Marking George Town

Window to the Past

The proposed George Town marker design was inspired by the traditional ‘5-Foot Way’ that functions very efficiently as urban connectors as well as public spaces. The idea is to use these arches as guiding apparatus to lead visitors to places of interests and framing major landmarks at the same time. The form of the arches was inspired by the ‘Cloud-Shaped’ openings that can be easily found on most of the façade of George Town’s shop houses.

Aesthetically Functional:
The intention is to not only consider the proposed design as merely markers but as urban sculptures as well. They are however ‘practical’ sculptures as they also double up as public furnitures to complement that state’s initiatives in making George Town a livable city. While fulfilling the function of markers and public amenities, these sculptures would also ensure that the existing heritage buildings remain as they are without any intervention onto their building fabric. Their external outlook would enhance the character of the buildings and streetscapes where they are located.

Flexibility:
By constructing the arches in 5 different sections for a single standard unit, the sculpture could be rearranged and twisted as situation requires. In addition, 2 standard units could be combined to form a larger unit at more spacious locations pointing at several landmarks in opposing directions at the same time. The ‘Cloud-Shaped’ arches which will be made of steel could be easily dismantled and relocated to elsewhere whenever such situation arises.

Colours:
The proposed markers come in several colours depending on where they are located. Their colours will follow the nearest landmark which they are located. For example, the colour of the arches will be blue when the marker is located near Cheong Fatt Tze mansion and white if placed in front of St. Georges Church.

With its distinctive colours and unique form that are inspired by the aesthetics of historic George Town, the proposed Window to the Past marker/sculpture would definitely enhance and add to the rich architectural quality of this World Heritage City.

Ko-Fu Zen

Retracing Memory Lane

Went back for a one day presentation session at KDU on 9th july 2009. Managed to catch up with a few old friends and students along the way. The college environment is more vibrant now especially with all the display at the foyer. As for the fourth floor, only a few familiar faces, the rest were new students to me. I enjoyed the presentation whole day long, it reminded me of those teaching days again.

However, towards the end of the day when people start going home and the gallery became quieter and deserted, a kind of sadness enveloped me. In retrospect, our team has put in tremendous effort building up the school to its current status but we would have to leave it behind in the end due to certain circumstances. Over the years we have established emotional connection to the place where we educate and share our experience with students to the best of our ability. We once had burning desire to grow the school and everyone working towards the same vision and goal. It was indeed a memorable period in my career.

The day-long rain on Saturday reflected my mood and it further dampen my spirit at the same time. I guess that's the way things go, nothing is constant in this world and we will just have to learn to adapt to changes as they come along.

I sincerely wish everyone (lecturers and students) success in their future endeavours.

Desire to Win

They are fired up and they want more. Those who won competition must have this feeling every time they successfully beat the rest to climb to the top. Now that they have tasted the sweetness of victory, they must not stop but keep competing even after they leave college. Winning competition is the guaranteed way to gain recognition in the design industry.

Can Nigeria take it?

Hip Hop Graffiti 2009

Nick and Jamie with their winning art work.

Melinda and Cat with their winning art work.

Once again you guys have made it! This event has been held annually since 2007 and you all have participated in it enthusiastically. Congratulation to Nick, Jamie, Melinda and Cat who have won 3rd and consolation prizes respectively. I'm sure that it must be an emotional moment for both Nick and Melinda who have participated in 2007 to have finally won the competition. This prove that as long as we persevere and never give up, we will succeed eventually!

KDU 2009 Booth Design

From The Star Metro North - Saturday February 14, 2009
New attraction at college boothsBy ANDREA FILMER

Magnet for students: An artist's impression of KDU College Penang's booth design for the education fair.

Duality

Reconciliating duality has been my approach in design for a while. I guess I was very much influenced by the writings of the late Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. Personally I feel that Kurokawa's writings were better conceived than his architecture. I was interested in the way he tried to identify the differences between Western and Japanese architecture because I think his theory is also applicable to Asian sensibilities in general.

In this design for a proposed 'Future School', the idea is to stay away from the conventional classroom layout by introducing nature into the interior of the learning areas. The classrooms are physically enclosed but 'consciously' open to the outside. 2 classrooms sandwiched a garden in between which also serves as outdoor learning area. The wall adjacent to the corridor stops short of the ceiling and floor to allow lighting penetrate into the interior. Colored boxes of inspiration are inserted on this wall which appear to be sliding against each other. Translucent color coated glass will be used to allow natural light illuminates the classroom.

A few display areas will be located along the corridor as a transcient exhibition space for students' works. The design is to create a 'performing stage' for students' presentation. As they are located along the public circulation area, more exposure and interaction among students is expected.

Hitting the Right Note

There are times when we scribble sketches which could look like drawings so bad that even a three year old could do better. We would continue to explore our ideas through these sketches until our dustbin is full of crumbled butter paper that spilled onto the floor. And at the end of the day we still haven’t got the slightest clue of what the buildings is going to look like. We then take a break, go for a walk or even play some games sort of to relax our mind and hopefully we would be struck by an inspiration. Sometimes these repetitive exercises could continue for days without any apparent materialization.

However, there are also times when we just know it! When every lines we draw fall onto their correct positions effortlessly. When there is no other option except the one we drew in front of us. The experience is like when a painting reflects exactly the aspiration of the artist. We have hit the right note within us. Such is the moment when we whisper to ourselves that: “Yes, there is truth in architecture after all!”

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.

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?

Unbuilt Works II

I've selected a few of my favourite projects which I've designed a few years ago but unfortunately were never built for some reasons. Looking back at these proposals, I do see several areas where I could still improve on. Our sensibilities towards aesthetics will change as we become more exposed. It is important to be critical of our own design. We must be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our proposal even before the client notices them. Be humble and learn from others.