work in progress

A fellow architect dropped by the office one Saturday morning. Another senior practitioner, another one who has made a more than comfortable living from his trade. One who has stopped drawing perhaps, for he expressed surprise when he saw our drawing boards - 'wah, still draugthing ah?, who?, you ah?'

Actually, not all these are drawn at the draughting board. Some were drawn at home, on the coffee table in front of the telly. Others are details and ideas drawn on CAD printouts. I feel better after having made my mark on it. It is my way of assuring myself that I have vetted the drawing, it is ready to go. It is also a way of personalising computer generated drawings. The hand drawn lines say to the viewer - it's OK, someone put thought to my design. 

Chatter

Last Friday, I was invited to participate in the 3rd installment of PechaKucha Kuching; organised by local architectural firm, Integrated Design Consultants. 12 speakers share a special interest using 20 slides, at 20 seconds per slide - each 'chat'  lasts 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Not easy for a long winded architect - some would say...and they were right..(I missed having my slide clicker)

* PechaKucha is 'chitchat' or chatter in Japanese

I talked about my work with architecture students, designing and building the designs. Here are the 20 slides with their blurbs:

Heaven

Enjoying Architecture

These two photos were taken years apart, yet they have much in common. Apart from the shapes and the postures, one might say that there is a delight in their enjoyment of architecture. To engage with it, to touch the material with their hands and in Sara's case, to quite sub-consciously measure it for (her) scale.

Quite the architect, even at 12...

Freedom

 

It has been a busy few months - plenty of over-time and lost weekends for our little office. A good problem to have as some would say. Busy as I am, I still try to set time aside for family and friends (and for exercise). But I often over-estimate myself; trying to do too many things all at once.

On the one occasion, I arrived home too late to cook the pasta dinner I promised some friends. Sam saved the day, again. Even before I took off my bicycle helmet, one of them teased me, saying ' ..I would have thought that now that you are your own boss, you would have more freedom' 

This time, another family member saved the day - Sean replied for me ..' it is not freedom from work but freedom to choose when to work'. 

Lebuh Nordin, Penang

Every time I see the shop houses along this little lane, their facades are raked with the evening sun. I walk here from my hotel nearby after a long afternoon's meeting with one sole purpose. To buy Beh Teh Saw (马蹄酥) from Hock Lok Siew Biscuit Company, a small family store that makes and sells these delicious flaky puffs filled with treacle. They are often warm from the oven when I buy them.

So, this sketch is to commemorate the short walk I take each fortnight; 0.74KM - I know, because I measure it on Runkeeper.

Ningbo Museum Of Contemporary Art MOCA