Monday, October 6, 2025

6.10.2025 Monday - a rewarding day



 She said 'We just left the office 🥹 Thank you again Mr Min. But coming back to what you mentioned back at lunch about how its nice we all keep coming back. I wanted to add smth but it was kinda stuck at the back of my throat haha but just wanted to let you know that the reason why we do come back or for me at least is that youve really been a huge part of our growth in becoming what we are in our careers and lives. So thank you for that as well! Take care! Please send aunty sam my regards as well!! ❤️'

5.10.2025 Sunday - Ashraf and Aida

4.10.2025 Saturday - rest day

3.10.2025 Friday - alone at No. 40

2.10.2025 Thursday

1.10.2025 Wednesday

30.9.2025 Tuesday

29.9.2025 Monday

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

28.9.2025 Sunday - lost weekend

I go for a run, the first in a long time. It's slow but I feels good. Good to be plodding along, with a rhythm.
Along the way, I think about putting our 30 projects on a list. And then assigning names to them, as persons in charge. That way, everyone gets an overview.

Friday, September 26, 2025

26.8.2025 Friday - getting things off my chest


Not much is going to plan, I have lunch with Des, Peter, PS, SY and SL hosted by CM from the flooring company; I bring CM some mooncakes to reciprocate his kindness. It must be nice (and maybe surprising) for CM to see firms which might be competitors getting on so well. Fellowship - it is underrated. 

On the drive home, I hear a funny story from SY about Ms. Wong's adventures with the Kenyalang project. Some of our architect friends are hard to figure out, I am glad we don't have these issues with our Taiwanese friends. 

At pickleball, I have two good games and come to a good conclusion - that I will give Donald a wide berth; he is not a nice person. 

At dinner (at Louise), I find out that I do not smile enough - which is likely why people are a little afraid of me, like my in-laws for instance.
I'm not sure that I'm capable on improvement. 

25.9.2025 Thursday - thanks but no...

Very glad that we are in a position to review and turn down project opportunities offered to us - because we have enough paying work, and because we have enough experience to see through an impractical scheme. Interestingly the person asked me about our 'style' of working, Leong suggested that we have an 'attitude' towards our work instead of a 'style' or trend, I told her we offer practical solutions, (which you cannot do if the proposal is not realistic). After a grace period of a few hours, I informed my friend that we are not able to take on their project. 

Later in the day, when I was seated down and chatting with Sam I said I feel a little sorry for him. At his age, still flogging his 'projects' around instead of having a steady base to work from. 

from living room looking out into the screened 'porch'




Monday, September 22, 2025

22.9.2025 Monday - Artplay Pavillion by Carmody Groarke

Pavilions are all too often fleeting experiments or forgotten, peeling structures in parks. However, Carmody Groarke’s new ArtPlay Pavilion for under-8's at Dulwich Picture Gallery is more substantial.

It blends the technical and environmental rigour of a building with the outdoor affinity of a kiosk. It’s a permanent addition that takes fun seriously.

Designed by Sir John Soane in 1851, Dulwich Picture Gallery sits within a 1.2ha site in leafy south London. It was England’s first purpose-built public art gallery and boasts an impressive, largely historic, collection.

Although the Grade II*-listed building was extended by Rick Mather Architects in 2000, the gallery needed increasing facilities for kids, school groups and exhibiting artists. With local planning stringent, it was the landscape itself which had to step up. A series of temporary summer pavilions – by IF_DO in 2017 and by Pricegore in 2019 – activated the underutilised gardens and showed visitors’ appetite for engaging, outdoor forms.

‘There’s no front or back to this building’

Carmody Groarke was appointed in 2022 to deliver a space in collaboration with play designers HoLD Collective and renovate the Gallery Cottage into a flexible canteen. The project is part of a wider landscape scheme which has created a new west entrance and transformed a hedged off area to the south into an open sculpture meadow – with the pavilion carefully positioned to aid navigation. “The pavilion is at hinge point between one half of the park and the other. It welcomes you in, then bounces you on,” says practice director Andy Groarke.


All four Douglas fir-clad facades attend to visitors, beckoning them through the landscape with large circular windows, exaggerated canopies and a light tone. “There’s no front or back to this building – it’s all front,” stresses Groarke.

Its perimeter offers practical spaces for parking buggies or sheltering from the rain. But there are also shaded spots for sitting, sketching and enjoying the landscape in warmer months.

8.2m x 3.6m canopies create sheltered outdoor spaces.

An inverted ziggurat form breaks down overall scale. 

(very slight) inverted ziggurat form helps to breaks down overall scale 


Although the pavilion has a square plan, it is far from ‘boxy’. Bands of 80mm-wide timber gradually step in and shorten, the facade diminishing as it descends. Before being painted, timbers were machine sanded to heighten the texture of the grain. Folded steel canopies project outwards, each fragmented into eleven strips with raised seams and visibly supported by props underneath.

The ‘bittyness’ is designed to feel less imposing for younger visitors, and offers clues about the materials and how they have been used. It also provides visual interest, drawing on the animated brickwork of Soane’s facades, which undulate with arches and pilasters.

The building's frame is built entirely from timber

the corner boxes are as much a technical necessity as they are a spatial device, concealing an energy centre, external WCs, internal WCs and lobby.

The scale of the interior is also broken down. Corner boxes create a cruciform plan with delineated pockets of play. This allows for a variation of spaces, where kids can crawl across, slide down or swing through masterpieces from the collection. However, informal thresholds mean that children can move fluidly between the sections, taking toys with them, and be easily seen by parents.

Carving out well-ventilated spaces for rest – and play

The corner boxes themselves have been well-excavated. “We had to try and eke out as much space as possible for play,” says project architect Chiara Barrett. Wherever possible, Carmody Groarke carved out arches, nooks and crawl spaces, providing small but important places to rest or sit.


But behind the charming illustrations of van Ruisdael’s windmill and Poussin’s clouds, the corner boxes are hard at work. They are as much a technical necessity as they are a spatial device, concealing an energy centre, external WCs, internal WCs and lobby.

In the energy centre, a new ground-source heat pump services the pavilion, canteen and existing gallery. The box also hosts a natural ventilation system, which monitors temperature and CO2 levels in the space and opens flaps in the facade if needed. During my visit, despite the energetic play inside, I don’t catch them opening. The large canopies, which reduce solar gain, and the 350mm of insulation in the wall buildup are clearly performing well.


The Gallery Cottage, formerly used for storage, is now a canteen for schools and family café. 

Real care and dedication has been taken to decarbonise the existing site and ensure new elements are low-impact. This is perhaps best expressed in the pavilion’s roof structure which employs a reciprocal grid system to allow for shorter, natural and UK-sourced timbers to be used. 

Nearby, the converted Gallery Cottage has been extended with an understated copper-clad volume. It is now both a canteen for school groups and a family café – and is already well used.

Speaking to museum staff, it’s clear that having a covered lunch spot for schools can be the difference between whether classes visit or not. It may be less spectacular than the ArtPlay Pavilion, but it serves a crucial purpose – with some primrose yellow fabric canopies to follow.

Despite the pavilion’s sophistication, it’s commendably self-effacing. It settles into the landscape and recedes behind HoLD Collective’s fantastical furnishings, foregrounding site and play rather than jostling for acclaim.

Kids can have fun in a space which is light, unimposing, a comfortable temperature and is well-serviced by toilets and a café. It’s integral to the Dulwich Picture Gallery’s entire scheme – yet a committed team player.



Sunday, September 21, 2025

21.9.2025 Sunday - busy but not productive


 ..this is the only thing I produce today that I am truly happy with.




20.9.2025 Saturday - Marc's kitchen

Young Marc has been wanting

 

19.9.2025 Friday - counting my blessings



 The ability to work and the availability to have work to do is a blessing; today Sam and I do a stock take of our current projects and weigh them against our current work force. We tend to over provide in the work force because we prepare them to leave for further studies and so forth. So, there is always someone in the wings ready to step in to help when needed. 

30 projects look like too many, but some are finishing and there is hardly any work left other than administrative work. Others have been submitted for planning approval but yet to received them. The ones which have gone to the construction sites keeps us busy - the project architect sees the project from start to finish, with a director/senior overseeing the entire process.

30

Projects

1

Springvale

2

Singgahsana

3

Lake appts

4

Super Santai

5

Kensington

6

4.5 mile

7

Mac2

8

Toorak House

9

Mark’s House

10

Renna

11

Corliss

12

Block 13

13

Block 14,15 &16

14

Landscaping packages

15

Office Park

16

Sibu Condo

17

44 terraces

18

48 terraces

19

Matang Semi-D

20

Show-room

21

SemiD @Stapok

22

Block 16 Promenade

23

Precinct One housing

24

BSC

25

PD Residences

26

MTT

27

Andrew’s House

28

Au@Lundu

29

Lot 49

30

Int. School

 

 

 

Demak Housing

 

Office Renovation Miri

 

IBPJ

Thursday, September 18, 2025

18.9.2025 Thursday - good news

waiting for them to ask for these video files

Good news from the same part of town - our project will receive its certification soon, and at the same time the client has confirmed our appointment for another project. 

Good news - (more like feeling good) after talking about design with Fiona and Sean, I would like to see more of this. Communication - simple chats between colleagues so that there is overview, and collaborations at all levels. 

And also feeling good - drinking tea and eating varde at the Indian shop before tennis (where backhand works again) and squash (where the Prince Extender is used to great effect).


17.9.2025 Wednesday - playing again (hopefully)


 

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

16.9.2025 Tuesday - Malaysia Day

 What does it mean to us? to me? - I think I will simply continue doing what I have been doing; to do a good job in whatever I take on, to teach and nurture people when I can, lead by example, keep good habits and relations with people from all walks of life, be productive, pay my taxes and be kind. 



15.9.2025 Monday - letting go of perfection


 Listening to Eliud Kipchoge, who is a father figure to the younger runner, not seeking for perfection instead to looking for constant improvements by having the discipline to stick to a regime of training and lifestyle

14.9.2025 Sunday - an early breakfast and then putting up shelves


Sunday, September 14, 2025

13.9.2025 Saturday - renovation plans




12.9.2025 Friday - the school team is almost complete

Freddie took us to a orang ulu eatery for lunch which Leong paid for, which was nice. Thoughtful people, whom I'll need in the coming months - yes I'm glad that I have a team of capable people. 

Today is the start of Sean taking us for dinner once a week, sort of a thank you to mom for cooking daily. 


 

Thursday, September 11, 2025

11.9.2025 Thursday - sending off

We have a sending off session and it was one of the best; a good workout - I was truly tired after with a bit of a buzz. Sitting down to eat fruits and drink tea after was really nice as well. 







Wednesday, September 10, 2025

10.9.2025 Wednesday - speak clearly, and be patient (kind even)

I am teaching myself to be more patient and positive, and not let negative energies sap my strength. The morning is spent speaking to Allister, who seems to have things sorted out. After that, I meet a young glazing contractor, he is easier to work with than his father and our young team work well with him; exchanging information about technical details and specifications. I can see that everyone is learning; about technical things and about working together. I forget about the meeting with the PP girls, they remind me by showing up on time, and once again the meeting is productive; solving many of the niggly problems which would have bothered us had we not met in person. 

We have lunch during which Freddie (back from a successful OP inspection) shared exam tips to George and Sean. Ah Khiin comes by again - with a tiny problem which I think he could have solved himself. Perhaps he has not started, and hence needed another 'discussion'. Perhaps, he knows that I am particular about details and would want to have a say - I'll take this reason then. 



Penghui returns with positive news from his Council meeting, he is good at knowing when to speak and when to listen. Apparently Rashidah asked after Sean, I see this as a good sign. 

Later that evening, after tennis, I have a drink with SY (joined later by the Sims) - we talk about people and how they need to be kind (empathetic perhaps). We cannot change them, we can start by being kinder. 

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Monday, September 8, 2025

8.9.2025 Monday - a bit out of sorts

I am a bit out of sorts - because I did not exercise this morning, because I have not had a chat with FL for a while, because I have not see SY and gossiped about random things since Japan, and because my faulty ankle still slows me down, and because we have work which needs doing. 

I need to tell myself that it is good to have a morning exercise routine (and I can see the results from those kettle-bell exercises), and that FL is busy with his own thing and yet replies my queries (I am happy that he is busy with own work), and that gossiping about things we are not involved in and rather not to be involved in is a good thing (I should spend my time more productively), and that my ankle is telling me to take it easy (I am not as young as I want to be) and to have work to do is a good time, not having control over everything is expected, (I need to get better at dealing with what I am given - it might not be as bad as I think - just because my preferred consultants were not selected).

We are making a trip to Melbourne for Dianne's memorial - Marc is organising. Sam and I might take atrip to Deakin and wander around the campus, and maybe a another one to Bendigo or Ballarat. Or simply wander around Melbourne and visit the Art galleries and museums.




Sunday, September 7, 2025