And while we're at it...

Man + Environment
Archifest Design Forum
16-17 October. Drama Centre, NLB.

Featuring Richard Hassell, Andrew Maynard, Jo Noero, Ken Yeang and more.

More here.

A little bit of publicity...

...for the event organisers.


More at the main Archifest website.

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

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? is “So this masterplanning!” Come find out more this coming Tuesday, 5 Aug 08, 7.30-9.30pm at Night & Day Bar, ( 139 Selegie Road ).

Presenting 3 Speakers:

1. Philip Tan, Surbana

2. Prasoon Kumar, HOK

3. Yu Sern Hong, 5+Design, LA


Special Presentations:

1. Elaine Tan, URA - on AUDE Programme-

2. Chong Keng Hua - on [re:act] Initiatives


We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!

Pecha Kucha Beijing, 18 May 2008

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 was standing the whole time due to the lack of seats *poor planning!*) was simply it - random chit chat. Nothing rigourous. Not even remotely. Not most of it anyway. Most of the speakers (except, maybe Neville Mars and Gregor Hoheisel from Graft) could hardly get past advertising their wares. There was even a Chinese Architectural Magazine Editor who presented “How to become a Famous Architect” during the lecture as one of the guest speakers. You may say, “Hey, I’ve heard something similar circulating on the web!”. Guess what, you probably have! It was something lifted wholly off the net, added to it some low resolution images (probably downloaded randomly from the internet too).. Speaks volumes about the quality of Chinese Architectural Magazines or media.


The Pecha Kucha concept is to allow each speaker 20 seconds for 20 slides. This works out to about 6 minutes and 40 seconds for each speaker. As I mentioned earlier, most speakers could hardly get into their work in depth.. Some speakers had to resort to presenting something totally irrelevant to what they do. For example, a fashion designer started talking about how happy and free spirited Swing (the dance) has made her, and how she would like to bring that to Beijing. Totally free-spirited, I would say, but it wasn’t really why I was there at Pecha Kucha for in the first place.


Some advice for the organisers: While we could probably talk to the presenters in greater depth after the lectures, it would be a good idea to manage the lectures in such a way where some depth is explored during each of the 6 minute 40 seconds. In this way, all those who came for the event could bring something memorable away from the event even when they don’t manage to catch the speaker after the lecture. Perhaps the choice of topics could be more specific, and included in the event listing, so that visitors like us can know beforehand what to expect. I really don’t appreciate standing for more than two hours only to listen to a pirate display her loot as the last speaker.


Next Pecha Kucha in Beijing will take place sometime before the Olympics. Let’s hope it gets better!


Some interesting links:

http://www.dynamiccity.org/
http://www.makeitrightnola.org/
www.movingcities.org/
http://www.ordos100.com/


Extracted on 18 May 2008 from
www.reallyarchitecture.org

THE NON_EXISTENT LIBRARY

THE NON-EXISTENT LIBRARY

In 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

Dean and team during this morning's briefing



Briefing 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

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 carrying my cup of water while going with the flow of people leaving the building. We were all herded to the carpark- that was when the fire at the 6th floor became visible.

The fire looked small, so at that time people were more struck by wonder than worry. The email sent out by the faculty administration announced that the fire started from a "short circuit caused by a faulty water pipe" at the 6th floor.

The fire could not be controlled and continued to ravage the rest of the building. At approximately 5pm or so, part of the building collapsed. At 5.18pm, D.J. van den Berg, President of the Executive Board, released an email statement saying that "no conclusive statement can be given about the exact cause of the fire". Fortunately there were not casualties in the fire.

This is the closest I've been to a headlines tragedy. With the initial wave of sensationalism worn off, I now feel a sense of loss. Loss for people whose works have gone up in flames. Loss of a place that I had some emotional attachment to. Loss of an entire faculty. As I type this I can still see, from my window, smoke billowing from the destroyed building.

At home home now, I turn to my bible for some key to the event, and chance upon Deuteronomy 5:4 "The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire." This gives me a sense of awe of how powerful God is. Am also reminded of the verse from 2 Corinthians 4:18 “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” The temporal nature of the material world and its systems is quite often overlooked until it collapses. It has collapsed this time- literally.

SANFORD KWINTER @ BERLAGE

left to right: Salomon Frausto, Sanford Kwinter, Peter Trummer


Sanford 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 complex writing was really only surface treatment.

The book, written within a 20 year time frame, where much of the essays which were published in the ANY magazine in the 90's, was produced as a reminder that today's culture was a production of the past, whether a past that had happened or not- radical an-amnesia, he calls it.

I crept up to him in the cafeteria and asked for him to sign the book. He was nice to initiate some conversation. Despite my belief that I could make small talk with anyone, the fact that Kwinter listened to everything I said made it a tad intimidating, yet surprisingly refreshing.

I pored over his book and was pleasantly surprised at various fun things in it- change in font size, secret essays hidden within flaps. Good buy.

Pecha Kucha Beijing 2008

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

PECHA KUCHA IN ROTTERDAM

Friend Ren Horng Yee, who presented at Pecha Kucha, with me and Ilmar, my classmate

View from the front row

Lesley Moore


Pecha 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 foreboding start, and went on with a sequence of designers/artists who were either not able or not keen to share their work in a passionate and meaningful way. Some designers were downright bad. The selection of presenters could have been more stringent.

All was not gloom and doom however. The evening had its nice bits that overall, made the night worth it. The casual dutch atmosphere (as you can see in the photo) was one thing I thoroughly enjoyed. You can't find a more "bo chap" attitude in Singapore. The Rojak session that I attended was super-charged in quite a heady manner, what with the hosts making innuendos throughout the session; Pecha Kucha Rotterdam on the other hand felt like a really casual gathering of people with two less-than-competent-but-still-heartwarming hosts speaking in their second language, English.

The saving grace of the night was-besides my good friend Ren Horng Yee's presentation of his final project, and no this is not just a disclaimer- the works of a two-person design firm Lesley Moore. It puzzled me for some time where the name came from, since their names were not Lesley and Moore. The name of the firm is actually a pun on the phrase "Less is More"! They told me that Goethe was the one who first said it, so let's remember that, and not attribute it solely to Mies.

I was already immediately impressed by the fact that they do the layout of Mark magazine. They spoke about a series of really respectable works- a font inspired by escher's multidimensional staircase, a huge digital clock that was lit up in an analog fashion by friends turning the fluorescent lights on and off, a stencil typography that was formed by two basic shapes. A fantastic piece of work was a short clip they did for Dave Clark called White Noise. The concept is white powder exploding and arranging to form text, the white substance being an allusion to the white noise we see on screen. Conceptually very fierce!

Had a discussion with Ilmar during the break. I asked him what makes Dutch design Dutch. He observed that Dutch design has 3 characteristics:

1. Couldn't-care-less attitude
2. You have to make a joke out of everything
3. There has to be some subliminal message in the design
4. No sense of aesthetics (my addition)

I find these points really befitting Dutch designers.

The day ended with a nice chat with Karin and Alex from Lesley Moore.

Netherlands 1.06pm, signing out!

Really Ar? Again?

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 to promote exchange of good ideas.

This will be our second such event. (The first Really Ar was held at the end of January this year, and attracted about 40-50 people.) We hope to hold the second on 19th June this year, a Thursday evening

Our format is to have three speakers present for 15 minutes each, after which there will a Q&A session. Each presentation is hoped to be presented in a succinct manner - a single project, or a single idea, with an emphasis on the thought processes behind the product.

Theme and Call for Speakers

We are looking for speakers to present interesting designs, built and unbuilt. We are looking for ideas that are intelligent, fresh and distinctive. The projects need not be large in scale, but hopefully groundbreaking and radical in some way.

The theme for Really Ar? Again? is 'Masterplanning'. We chose this theme as many Singaporean and Singapore-based firms have been invited to do grand masterplans for other countries, but ironically, aren't given the same autonomy to plan their own home country. As such, few people really see the fruit of their labour.

If you would like to share your firm's work, or your personal ideas, work and research, do drop us a line. Suggestions on other topics are much welcome for future Really Ar? sessions.

One more thing - fancy poster coming soon.

Frank Gehry asks "Then what?"

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 the community, with people from different disciplines, what was intriguing about this collaboration was it was between 2 brilliant people. I hope that motivates us to be brilliant at what we do. I believe, only then, can collaboration reach its fullest potential. Ganbante!

CARUSO ST JOHN

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

Big Brother's REALLY watching.

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 giant eyeball watching over the city to me... Can you say "Here's looking at you, kid"?

Well, make your own judgement.

Lebbeus Woods, architecture theorist and artist extraordinaire, has. (I say this because I'm a big fan of his drawings, many of which are very post-apocalyptic, for lack of a better description.) Read his blog entry, Delirious Dubai, here.

His blog's a very good read actually - ideas abound, and comments and criticisms of these ideas abound.

He says this of Dubai:

"...built up rapidly over the past few years on the wealth gotten from the world’s greed for oil—and more recently as an unregulated sanctuary for cash—it has no depth of history or indigenous culture, no complexity, no conflicts, no questions about itself, no doubts, in short, nothing to stand in the way of its being shaped into the ultimate neo-liberal Utopia."

And of Koolhaas' proposal, he asks:

What, for example, are the space-organization possibilities of networks of information exchange, rather than streets? What are the architectural design possibilities of synthetics, rather than steel or concrete building frames typical of high-rise construction? What are the possibilities for increasing choices in non-hierarchically organized urban spaces, rather than classical, Cartesian systems? And so on—the list of new possibilities is long.

It's with quite a bit of irony to me, that Koolhaas, who, fifteen years ago, so heavily criticised Singapore in the highly-exalted bumper book S, M, L, XL for being a tabula rasa haven for being almost exactly what Dubai is today, is pandering to and relishing in the bland tastes that these very tabula rasa scenarios emanate... and dare I imagine, cashing in in the process.

Woods has this to say, in closing:

"Or maybe he believes, true to his post-Modernist roots, that the past offers the best model for the future ... Or maybe he simply doesn’t have a vision for the future. ... The world’s attention is focused on Dubai, and on Koolhaas and other architecture stars, and because—like it or not—what they do is taken as a model for the future, even when it is, how shall I say, not nearly good enough."

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

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 something to offer architecture,” it’s a wonderful mandate for indulgence and speculation and creativity, if you make it so."

A Burj Too Far...

...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 like tall buildings in the Middle East is very much a burj-eoning trend.

And the Pritzker goes to...

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 always
wears white. He is celebrated for his rages but also for his generosity and his
long friendships, even with his rivals.

Yesterday, Nouvel, 62, the French architect who has designed some of the most memorable buildings in the world in the past 20 years, won the Pritzker prize – the Nobel of architecture. It was a poke in the eye for his many critics. It was a riposte to those who believe that all modern buildings look the same. Famously, no two Jean Nouvel buildings look alike.

He looks quite a bit like Lim Kay Siu if you ask me (see last picture)! That aside, Fivefootway has this to say about Nouvel's award, in the context of the larger picture, with a slight dash of cynicism and a serving of wit.


Me, it hasn't quite sunk in yet, but here are some images for a bit of that instant gratification.







A nice bald shave and a dapper black suit for whoever guesses the names for the three projects above correctly! (Images courtesy of rightful owners.)

Singapore 1:1 Exhibition at the URA

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 today.

Moderated by Larry Ng, director of the Architecture and Urban Design Excellence (AUDE) programme at the URA, the forum was given its kick-off by Dr Wong Yunn Chii, the curator of the exhibition, who spoke on the processes behind curating the exhibition, and the mode of selection of its theme (and projects). In so doing, the audience was given a live commentary-cum-critique on many of the selected exhibited schemes, which felt like a Brief History of Modern Singapore Architecture 101 (in a most positive way, of course). It was enlightening, as it was my first time listening to a talk on curatorial thought processes, and on viewing the exhibition after the forum, it lended additional credence to the exhibition itself. The photography for some of these projects was pretty impressive as well.

Mr Arthur Aw of Jurong Town Corporation later gave his insight on his eight or so years of working at the Jurong Town Hall, itself a Brutalist-styled design from 1969 (by Architects Team 3) which still commands much awe, if audience response was anything to go by. A quote from Mr Aw: "If someone joined JTC, in the old building (Jurong Town Hall), I would have got to know him within three months. Now, if someone joins JTC, in the new building (Jurong Summit), it would take me a year to get to know him."

This simple comment brings forth further, deeper questions of modern office-space typologies, and is a silent criticism on developers' quests to go for taller, lower-footprint skyscrapers. The latter little more than fulfilling efficiency, and, in the case of Jurong Summit, are probably far less of an architectural marker in time, than buildings designed to make their presence felt - Jurong Town Hall would be a case in point.

Ms Rohani Baharin from CPG Airports then gave a detailed talk on everyone's favourite airport - Changi, documenting the progress it's made since the opening of Terminal 1 back in the 1970s. This was a very refreshing point of view - one uses or views an airport on a very microscopic level, compared to the people who are actually planning it, everything from its masterplanning to its infrastructure to the little architectural details that contribute to the airport being runaway best-in-the-world for several years running. (Nugget of interesting information: There are baggage carousels running underground from terminal to terminal, below the existing MRT line!)

The audience was treated to a video of the conceptualisation process behind T3 as well, with details of the now-famous skylighting flaps, and the green walls and large expanses of curtain-wall glass. Ms Baharin's talk ended off with optimistic hope for T4, which has now been confirmed to be in the pipeline.




Mr Tan Kok Hiang of Forum Architects gave an enlightening talk on the thoughts and design processes behind three of his projects - the Henderson Community Centre, the Assyafaah Mosque (model pictured above) and the new entrance for the Singapore Science Centre. Cultural significance and relevance lend themselves to Forum's projects, and these show up in details, both highly microscopic - for instance, in the Arabesque screens of the Mosque - and macroscopic, in the primordial Fibonacci Sequence system that guides the new landscaped plaza leading to the Science Centre. It left the audience with the feeling that architecture indeed innovates, and is meant to innovate, while serving more fundamental demands of space, form-making and client/programmatic demands.

The forum concluded with a colourful Q&A session, in which the speakers furthered their respective talks with commentaries on the future of architecture and architectural innovation in Singapore, while keeping true to what we've held proud thus far - efficient and "pleasant" design. This is a timely shot in the arm as we are seeking a myriad set of answers to the perennial "So, what's next?" question, in the context of local architecture.

All in all, it was a talk that neatly wrapped up the Singapore 1:1 Island exhibition, itself a neat set-up. I bought the concomitant book - even with slight reservations on its graphic design - as I know it will become a handy historical document on how far Singapore architecture has come, as it is itself a history-documenting book.

The Singapore 1:1 Exhibition has been extended til April 11th, and can be viewed during the URA's opening hours.

A game of Go

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 anime touched me so much, it actually made me tear.

A quick introduction before I elaborate. This anime is about this boy who learnt the weiqi game and became very passionate. However he experienced a setback(his mentor left the world) and decided to quit the professional world of Go. But a sudden turn of events made him realise his undying love for the game and the support from his "friends/comrades" in the world of Go. He decided to return to the Go matches after a prolonged break. Upon his return, one of the master instructors who has been following the boy's development made a brief but deep comment to another instructor: (here's the exchange of words between the 2 instructors, A & B)

A >> Friend, do you know that Go is a two player game? B >> Of course I know that A >> No, you don't A >> You can't play Go by yourself .... B >> I said I know that A >> No, you don't. You need two people .... A masterful game cannot happen with just one genius. Right, friend? You need two people with equal genius. Two....... When you have two, you can finally take a step towards the divine move.

I would like to paraphrase this:

Friend, do you know that Architecture is a multi-player game? You can't play Architecture by yourself ... You need many people. A masterful stroke, a meaningful design, an impactful outreach to humanity through architecture .... cannot happen with just one genius.
Right friend? You need many people, many with passion, intellect, will and drive. Many people playing the game .... when you have all these people, you can finally take a step towards the divine move.

I am not sure how clear I am able to express this. Maybe it is already something several of you have felt. Maybe it's just a naive thought of my own. Nevertheless, it has struck a chord within me and ... .... very few things in the world can actually make me tear...

The Modern Day Architect

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.