Theories, Self by Akmal, Edner & Sofia

PROJECT PART I: ANALYSING SELF MUHAMAD AKMAL (0312531) THEORIZING ARCHITECTURE: AR. DAVID MIZAN HASHIM (VERITAS ARCHITECTS SDN. BHD.) CHILDHOOD David Mizan Hashim is the Chief Executive Officer of VERITAS Design Group. David is half Malaysian and half American where is father is Malaysian and his mother is American citizen. David has four siblings including himself. He was born on 31 May 1961. He was raise in the city of Kuala Lumpur. To be exact at his home town is at Jalan Yap Kwang Seng. Furthermore David is living in a city of Kuala Lumpur and early memories of his house was playing around Klang river road and looking at Kampung Baru. That is early memories of his house. And his first memories were when he was eight years old he had played with a pencil, and while played with it suddenly the pencil punctured his right eyes. And that story have been been told by the mother for ages when he was small and on his quote he did mention the pencil story is one of his bad memories and one of the quote he said was “memory in the memory� are to always remember his past years.

In education his attend his primary school at Good Sheppard primary school and afterwords attend St.John high school that is 1.5km away from Good Sheppard School. David favorite subject in school are Physics, art and mathematics because of the way his think is always in logic sense. David usually walk to his school and will pass by the Bangunan Getah Asli every single day and 40 years later his architect firm are inside this building. What actually make he realize want to be become an architect are been told to us are, he used to built thing as in play with Lego. Before he moving to Jalan Yap Kwang Seng David and his family are rental a house in Petaling Jaya and to be exact at Seksyen 16 until he was 12 years old before moving to Jalan Yap Kwang Seng. The story began when he was 10-12 years of age and it happen after school around 6.00in the evening David usually as a kid go out and play but not around the playground but around the site. So around 6-7.30 evening he always every day went to the site and make friend with the security guard because around that time every worker already going back home.

After he make friend with guard he ask permission from the guard and insisted them to let him check the construction site. On one day he got the permission from the security guard to enter and he walk around the site and have a look at the site. He saw all the foundation, concrete and the building itself. Then while he inspect the area he saw a\ car come in to the site and park the car in front the building. And he just stood there and watch one guys come out from the car and wear casual formal and took a safety helmet and was holding a bundle of large paper. Afterword the guy open the bundle of paper and check the building and pointing finger at the building and solve the chores at that time while referring back to the drawing paper.

After that incident when he was 10-12 years of age he decided he want to become an architect. From there

after his graduated from high school he try to intern at architect firm and hired as intern and his work are basically coloring submission drawing, folding a drawing, and also building model at intern there for three month at Juru Bina Bertiga. His early influences to be and architect are surprisingly not from his parent or uncle but from a book. The book is title are The Fountainhead and was written by ANY RAND. And to add to that his influence are not even and architect where she is an authors.

The story begin after his high school when he enter Massachusetts Institute Of Technology(MIT) in united stated and one of his friend start to give him a book by Any Rand. To simplify the book is about and architect and happen to be it is Frank Lloyd Wright. And what has David learn from the book are how to be an heroism of individual, discipline, self confidence, hierarchy on people and lastly he mention are individual above masters. David also has told us that during his free time he always enjoy to do outdoor activity and his favourite sport are such diving, tennis and squash ball. David also love to watch opera as opera is not just sing but it all acts as a lot of charisma to it. Without a doubt David have help in our Malaysian architect urban style with his imaginary to create green and sustainability architecture in his approach. He also does inspire us and also make us not to be confused anymore in our way to lead our journey of life to becoming and successful interpretnue and renounce architect with all his wisdom and passionate talk.

David has told us that the way his design an space for his clients are in a way of his talk to them in a sense of privately to understand the clients and from there he has his vision to design based on what he know about the clients family. The way he create an architecture piece is very meaningful in a way of every faรงade and also every little space in the building serve it own purpose to satisfied the need to the clients.

That is some of his influences towards me and how he make his journey to become an great architect also create a architect firm that is top five architect firm in Malaysia. That is how I would end my essay on him.

To that I will concluded the childhood of David Mizan Hasyim. During his free time also he enjoy to sketch.

PROJECT PART I: ANALYSING SELF EDNER PATRICK STEPHEN (0314623) THEORIZING ARCHITECTURE: AR. DAVID MIZAN HASHIM (VERITAS ARCHITECTS SDN. BHD.)

EDUCATION Having a well receieved reputation around Malaysia, Ar. David Mizan Hashim is no stranger in the architecture world as the opChief Executive Officer of Veritas Architects Sdn. Bhd. Being such an inspirational person, he has been leading the firm since founding it in 1987 and has been a role model in his team. He truly believes in listening to his clients as well as responding to their needs. The story of his success comes from an energy that he implements into the design process, communication skills, stringent control of budget and schedule as well as having to understanding the client’s objectives.

The journey that has taken him this far is truly valuable for him as he cherished every moment of it.

Before he started his career as a professional architect, the educational background of Ar. David Mizan is truly inspiring in the most simplest way. He actually graduated his B(sc) in Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1983. MIT has a well known reputation around the world with a lot recognized architects graduated from it. Ar.David then further pursue his dreams by going staight away to Harvard University Graduate School to continue his studies and within 3 years later, graduated his Master in Architecture. Despite the ups and downs along his university life, what truly drives him to go this far is actually something called passions stating that “With passion, you can go even further than where you want to be”.

Speaking of memories, it wasnt actually someone who inspired him to go this far in this industry. He actually grows up in Kuala Lumpur itself to experience its development to how it currently is right now.

That is what catches his interest during those days. Having an inspirational figure to guide him through his interest, it wasnt actually a person that have impacted him, it was actually a book.

When he was around 17-18 years old during his first year in university, someone actually passed him a book titled ‘Fountainhead’ written by Ayn Rand who wasnt an architect. She was a philoshoper and this book was her major literary success which features an young architect in it.

The book features a life of young architect, Howard Roark who has this individualistic character where he chooses to struggle in insecurity rather than to take for granted of his artistic and personal goals. ‘Fountainhead’ aslo follows Howard Roark’s battle to practice what the public sees as modern architecture, which he believes to be superior, despite an establishment centered on tradition-worship.

What inspires him about it was how the book talks about heroism of being individual, importance of personal intregrity, disipline, self-confidence, the hierachy of the self above the community and the individual above the masses. At the moment when Ar. David just finished reading the book, a year later he actually met Ayn Rand during his second year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology when she gave a talk there.

He was very logical in thinking and among his favorite subjects to study during school was mathematics, physics and art. That brought him to his hobby of playing LEGO which he still keeps in his office. Going back into his school days, when it comes to curriculum activities, he admits that he wasnt much of a team player and suggests that it wasnt healthy. He believes that everyone should involve and excel in a team activities and individual activities. That reflects his life that makes him wonder onto his life as an architect where it involve both aspects of the individual and team to execute a project.

PROJECT PART I: ANALYSING SELF NUR-SOFIA GHAZEMY (0314565) THEORIZING ARCHITECTURE: AR. DAVID MIZAN HASHIM (VERITAS ARCHITECTS SDN. BHD.) CAREER Every architects dream is to have a registered firm of their own and start their legacy at a young age, as for David Hashim, he managed to pull it off right after he graduated from Harvard university in 1986. He claimed that he never had a boss throughout his career except when he had to an internship and worked for a few months in the US and Malaysia. In the year 1983 he had work with BEP Arkitek in Malaysia for an eight months internship whereas in the year 1984 he continued with another three months internship at Voorsanger & Mills Architects in the United States. Having gone through internships, it made David realized that he could never be a good employee because he disagreed with his bosses. He always thought that he could do and manage things better, smarter and faster than his bosses could.

During the world economy downturn in the year 1987, a year after he graduated, he took a leap on deciding to start a company on his own. His family and friends thought it was an absurd to risk his career path for his plans my get affected from the economy crisis. The thought of it and pressure from his close ones had made him extremely nervous until he met a friend of his father who was a very experienced developer at that time. His father’s friend said “David, this is the best time to start a business because in a downturn, there’s only one way you can go – up”, he was convinced by then that this leap is worth the risk.

Veritas Design Group was born. His first office was situated in Kampung Baru, a historical area of which the colonial British administrators gazetted as a Malay settlement in 1900 to allow the Malays to retain their lifestyle within the city. It was a small place above a motorcycle workshop, he avoided his clients to come visit him at the office because he was feeling embarrassed and afraid that he might chase the clients away by welcoming them a bad office façade appearance. He felt that it was not appropriate to greet his clients in such way so he will organized a meeting outside at a café or restaurant to visit his clients instead.

He managed to start his business in a humble manner. Veritas at that point of time started off with three people and one of them is currently working with David until today.

Like most entrepreneurs and businessmen, starting a company of their own is not an easy task. Funding is the most crucial part of all. Money need to be invested to get more money. As for David, he uses his student savings and borrowed the rest from his parents less than thirty thousand Ringgit. Back then, professional field like architecture did not require large capital as there were no computers yet, the investment in a fax machine was quite a big amount of money during that time. All the necessary items

were typewriters, pencil, paper, ink. Setting up an architecture firm with all of those items needed did not cost a lot of money compare to setting up an architecture firm today which requires plotting machine, high quality computers and computer programs.

There will always be the first biggest break in a life of an entrepreneur. David’s biggest break was when he went to meet one of his clients to discuss on an upcoming project. David thought that his clients had some faith in him when his clients agreed and gave him an advance he requested to start with the project. With his clients help and David’s borrowing from his family and his personal savings, it got him started well on his first project. His first break through project was Gasing Heights Condominium at Petaling Jaya. Gasing heights is a six towers, eight hundred units of condominium which he got it partly by relationship and partly by design competition. David was very happy to know that some people who have lived there actually love that place.

Challenges he faced as a professional architect was from the pressure of the older members of the profession told him “You cannot market yourself, you’re a professional”. He realized that it is ridiculous to limiting one’s capability to market themselves. David promote Veritas through a lot of mediums, he made brochures, gave out a lot of public speaking on build environment and entrepreneurship. He even got himself into a trouble at one time for some of his actions because it is considered to be a ‘quasiadvertising’ where his advertising meant as a not really but seemingly. Another challenge that he faced during those days where the resistance to foreign architects coming to Malaysia. He claimed that this is not the global system is we create a monopoly and close doors because we did not have the skills that they had. He strongly rejects the action of close doors to foreign architect as he believe that they brought us technology transfer.

A professional architect’s task after having a firm on his own is to attract clients. Back then David’s project were small. Veritas were small and unknown, no contractors was going to give him a big project for a start. His way of getting through handling his project was to overpromise his clients, by overpromise his clients he shall ‘over deliver’ so that trust can be gain, if he slipped out and ‘under deliver’, that would be a big trouble. To attract clients, one’s confidence has to be high. There was a time when one of his clients told him that the project given suits a medium sized firm that consist of ten to fifteen people, David told them that that his firm consist of ten to fifteen staff. The trick is, once he received the project, he will hire more staff. In business, these tricks are not considered as lying because it is strategies on how an architect wants to expand his firm and attract more clients to work with him.