more work sketches

Rushing to finish work in the office so that I can go to Bangkok with the PAM Committee; so here are more work related sketches. This building used to be the Sibu Municipal Council; recently re-adapted to become Sibu's Heritage Centre displaying artifacts relocated from the Dewan Suarah where they were half heartedly displayed in the undercroft of Sibu Town Hall.

The 'funnel' directs visitors into the building.

As part of the conservation, we refurbished the adjacent park as well - making it into the Centre's entrance forecourt as well as pedestrian thoroughfare between two major roads. We added several sculptural outdoor elements such as the 'terrain' on the left of the pictures - a shaded timber platform that gives the park some (man-made) topography. It is designed to give the site an urban edge; a subtle demarcation of the Centre's boundaries.

Man made topography

 

Work takes over

This long stretch between entries can be explained as follows - there was an interruption in the blogspot service and also extra work load in the office due to a number of people on leave. This coupled with the datline for the PAM AWARDS submission meant limited time to post new entries. 

This is one of the projects occupying my time; this sketch was drawn from the window of our site office - the different shaded 'panels' are actually cement render divided by groovelines and painted in different shades of grey.

The 4-storey block in the background is completely new; the two double storey buildings in the foreground were part of the original office that are conserved and re-furbished to form part of the new. This is part of our on-going interest in finding new usage for exisitng structures in our projects; to find new exciting usage woven from the old and new.

Partial Front Elevation

I'd rather be sketching

After the hectic weekend, it is good to get back to doing what I enjoy as much as running; sketching.

The Fata Hotel is located in one of my favourite parts of Kuching. A rich confluence of childhood memories defined by my school, St. Thomas's Primary School and our sister school St Mary's Girls School to the right of the sketch. My grandmother's house is just a short walk up the hill to the right of the sketch; along Jalan Tabuan.
I remember a chendol stall just outside the St. Mary's school gate - doing a brisk business through the steel bars of the school fence during recess. An old man helped by his daughter. Then years later, only the daughter whom I still saw when I returned to Kuching. Now there is just a bus stop where the stall used to stand.

The temple on Wayang street has its counterpart across the street - a Chinese theatre on an elevated plinth which served as a stage. The audience brought their own seats and were entertained with old Chinese plays and drama pieces which (in the old days) were equivalent to news snippets from the home country. It was a versatile civic space; built, maintained and accessible to the local community.

Across town, the modern version of a Civic Centre; a pompous structure that is a far cry from its predecesors.

2:20

My Target for the KK Half marathon this Sunday 1 May 2011.

I will keep you posted.
A time of 2:35 (argghhh!) means back to more training and watching what I eat.

from left, Sam, me, Sara, Sean, Pris and Eng Hooi

Nonetheless, the company was good and the girls did well; Sara and Pris did 2:40+ in their first Half marathon and Sam improved her PB without any training whatsoever.

Ain't that nice....

I came across this link when visiting Lucy Bullivant's website; someone from ThinkLab wrote a nice review about our presentation at DATUM 2010. I know it's almost been a year but when someone says something positive about your work; it's worth taking note.

here's the clickable link. 
http://make-condition.com/thinklab/?p=550

Sou Fujimoto

Building Details

These are details for a current project; usually a colleague and I draw them up on butter paper or on the back of old tender documents. Other times, I try to record my ideas in my sketch book.

I enjoy the discipline and the solitude of this task; in the office I put my headphones on to do this without interruption. Flying times are handy for this too; 3-4 details between Kuching and Bintulu while Kuching - KL gets you 6. Mostly these ideas are already sorted out in my mind, only needing to drawn up for discussion, pricing, etc.

The more troublesome ones have a way of working themselves out once they are set free on paper. I show the built items in a month's time.

Religious Freedom

These are sketches of the St.Thomas Cathedral in Kuching; during several visits (re-visits) to this school-day landmark. I took some students there for a sketching exercise, and while there I thought about some recent discussions concerning freedom of choice. Specifically within the practice of architecture. We constantly use our projects to express ourselves and to test our ideas, and ultimately make our own mistakes. For the firm that wants to grow creatively, this is a practice to be encouraged, especially amongst their young architects.

They must have the freedom to make the important decisions for the projects that they run; the design approach, the datelines, even the fees to be charged and the technical support required to complete the project.

view from the front entrance steps

cross section through the church
showing the saw-tooth configuration of the side aisle

partial elevation showing the articulated wall line

from the inside, this translates into seating niches for 3-4 people.

plan