sUsUR REkA poskod 50603 kUAlA lUmpUR
FEBRUARY 2012
02
spaces &
Deviations by M.A.S
Staring at the computer screen or a piece of paper seems to be part and parcel of an architecture student’s life. Willing oneself to put pen to paper - or nudging the cursor on the computer screen - it might seem that the Muses may not be visiting anytime soon. One of the frustrating aspects of the designing process is that it is rarely straightforward. The process involves juggling a jumble of ideas and information that somehow needs to align conceptually, aesthetically, and materially, usually incorporating a substantial incubation period. Not to say we are all literally sitting in an egg, waiting to break free, but we all break off for a while to readjust to the environment we strive in. What might be misconstrued as blankness of thought, involving staring off into space or losing ourselves with much-needed distractions, is actually the mental space needed for our subconscious to whir and piece things together. Pablo Picasso once said that “inspiration exists, but it has to find you working,” and I do believe that this moment of reflection and incubation does count as working if used strategically.
Photo: ‘Menanti Cahaya’ by Mustakim
The ability to observe and to use all of our senses comes is particularly useful as an architect, because once we open our mind’s eyes to our surrounding it is easier to see possibilities and usable solutions to our design problems. The more information we have stored in our minds - which truthfully can mainly come through reading - the easier it is for the trajectories between Idea and Design to collide. Imagine how powerful the accumulation of ideas can be in your life as a designer, because ultimately that is one of your most important tools of the trade. Ideas without strong foundations in theory and history are merely derivations. Concepts without strong roots in understanding and development are merely a waste of time. Once in a while a firm nudge is needed to push you out of your comfort zone and create more intersections between concept and architecture. Like playing a game of marble, they disperse in all separate directions with a single push. If collisions of celestial bodies can create a chain-reaction effect that can be felt millions of years later, imagine what planned deviations from your ordinary design routines can do for you. If something does not seem to work, change the way you look at the design problem at hand. You could literally turn your drawing upside down, use different drawing mediums, temporarily move to a different
The important thing is to shift your perspective and deviate from the way you normally work. location in the studio, or perhaps reference a designer, artist or architect that you are unfamiliar with but find their work fascinating. The important thing is to shift your perspective and deviate from the way you normally work. But let us do more than that; learn from design projects and research conducted from the upper and lower years in your faculty or other universities, or even in other fields. With the World Wide Web at our fingertips we do not even have to leave our design studios (sometimes we never leave them at all!) to explore the other side of the universe. Just as there are countless stars in outer space, there are as many ideas out there waiting to be discovered. We are just one small blip in the universe, but we also know that everything plays a part in the creation of it, no matter how insignificant they might seem. So whether it is a passing observation made during lunch or a big eureka moment after midnight, just remind yourself that in the bigger scheme of things, everything you create and every idea you have has value and leaves an impact. *submit your articles or anything that you wish to see printed to hudaxd@gmail.com*
FBE NEWSFLASH by maisarah mrazi
ArchiTUDE BBQ PARTY >> A DELICIOUS SUCCESS! 10 December 2012 - Architude held
a BBQ at the 3rd floor at the parking block, as to celebrate the end of semester 1. It was an awesome event as they managed to transform a parking lot to a party scene complete with music blaring from a mini laptop - so cute! There was a DIY barbeque pit, and leftover materials found at the site, such as styrofoam and plywood panels, were made into chairs and tables for everyone. But the best part of the event was the chance for us archifamily to hang out together - juniors, seniors, and ex-students too! After all the good food, drinks and snacks, the party was brought over to The Challenger, PJ for further fun: Futsal! For the first time, there was a girls’ team. It would be great if more events like this would pop up this sem. Movie nights, futsal, or football night! With our tight schedule, once in a while would do for a breakout from the studio stress.
*A BIG hint from the Public Installation Crew! Watch out, they are on the move..*
“ To create architecture is to put in order.” ~ Le Corb
New Sem, New Goal Every night, the studios of FBE are occupied. Even weekdays or holidays, we’re always there. Unless you’re as organized and efficient as Prof. Ezrin, life is mostly spent in the studio! (Prof. Ezrin only stayed up
THE STUDIO BINOCULARS
The alienation of a city
by Ihsan Hassan
Kuala Lumpur today – a city of spires, of countless highways sprawling like laksa, condominiums of monumental selfishness, of displacement of the poor, of fortresses of poverty, of spectacular traffic crawl.
What has happened to our city? Is this congested urban mess the only natural path for development? Today we take KL’s many growing problems for granted. The truth is, there are many other ways for a city to exist and we need not look far for possible solutions. The answers lie in our own backyard – cities like Georgetown which have preserved its humanity
and continue to magnify the cultural power of its inhabitants. Poet Usman Awang puts it beautifully in his “Ballad for the murder of a Banyan Tree” which critiques the idea of “development”. The liberal adoption of capitalism has made our cities yield to the power of money and the abandonment of human values. We only build if it makes financial sense to the people with money, even if it’s socially disastrous for the rest. To illustrate this I would like to invite readers to see the problem away from architecture and take a look at a much more profound part of life – work. In the capitalist world order, one works for money; also for an employer that dictates our conventional working hours, leaving only two days to recuperate and participate in the cultural life of society (mostly consuming the
ONCE during his years of studying, and that was the night before 5th year final presentation... Amazing!) We’re so busy
being crafty and creative that we tend to forget or pretend to forget, STUDYING. It’s a fact that most architecture students do last minute studies. Phew! Don’t you hate it to have to rush and force things into your brain, being tensed up and insecure of your performance? Contrary to the studio subjects, exam subjects are quite objective. It’s supposedly easy for us to score, and it is possible to have the answers at our fingertips. So why not start this semester with a mission and goal to be prepared, be organized, and never need to pull an all-nighter. We should. But how can we sustain?
WELCOME BACK, ARCHCORE! 19 February The 2nd years just came back from a one month joint studio program in Bandung,
products in the market). One’s neighbour has little to give or offer in this system. As one relies solely on the wage labour, their only salvation to make it in this competitive world is the sale of their toils to the corporate and moneyed classes. As a result, people who live in KL, especially in condominiums and PPRs, are profoundly disconnected from each other in a desert devoid of community and drenched only in pure consumption. Most people live independently from the people next door but reliant on their different employers who, as a group, think only about their capital returns. That is why any attempt to create or design a community through token gestures such as public garden, playgrounds,
or community hall will only yield the slightest effect. The alienation of our city is embedded in the way the economy works and the power relationship that it produces. A real and thriving community is based on the interdependence at grassroots level, not just in cultural and economic relationship – such as how food can be produced or how work can be organised, according to need or even profit-sharing by a neighbourhood. The task is now for us to reimagine Kuala Lumpur as a city. Must it continue its degeneration into a gleaming ghost town for robots? We must ask ourselves, to whom does architecture serve?
The people or money.
IDENTITI NASIONAL?
by Zuhair Shaid
vs.
Apa rasionalnya Masjid tertutup tanpa adanya interaksi umum sedangkan senibina tersebut bukan budaya kita? Sebelum terbinanya masjid-masjid baru seperti Masjid Shah Alam, Masjid Negara di Kuala Lumpur merupakan masjid yang termoden di Asia Tenggara. Lambang keagungan senibina Islam ini sekali pandang mendominasi hilir bukit Stesen Lama dengan tinggi lampai menaranya umpama sebuah roket, dan simbolis bumbung konkritnya yang berbintang 18 bucu. Metafora reka bentuknya menonjolkan aspek zaman tersebut dimana adanya satu usaha membentuk sebuah identiti nasional dalam kebudayaan dan kesenian pasca kemerdekaan. Arkiteknya Dato’ Baharuddin memilih payung sebagai inspirasi bentuk bumbung ruang solat utama untuk menggambarkan simbolik Raja secara langsung mengambil pengunaan tradisionalnya untuk mengiringi Sultan. Jika metafora ini diselami secara intelektual, estetik bangunan
STUDIO BLOCK
Poem by Huda.
Truth behold, there is a fine line between the arts and the divine field we are exploring: architecture These theories and cosmic explanatory are not something made in a laboratory but in a landscape of life under the sun Pondering on a screen, facing autocad the noise only your studio create listen to the sonicscape it may be holding your escape.
ini boleh dikatakan menonjolkan satu ekspresi yang berakarkan ‘nasional’. Ketiadaan sebuah kubah atau estetik Timur Tengah merupakan satu contoh dimana senibina ini mahu membuat satu kesinambungan dengan warisan budaya Nusantara. Bumbungnya yang berstrukturkan plat berlipat merupakan penyelesaian reka bentuk yang bijak bagi menonjolkan Malaysia sebagai Negara yang bersifat progresif dan jujur dalam senibina. Harus ditekankan bahawa penggunaan imej tradisi dalam memacu proses reka bentuk masjid ini tidak seharusnya dianggap sebagai senibina imitatif atau pemikiran bangsa yang masih lagi kolot. Sebaliknya ia memperlihatkan sebuah komunikasi antara senibina dan sejarah masyarakat setempat dengan cara tidak meniru secara langsung tetapi diabstrakkan supaya bentuk yang kehihatan mekar kepada sebuah kiasan intelektual. Pendekatan ini dinamakan sebagai modenistik ekspresionisme yang menjadi fenomena masyarakat pasca penjajahan selain Malaysia. Prinsip ini berpotensi
Forget the Crosswalk, Let’s Take the Roller Coaster! THE DESIGNER Abdul Wahab Ithnin Studio 1 Loves hanging out with friends, playing games, and sketching
Project: Design for Change“To identify a problem and design a change in the built environment” Concept: Roller coaster as pedestrian crossing Duration: 1 week Current Stage: Submitted
untuk dijadikan pegangan senibina di Malaysia bagi mengolah dialektik identiti nasional. Rekabentuk Masjid Negara berbeza dengan kebanyakan masjidmasjid pada masa kini yang keterlaluan dalam perincian kemasannya, tidak jujur ataupun sensitif terhadap sejarah asal tempat pijak bumi itu sendiri. Mengapa perlu kubah atau pintu gerbang gergasi bagaikan pertahanan kubu perang? Apa rasionalnya Masjid tertutup tanpa adanya interaksi umum sedangkan senibina tersebut bukan budaya kita? Kita juga punya identiti senibina yang indah yang datangnya dari leluhur. Masjid Negara melambangkan jiwa nasional dan bijak dalam mengadaptasi iklim tropika. Serambinya yang luas, bukaan yang besar beserta elemen air di sekeliling memberikan pengudaraan pasif yang lebih berkualiti daripada masjid kontemporari berhawa dingin. Kemasannya bersifat minimal dan bersesuaianlah dengan agama Islam itu sendiri yang menganjurkan umatnya untuk bersederhana dan tawaduk dalam kehidupan.
What would you say to a free roller coaster ride on campus? This designer chose to tackle the connection problems on campus. The crossing between KPS and the library is ineffective, since students have to wait for traffic to stop under the hot sun. It also creates problems like traffic jam and then there’s the issue about the danger of crossing during heavy traffic. To solve those problems, a new kind of pedestrian crossing is visioned, in a form of a roller coaster! It would be installed to connect the student centre and the library, free to use for all. The roller coaster crossing would reallh help. Not only does it solve the traffic problem, who would refuse to have some fun in the middle of the seriousness of university life? This creative solution was inspired by –of course – roller coaster. Using the mechanism of a coaster, which is the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy, and vice versa, this “crosswalk” is sustainable, since it doesn’t use motor. Oooh!
Riding a coaster to cross from KPS to the library and back... How’s that for a change?
Mulut Longkang TER-JAh!
this issue powered by architude and made by powerful individuals chief editors huda hana photographs yeo mustakim faez graphics huda bib sketches zuhair
by Bruce Remi
Randomly, I’ve asked a few spontaneous people about their 3 favourite animal and 3 reasons explaining their choice. This is a psychological analysis game, by Miss Anum in the 5th years’ design workshop excursion, on how people perceive themselves using the animal spirit. (credits to Farhana and Buling for sharing this with me). The first animal shows what they think of themselves, the second animal shows what people think of them and the third animal shows their true Kawie - 4th year nature. So, here are the interview results with some 1 CHEETAH fast, can climb trees, smart graphical representation ;) 2 BIRD
Aizat - 3rd year
free, beautiful, boleh terbang
3 ANT
1 ARMADILLO
strong, cooperative,
protective, gold, round
ahli syurga!
2 HAMSTER
cute, active, beranak banyak
Faez - 1st year
3 AYAM SERAMA style, small, cute!
1 HORSE
free-spirit, strong, wild
2 HAMSTER
cute, portable, playful
3 SNAKE
exotic, danger, elegant!
Zee - 1st year 1 WOLF
Faris - 3rd year
2 EAGLE
2 CAT
3 TIGER
3 PARROT
1 PENGUIN
lone hunter, ruthless strong
walks weirdly, cute, perut buncit curvy, nice colour, manja
powerful, symbolic, proud vicious, powerful, strong!
Dayana - 1st year 1 LION
leader, scary, loving
2 TURTLE
slow but still a winner, determined, defensive
3 CAT
furry, bermisai, cute!
colourful, imitates, annoying!
Tarmizi - 3rd year 1 CAT
flurry, suka gigit orang, seductive
2 KOI FISH
tough, can swim, manja
3 KING FISHER
fast, small, beautiful!
This mysterious creature was found in at the examination hall during the examination week. He was spotted wearing black, from top to bottom (yes, SHOES included), which is actually indeed a faux pas. Wearing this outfit with blue jeans would be better. Although, it’s pretty understandable, because it WAS exam week. Still, this outfit is too simple. Perhaps, a different coloured jacket would bring some life. It’s like -10 degrees in the exam hall anyway, so might as well wear one. Fashion & function: the best option.
Mior - 3rd year 1 CHICKEN
funny, colourful, boleh dimakan
2 BIRD
can fly, beautiful, colourful
3 DRAGON
// Officer Ezra
mysterious, mythical, have a lot of stories about him!
Remi - 4th year 1 CAT
cute, manja, senang dijaga
2 KUMBANG
cute, unique, hard to find
3 FISH
colourful, senang dijaga, easy to spot!
Farry - 1st year
1 POOH BEAR
cute, protective, friendly
2 CAT
nice eyes, beautiful, manja
3 TIGGER
playful, active, care for friends!
EVENTS&HAPPENINGS inside “Among Us”- Pameran 3 Artis Tamu
Date: 2 - 29 Februari Time: 9 am - 6 pm Place: UM Art Gallery, Level 5, New Chancellory Building outside
KL Sign Festival 2012
Date: 25 & 26 Februari Time: 10 am - 10 pm Place: Along Sg Klang River Bank, Pasar Seni LRT Station
We dont’ know who did it - but we know that sticky notes attack! It was proven in the month of December 2011, at the end of last semester, when students decided to show some action. It seems words were not enough to express students’ shock upon the news that En. Megat will be taking some time off from the faculty. They chose to put up their own sort of art installation of love notes on his door. The good news, he has decided to extend his stay as a part-time lecturer today.