re:ACT | reallyarchitecture

And while we're at it...

2008-10-02T00:53:00.000+08:00

Man + EnvironmentArchifest Design Forum16-17 October. Drama Centre, NLB.Featuring Richard Hassell, Andrew Maynard, Jo Noero, Ken Yeang and more.More here.

A little bit of publicity...

2008-10-02T00:52:00.001+08:00

...for the event organisers.More at the main Archifest website.

Really Ar? 2 - "So This Is Masterplanning!"

2008-08-02T10:55:00.003+08:00

Hi good people,WE ARE BACK WITH REALLY AR!!!! As you would already know, Really Ar? is Re:act’s design sharing session where we invite designers to talk about their recent projects. This sharing session is open to anyone who might be interested in architecture and design and through this we hope to encourage meaningful discussion of real issues and new ideas! The theme for August’s Really Ar?

Pecha Kucha Beijing, 18 May 2008

2008-05-18T20:38:00.001+08:00

It is barely an hour after the event when I decided to blog about it here, before I forget what this largely unmemorable series of lectures was about.Pecha Kucha, as the name suggests (you can find the background of how this name came about on the web, I’m pretty sure, as it has been widely publicised..) is chit-chat in japanese. The lectures i just sat through (figure of speech, really, since I

THE NON_EXISTENT LIBRARY

2008-05-15T19:32:00.001+08:00

THE NON-EXISTENT LIBRARYIn my library account stands the records of books borrowed from the architecture library. It shows the book code which would point the exact location in real space where you can find it. Yet its physical location- the architecture library- is no more. The librarians extended my loan till June. Weird.

TU DELFT ARCHITECTURE 14th MAY 2008

2008-05-14T21:19:00.004+08:00

Dean and team during this morning's briefingBriefing today. The leadership team is all about "the show must go on!" Photos from today. Walked around the building. Accepted the truth. Prayed for hope.

TU DELFT ARCHITECTURE FACULTY DESTROYED BY FIRE/ BRAND BIJ BOUWKUNDE TU DELFT

2008-05-14T03:05:00.002+08:00

TU DELFT FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE DESTROYED BY FIRE(For the headlines on the event in the Dutch news, click RTL)I entered the faculty of architecture at 9.10am, got to the 5th level and there was water all over the floor. The lifts were not working so I walked up all five floors. I walked to the tap and got myself a cup of water. After approximately 5 minutes, the alarm sounded. I was still

SANFORD KWINTER @ BERLAGE

2008-05-10T03:21:00.002+08:00

left to right: Salomon Frausto, Sanford Kwinter, Peter TrummerSanford Kwinter was in Berlage to launch his 20-years-in-the-making book= Far from Equilibrium. Looking every bit the mad scientist that he was, Kwinter captivated with his sincerity and self-deprecating attitude. If you've ever tried to read his book Architectures of Time, you will realise that everything you've thought was deep and

Pecha Kucha Beijing 2008

2008-04-28T14:55:00.004+08:00

Thanks Jan for the cover! Pecha Kucha Beijing will be held on May 18, 2008 for those who are interested.

PECHA KUCHA IN ROTTERDAM

2008-04-25T17:52:00.009+08:00

Friend Ren Horng Yee, who presented at Pecha Kucha, with me and Ilmar, my classmateView from the front rowLesley MoorePecha Kucha in Rotterdam! There I was, yesterday night. (Yoda like...)Having been to Rojak's and having been very impressed with jing's photograph's and boo jun feng's the changi murals, i must say pecha kucha rotterdam came across as quite a disappointment. The evening had a

Really Ar? Again?

2008-04-21T02:35:00.002+08:00

Hot on the heels (well, if you're looking at time in the more drawn-out scale of things) of the first Really Ar?, a pecha-kucha inspired showcase of thematically-relevant projects, comes the second session.Really Ar? Again?Held in an informal setting, in which we invite a few people with interesting ideas to present to an audience of young architects, the objective of the Really Ar? sessions is

Frank Gehry asks "Then what?"

2008-04-14T22:41:00.005+08:00

Who would know that an interview with Frank Gehry could be so entertaining? I like what he says about the Architect having to bring something of this own to the table in terms of aesthetics. He also speaks about collaboration, and I thought what was interesting from that was the people the person that he chose to collaborate with. While we often talk about collaboration with

CARUSO ST JOHN

2008-04-12T00:29:00.001+08:00

Brick house, London 2001-2005First time I would ever brag that I like a brick house.

Big Brother's REALLY watching.

2008-04-09T18:24:00.003+08:00

This comes about a month behind, but here's a sneak peak at what Rem Koolhaas has "architectured" for an island in Dubai that aspires to be... well, Manhattan.Image courtesy of The New York Times; you can read the article here.The round building... no, object... has been likened to the Death Star, which featured rather prominently in Star Wars (I have no idea which episode):Looks more like a

The ArchRecord Interview: Sir Peter Cook, Page 2 | Features | Architectural Record

2008-04-03T20:02:00.000+08:00

The ArchRecord Interview: Sir Peter Cook, Page 2 | Features | Architectural Record: "But the architect at best has a wonderful mandate to create and dabble in almost anything. And I hope it will long be so. As long as you can say, “Look, the person sitting behind me is actually much more interested in sociology, and the guy sitting in front of me is into studying hedgehogs, and they both have

A Burj Too Far...

2008-04-02T01:23:00.002+08:00

...or too high, for that matter.A Saudi billionaire prince is keen on giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "joining the mile high club", if this is anything to go by.Yes, a mile-high building. Dwarfing the under-construction Burj Dubai (585 m high) and a good two-thirds taller the upcoming Burj Mubarak in Kuwait (1001 m)... Might we have to coin the term spacescraper soon? Well it seems to me

And the Pritzker goes to...

2008-04-01T23:27:00.005+08:00

Monsieur Jean Nouvel. Here's an article about it (courtesy The Independent, UK):Jean Nouvel looks like a villain from a James Bond movie. He is large. He is completely bald. He always wears black, except in the summer, when he alwayswears white. He is celebrated for his rages but also for his generosity and hislong friendships, even with his rivals.Yesterday, Nouvel, 62, the French architect who

Singapore 1:1 Exhibition at the URA

2008-03-30T23:16:00.010+08:00

Had a chance to attend the Singapore 1:1 Forum last week, held in conjunction with the Singapore 1:1 Island exhibition at the URA Gallery, the second in what I hope is a (longer) series of exhibits on architecture in Singapore. The first was Singapore 1:1 City two years ago. The exhibition documents key architectural highlights in Singapore, chronologised into 'ages', from the 1960s til

A game of Go

2008-03-26T15:29:00.004+08:00

What has a game of Go to do with Architecture, one might ask. For those familiar with the chess game of Go (Weiqi), one will relate to the principles of STRATEGY, PATIENCE, FAR-SIGHTEDNESS, ETHICS.But, there is more. Let me share this rare moment of personal relevation. I was re-watching one of the ending episodes of Hikaru No Go anime (about the Weiqi chess game) when one particular part of the

The Modern Day Architect

2008-03-26T02:32:00.003+08:00

Life as an architect/ architecture student can get pretty daunting sometimes. Here's something that I hope would bring a smile to your face amidst all those unimaginable datelines.

Young Urbanist Programme Season 1

2008-03-25T23:50:00.008+08:00

This is an article written by Lyn-Anne, the Managing Editor of Five Foot Way Magazine on the recent YUP. She did such a good job, we thought you should not miss it. Find out more about Five Foot Way Magazine here. The Young Urbanist Programme [YUP] held on Monday 10th March 2008, was a 1-day workshop initiated by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and executed in collaboration with [re:act]

The Penguin Effect

2008-03-24T13:44:00.005+08:00

No profound philosophical or architectural debate here, but I thought this was a rather straight-forward and easy-to-understand clip from National Geographic which demonstrate on strategies that architects use in building small spaces. It does bring out certain issues for further thought though. I was just thinking, Japan's really tight space constraints has resulted in many innovative solutions.

MVRDV

2008-03-21T22:21:00.002+08:00

I was at MVRDV today!OMA, check.UN studio, check.MVRDV, check.:P

MR ARCHITECT

2008-03-21T04:31:00.004+08:00

Gustav Terragni, Danteum, 1938I am listening to a radio commercial about beautiful homes and rolling pastures, the homes designed by architect john shurre. Now there is something disdainful about architects being in commercials, and the word architect spoken by non-architects. I ponder on my feeling of disdain and I've come to think that outside the architecture world, the word architect is

THEO JANSEN

2008-03-19T02:48:00.002+08:00

Theo Jansen lectured in TU Delft last Thursday. Just a brief introduction for those who do not know him, he is a kinetic sculpture artist who builds wind powered walking "creatures" from wire ducts. He is a true-blue showman whose stage presence has already been tirelessly rehearsed- jokes from a Dutchman which are actually funny!One cannot help but marvel at the extent the movement of these

Lucid Dreaming Redux... Parallel Universes, Parallel Projects?

2008-03-19T01:32:00.013+08:00

While I was reading up on Philip K Dick (on Wikipedia, I must admit), and on recollecting some of the themes of films that have been adapted from his work, it occurred to me that a recurring theme in his work are that of parallel universes and simulacra. These tend to become plot vehicles and/or set pieces for the antihero characters in his novels... say, the possibility of viewing "parallel

Lucid Dreaming

2008-03-19T01:26:00.003+08:00

Picked up a couple of books which are proving to be a rather interesting read - "Flow" and "Creativity", both by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (that was not a typographical error!), on the recommendation of Ronald, our very own archijournalist. Csikszentmihalyi was the former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. (Interesting that he's the father of one of the associate

life = education = life

2008-03-18T03:56:00.006+08:00

Here's an excerpt from the article Hann wrote about in the previous post regarding the work of the Population and Community Development Association's work in building schools in the rural areas of Thailand. The account was written by Jessica Shortall, CEO of Catalyst Strategy Advisors. Jessica is making the trip as one of the first Population Development International fellows, whose task it is to

Of seeds sown, and seedlings grown

2008-03-16T04:14:00.010+08:00

(Kindly pardon the Dr Seuss-esque subject for this post, I was just entertained by a full-length version of one of his scripts earlier in the evening.)I bought a camera recently, and found that one of the pixels on the LCD was inactive. A technology-enthusiast would call that a hot or dead pixel, which shows up as a bright spot on the LCD screen, regardless of whether an image has been captured

Ongoing Exhibitions at URA

2008-03-15T02:19:00.007+08:00

Here's a bit of publicity for URA - definitely worth taking a look, especially since there're three of them, all under one roof!How to Get ThereThe URA Centre, 45 Maxwell RoadNearest MRT Station: Tanjong PagarSingapore 1:1 ISLAND16 November 2007 - 11 April 2008Singapore has been likened to a 1:1 scale, life-sized gallery ofarchitecture and urban design. "Singapore 1:1 Island"

Lego Architecture

2008-03-15T00:45:00.002+08:00

What do you get when you bring a group of architects together, throw them a pile of white lego bricks and ask them to just have fun and engage spontaneously with the materials? Loads of creativity!The Building Asia Brick By Brick project done in collaboration between Andrew Maerkle of Art AsiaPacific and Wei Wei Shannon of People’s Architecture seeked to to promote awareness of architectural

Young Urbanist Programme (YUP)

2008-03-14T20:57:00.001+08:00

Fun, great, cool, creative, interesting, crazy, scary, brain wrecking, spectacular, challenging, the best, excellent, shiok, record breaking, oh my gosh… This was how the primary 5 students had described the pilot YUP workshop completed on Monday, 10 Mar 08. Held at URA Centre, the workshop was attended by 31 participants from Radin Mas and River Valley Primary School. The programme was really

RICHARD SERRA & THE MATTER OF TIME

2008-03-07T20:20:00.004+08:00

corten stairscorten sculpturecorten steel and rusting compliments phenomenological ideas of time, impermanence and emotions. if anyone is familiar with the telok ayer stairs of WOHA, climbing up and down a phenomenological object for two years, some say, may take away some of its aura and bring it back to the reality of everyday. thinking back, i actually enjoyed climbing up and down that

Really Ar? at Night & Day Bar

2008-02-15T17:24:00.004+08:00

And so our first session of Really Ar? came and went. In all, I must say we were quite pleased at the turn out, though it is still a constant struggle trying to get some serious discussion about issues started. I guess it's just the mood that people are in after a long day's work. Still, it is a start! The next time we do this, we will probably have a more specific theme and find speakers

LIVING IN A GLASS HOUSE: CHAREAU'S MAISON DE VERRE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

2008-01-23T05:32:00.000+08:00

(except for the third picture the rest represents the current condition of the building, taken from flickr.)Berlage Institute Lecture Series (Netherlands)-Robert Rubin, current owner of Maison de Verre. (Also restored Tropical House by Jean Prouve)Tuesday, 22nd January 2008, 7pmEither I was in an lucid and clear frame of mind, or Robert Rubin was extremely precise in his presentation. The running

Really Ar? Design Sharing Session

2008-01-22T14:48:00.000+08:00

And so we kick off this year's activities with our very first Design Sharing Session of 2008! As you would have probably noticed, we have given a name for all our future sharing sessions - "Really Ar?" I thought it's a cool name. Local, contextual and also a play on the words, Really Architecture! It's inquisitive, dynamic, and has an addictive ring to it. For those of you who need a crash course

CANTILEVER

2008-01-12T19:52:00.001+08:00

OFFICE IN FUSSACH, AUSTRIAby Baumschlager & EberleThe brilliant thing about this cantilever is the lever arm is hidden under ground.

Stadiums for the community??

2007-12-08T00:49:00.000+08:00

Just a thought came to my mind as I read through a sports news article titled "Seedorf's SOS for soccer". In the article, Seedorf, a famous soccer player for Netherlands who was born in S. Africa, spoke of solving the issues of sports violence and players' welfare through the design of stadiums. As of now, there are increasing incidents of violence from the spectators stands and in some cases,

While we're at it...

2007-11-14T01:09:00.000+08:00

...there's also the Alvar Aalto exhibition, by the Alvar Aalto foundation and NUS Museums, on-going at the National University Museum (that's at the University Cultural Centre), ...and T3 (no Kristianna Loken though (or Arnie depending on who you like); the closest you get to cyborgs are perhaps the smiling SQ girls) which is open to the public during office hours and weekends for the public. (

Exhibition and Public Lecture - Neues Bauen - New Architecture

2007-11-14T00:28:00.001+08:00

Every so often, we architects / architecture-enthusiasts need something to remind us why we even sold our souls - and for some of us, even our (social) lives! - to the Underworld. (Literally, for times when we do things like design basement carparks.)Here's one of those things - an exhibition (with a keynote lecture) on "New Building"! (Neues Bauen in German. The latter word rhymes with "Frauen",

A Good Start to Something New

2007-11-13T02:08:00.000+08:00

We just finished the Design My Place (Urban Creativity Workshop) over the weekend. It was nothing short of an amazing experience for the students, the facilitators, the organisers, and our supporters. It was very encouraging to see at the end how well received it was not just by the students, but also by our sponsors from URA, our supporters from Design Singapore and other guests that we invited

BLDGBLOG: Architectural Weaponry: An Interview with Mark Wigley

2007-11-10T06:35:00.000+08:00

BLDGBLOG: Architectural Weaponry: An Interview with Mark Wigley: "BLDGBLOG: It’s interesting, then, to note that all of the construction going on today, from Dubai to Beijing to midtown Manhattan, is specifically referred to as the building boom – not the architecture boom. There’s a huge difference there. To what extent, then, are we surrounded by more architecture than ever – or less

BLDGBLOG: Architectural Weaponry: An Interview with Mark Wigley

2007-11-10T06:30:00.000+08:00

BLDGBLOG: Architectural Weaponry: An Interview with Mark Wigley: "BLDGBLOG: To some extent it seems like the lack of agitation in today’s architectural discussions comes from the format those discussions occur within. In other words, you get five people who already know each other and you put them on a panel; they then talk about something they’ve already talked about before – and, two hours

Really Tuckshop

2007-11-03T10:06:00.000+08:00

Last night's design sharing was a blast in more ways than one! For one, we had to blast our voices over the mike so that everyone could hear us. It's tough trying to share amidst a crowd of hungry packers more interested in their calamari rings and crumb coated chickens. I felt like I was back in the classrooms of one of the sec schools I used to teach at as SH tried his best to get the attention

Nov re:act Design Sharing Session

2007-10-29T15:15:00.000+08:00

Clear your calendars this Friday as re:act will be having its November Design Sharing Session at a really cool location called TUCK SHOP! If you are in Singapore, are interested in what some of our young and very talented designers/architects are doing, come and join us for a time of great food, great music, and great sharing.We start at 7pm and will end before 10pm. Details are in the poster

OPEN ARCHITECTURE NETWORK CHALLENGE

2007-10-20T22:22:00.000+08:00

Competition by Architecture for HumanityChallenge: To design a sustainable multi-purpose technology facility for under-served communitiesSubmission Deadline: 01/15/2008Open To: All. Design professionals and non-professionals alike are invited to compete to develop the winning technology center design. Student entries welcomed.Entry Fee: $25 per site before 12/15/2007; $30 after 12/16/2007; $0 for

Design My Place (A Workshop With a DIfference)

2007-10-15T17:13:00.000+08:00

Design My Place

A classic moment with Cesar

2007-10-12T09:00:00.001+08:00

Today was one of those few days in a year when Cesar (Pelli) graced our New York office with his charming presence and infectious laugh. In the midst of our design review with him, a classic moment took place.We were meditating on a question of how to articulate the top of an office tower we were designing (as requested by Department of City Planning). Amidst all the sketches and models of

UOB Plaza article - my response (Part 2)

2007-10-12T08:20:00.000+08:00

And here is my email response to the article in the previous post on Tange's UOB Plaza.Dear Calvin,I wanted you to know that your column on the UOB Plaza was an engaging read that yielded some surprising discoveries that I would not have realized had you not brought it up. I can discern the massing of the old octagon tower in the lower UOB Tower now, hidden beneath the tiles!A few critical

UOB Plaza - Straits Times article (Part 1)

2007-10-12T08:11:00.000+08:00

Most of you know by now my staunch support for informed commentary on architecture in the Singapore’s mainstream press. I just realised that this article on Kenzo Tange’s UOB plaza was published in the Straits Times a few days back. It was definitely a pleasant surprise.As a next step, I look forward to seeing more in-your-face criticisms and critical questions being raised, instead of just an

The Purpose of Details 2

2007-10-01T20:54:00.000+08:00

Click image to enlarge.Event details:The Purpose of Details 2: The Malaysian Architectural Scene Through the Works of Three Practitioners6 October, Saturday, 930 am at the Singapore Polytechnic AuditoriumSpeakers: Lillian Tay, John Ding, Wooi Lok KuangComplimentary entry for all.Should be pretty good; last year's was!

Asymptote...

2007-10-01T20:51:00.001+08:00

...and their latest, the Penang Global City Centre. Pretty awesome, even if it seems rather no-holds-barred in its curving and torquing and faceting - such nice proportions and, well, (quite literally) asymptotic towers. I could perhaps be a little more critical and go, ah, purely stylistic, an abstraction of Madam White Snake's two dearest pets perhaps, doesn't seem to take Penangite 'character'

reACT_29septSAT_partyNsharing

2007-09-25T16:00:00.001+08:00

My Wishlist for Architecture in Singapore

2007-09-24T08:31:00.000+08:00

1) Creation of a Department of Architecture and Design in the Singapore Art Museum (Or alternatively, a museum of architecture and design)The department would be the guardian of Singapore’s design heritage, would be a home for a permanent collection of design drawings, documents etc related to Singapore architecture, and would provide dynamic and critical curatorial direction to affect critical

The Clients - our allies

2007-09-23T12:07:00.000+08:00

Sometime back, Sy Lyng posted an article on the need for architectural “mediators” in Singapore. If I remember the gist of her posting correctly, she referred to such architecture mediators as people who were not career architects, but were important facilitators who took a sincere interest in enabling good architecture to be built.Along the same vein, I wanted to devote this post to a special

Architects, and the work that they did as students

2007-09-09T11:46:00.000+08:00

Most of us regard an architectural career as a rite of passage. First is the romance of architecture school, of studio classes, model-making, drawings, charettes, sleepless nights. And then many start work in the real working world, to find it hard to transfer many of the wild (and possibly brilliant) ideas into built reality. When faced with real-world demands of cost, zoning, building code,

An Invite to the [Pirates] Den

2007-09-04T07:44:00.001+08:00

PUB Building - my response

2007-09-03T23:31:00.000+08:00

As mentioned in my earlier post, I found myself rather impressed with the tone and content of the article that appeared in Straits Times, though I disagreed to certain points being made. I wrote an email to the email address provided at the end of the article and it turned out to bounce back. I shall hence reproduce my unread email here as an 'open letter' to the journalist... to stimulate the

PUB Building - and architecture criticism in Singapore

2007-09-03T22:55:00.000+08:00

Early last month, an article appeared in the design pages on the Straits Times Life! section on the PUB Building. I found myself impressed with the article for its relative sophistication (as compared to the standard articles on "sleek lines", "chic", "resort touch") The author carried the tone of an "architectural critic" rather than a "design correspondent", and took into account the history of

‘PIRATED’ City --- Augmenting Reality through Fiction (work in progress, 3 more mths to go!)

2007-06-07T20:05:00.001+08:00

Hey, thanks Hann, for helping to elaborate my thesis at the REAPS #1 (so this is the official name? sounds good!). Yeh, I am excited and at the same time quite daunted by the scope and goals of this thesis I am attempting. Many ideas, many agendas, many plans. What I have below is a more detailed description of what my thesis is about and hopefully then, if you can, to help send any

Power And Architecture

2007-06-07T19:52:00.000+08:00

In the dawn of the 21st century, perhaps the word ‘EMPIRE’ would seem best to describe the world of today. Boundaries of cities are disappearing, while the influence of the world wide web and interest-based organizations are dictating the perception of the new boundaries for the ‘neo-nomads’ of the world. In the light of this, I personally would say this is perhaps a phenomenon of ‘POST-EMPIRE’,

ROJAK 08

2007-06-06T02:47:00.000+08:00

(Illustration courtesy of FARM)ROJAK #8.National Stadium (West entrance).9th day of the month.8th hour after noon.7th year of the new millennium6th month of the year.5th day of the week.Aargh, I'll stop being silly and just say it's 8 pm, 9th June (Friday).I'll be talking a bit bout my work, What is Your City?, way late into the session whence everyone is lulled and gullible. (There probably

REAPS - ReAct Portfolio Sharing #1, 25 May 07

2007-06-06T01:58:00.000+08:00

The architect's living room. (Suleen's, in this case.) Nary an unused spot. Share, and share alike.Ranidia expounding on some of the corporate projects she had worked on prior.Spent the evening of May 25th snuggling up over... well, a laptop, and a few samples of another architectural implement that's homonymous with Oreo. Yes, it was re:ACT's first portfolio sharing session, which very much

Job opening at MOD

2007-05-25T21:04:00.001+08:00

ARE YOU BRIGHT, ARTICULATE, AKI-TRAINED AND HIGHLY CREATIVE? MOD WANTS YOU.Ministry of Design is looking for designers comfortable with the whole spectrum of design, ranging from architecture to interior design.Benefits:Join an internationally reputed Design Firm known for its "no-holds barred" approach to design – every project begins on a fresh slate, and we apply the same rigorous approach to

Architecture City Exhibition @ Vivocity, 24 to 28 May

2007-05-21T02:50:00.000+08:00

Hi all! (i.e. EVERYONE and anyone at all who might be interested in Architecture, and who will be in Singapore from May 24th to 28th!)The annual Architecture City Exhibition is on! It is held from May 24th to 28th, at Vivocity (click on above image for details of where exactly). Concurrently, the Internal Exhibition is held at NUS Architecture itself, from 24th May all the way til 4th June.My

I MET BERNARD TSCHUMI

2007-04-13T07:18:00.000+08:00

TU Delft organised a series of lectures: Architecture Positions. Two architects with differing opinions were pit against one another, with a critic as a moderator. And today was one of the most exciting: Bernard Tschumi one of the forefathers of modern architecture, was in town! Topic of debate: Monumentality and public representation. Hundreds of students streamed into zaal A when the doors

10TouchPoints. Better Living. Better Design.

2007-03-30T12:14:00.000+08:00

Hey, I really think we can take part in this!10TouchPoints is an initiative by Design Singapore Council to redesign the 10 items that people use in Singapore that they want to be made better. It is a national redesign programme that is made up of 3 interdependent phases. Phase 1 is a call for public nominations and votes for what could be better designed. Phase 2 is when the top 10 voted items

The Seletar Project: inflight entertainment

2007-03-03T13:30:00.000+08:00

Seletar Airbase: Singapore's Secret Garden is screening twice in the next two weeks. Details as follows:6th MarchTuesday, 7.30pm, the theatre in the SubstationTickets: $7It is screening as part of the Singapore Indie Documentary Festival together with three other shorts.Tickets available from Gatecrash or call hotline 6222 5595.Also available at SingPost branches, S.A.M. kiosks, and The

The Open Hand

2007-02-26T14:33:00.000+08:00

Attended a lecture on Corbusier and Chandigarh. What brought the Swiss architect and Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Indian Republic who fought for India's independence with Ghandi, together? Why would Nehru invite the westerner to design the Capital of Chandigarh, the new capitol of the Indian Punjab State? When the British Colonial power left, they divided the Punjab State in Northwestern

The 2010 Imperative

2007-02-20T15:25:00.000+08:00

The world is in a crisis. Resource depletion and global warming threaten our very survival. We can no longer ignore the fact that we have an impending crisis if we do not learn to use the earth's resources in a more responsible way. Buildings consume 40% of the world’s energy every year and generate almost half of the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming. Immediate action in the

Greenitechture

2007-02-16T23:04:00.000+08:00

Here's a tongue-in-cheek look at why we need to do more as architects to build sustainably.There are whole books that have been written on sustainable architecture. And the area of study is really quite wide, covering issues like new materials, harnessing energy, politics, business, etc. We recently had a workshop in NUS where we discussed many of these issues. I will try to upload our findings

SAVE PEARL BANK!

2007-02-15T20:35:00.000+08:00

Turns out that Pearl Bank, circa 1976 by Archurban architects, in the opinion of many as one of the de riguer modern-era buildings in Singapore, will potentially be sold en bloc.A nice collection of pictures, and a succinct commentary, can be found here too - I've linked Kit without prior permission but I'm sure he won't mind. ;) There's also an image of it from a previous post by Ronald, on this

Agenda: Mediating Platform

2007-02-07T11:23:00.001+08:00

Here you go. The inroduction to hunch 10, an entire issue dedicated to "theorizing the practice of mediation". Sorry for the length, take ur time to read it. Enjoy!Mediatorsby Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Dean of Berlage Institutefrom hunch 10Architects are famously unable to communicate, or even to explain themselves. We are, of course, not talking here of architecture as a mere service profession but

MEDIATOR is what Asia needs

2007-02-03T15:50:00.000+08:00

Today I met the 'Species' (Hunch No. 10, 9). Like other of his kind, he is trained in Architecture, but does not do design work now. He is by no means close to giving up architecture, but in fact loves it too much, at least enough to make him decide that he wants to devote the rest of his career advocating architecture and getting it built. He is usually hired by the owner, resposible for not

Two inter-locking hi-rise apartments, and one master.

2007-02-02T10:57:00.000+08:00

Pearl's Bank apartments (ArchUrban Architects,1976) and Lincoln Modern (Chan Soo Khian, 2004). I thought it would be interesting to place these two apartments side-by-side, even though both are separated by almost thirty years.Both apartments have inter-locking configurations, though Pearl's Bank uses a horizontal-T configuration, whereas Lincoln Modern uses an L-shaped configuration.

From the Era of Mass Production to Mass Customization

2007-02-02T00:48:00.000+08:00

From the theoretical standpoint of the academics at my school, the passage from an era to another in history is marked by a decisive switch in the mentality and world view, enabled by the development in new techne. According to this definition and in contrary to other theoretical positions, the transition from the Medieval Age to the Modern epoch happened way earlier than 1900s, when the

A tale of two shophouse back-alleys

2007-01-29T08:44:00.000+08:00

Chinatown back-alleyLittle India back alleyHere are snapshots of two shophouse back alleys I took during one of my vacations back. The former is soldierly clean, brightly painted, yet cold and lifelessly sterile. The latter is slightly disordered, somewhat grubby, yet teeming with soul and urban life. (Dare I say, the latter is more value-added since it involves economic transactions, rental

One foreign architect in Singapore

2007-01-28T11:49:00.000+08:00

Of the many foreign architects that have bestowed Singapore with mediocrity, I thought that one particular architect didn't do too badly - Paul Rudolph, the influential dean of Yale School of Architecture in the heady 1960s who personally taught a generation of architects that included Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and Robert Stern.Paul Rudolph, standing against the textured wallof his Yale

Singapore 2019: state of architecture pt.1

2007-01-28T10:26:00.000+08:00

This is the first in a new series of 2 or 3 posts that will hopefully fire up our imagination. Most of us have come together wanting to question the establishment and find alternate ways to achieve compelling architecture through alternate processes. Much as it is easy for us to comment/criticise the less-than-desire aspects of Singapore’s architecture scene, a big question still looms – what is

Urban Tokyo Series - pt.2: Showa Modern

2007-01-28T10:00:00.000+08:00

This week, our Tokyo correspondent Darryl Wee gives us his take on Showa Modern, the genre of architecture that emerged in a culturally insecure Japan during the Taisho-Showa era and eventually blossomed into the Japanese modernism that we know of today.Although never formally colonized, Japan has always been fertile nesting territory for Western cultural imports. The vogue for youkan (western

Pedagogy in Liberal Arts Colleges – Ronald’s Response pt.3

2007-01-23T13:11:00.000+08:00

I just wanted to thank Joshua and Hann for their encouragement and instigation. Otherwise, this third instalment would not have appeared so quickly. I’m not sure how to go about this instalment…but will try my best. For a start, I think this post is more relevant in relating how I grew as a person, not so much how I grew as an “architect.” (although the two are not mutually exclusive.) As

Reflections at Keppel

2007-01-22T14:51:00.000+08:00

Something pilfered off a friend's blog (with his kind permission, of course ;)), Cheng Hui Chua, 1st year, architecture grad school at Yale.(Images taken by Cheng Hui from the on-going exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum.)

The Art of Architecture

2007-01-22T13:24:00.000+08:00

This article was published in Business Times on 20 Jan 2007. I thought it was an interesting insight into the motivations and aspirations of a world-reknown architect whose first building was built only when he was 54! It inspired me in certain ways, to push on in what I believe architecture is to me, perhaps it might bring some encouragement to you too!Daniel Libeskind tells PARVATHI NAYAR why

Pedagogy in Liberal Arts Colleges - Ronald's Response pt.2

2007-01-22T11:26:00.000+08:00

In my previous post, I gave a general run-down on the Studio Art programme in general. So in this post, I shall focus on how architecture sits within the programme. (Or rather, how architect-wannabes make the most out of this given framework.) I find that it’s still a very well-kept secret even at Wesleyan.In actual fact, there are no more than 2 faculty members who are truly architecturally

Pedagogy in Liberal Arts Colleges – Ronald’s Response pt.1

2007-01-21T23:52:00.000+08:00

So not too long ago, Hann asked me about what an architectural pedagogy in liberal arts colleges are like, and I think ECT also pressed me further for an answer. So I shan’t procrastinate further. Except that, I’m not too sure how to describe it in a palatable manner. There are too many angles to take. So this initial post shall be a more general run-down of the Studio Art program. I’ll dwell

Urban Tokyo Series - pt.1: Doujunkai Apaato and your New Hills Lifestyle!

2007-01-20T23:20:00.000+08:00

Really Architecture is proud to present a new 8-part series on urban Tokyo. This series of columns will be penned by our guest writer/correspondent - Darryl Wee, urbanite hipster and former guest-Parisian/Bostonian currently teaching English in Tokyo. We hope that this series of entries may inspire our readers to take a fascination with the soul behind our urban environments. In a city known for

Perspectival Perfection

2007-01-19T09:57:00.000+08:00

A remarkable essay on the arch. My favourite teh tarik and curry puff spot in the city, where the breeze would sweep in, and old uncles in Panda-brand t-shirts would lie on the stone benches and sleep. My secret hideout. One of the few remaining bastions of authentic sleepy honest Singapore.And what architectural perfection, a built testament to the perspectival precision of the Ideal City.And

On Masterplanning

2007-01-18T10:14:00.000+08:00

I found a short paper that I wrote a little over two years ago (Oct'05) for my "Architecture, Planning and Preservation-New York" class. Much of it still seems to make sense, though on hindsight, I realise that the issue is much more profound than this essay could cover. And my personal stand on this question (where sg is concerned) has also shifted somewhat from this essay. And so here goes:

Do Architects Need to dwell into the Realm of Politics?

2007-01-17T11:59:00.000+08:00

"Do Architects Need to dwell into the Realm of Politics?""Can’t architects simply create nice spaces to enrich people’s lives?"Wind ended his post “Evolving Aspirations” with the above two provocative questions. I found that both questions elicited a very strong, emotional response. The blood rushed through my face, and I felt the heat charge itself up and overwhelm me. Because intuitively and

Architecture at UCLA

2007-01-16T11:45:00.001+08:00

Models and graphics taken from the UCLA architecture exhibition hall....a sheath for airplane wings?!Having been in the West Coast for close to two months now, I've had a chance to have a taste of the recent fad that is CNC milling, both in SCIArc and in the UCLA School of Architecture. It almost seems like the attention to craft and handiwork (more so in UCLA than in SCIArc) has been relegated

Under Surveillance

2007-01-16T11:15:00.000+08:00

A hovered spaceshipA city under surveillancePresence imposed, insolentlyRun as I might,Fly as I might,I escape not its gazing reach.In that panoptic disc, they sit.Through the tinted screens, they peerAnd wield, that extra-terrestial powerA hall of justice, they say.A UFO, we say.If only fear would fly away.

Pedagogy in Liberal Arts Colleges

2007-01-16T11:08:00.000+08:00

Hi all, this is a general post but more directed to Ronald, given his background as an undergraduate in a liberal arts college. I'm curious as to how the architectural pedagogy in liberal arts colleges is like, and why I'm curious is because many of us come from architecture schools which are either housed within a separate department (and which more often than not tends to want to segregate

random architecture-related comic

2007-01-15T22:36:00.000+08:00

Dudes, I haven't checked in for so long and suddenly the blog looks so... professional! Good work!

Then and Now - Further Elaborations

2007-01-15T11:20:00.000+08:00

In response to Hann’s response, I find a need to elaborate and further meditate upon my “Then and Now” posting of Alfred Wong’s National Theatre alongside our new Esplanade performing arts centre. My intentions for the original post appear to be misunderstood.Rather than to elicit a purely formal comparison between both buildings, my intention was to place both buildings in an active dialogue,

Lightouch Design Competition 07

2007-01-13T18:15:00.000+08:00

http://www.lightouch.org/Hey Jawn, Crystal might be interested in this?Or any of you guys for that matter?

Quote of the Day

2007-01-13T13:18:00.000+08:00

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.- Margaret MeadMade you think eh??Now let's sit down and be thoughtful.....

Evolving Aspirations

2007-01-13T10:25:00.000+08:00

Since we're on the topic of aspirations, local vs global, I'd like to share the contents of a conversation I had with a friend who used to be from a certain committee in a certain planning authority in Singapore.We were talking about Marina Bay, and how countless fingers have pointed at it accusingly that it is catering only to the elites, and have no room for the locals. And he said yes, that is

Response to "Then and Now"

2007-01-12T16:29:00.000+08:00

I had trouble posting a comment on the blog (which will be ironed out once the interface and template are ported over to the new Blogger), which resulted me in typing the following three times. (The first two times I was stupid and uninformed, the third time I had an epiphany and decided to type in MS Word instead!)In any case, this is a response to Ronald's previous post, "Then and Now". First

Then and Now

2007-01-12T10:12:00.000+08:00

National Theatre (1964, demolished 1986) by Alfred WongEsplanade Theatres-on-the-Bay (2002) by Michael Wilford & DP ArchitectsI thought that it would be interesting for these two buildings to appear side by side, to see how differently the spirits-of-the-age were represented in iconic performing arts architecture in Singapore, 40 years apart. One represents national aspirations, the other

A Tale of Two Cities - Part 2

2007-01-11T12:57:00.000+08:00

In my last post, I related how New York, at a different moment in history, went through the same series of insecurity complexes afflicting present-day Singapore. The insecurity-complex I referred to, was that of needing to prove that they “have arrived” though not just there yet. This insecurity naturally extended to the realm of fashion and taste – in architectural design.We have achieved a