Dualogue Local & Oversea
05 Speakers Wong Kaiyi Lynna Kew Li Min Moderator Scott Lu Siau Yang
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.
Lynna Kew Li Min
Kew Li Min is a current fulltime Master’s in Architecture student in a local government university; University Putra Malaysia who has graduated from UCSI University with her Part 1 LAM accreditation in the year 2017. After working in MOA Architects for a whole year, while pursuibg her part 2, Li Min was a MASA Exco Multimedia (2019) as well as a part time videographer, photographer and content creator.
Experience & Develop According to Li Min’s experience as a Master of Architecture sudent in a local university, she has shared about her knowledge in the sharing session titled “Local and Overseas’ - the depth insights of architectural studies. Li Min had shared about the opportunities that she has got during her master’s in local university and the experiences when she stepped out of her comfort zone to face the new challenges. The teaching methods in creative ways and the lifestyle in local university, is totally different from her degree life. Undeniably, local university had widen her horizon in architecture field and she had lto learn how to balance between studies and leisure time. Besides, there are some experimentbased subjects that encourage students to experience and develop a new technology. Students are having fun and torture at the same time but it will become the precious memories in the future. It also provides the chance to learn the knowledge other than just architecture such as housing income development planning. They had to visit the authorities to have On the other hand, Li Min had a deeper understanding mentioned that there were a from the professional lot of opportunities during her and this gave them the master’s studies. They have choices of career other the chance to collaborate with than an architect in the Lendlease Malaysia to conduct a project to upgrade a public future. space in PPR Hang Tuah. They had handled the whole project and assisted Lendlease Malaysia. It was a golden opportunity to upgrade a public space by giving proposal and taking action to upgrade the space by manpower.
After that, Li Min had mentioned that she had an opportunity to learn the video editing technique to make a site analysis video as it was one of the requirements in their assignment. They had visit to the site at LRT Asia Jaya to conduct a survey and site analysis during their first semester. They have also done the interview session with the local residents to collect the data and survey that was close to the truth. In the second semester, they had to do a site analysis at Loke Yew public housing area. They faced another challenge which the building they designed had to be suitable for the people who is having a different lifestyle that they are unfamiliar with. It gave them a chance to step out of the comfort zone and understanding other people’s life. They had a deeper understanding about the lifestyle of the local community who live in the public housing via interview session with the local residents. Site analysis and survey provide them the accurate direction on designing the most In addition, the site analysis video also manifested suitable building. the lifestyle of local residents and brought out the memories for the people who lived there before. Li Min had opportunities to interview professional Ar. Wooi Lok Kuang who is an experienced architect. He gave the useful advices and shared his experiences to the young generation sincerely to face the challenges in the future. She also assisted Dr. Zack Zairul in S.O.L.E video production to promote the pure crit. Dr. Zack Zairul was having the sole methodology and implement in the tutorial class and he is one of her lecturers who gave students a lot of help and encouraged them to do more creative thinking. Other than that, Li Min and her group had the chance to visit Ar. Azman’s house which was built without any nails but all by timber joining at Port Dickson. It was a precious experience while Ar. Azman brought them to have a look at the construction of the house and explained it in detail. In conclusion, there are always two sides of a coin. Li Min had the opportunities to join a lot of activities and meet different people. The lecture was conducted in creative ways to stimulate their potential and discover their interest other than architecture field in the future. However, it is crucial for us to have a proper time management skill as the workload of the assignments are heavier than our expectation. The most important thing is to appreciate every opportunity and have passion in it.
What designer needs is not a school, but a passion for creation.
Wong Kaiyi
Wong Kaiyi, a graduate architect who has obtained his Master’s programme from University Of Sheffield after completing Part 1 in UCSI University three years ago. A Malaysian; born and raised, gaining education from local schools and going through form 6. Kaiyi is now a freelance designer for Home Refurbishments projects while actively participating in various architectural competitions throughout the years.
According to Kai Yi’s experience as a Master of Architecture student in an overseas university in United Kingdom, he shared about his knowledge in the sharing session titled “Local and Overseas”- the depth insights of architectural studies. Everything was new and nice for Kai Yi when he first reached in UK. The weather was cold but Kai Yi was enjoying it and started to explore the town. The classroom was at Art Tower where there is an interesting place called ‘cutting off the lift’ and has some orchestral performances sometimes. The workshop was fully equipped with completed machine as they did a lot of models as well.
Study in UK
“Live Project” The ‘Live Project’ was the first project that he did which comprised of students from different architecture programme such as master of architecture, landscape architecture and mathematic field. They met and consulted the client of the project which is the City Council of Brussel. As the client was unsure of what to do, the students have to propose their own solution and to form the project brief via talking to public and survey. After that, the project proposed was an entire town intervention. The project allows them to communicate with public in various spot such as train stations, pubs and etc. The culture of having a lot of drinking after every presentation or submission gave a new impact to Kai Yi. He got the chance to explore the town with friends during some free time and even travelled to Manchester alone. It was not easy to have an intensive time schedule during the project and works in group because there will be conflicts sometimes and you have to voice out.
He also went for travelling after the Live Project as a form of stress relief. Besides, they had a studio trip to Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany to have a sharing session with the local students. He found out that different school is having different approaches on the syllabus and teaching method.
After a short break, Kai Yi welcomed his first-year studio with the theme called ‘Play’. The project kickstarted with a playful methodology which was social experiment. He had to communicate with public and clear the missions with blindfolded throughout the whole process that emphasize on human senses which is the main concept for his design. As the proposed site is located at Belgrade, Kai Yi described as a very diverse and multiracial city similar to his home country, Malaysia. This inspired him to use food as an element to attract people from different culture together, then resulted in a culture collision. He has made numerous models with various materials including food ingredient to emphasis on the food-related Compared to UCSI, he felt that international university programmes held in his proposal. The offers more freedom in terms of presentation, Therefore, spaces were designed like a labyrinth he conducted his presentation in narrative way to give where one has to rely solely on their a new perspective and better explanation to his project. five senses in order to hover around the In international university, design reviews are held place. once a month and students are compulsory to give
Communicate With Public
their personal opinion to every presenter. It is a good The Live Project was carried out all the way until his second approach to train the communication year. In the end, they had to present the idea and solution skills of students. to clients and related personnel which was about 300 people in total. After that, they were required to submit a dissertation. In the meantime, Kai Yi made a bold decision to participate a competition with his friends, it was a very hectic time for them, but they managed to handle both.
In the second year, they had the mobile studio which could travel throughout the United Kingdom. They had embarked on a journey as road trip by driving a van and travel up North to Tain, Scotland. All sorts of discussion, cooking and daily activities will be carried out within the mobile studio. As he travelled, he became deeply interested in the beauty of wind turbine, which inspired him to dive into clean energy research for his later projects. As he was doing a joint thesis project with his partner, Vicky, they opted for a larger site which was later decided at a harbor in Aberdeen where they discovered along the trip. To bring out the essence of the project, drawings are done in a highly expressive way to show the concept and connection between the spaces, as well as the unifying language that ties everything together, rather than just pinning out the spaces alone. However, due to the unconventional geometry form they proposed, which go against their initial concept of having clean energy, they received questions and doubts from their tutors, this pushed them to research deeper in terms of site modules and construction technology to formulate a more convincing proposal. They both understand that the project they designed will never happen in the near future, with the limitation of technology. Therefore, the project is set based on a speculation of future far away from now, where the proposed programmes are nothing like the present, such as energy stock market. As they intended to break the paradigm of architecture and made it casual, fun, and random, most of the graphics were done in a funky manner.
“What rendering software do you normally use?” I use quite a lot. Often, I use Lumion, mostly for 5th and 6th year. And then I used V-ray for my competition. And then I use Blender on my 6th year for modelling. Yeah, and Sketchup, that is all.
Wong Kaiyi
Q&A “Was international university your first choice?” Yes. Yeah, actually, I had applied quite a few universities. And I did get a few [offers]. And then, they [Sheffield] replied me after I decided to go for Oxford Brookes. Because I think Oxford Brookes is a bit more lenient, whereas Sheffield is quite difficult to get in. Also, I think I have not met that requirement, though. Because the requirement is to finish a year in practice. So, you need to work for one full year or at least six months before applying. But for me, I only did intern for three months with one extra month, so, I am actually underqualified, I am not sure how I got in, but I actually quite liked Sheffield.
It is my first choice, of course. But I also got questioned like, why you are not considering Bartlett (School of Architecture), AA (Architect’s Association) or etc.? Because for me, I think I quite like crazy stuff, but I know if I go to a Bartlett and AA, I didn’t say they are not crazy, different studio have their own craziness, but I know some studios are very practical. Do not get me wrong, being practical is not bad thing, just that it’s not my forte, I’m not good at being practical. So, I want to find a balance between being a really conceptual and being practical, I need to find a balance in between, I think Sheffield kind of offers these kinds of balance.
Wong Kaiyi
“How long is the course in local university ? How much was the fees in total? Was it your first choice, and if yes, why?” Okay, about the cost in local university, you need to study full time for two years, so is a four semester, half year one semester, then how much is the fee is actually if I’m not mistaken for me is 20,500MYR but I’m not sure like that fees will likely increase every year or not you need to check with the local university but somehow if you’re studying local university and the fees is around 20k MYR that is only for the tuition fee. The daily expenses are just based on yourself, but I think the rental around Seri Kembangan is definitely cheaper than in the Cheras area because I stayed in Cheras area before also. I’m not sure if everyone knows, actually I got [an offer from] UM (University Malaya) and UPM and I was really struggling at the time because at the time I don’t really have information and I don’t know anyone from there. But I just need to like ask the friends of friends that have studied there before. I also consult with Ar. Chia (Head of SABE, UCSI) before. But most of them did not give me on exact answer.
But it is just like, based on you and your character, I think, because after I visited UM and UPM, I’m not sure about UPM, but UM have their student exhibition, I went to the exhibition, and I look at their work. As for UPM I have friends of friends studying here, so I asked like how their class is normally held. So, I was really struggling because their location are like more or less the same. So after my consideration, I chose the UPM is because of my characteristics, and UPM is more explorative in terms of events and you can ‘fly freely’ and lecturers will not ask what you are doing as long as you just do your part and they will give you a lot of opportunity.
Lynna Kew Li Min
“So, are you implying that local university is the other way around? ” It is not the case. But from my understanding of UPM from friends of friends, then I thought this is the one, this is what I want. Actually, I responded to UM first and say I will enroll in UM as it was my first choice, but I regretted that. At last, after I consulted more people, I decided I want to go to UPM more. As UM has higher ranking and recognized by RIBA, my parents do not understand why [I chose UPM] because they were only looking at the ranking. I really had a tough time when I choose the university. At last when I decided to choose UPM, I also wrote an email to decline UM with apology. At last, I decided to come UPM is because my character and UPM is like more or less the same.
Lynna Kew Li Min 11
How much the cost for international university and your daily expenses was. What figures are we looking at?”
I would say really expensive to study overseas. I think Sheffield costs almost like Bartlett you know, almost like UCL. Yeah, this is crazy. I think it was about 20 000£ per year, so almost 100k MYR per year. That is just the tuition fees, altogether it is about 200k MYR I actually do not remember how much I spent It for tuition fees alone. As for is really different you know, my accommodation my expenses, I am not really a is about 140£ per week, so it is almost 500£ per frugal person, so I spend quite month, which is almost 2k MYR. That is just for the a ‘bit’. accommodation. For, the meal is pretty cheap. So, you can actually afford like 3-5£ a day, given that you cook by yourself. But if you eat out, it is going to cost a lot more. It is about 10 to 20£ for once eating in the restaurant, so I usually cook by myself. I am not a cook at all before I went there. So, I am a pro now, considering I have never cooked before.
Wong Kaiyi
“That excludes the social events you joined, right?” No, it was actually not a lot. In oversees, even the Caucasians, the locals, they don’t usually eat out, they will say eat out is such a luxury, so they usually eat at home and then they just go out for drinks only because the drinks are so cheap, about three pounds per pint, or 2.50£ per pint. It is really cheap. So usually people do not eat out unless you are super rich.
Wong Kaiyi
“Did you take RIBA Part II or LAM Part II?” In Sheffield, after you graduated, you are automatically a RIBA Part II, you do not have to take any exam for that.
The thing is, it was really funny is when I tried to register to vote in UK, where you can actually vote for the president of RIBA. But I can’t vote because they say I didn’t get a RIBA Part I. In order to get RIBA Part 1, it is either you are from any other public university in Malaysia. All private school in Malaysia is not considered RIBA Part I. So, you have to register for RIBA Part 1 in order to get the entire RIBA recognition. But I am recognised by RIBA Part II because Sheffield is already recognised.
Wong Kaiyi
13
“What is your consideration when you decide to study Part II?” Firstly, it is about the fee. If you are studying in Malaysia, it is more or less the same. Like a few thousand MYR difference. Secondly, I think it is the style of the university. But you cannot get any information about this online, so you need to ask anyone who studies there.
Lynna Kew Li Min
So, the advice is, you know, don’t live in your own circle, you have to socialize and talk to seniors.
Wong Kaiyi
“What did you consider and what was your main concern?” Originally, way before I entered any school, I was actually looking out for local private university. I also asked a lot of my friends and seniors’ opinion on local university. I not quite see myself in a public university because I find myself more unrestrained. I do not like to be told what to do. I know sometimes you must listen, to a point I think, you know, somehow architecture is a really subjective subject. So, you have to be openminded and creative. I am not bashing any local university here, to be honest. Because I know I’ve got a lot of friends who were studying in local university excel too. But I did ask a lot of people. Luckily, during my internship, I had a senior who studied in international university before. And I got to ask him, what is the study and working culture of international university or and how the lecturers will be like? And then he just says that it is good and suitable for you and I say okay. I did some research after looking through their portfolio, go to their website and check it out. I think these are the basic thing has to do other than just listening to a friend or seniors because you know, sometimes, you know, the thing that he or she say might not be absolutely true about the university because maybe that person just being negative, you wouldn’t know until you get there, so I think it’s very important to actually know what you want. Many people asked me that, “I want to go overseas and study” and I say, “then do you know what you want?” “What is your character?”, “do you suit [studying] overseas?” I do not want people to really think that overseas is better than Malaysia because it is not the case. Given that your character suit that, like what Lynna said if your character suit that module and system then you could go but if you’re not, if your mentality is like, “I just want to get things done” then you better just stay in Malaysia, do not waste money and time.
Wong Kaiyi
15
“So, I think you kind of touched on most of the questions here like the difference between studying in Malaysia and overseas. Of course, you also touched on like the capability of Malaysian student when they go abroad. So, you were saying that it depends on case by case. I mean, different person has different strength.”
Yeah, one thing I want to add is, when I first arrived at UK, I thought, I had no expectation at all, I thought it is kind of similar to Malaysia, but it’s actually very different.
Even in Live Project, the tutor will not tell you what to do. They will keep asking you what you want to do. If you have no idea, you are going to ‘die’. They are not going to tell you like, now you must do analysis or what not. You have to do everything on your own. Towards almost one month before the final submission, only then they will tell you maybe this or that is lacking or insufficient, you have to look into that, you have to add something more practical in it. So, you have to sort of balance up yourself, you have to be more discipline and conscious of what you want to do.
For the first few reviews, because I have no idea what to do or I am really bad presenting myself. For the first two, three reviews, my results were so bad. Even if we have like a bar, we will call that like a ‘skill bar’ thing, almost all my results are in negative. It was really bad, so I think you have to really know what you want to do, have a very clear direction and aware of what you like. It is not that all studios are like that. There are a couple of studios where they will still guide you. So, given that if you’re more passive, or need somebody to guide you, actually, you still have chance in international university, because there’s a one or two studio, but those tutors are really, really intense, like a control freak, but you need to live up to their expectation.
Wong Kaiyi 17
“Would you like the lecturer to give you the information? Or would you like to just discover what to do next? “
I like to discover things from my own point of view, because I feel like for student project we need to have, for me, I think I need to have some sort of ownership of a project. I like to do things that I’m interested in, I don’t want to let let’s say, I don’t like when lecture say okay, you are doing a Cultural Centre so let’s study the culture of the site, I don’t like being told like this, I want me myself to feel like, I need to study the culture of the site, I need study the historical background of the site then I go study, I don’t want you to tell me to do that thing in order to satisfy the needs of the lecture. I do not like to do that.
Wong Kaiyi
It is really based on your character, but I think, if you have studied locally from primary school until university, I can say that people who are like Kai Yi are very less, most of them will just follow what the instruction ask them to do. If you are a person who are like that, when you go overseas, you will suffer. I am not complaining about local university, but if you are studying in local university for master, you will not have so much cultural shock because you are adapted to Malaysia, the local system.
Lynna Kew Li Min
Yeah, I think the culture shock is a very, very big thing. The lecturer in UK, they will not bash you, even if your design is bad, they would say, “Oh, it’s really good, there is a gap for improvement, but maybe the meaning of the sentence is saying “you’re stupid”, but they don’t say it out loud. So, you need to carry yourself. That is something that I’ve struggled for quite a long time. For the first year I have been like “what the heck you’re saying”, beating around the bush and wasting my time.
Wong Kaiyi
“Do you want to be in control? Or would you like to just please your lecturer in a way. ” 19
“After one or two-years education What do you think was different fro
I think, for Part I, we always think from outside-in, but in Part II I always think from inside-out. For example, for Part I, the first thing we will ask is that what is the brief, we want get as much information as much as possible, we want to like know like, what do you want? Like, give me the information, like the area of the site, what is the building you want, typology... and I design for you and that is it, the end. After I study for Part II, I feel like I think differently. I sort of started to think from the smallest detail like something more ‘nuance’, something really intangible, something that is more ‘human’, something that is from the inside. Let’s say the programme itself, how the programme could be better or benefits for the community and then it expands to architectural, expands to the building itself, expands to the facade, you know. At the end is the building, not beginning is the building. It is like, from the core it is not the building, the identity should not be the building, when you enter a building you should not be mesmerized by the building but by the activities, the programmes itself. What influence the building is not the building itself. I do not know about other schools, but in the university that I studied, even you are Part II, it is fine that your project is really small. So, I feel like they are their mindset is like a good project is based on how thoughtful the concept is, it is not how ‘wild’ the building is. They want the smallest building to have the biggest impact and idea.
Wong Kaiyi
in local or international school, om you when you graduate from Part I?”
Since I just ended my fourth year, majorly I will say it is more or less the same. I am not sure about other university, but I think in the university that I studied tries to push their students outside of the studio, they just don’t want you to just close the door and dine inside but rather than that they try to give you like an idea of what can you do other than architecture. So, they make you to go to every event, they want you to know more architect, they want you to go and contact an architect, say that you want to interview them, they want you to find different idea, different materials and experiment yourself. I think if you are an active person, you would like to join creative events like MASSA or architectural workshop. You will really like these events. The lecturers in local university will always ask us to go any talk happening in Kuala Lumpur. If you are a person who just want to do your own design and feel uncomfortable with anything that interrupt your design, I think local university is not suitable for you.
Lynna Kew Li Min
“Do you think that the place of education actually influences a person’s knowledge and the quality of student when they graduate?
Yes, it definitely will. But after all, it is just based on your own hard work and your character. If the lecturer tries to push you out [of your comfort zone] but you don’t want to, no matter which university you go to it will be the same. But I think the syllabus local university designed is quite good. Although it was packed with a lot of assignments, every subject has three assignments ongoing, and you still need to attend event outside. But I think I can recommend this University. It is based on your character if you are somebody like me then you may join.
Lynna Kew Li Min
Of course, I think. Because right now, I cannot see any bright future in architecture. Because my thesis topic was all about sustainability. But when you study more, you realise the architecture itself is actually destroying the nature, there is no such thing as sustainable at all when you want to talk about architecture. So, it triggers me that if I want to be in practice, am I going against what I am believing? That is why I am quite confused now. So, if I was studying in Malaysia, I wouldn’t have these thoughts because nobody will say this kind of thing in Asia, they will say architecture is sustainable, architecture is the development. Okay, but development brought disaster, nobody would say that in Malaysia, but that is actually the truth. But humans have to grow with development, that’s the nature of humans. So, I do not know the solution, I’m still confused on what I want to do. But of course, if I am so poor that I could not afford a meal right now, I would still work for developers. But if I have a choice to do what I want to do, I guess I have a different option of being an architect because how would you say architect would be so benevolent that could bring only good for society but not the bad. Because we are trained to be really good sellers, we like to package the stuff, we like to beautify the concept of ours, but behind the thought, how much destruction it brings. You are the only one who knows. I think almost all architects are well aware that we are actually destroying, but we are kind of succumb to these capitalism things. It is more just my thoughts. I mean, that is what I say. If I studied in Malaysia, I would not have these kinds of thoughts. But if I study overseas, people will keep talking these kinds of really controversial stuff. And I started to have different kind of perspective that implanted in my head.
Wong Kaiyi
“After you graduate from oversea, when you come back to Malaysia and work, Would you feel like you are a bird who came out from the cage and now come back to the cage again?”
I do not know. Personally, I enjoy the life in UK, but that is not the life that I want, because the food is really bad, I do not like the food there. I do not feel a sense of belonging there. Everyone is friendly, but it is so superficial, I just do not click with them, I just do not talk some stuff with them, I cannot.
We promoted some kind of really controversial topic. I just feel like I want to come home. When I am back, I am really concentrating on what I am going to do, I am not sure if it was a good choice that I made, because everything here in Malaysia is a bit more restricting in the design.
I am really fresh and new to this industry, in order to know what I want to do, I think I have to somehow work on something else. Maybe that is not the thing I want to do but that is something I need to do. I think I will start looking for small firm so if you guys have any good small firm to recommend to me please do so. I think I will just work in a small firm to really know what I want to do.
Wong Kaiyi 25
“Before we end the session, Do you guys have anything you want to say to our viewers, like anything motivation or recommendation for people who are still in Part I and considering Part II?
It is not to say something motivational, but I think before you study Part II, you really need to know yourself. If you are a very practical person, then you know that you can become someone like a project Architect, if you are a design [oriented] person you can become a design architect. You need to know yourself first, then you know how to choose the university. Whether or not you study overseas or locally, if the university style does not match with you then [it will be pointless]. You really need to do research.
That is so good. I mean, with the technology today, it is really easy to get information compare to last time. So just keep asking question, keep talking to people and expand your circle and reach out to as many people as possible.
I have been talking to Kai Yi past two weeks. If you have any questions, you can always private message us, since we have friends in different local universities, we can gather all your questions and answer them in a YouTube video. We have been there, when we choose a university, the information is lacking. So, if you have any questions, you just private message us, you can ask as many questions as you can, so that we can invite people from different university and answer your questions. So if you are planning to go overseas or to study in local university, you will know how you can choose and why you choose them, so you will have an answer in your mind.
Lynna Kew Li Min
Wong Kai Yi
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