrastinating to update my blog for too long already and I decided that I must write something today!

As I've mentioned in my previous blog that things around me are quite different nowadays. The most obvious one is the closeness of the people. The word 'closeness' here means the measured distance and not the emotional bond between people. Official figures came out 2 weeks ago that Singapore's population has reached 4.84 million! Comparatively Penang island's population is only around 678,000 people. Some of you must be thinking right now that Penang is much smaller than Singapore. So lets put the figures into perspective:

Land area of Singapore: 692.7 sqkm
Land area of Penang Island: 295 sqkm

Simple calculation will then show you that the density of Singapore in terms of no. of people per sqkm is 6,987 people while that of Penang is only 2,298 people. Singapore's density is 3 times higher than that of Penang. Imagine that you are queueing up to purchase your GSC movie ticket on a typical Saturday night, the line in Singapore will be 3 times longer!!! Imagine again that you are on the Rapid Penang bus and you used to swing your arms around talking and gesturing exitingly about the current political situation, but here in Singapore you will be happy if you still can move your fingers in the packed MRT train!!

In other words, Penang is actually quite spacious eventhough it is smaller in terms of land area. We do have quite a comfortable personal space in Penang so we should stop complaining that Penang is small.

Penang's Warmth

Every time I read the newspaper on tourists being interviewed by reporters asking them their opinion about Penang, the usual answers are always about friendliness of its people and the variety of food available. Indeed I can really feel it now being away from Penang. I particularly thank those who have visited my blog and left a few simple and nice words of encouragement to me, really appreciate it!

Being a Penangite, I like things to be simple and less rigid. And I guess such is the Penang experience that is unique to us. Although I’m physically away from home, I believe that my heart is still in Penang (sounds a bit like Koh Tsu Koon’s speech before the March ’08 election when he was pondering on whether to take his career to the Federal level or not). But seriously, wherever I go, Penang is still my home.

I’ll be back!

Design Is.....

I have a T-shirt with its front printed "Design Is" while its back printed "A Better Idea". This is how we have been taught as designers, to always come out with something new. But is design only about that? There will be those days that we keep scratching our head trying to figure out how to put our pens down the butter paper in order to solve problems. We keep on pressuring ourselves that we are going to design the next award winning buildings. However, we end up staring at a blank sheet of butter paper most of the time. Perhaps if we don’t focus so much on making a breakthrough, wouldn’t that make us feel better. The problem lies in us focusing too much on trying to be different from other people.

Philip Johnson, an internationally acclaimed American architect once said that he just want to be second best, not the best one. And I think he got a point there. If we think about it deeper, design is actually about solving problems. If we are designing an apartment unit, the problem is how can we design a conducive living space. Besides solving problems, design is also about making the decision which we think are right on that particular moment. The reason I said this is because there is no right or wrong in design, any design we create is justifiable depending on the particular angle one looks at.

Happy Birthday to Me

I got a surprise at 1pm today when the admin person told me there will be a celebration of my birthday together with another colleague. I was not fast enough to take out my camera and before I knew it, the cake had been cut and everybody started eating. I managed to salvage the broken label and took picture of it. I thank them for their thoughtfulness and effort, really nice.
But tonight I'll be celebrating my birthday alone for the first time in my life. I plan to take a walk around the city after my dinner to reflect upon my future direction. I remember my Chinese teacher taught us that on our birthday, we shouldn't be working. We should spend the whole day alone thinking about the reason we came to this world. Well instead of thinking about that, I would rather ponder on what my next step is towards the future.
Happy Birthday to Me!!!

How Much Do You Worth?

Everyone comes with an invisible price tag. We send out messages of how much we worth through our thought and behaviour. During any job interview, the interviewer can easily detect the interviewee's price tag by observing the latter's response to all the questions put up to him/her. If he/she tries very hard to impress, his/her value will be perceived as low. If he/she is very firm and frank without being pretentious, the perceived value will be much higher.

To know our value is the very first step to improve ourselves. We should know where we are so that we can assess our performance from time to time. When we find ourselves stay still at a particular position for too long, it might be indication that we are decaying in our comfort zone. We dare not make any drastic changes in order to protect this comfort zone in its original state. But we will never know what lies outside this self-imposed boundary unless we step away from it. It involves risks for sure; but it may also open up windows of opportunities that we have never dreamt of.

Before closing any deal, just think about it; how much do you worth?

The Lion City

Everybody knows that Singapore is a very competitive place. One can feel its vibrancy and energy just by looking at how Singaporean walk. As I mentioned in my previous posting that rush hour over here is really rushing! People actually run as fast as they can as if being chased by Tai Ee Long. I realize that its competitiveness has reached its limit when I saw a commercial on TV which proclaimed one Singaporean by the name of……I can’t remember his name…..Anyway this fellow was awarded the champion blood donor! I was like…..WHAT?! People actually compete to donate blood over here?! It is madness and hilarious at the same time.

Years ago, one of my Singaporean friend visited me in Penang. I brought him to eat one of the famous Curry Mee in town. He got diarrhea right after that. It is easily understood why he couldn’t get used to our unhygienic Penang food as Singaporeans are very particular about cleanliness. Believe it or not, I actually got diarrhea 3 times on my first day of work in Singapore. I must be the first person to ever get stomach ache from clean food. I think I am allergic to cleanliness.

My new office has a good mix of people from different countries. There are 1 Vietnamese, 1 Thai, 3 Filipinos, 1 from Malacca, 2 from Penang (me and one of the boss), 1 more boss from Malaysia (don’t know which part yet) and the rest are Singaporeans. The big boss is a Singaporean. So far, all of them are very friendly and great! I feel comfortable in the office. One of them even invited me to join them for lunch. My first project is to refine the design of a residential project in Nigeria done by the Penang boss. I started quite slow because it has been a while since the last time I designed an apartment.

It is funny that the AA of the company asked me why I come to Singapore so late? She said most people come in their 20s. Yeah right, thanks for reminding me that I’m way beyond 30. I’m sure she didn’t mean anything, just plain curiosity. I actually thought about her question for a while: Why did I stay in Penang all this while?............After ponder about it for a while, I don’t see anything wrong with it. Everything happens for a reason, I always wanted to do something for my hometown Penang as an architect. Although I didn’t design the tallest building or the most luxurious hotel in Penang, I’m satisfied with some of the work that I’ve done in the duration of the past 10 years. I’m particularly proud of the work I’ve done for KDU College as well.

That was the past. Now I’m venturing into new territory. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what it will lead me into (especially when I put Australia into the equation). I just realize that I still have a long journey ahead of me………………….

Warming Up

Started my new job today. First time taking public transport to work and had a completely new experience. One can never feel sleepy in the morning once they walk out of their houses as a lot of people can be seen walking as fast as possible to catch the approaching train. I tried to ignore the people around me otherwise I'll be stress even before I started to work. Anyway, it is kind of an interesting and fun experience for me besides the fact that I've to rush to the toilet once I reached my destination.

I'm still trying to settle down in this new land and that's why I don't have much to show in my blog recently. I'll try to upload some images the soonest possible. Miss everyone in Penang........

From Island to Island

In two more days I'll be heading down south to start a new chapter in my life and career. This will be the first time I ever work outside Penang. I wonder how my life will be changed.....

A lot of people have been asking me why I wanted to come back and work in Penang after my graduation. The answer is simple: Penang is such a wonderful place!!! But after 10 years of working on this island, I realise that it is only that much opportunity available in Penang. After a long period of soul searching session I decided to step out of my comfort zone to advance my career.

I'm going to miss a lot of things in Penang such as the following:

• Breakfast at Bangkok Lane for its Hokkien Mee (my favourite hawker food).
• Char Siu Rice at the Sky Kopitiam along Chulia Street.
• Body Combat class at Celebrity Fitness.
• Lecture at KDU College.
• Movies at GSC with my loved one.
• Badminton on Tuesday.
• All my friends, colleagues and students.

.............and many more!

Execution vs. Conceptualization

I accidentally drove along Perak Road and found out that the building that I designed 4 years ago eventually got built. It does take that long to put a building up here in Penang and we are only talking about a 4-storey relatively small building. But it is not my intention to talk about the rate of construction in this posting.

Instead, I would like to highlight the importance of architect's role during the construction stage. Initially I was about to name this blog Illusion of ELEVATION because I thought the problem of the building constructed was due to my failure in visualizing the Elevation design in 3 dimension. However, upon closer scrutiny of the actual building, I realized that the problem is not about thickness of the wall. The problem lies on the proportion of the building, the very basic principle of architecture. The artist's impression below is the original proportion of the building that I designed and we can clearly see that the actual building has deviated tremendously from the original design especially at the rooftop as well as the sizes of coping. This may due to changes made during construction stage for some reasons. Developer tends to make changes to the building in order to save cost at the expense of architectural aesthetics.


Anyway, I'm still happy that it finally get built after all.

Passion of Kerala

Hey guys! Thanks for the lunch just now and good to see you all again! Sorry Ken and Jocelyn, the waitress missed out two of you in the photo. You want me to photoshop you two into this picture? ;)

Baddy Buddy

Steamboat with badminton kaki at Golden Gate Gurney after our regular Tuesday session.

Rejuvenating...

After working for 10 years, I will take a long break (actually only 2 weeks) before I start my new job. Decided to go to the place I'm sure everyone has been except me, Cameron Highland. Can you believe that this is my first time to Cameron?

In front of Foh San restaurant in Ipoh for Dim Sum on our way to Cameron Highland. Managed to find a beautiful model as well, my wife.


Some of the beautiful flowers that I came across right in front of the hotel we stayed. Try out my skill in photography. Stella, if you are looking at this, please do give me a grade. Do I score an A or a B with this picture?
Darling, why in such deep thought? The flowers remind you of something?


Bala Chalet, the place that we stayed at Cameron Highland. It was a heritage building which was built in 1934. Used to be a boarding school for British expatriates. Luckily it was not haunted. I slept peacefully that night.

Something interesting in there?


Cactus Point

Having steamboat at night is a must whenever you are in Cameron Highland. This particular shop featured on Astro provides only organic vegetable for its steamboat. The cabbage was really sweet even when tasted raw. After having a wonderful dinner here, I may consider becoming a vegetarian. Ellison, you really must try it!!

Enjoying a nice morning coffee in front of my hotel room.

This is what happen when you go shopping with the ladies.....

Sungai Palas Tea Plantation

Have a nice day!