Chen Rou Ann 1001G76463 Personal Value Statement At the beginning, I struggled with what I was going to write for my personal value statement. I tried asking around to try and understand how people view me, or try to get an idea on what I was supposed to write. After a while, I realised that writing my personal value statement is to write based on my opinion on myself instead of trying to comprehend how others view me. I then calmed myself down, and try to put my messy mind into words. Each person perceives the world slightly different from the next. The particular focus and world views differs from one person to another. Person A and Person B can have very different world views and what they think is important. How a person experiences life, the things they go through makes up to how a person evaluates the society. A personal value statement is for a person to understand themselves, to explore and understand their own capabilities. To me, it is to strengthen what I know about myself, to learn what I can about myself and also to evaluate myself. With that, I hope to better myself and also to progress towards a better and more attentive process of my design values. I see myself as someone who has a very active imagination. I spend more time in my head than in reality. I do a thorough job while a task holds my interest; when I have no interest in a task I’m assigned to, I tend to be lazy and procrastinate. I can say that I have the ability to understand things quickly but one very big flaw I have is that I am unable to focus on only one thing for an extended period of time. I lose patience very quickly and nothing can keep my attention for long time. On a good day, I have a small window of time which I can focus and allow ideas to flow in. I do not trust easily and I’m sceptical about others even after I’ve known them for a long time. I also don’t share my work much due to insecurities. It contradicts the way that I tend to see the positive side of others, hoping that everybody is as good as how I see them. I usually handle stress well, when I’m put on the spot. That being said, I get nervous at the smallest things. Most days I like to be by myself with my thoughts, and I tend to need a short break in between whenever I’m with a crowd of people. I was born in a small town hospital in Taman Bagan, Butterworth, Penang in 1992. Growing up as an only child, (till I was 6) I had the opportunity to roam the house with crayons and colour pencils. Since I was young, I had a fascination with dolls and dresses and that inspired me. I wanted to be a fashion designer, just like Barbie’s outfits. That probably sparked my design mind. By the age of 4, my parents started exposing me to different kinds of skills, such as ballet, piano, painting, art and sports. Slowly,
they eliminated the things I was not interested in, and pushed me to pursue what I had interest it which, at the time, was music, painting, art and swimming. In primary school I joined the school’s brass band, and I was first assigned to play the pianica (since I learnt piano) and then the trumpet and lastly, I was handpicked by the coach to be the first and only trombone player of my primary school. The love I felt for brass band soon lead me into joining my secondary school’s brass band and I had a blast. I moved to Kuala Lumpur at the age of 14, during the middle of the school year, which made it very difficult for me. Culture difference had made me different in class. I was slightly bullied for my accent and also for how naïve I was, under very protective parents and all. I missed all my friends back in Penang and I felt lonely. So with that, I began sink into myself, burying myself into my books, imagination and drawings. First half a year I kept mostly to myself, and then slowly I opened up more towards others. I started making friends and socializing and my days became better and I was looking forward to go to class once again. I wanted to take up architecture since 16 but mother declined. After my pre-u, I finally agreed to take up financial engineering and lived away from my family. I also picked up radio dee-jaying in the university which take up most of my attention. That was one of my happiest moments, where I get to feel the rush of going on air, words tumbling out of my mouth as I entertain my listeners for an hour a week. Emceeing was also part of my frequent routine as I was hired to host some of the campus’ events. I was also heavily involved in event planning, for events such as Career Fair, Cultural Integration Week, Carnival Night etc. I was happy for a moment but eventually, what I was depressed from my studies. I was falling back, I didn’t understand the classes and soon, I started to neglect my studies and pull myself into radio dee-jaying. One fine day, I broke down after a phone call from my mother. After a very long talk with my father, finally I got to study what I wanted. I have been happy ever since. I would like to think what happened to me influenced me to become who I am today. Independent, confident, strong willed, I reach for what I aim for and settle for nothing less. To me, people are an important part of my life. I might not trust them as much or express myself to a lot of people, but to me, friends are one of the most important aspects of my life. Other than that, how a person is exposed to their surrounding makes a huge difference too. Whether they are accepted positively or negatively affects hugely in their personality and character.
When I was younger I read this short story where plants are discouraged because of its irregular shape and the world demanded everything to be perfect. The air was bad, and the environment was dusty, dirty and hazy. There was a child that found a sprout growing out of the cracks in the rock, and he brought it home and took care of it, hiding it from outsiders. The story then proceeds to someone finding out about it and encourage the child to do something about the terrible environment. He did and years later, houses are built on trees and everybody live harmoniously with it. The thing that fascinates me the most are the houses on the trees. The way it was describe sounded like an amazing way to live. I feel like the nature doesn’t get enough credit and the human species have been ignoring the importance of it, taking granted for its existence and not appreciating enough of it. I despise the fact that humans prioritize their own species. That’s why if I have the money I would want to help the animals first as they are incapable of supporting themselves in such harsh environment that humans put them through. I see the world as a very simple place but it’s the nature that has to be the centre of attention. I like to keep buildings close to nature and more open to expose the user to the nature instead of closing everybody in and cutting them off from nature. Nature is there for a reason, and everybody should be part of it instead of keeping it at arms’ length. I love Tadao Ando’s simple design. His designs are simple yet it involves the nature. Most of his buildings take into account the surroundings, the light, the lake, the forest. Using minimal materials and a whole lot of thinking, the buildings became special. Take the church on water for an example, although most of the building is made of concrete, the water in the lake reflects the forest and makes the building extra grand, especially during the four seasons. The moment the walls slide open, the view is mesmerising. It creates an out of the body experience that the user is part of nature instead of being detached from it. Frank Lloyd Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment (organic architecture). His buildings blend in with the surrounding and enhance it. Fallingwater, one of his greatest creations blends perfectly into the nature, making the building look as if it belonged in it. My designs, like Tadao Ando, tend to be simple in concept and design, yet when pulled together with nature, forms a beautiful picture. Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings inspire me to build buildings that blends into the nature instead of ignoring it. My designs are usually focused on how a person would feel when they see the building for the first time, their first step into the building until the very
end of the tour. They are usually more open aired, as I prefer the user to be exposed to the nature instead of being disconnected from it. The dominance of the surrounding nature is important, and so is the relationship of the interior and the exterior, i.e. the natural environments. Not only to use nature as a decoration, has it also helped the building to cool down, or to achieve comfort levels. ‘Sense of belonging’ plays an important in my buildings too. Architecture communicates with the user. It could make one feel different, feel more comfortable or whatever the architect wants the user to feel. To design a building, one must first know themselves to really know what they want. Good architecture mostly reflects personality and character. Instead of only thinking of what they can do to make the building look better or what would be happening in the building, everything else into account. The user, the surroundings, the nature, the sun, the lighting, the wind and everything else is vital to the design.