6.5.2026 Wednesday - opportunity knocks

A random message pops up on my screen - wanting to know if we have a place for a Part 1. We are not really looking, but usually I will have a look to understand the duration of the 'work period', and if the candidate shows promise. This one does, and wants to work for about a year. I consult Sam about the money aspect, and will let FL and SW decide on the 'need more hands on board' aspect. I want them to undertake the delegation of work and guiding, and utilising of this person's time in the office. We have always wanted to keep the office small, and manage delivery deadlines, not to do redundant work, optimise everyone's time in the office, and without spending long hours in the office as well.

I will ask them about this tomorrow and we move from there. 

Sam and I spend a few quiet minutes looking through some photos from my external drive, and talk about how much we have done, and how far we have come

5.5.2026 Tuesday - Sarah's birthday

photo taken at an Italian restaurant to celebrate a reunion of former students, colleagues and their friends

 Ileana says to me after the dinner - if you don't think about what's outside this room, it feels like being in Kuching. And I think that is lovely.

4.5.2026 Monday - change of plans (again)

This morning is a case of good news and bad news; one project is scheduled to proceed, and has a possibility of growing larger in scale. Another smaller one has been reduced into a simpler project, meaning that the earnings are also reduced, and we might have difficulty to recoup fees for abortive work. On the other hand, this new smaller project is a new typology and we can use this to train a young architect who has been working on this site. 

I feel that is the only way to deal with situations like this, to extract the good from every situation even the challenging ones. My wish is that the young ones around me learn from this response, this attitude to be resilient and grow with the changes.

On a slightly different note, Sean proposed a design for a kitchen upgrade to a family friend. We sat in at his chat with the clients and I thought how well he is doing; his delivery, suggestions for the client to choose and take stake of the design process. They seem surprised at the proposal, not what they had in mind, which is a good thing. And this 'good thing' is reinforced this morning with a confirmation to proceed with Sean's idea (and a compliment to him for re-setting their thinking of what is possible for the space). It is only a kitchen (a small one at that) but if you can do the small things well, the larger ones are just a collection of small things. 

3.5.2026 Sunday - Luke

 

2.5.2026 Saturday - revisiting the old neighbourhood

 

1.5.2026 Friday - Labour Day

 

30.4.2026 Thursday - quiet measure of success (for today's publication)

 

We have been doing this for 2 years; publishing a local project* or article at 7am every Friday on our website, and sharing the same on social media.

Our goal was to showcase local projects on a common platform, so that they can be easily accessed and retrieved, something which is difficult to do with printed media. Sharing the featured projects on social media also meant a wider reach; both in readership as well as collaborators. We wanted to be more inclusive, which meant that our publications grew to include student works, projects-in-progress, research articles, community outreach projects (sometimes in dual languages) - just so we can keep to our self-imposed deadline of presenting our followers with their 7a.m. Laksa Companion every Friday.

Earlier this year, we reached 1000 followers in Facebook and close to 700 in Instagram - it's a quiet measure of success, considering that this is a personal initiative by two architects assisted by a small team. Our collaborators include the local chapters of PAM in Sabah and Sarawak, and recently we are cross-linked with the Architecture Malaysia (AM) website; the Malaysian Institute of Architecture magazine.

Another measure of success is the increasing number of contributions locally as well as from overseas. With over a hundred entries in our website now, we have gone from merely collecting to curating – there is a body of works which can be composed according to themes, typology, region, and so forth – and re-published on the website. In this way, we are able to re-introduce past projects and articles as new followers join us on social media.

In the recent months, we have completed several interviews with Pioneer Architects in Sarawak; those who started practicing in the 1970’s. In the coming months, we expected to publish articles on the late Ar. Paul Yong and Ar. Ting Ing Chew. As long as the projects keep coming in, we will be able to keep to our deadline of publishing each Friday morning.

For those of you who have contributed to the website – thank you. For those of you who have not, it does not have to be a recent project – it just has to be something dear to you. Just as the website has become something dear to me, especially when we feature works by my former interns and students; winning awards and recognition for their efforts. Thank you for letting us share our pride in your success.

Wee Hii Min with Chai Si Yong & Jenny Chow - Founding partners