Dualogue
Artistect
04 Speakers Justin Lee Aishah Mokhtar Moderators Jordan Soo Mao Soon Edwin Chu De Yeong
Copyright School of Architecture and Built Environment (SABE), UCSI University, 2021 All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from SABE, UCSI University. Published in Malaysia by SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE & BUILT ENVIRONMENT UCSI UNIVERSITY 1, Jalan Puncak Menara Gading, Taman Connaught, 56000 Cheras, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Nomadic Architecture Justin Lee Architect and Projection Artist Justin Lee, a graduate architect who obtained his Master of Architecture from the University of Newcastle, Australia. He has previously worked in design practices such as Studio Bikin, ZLG design in Malaysia and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer architects in Australia. Besides architecture, he is also a projection artist known as ‘Luna Macula’ using analogue techniques to create psychedelic visuals. He had done creative direction, stage and installation works for artistic projects in the past; he is also the cofounder for Tiny Greens, an indoor urban farm that grows and sells pesticide free microgreens.
According to Justin Lee, nomadic architecture proposes new living typologies that involve a desire to explore the natural environment – to travel, adapt, and change our living conditions when life is not concentrated in one location. Nomadic architecture is an idea that Justin could mostly relate to from his previous opulence in travel experiences. He is bold enough to cycle through a few countries even though the process took several weeks but the ideas and life-changing experiences Justin had gain are invaluable.
In his point of view, travel is one of the best way to enlarge our vision and enrich the experience as Justin had found out the disparity between the central ways living and the nomadic living while cycling along the country. Besides, he gains landscape design inspirations in achieving the quality on both ingenuity and practicality. Justin faced various problems and challenges throughout the journey but it also trained his adaptability and on-thespot-reaction such as the meteorological conditions, accommodation, surrounding circumstances and etc. Time and tide waits for no man. He enjoyed every moment along the journey and feels the experience from every landscape that he went through. Cycling brought him from the dry land to the mountain and allowed him experience to first hand the sweetness and bitterness. In addition, Justin set up a tent as his shelter to take a rest and enjoyed the natural environment. This is the way that he planned the journey and it led Justin to a positive direction. The journey helps him to build a creative and independence personality to face the obstacles as he need to solve everything by himself. He can bring out a comprehensive analysis and a unique idea that full of creativity while brainstorming. The memories are the most valuable asset and the experiences are inestimable.
Justin had shared about his company “Tiny Green” with us, which is producing a variety of Microgreens to provide the restaurant. The quality control of normal farming is influenced by inconsistent weather as the planting method is outdoor plantation. Hence, Microgreens is introducing a different form of vegetable to produce the crop that contains a lot of nutrients. All in all, Mr. Justin Lee hopes to propagate Microgreens for the public and allow more people to improve their health and increase diversity in nutrition intake.
Microgreens 5
Aishah Mokhtar Artist Designer Aishah Mokhtar, an Architectural Designer that has been teaching Design Studio in Architecture School around Kuala Lumpur since 2015. Specialized in Advanced Architectural Design, she founded - A.Mokhtar Atelier that provides affordable advanced software classes to local students since 2017 ; aiming to share various techniques of Architectural Representation. Her design Master thesis titled ‘Women’s Haven’, inspired her to continue her research in Gender Architecture under #WanitaKualaLumpur that looks into female inclusivity in an urban spatial design. Her work titled ‘Urban Parlour’ was published in the 2018 KLAF Logbook; portrays the everyday life of women in the city and being re-imagined through a series of Architectural narrative.
Drawing as Discourse Based on Ms Aishah’s presentation, she had shared about the various representation techniques in the narrative architecture, using drawing as one of the language of architecture discourse. Hence, she is always encouraging her students try their best to sketch out all their imaginations and ideas. It helps to develop their own drawing language and make a difference with others. Furthermore, Ms Aishah introduced the imaginative collage technique to maximize their collage technique using their first hand resources which are photography and hand sketching.The former technique is about the line drawing and monochrome drawing. The crawing does not need to be colorful, however it requires some elements to be highlighted. Also, digital dreaming as one of the representation techniques. Ms Aishah highlighted that capturing the moment is a vital technique that acts like a photograph to another world. She used photography as a narrative exploration and she is always trying to capture every movements that can bring out inspiration in her daily life.
Follwing that, Ms Aishah presented on poetic architecture. Poetic architecture is about the novels, papers and arts. Ms Aishah was designing Ophelia and it was related to the natural element such as water, flowers and character.
Poetic Architecture Apart from that, there are some techniques that Ms Aishah shared which are exploring the landscape through materials, shared textures and constructing moments. Ms Aishah realized that a complete model is not a must in architecture, but she can construct the model that she wanted. Another technique shared was Last but not least, Ms Aishah had shared capturing the moment through narrative about her design process when doing a section. Students always start a design project. She will start from a narrative from sketch inadvertently but it gives more sketch to sketch out all the ideas possibility and configuration if started from the into a reality form, transforming the narrative perspective. Architecture tectonics is sketches digital in 3D softwares. Line another technique, she has also introduce. It is works and colours are done manually, about the core session to construct a building. followed by texture rendering via It is also an appreciation in creating unique digital 3D software. She implements architectural details with the continuous design this representation technique not as language, in order to appreciate the aesthetic a presentation approach to the client value of its construction details. but, also as an expression of her ideal design concept.
7
“Is being artistic a necessity in order to become an architect?”
I don’t think so. I think we have many types of architecture out there. I think architecture sometimes it is public art form and sometimes you get away with it. Sometimes, it’s just being architecture that’s sensible. Architecture that understand that is what is needed for a person to live. I think artistic is a cultural input. It’s like a cultural contribution to artistically. To reinvent buildings slightly different. There’s ways of doing it without being super duper artistic. It’s always about problem solving too.
Justin Lee
Q&A I grew up in a family oF architects. For me, architecture is not a way of life , but knowledge you can learn. For me, creative is there everyday and architecture is just a method you can express that creativeness. I had a lot of friends who studied architecture, but in the end they did not become an architect. There’s nothing wrong with it. I feel like architecture opens up lot of doors. You can do to photography for example.
Aishah Mokhtar 9
“Do you think being artistic is a natural talent or is this something you can learn later on?”
I’m a prove that it’s actually not a natural talent. It takes years even your hand drawing skills it won’t be beautiful in your first year of architecture. For me it took 10 years or 7 years to just develop that skill. I think the most important thing is the tutors that you have. If they believe in you, they would keep pushing you. If I had a tutor that was just whatever, it wouldn’t work. My tutors pushed me and they made me believe that I can. For some people it is a natural talent. However for many people it’s a skill that you develop. Maybe it is through architecture university or Aishah Mokhtar through observing media or things that you love that you get your artistic skills from there. Bear in mind, there are so many mediums expressing creativity, such as #D drawing, via digital software, through musically or even story telling. So, there are many medium of choice and architecture is one of them. My back ground was architecture but now I do a bit of artistic and also urban farming. But I think that it was something that was developed from architecture school. Architecture school gives you the creative problem solving skill. Creativity is like doing something that may not be tangible. Sometimes there are also a need for problem solving skills in real life.
Justin Lee
I get my inspiration from many directions. It’s a bit of like schizophrenia. Its was through cycling, I began doing things. I think cycle touring was an experience to not just doing things on paper or coming out with designs but rather living and experiencing first hand. Hence, cycling becomes a creative process for me. You get so much inspiration from every direction such as wilderness of nature and world issues. I like to read up and watch on world issues and find creative ways to solve them. I feel that thinking of creative ways to solving these issues is an architect role’s as well. Hence we are mediators.
Justin Lee
Back in the study days, what I would do is to just unwind from the architecture world. I would just not look into architecture thingsbut look at art installation and art galleries. There’s a connection between art and architecture. You can just go to the city, walk around and look at art galleries, it feels like its such a nice experience. For students in KL, try to use this advantage you Can I add something? Referring to Aishah’s have living in the city. There are kinds of project and her process also. Many students different art activities. can’t get inspiration for their project but sometimes what you have to do is sit down and start drawing using your hand. Your hand will sort of informs. Inspiration comes as you Aishah Mokhtar draw and something is created before your eyes. And that’s very important and that’s how Aishah’s process was developed you know. It started from a very simple sketch and then after that it got very complex. So I think students can just get original ideas sometimes from yourself.
Justin Lee
“From where would you suggest students to get their inspiration or motivation when they’re stuck in ideation stage?”
“From all the artworks that you had shown earlier, which was your favourite and why?”
Overall, I think my final thesis is still my favorite one because I feel like it kind of get me into trying all these different techniques. It just brings out the styles that I still use until today. It was like a starting point even for my research. I can also say my favorite would be the section drawing. It is a very long drawing although it was small. But, it’s also very big in that sense. Can you imagine like a long drawing of thousands of times? It is the same drawing, but we keep redraw and redraw. So just to scan that drawing and have that on screen is just amazing.
Aishah Mokhtar
“I believe you published ‘Urban Parlor; Cultivating Everyday Moments through the Female Gaze’ 3 years ago. In that work, you talked about, and I presume it’s your day to day life of women here in Malaysia. Could you explain the story behind the title, and how you hope to see a change in the way of living for women here in Malaysia? ’’
So, Urban Parlor was actually an extension from my research thesis that I did in women’s gaze. When I go back to KL, I was quick to extend the research. But having not being a student anymore I was just doing it myself. I was quite fascinated with everyday life. Things that you can’t overlook the mundane. So for me back then because I was working in a city I was working around KLCC area. So, my life was quite hectic and I was using public transportation. Also being a Muslim, I took attention to the things I took for granted, such as a women’s prayer room and see what I’m missing here.
Am I missing something? Because I pray 5 times a day so I spend quite a lot of time in this space. Can architecture somehow influence those little moments within that space. When you pray, you sort of have like a routine like using ablutions. For women, we took off our hijab. So it’s a frequent process. We do this everyday for five times. I find it very fascinating and I map it. So that was what Urban Parlor is about. I was hoping for it to be a starting point. So maybe the next one could be this little space I found in the city that I could just reimagine. That is my dream.
Aishah Mokhtar
“ Were you not tired cycling every day?”
Yes it’s tiring but it’s something you develop. I think the first week is tiring. After that u sort of get used to it as we go every day. But climbing up all this hills and mountains doesn’t become easier. It is still hard at times. But I think that sort of develops my personality. Just like now I am living in KL, I have developed the ability to live minimally and more resilently.
Justin Lee
“ Were you not afraid of the wildlife when you were camiping? ” You do hear things sometimes in the woods at night. It could be a bit scary. Something that I sort of developed I got used to it. I am raised in the city, KL, which was a huge challenge for myself, because I am used to civilization, not wildlife. Hence I feel that city people has become desensitized to wildlife environment. We all lived in a nice room with aircon and sheltered all the time hance it is comfortable. I guess my inspiration is from the people who lived in old times and for many years in my life. I feel like I was missing out on something. Whether it’s something comfortable or not it’s something I wanted to experience.
Justin Lee
15
“Mr. Justin , How do you get motivated to cycle such a long distance?”
Motivation to cycle long distance? I may have answered it already just now. I presented a bit about the Mongolian nomads and other nomad showing how they lived. They cover a lot of distance over a long time but I saw a lot cover a distance in a short time. But my inspiration really comes from Lord Of The Rings. All the nomads and you know Frodo and the fellowship of the ring which starts from Visayas all the way to Mordor. It’s all these civilizations in the past who travelled a lot of long distance and I thought I wanted to experience that too. I didn’t want to just live in a time which create a manufacture for me. I drew inspiration from all these people from the past. I guess also the cycle tour provides a lot of things to see. After cycling for so long you sort of get used to it. It’s things to see all the time and you sort of succumb to enjoying it.
Justin Lee
“ Would you recommend anyone here to do what you do and would you do it again? ”
Many people has asked, and yes I would do it again. I was supposed to go India this year. I wanted to go India unfortunately COVID pandemic happened. But do I recommend people do it, I think it really depends on people. I think it’s a very challenging thing but it’s a wonderful way of living. Because, I know Is it safe to cycle like that and there are many other people who are dangerous people out there. I would say when on the bike for even you’ve arrived at a country you know it’s not longer than I have. They too bad you realize they are also equally just go on the bike for more nicer people than dangerous people. I like a whole year. Many think there is this stereotype where you go to people asked m-e is it this country there’re going to be dangerous safe? people. Because we are very sheltered here. There are just equally nice people on the good side of it which you don’t hear that much of it.
Justin Lee
17
“Mr. Justin Lee, you are the cofounder of Tiny Greens, Would you please let us know, what exactly does your company do, and what differs you from normal farming?” For now we have a space and are going with Microgreens. Microgreens are basically baby shoots we can harvest them in between 7 to 14 days and after that we supply microgreens to restaurants and other users too. So how it differs from traditional farming is that traditional farming grown outdoors, hence, there’s crop imbalances. Some of your crops would die and also some of your crops would thrive. It’s because the weather is inconsistent. So what we’re doing is we’re controlling the environment. It’s sort of like an architect dreams also you know. Like a lot of our projects are farming. So we control the environment we have less pest and insects and pesticide free and chemical free. Farms outside they use a lot of pesticides. But microgreens are different from vegetables as we harvest it very fast and it packs a lot more nutrients and is commonly used as garnishes. We are promoting it to be more like a salad.
Justin Lee
“Would you think what you’re doing right now might change the farming ritual of Malaysia or at least somehow influence it?”
I think it’s a step you know, it’s a step. We’re in uncertain times now. There’s COVID there’s the pandemic crisis there’s also the climate crisis in the next 10 years. There are lot of uncertainties. We had a taste of it with the lockdown. States are closed and after that supermarkets are also closed and we got panic buying and we ran out of food. So I think what we’re doing is a step of trying out because its just not us you know. There are many modern farmers out there in KL also. But I think it’s a step to introduce more modern farming and diversify the urban program in the city too. In turn, as I was talking about the problems with the inability to travel interstate. You have food going for you locally. Most of our food comes from the modern peripheries such as Cameron Highlands. So you can get food locally and if its in a controlled environment its also a form of food security. Microgreens is an easy type to grow compared to larger vegetable which takes few months to grow. Smaller vegetables is the next step to introduce to people during the MCO too. So we were doing our starter kit.
Justin Lee
19
“Ms. Aishah you mentioned you have class on weekend right. What exactly do you teach in that class? ” The classes that I offer is not like a normal 3D classes. It is like sharing of tips and tricks. When I was working in CityLabs, I was exposed to all kinds of tips and tricks , like how to do a really fast modelling as they have various proposals to be done. I couldn’t go like normal software classes. I’m quite rebellious when it comes to learning something. I will always find a way to learn techniques and sometimes you just need to learn simple straight forward tricks. For an example, you wanna do ball or an organic shape. I feel like there’s a need from the local students and its not just students, I even have professional workers coming in even artists doing installation works as well. I think Rhino is such a really good software and most of our students uses it. Most of the students that come into my class they just pick it up straight away. My class is just from 9 to 4 and I cover from basic modelling to complex modelling. By the end of the classes, I make sure my students grow this complex structure.
I was lucky to be working in CityLab we were working with all these conceptual structures. And I feel like 3D classes are quite expensive. I understand if students don’t want to go other classes other than university provided ones. So I made my classes affordable. What I did was I made my kind of own module to make sure it can fit from 9 to 4PM and covers from basic to complex. I feel like it’s a win win and I’m quite obsessed with teaching as well. So in both weekdays and weekends I’m teaching.
Aishah Mokhtar
ADVISOR Doris Quek Shu Han PROGRAMME LEADER Shirley Syn See Bui CONTENT LEADER Emmelia Anne Quek Yuen May MULTIMEDIA Miao An Nan Alvin Ng Poow Foong DOCUMENTATION TEAM Edwin Seng Yong Wei Fong Li Theng Eunice Tan Kai Yi Lim Kai Xuan Lean Soong En Chen Yen Jia Chang Chee Yoo Chong Li Min Tan Wei Zhe Lai Zhi Zhen Mandy Lai Ping Jie Joanne Tong Lai Mun