30 Aug 2022 Tuesday - George and Louis

George will be based in KL to support PH and SL

Today is a busy day, site meeting with the full team and sorting out many of the back-logged items. The builder has a lot to do in the next few days, we are not sympathetic as much of it is due to their own inertia. We will observe from a distance and assist when we are able, or come down on them on non compliance.

By noon time, things took an upward turn as we ate lunch with Leong and Freddie. I was waiting to have a meeting with George and the engineer for a housing project.  

George was one of the original team members when we left DNA to set up MWA. I see his return as a sign of things coming full circle, and reinforcing our team's strength. 

Talking to Yap about flat slabs and fin walls

Louis is another strong candidate who has decided to re-join our team; he will be based in Kuching and will work closely with Sean and hopefully sit for their professional exams with LH, SL, and George.

Louis at the hotel site, photo taken before he was scolded for stepping on the pod before it was secured to the building structure

2016

I read about some runners who have taken up the challenge of running 2016 miles in 2016 - interesting idea but the distance is beyond my reach. So, I am changing the miles to kilometres and making it my own challenge. I worked out that if I allow one rest day every week; that's 365 - 52 = 313 days which works out to about 6.5 km each day. Since that's the distance from home to work - it is an achievable target. 39km per week.

I am not calling this a resolution for 2016 - I am simply curious to see how this will change me physically.

In the meantime, here's a record of a good run I did with Louis in Casablanca.

People

At the eve of the New Year, a friend asked if I counted and reflected. 

I think he meant my blessings, so I told him ‘yes’ - this year more than usual. Many people showed their true colours in positive and not-so-positive ways when I made the important decision to leave my former practice. The responses from these people showed up clearly like a litmus test. Fortunately, the blues of greed and self-interest were outweighed by the pinks of support and encouragement.

Colours that confirmed that my decision to leave was correct.

I am grateful that two young former partners invited me to share space, work and ideas in their new venture.

I am grateful for the colleagues who keep in touch and drop by for lunch, for the students and interns who continue to visit our studio to offer help with models or to take me out for lunch.

I am grateful that my friends who now use our office as a base for running, eating and teaching (soon).

I am grateful to have such a nice destination to cycle to everyday, and for the interesting people that I meet there.

I am grateful for my quirky team, and for clients who showed genuine support with new work and prompt payment.

I am grateful that Sam is working with me and that our children are 'safely' in Uni.

I am grateful for the clarity and purpose in my life now.

The pessimist in me expects problems from the past to resurface this year – but I am ready. 

It's Christmas time again

This is an excerpt from the latest issue of INTERSECTION, which I edit with Si Yong and Pik Shia. It refers to the Borneo Blitz Build by the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity, which we featured last year and which we helped to build as volunteers. The article is also a reaction to some people in the local community whom I felt have not practiced what they appear to be constantly preaching.

Excerpt from last year's issue - note the news headline proclaiming the 14 houses 'meant' to be built in 6 days.

This is the article - IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME AGAIN.

This is Terry.

Full name Terry Henry Asun, his brother is Rio Ferdinand Radin. I met Terry and his family more than a year ago during the Habitat for Humanity Borneo Blitz Build (BBB) in September 2014. We were part of a team of volunteers from PAMSC to start and complete House 11 (Terry’s house). Over the weeks before and during the build, we became friends and my wife, Sam promised him English tuition when he moves into his new home – just in time for his UPSR this year.

 That promise was not kept.

Terry’s family and 13 of their neighbours in this Habitat for Humanity (HfH) Global Village have not moved into their homes. Shortly after the fanfare of press coverage, and after the foreign volunteers* have gone back, construction slowed to a halt. I understand that the original plan was for the home owners to move in by Christmas 2014. To-date, most of the houses are near completion but the roads and drains are incomplete and as a result, water and power supply cannot be connected. When I wrote to HfH Kuching, they informed us that the engineering plans have not been approved. And that they expect the houses to be completed by June 2016. The remaining works, including some touching up works for the houses will be completed by contractors. 

 This is an extra 18 month wait. 

 

When I met with Hfh, they explained the events that caused the delay – a recalcitrant engineer appeared to be their biggest problem. It is curious that a committee of architects, engineers and lawyers were not able (or willing) to deal with the engineer more decisively. Rather have 14 families live in sub-standard houses for 18-months longer than change the engineer? What was their priority here?  As I listened, I heard different priorities – worries about backlash from the sponsors of the BBB, the land donor wanting to know if his land will be put to good use. Only later in the conversation did the current situation of the home owners arise. The same 14 families will eventually occupy the houses and some of them have started paying already although they have not been told when they can occupy their homes. 

I would have thought that your clients should be the first to be informed about the status of the project. That’s right –clients. Habitat houses are not free; only the volunteer labour is free. The home-owners pay for their houses like any other house buyer. Some people seemed to have forgotten this little point.

 *A HfH Global Village engages overseas volunteers to help build their houses, who contribute financially to the local affiliate as well.

My wife who was a active volunteer at Habitat Kuching, thinks that this article is a little bit harsh on the HfH committee. I understand her point of view - that perhaps my opinion could have been tempered with a more tact - but I feel that is the problem. When the committee beat around the bush for fear of offending someone's feelings (the engineer's, in this case), instead of giving him a mandate with a dateline.

And as a result, 14 families live in sub standard housing for a further 18 months.

A spot of gardening

Earlier this year, I made a commitment to oversee the construction of a house in ten months - in time for one of the children's wedding in December. I would like to say that we did it - but we took eleven months and there is more to do. In Kuching, it is difficult to find suitable landscape architects to compliment our work, so we do most of landscape design as well. Mostly it is a layout plan with some key ideas to start a conversation with the client and landscape contractor - the plan evolves during the course of its construction. I have learned to be OK with this fluidity - and am rewarded when I learn new things from the contractor and his team.

Quick lines on paper

Everyday coffee shop items are used in un-usual ways - plastic stools become the ceiling and screens for the dining rooms and enamel crockery from the 70's are used as part of signage and decor.

ideas for the food court renovation

Ideas for the food court were mostly captured in a small A5 sketch book - easy to carry around and even easier to fill the pages on a two-hour flight between Kuching and Penang.

Small and thin, I am likely to finish all the pages in a week - most satisfying.

ideas for way finding signage

Later, I showed this sketch to Fiona who did her magic

showing the location of this proposed banner

more banners

ideas for the food court renovation

The Food Gallery was originally designed as the generic type of food court found in a shopping centre; one with something for everyone. In recent years, the clientele had changed; moving away from family groups towards young professionals wanting a conducive environment for a working lunch. The client decided to re-vamp the image of their food court - aimed for a more contemporary feel and experience.

Everyday coffee shop items are used in un-usual ways - plastic stools become the ceiling and screens for the dining rooms and enamel crockery from the 70's are used as part of signage and decor.

We wanted to invoke the experience of eating street food; at the market, along the five foot way in the old part of town. Using the more intangible elements - the silhouette of the concertina grilles that allude to the Chinatown shop fronts while the incandescent light tubes are reminiscent of the market at night. 
The new furniture are re-designed with simpler and cleaner lines that might remind patrons of their school days; sitting on benches, sharing stories and food. Perhaps this is more than a re-vamping or face-lift because it goes beyond the skin - it is more like a coming of age.

Origami Ceiling

Work sketches - up stairs down stairs

Work Sketches - One doing the work of two

I like to tell my folks that it is important for architectural elements to serve more than one function - that way they earn their keep and become a more integral part of the overall design.

Take this grille for instance - the original tender drawing called for a security grille for the utility space at the rear of the house. The laundry and maid's room are there, as were the air cond compressors - so we folded the steel rods into a shelf for the compressor. The horizontal bar which is used to tie all the verticals together, in turn become a rail for drying laundry.

At the lower portion of the grille, another fold becomes a shelf for detergents and clothes pegs.

 These photos are added in January, 2017 after the grille was completed (but not quite tested yet)

Going, Going, Gone

On the 4th of July, I sent a message to my clients, fellow consultants, friends and students -

"As of the 4^th of July, I have resigned from DNA (Design Network Architects S/B) and will be continuing my work as MinWee Architects from two addresses:

• 44, Upper China Street in Kuching where I will be working closely with Arlene Chew and Leong Gian Wen
• and at  B-25-09, Mercu Summer Suites, No. 8 Jalan Cendana, off Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur where I will be working with Lee Peng Hui.

My email address and mobile phone no. will remain unchanged".

Clearing up my table at DNA where I sat for 6 years

My close friends wondered aloud if I was sad to leave DNA; having help found it 14 years ago and having build it up architecturally to its current good reputation. They likened it to giving up a teenage child to foster care - when they put it that way, I suppose I should feel a little sad. But no, there is a little apprehension, plenty of excitement and a equal amount of relief. No sadness.

The new office space - it is narrow with a high vaulted ceiling

The front entrance is painted completely white; an abstraction of the typical shop house facade

Those who do not know me well would speculate that I left because of money matters but this workhorse is tired and looking for work that would sustain me spiritually and financially for the next 15 years.

She is happy with it, and that's important to me.