A Sad Day for Design Education

This morning the students and I sending off Ellison back to the US. He has been teaching design in Malaysia for more than a decade. This time around he won't be back for at least another 8 years. It is a loss to the education industry here in Penang at a time when it is so difficult to find dedicated and committed lecturers. The government has been talking about 'brain drain' of our human resource to foreign countries; today I witness this situation first hand. There are a lot of good and talented people in Penang but if the industry as a whole does not know how to treasure and reward them, more people are going to move elsewhere seeking better working environment.

At a time when most advanced countries are competing against each other for highly qualified people, isn't it time for Malaysia to be more serious in retaining existing talents and attracting new ones?

Power of Architecture - Temples of Angkor

Sunrise at Angkor Wat - The tranquility of the pond in front reflected and enhanced the serenity of this great building.

One would wonder how a building constructed more than 900 years ago could attract so much attention. People came from all corners of the world to witness this spectacular creation by the ancient Khmer civilization. This ancient masterpiece has successfully helped to kicked start the Cambodian economy and helping the livelihood of its citizens. Here, we witness the influence of architecture in fulfilling a noble social obligation which is much bigger than itself.

First light revealed the architectural details on the facade.

Portal to space beyond.

Staircase to Heaven - by making the ascend steep, verticality of the architecture is exagerrated; one constantly find him/herself looking up towards the sky.

Delicately done carvings on the walls depicting the Apsara dancers.

South Gate of Angkor Thom

Dramatic perspective.

The smiling faces of Bayon

All the steps leading up to the temples were very steep comparing to our modern day standard. I speculate on three possible reasons why it was done that way:

1) To exagerrate the grandiour of the building and the divinity of the king and gods by making its visitors humble; one has to physically climb and crawl up to reach the top.

2) By making the riser higher than they should be, verticality of the building could be emphasised to give the building a much taller impression.

3) To speed up contruction by having lesser steps reaching the top.

Architecture as mountains.

Face to face with an ancient civilization.

Architecture and Nature as One.

The framing of different volumetric spaces gives rise to the dramatic effect of the progression into the temple.

Wonderful architectural journey...........