Finally..exit blog

Finally, it has come to the end of the blog for this subject, "Theories of Architecture" in this semester. Frankly, I have learn lotsa things throughout the whole process of learning outcome and learn to analyse article by observing of surrounding and be more sensitive in design. In this subject, I love the way of writing our analysis essay through blog instead of on paper, because it can save the trees! As in no need wasting money or nature resource on writing purpose. Besides, every lessons i have learnt throughout this semester has taught me and make me to view things in different way. For example, the essay of "Home" which been told to write made me thought back alot of old memories and things that i have never thought that a simple house would give me a big impact on thinking of design and throughout my growing process.

Besides, the analysis essay of "minority report" is one of interesting learning outcome to do, as we need to watch the video clip and write the analysis report using critical thinking. This has helped me in observing every part of the show and not just watching it and forget about it. In addition, Ms Sukhjit and Ms Hajjah had prepared alots of articles for us to do analysis for essay report, one of the most interesting part of essay tutorial i like is the Heidegger's thinking on Architecture, his theory of art is building and dwelling has related, a building without its function is not an architecture, a building is a dwelling place for all, depending of the purpose of building.

Frankly, I really love this subject as it is not just learning about theories of architecture, but it had taught me to think critically and learn to observe our surrounding and analysis it. It has no boundaries and limit in learning this subject, as there is no text book for it, all we need is doing research and produce a report of our analysis. My philosophy is do not underestimate one's ability, because you will never know the limit or posibilities that we have. As a future designer, i always look into learning new things and explore myself to different surroundings and adapt myself in new things. Through this subject, it had make me feel more enthusiasm towards design and architecture, and never stop learning new things.

Lastly, I do enjoy and have learnt alot through this subject =). Peace.

Taboo and Transgression; architecture and desire...

According to what Bernard Tschumi has written for "The Pleasure of Architecture" article, architecture can be defined in many terms, even it can be feel and seen in sensuality. Sensuality and sexuality desire might be a sensitive issue to us, but in architecture terms, it can be something unique and stimulate one's thinking and feeling. For example, a dark and cold place usually can make someone's sexuality desire higher, just like a pub or club. In the other hand, a brighter place and crowded place will not giving a pleasure of sexuality. Hence, a space with different design will give different types of desire.

Why do certain spaces appear to prohibit sexual desire while other spaces encourage desire?

As I have mention above, space with different design and concept will appear to encourage different type of desire. For example, colour, lighting and exposure of one's area will influence in desire. When a place or space is in dark, cold colour and enclosed area, people will feel down and moody or if it is added with musics, it might stimulate one's sexuality desire. But if a space is design in a open space concept with warm colour, people will tend to feel freedom and happy, just like a temple, mosque and church, these places are usually design in open space and bright lighting, it must not design in dark colour as it would not be appropriate in public.

Is this a property of space itself or an order superimposed upon buildings?

When we passed by in any building or any space, automatically we will know what place is that. For example, when I passed by a boutique, i will know it is a boutique by judging the fashion clothes display in front of the boutique. This shows that the space itself is not a property of space, but it is an order superimposed by the owner to indicate his or her own identity. But sometimes when i want to choose a restaurant to have my lunch or dinner, i will tend to see the crowd of a place instead of the name, for example, if a restaurant has alots of consumers having their food, i will tend to go in that particular restaurant or cafeteria to try the food compare to a restaurant with lesser consumers.

What is the relationship between sex, place, and the bodily libido?

When a couple is sexually aroused, they will look at the place that they will be in. This plays a big role in arousing their sexual libido, as they will not be inclined to release their sexual needs in a space full of people. They will retreat to a space which is more secluded, giving them more privacy. the bodily libido depends strongly on the place that a person is in. it directly influences them show their sexual affection. in a hotel, the tendency to show sexual affection and high increment of bodily libido is more significant compared to a cemetery.

Field Trip: Kellie's Castle

As the sun was shining brightly, sweat trickled on my forehead. Braving the hot sun to accomplish my mission of exploring the origins of Kellie Castle which is located about 30 kilometres south west of Ipoh, in a tranquil town called Batu Gajah. My heart was pounding in nervousness as this is the first time I’m setting foot on this area. During the journey here, I was mesmerized by the soothing view that came to me. This place was a little heaven located in the bustling city, as there was lush greenery surrounding me, giving me the feeling of peace and joy.

When I arrived, I was in awe. The sight that I behold was too much to take. Who could have believed that in such a modern age of concrete and pillars, lays a hidden treasure from the colonial times unfazed by the changes of modernization. I was looking at one of the most historical place in Malaysia, the Kellie’s Castle. This unfinished mansion sends waves and waves of shock crashing into me. I could not help but wonder why I am feeling such creeps in my body. The hair behind my neck was standing.

As I walked towards the mansion, I could not take my eyes off this beautiful piece of masterpiece. Although it is not completed, it gives me a sense of forbidding, as I felt a cold shiver running down my spine. I kept reminding myself, the legend of this castle being haunted by the lost soul of William Kellie Smith and his beloved daughter, Helen roaming around freely to haunt the forsaken walkways are nothing more than mere legends told over and over again by the elders to scare their children not to set foot into the castle. I gritted my teeth, and started to look around for more information.

When I am looking around the exterior of this mansion, one could not help but wonder, during the early 19^th century, how could William Kellie Smith could came up with the idea of building his mansion into a castle for his beloved family using the colonial style houses concept complete with Moorish-style windows and even planned to have a lift in his castle!

As I walked through the narrow entrance of Kellie’s Castle, I had a strong feeling that William Kellie Smith was a generous man in welcoming guests to his mansion, because the first thing that I came in the mansion, I could see a large guest room waiting for me, but, the design is kinda ugly to me because the place is so narrow to me and gave the feeling of pressure. The walkways are built narrow, with brick columns decorating the whole walkway on the outside. The mansion is mainly built with semi-circular arches decorating all the entrances to chambers in the castle.

The mansion is built with an open concept as there are plenty of light penetrating the entire mansion, giving it sufficient lighting during the day, which i feel it gave me a beautiful scene. As the broken window panes lay rusty, I could not help but notice that the Moorish-style windows are built using kayu cengal, a type of tough wood found only in South East Asia. William Kellie Smith also built a basement to hide his family from threats of harm. A spiral staircase leads down to the basement, and this is well blend into the brick design of his mansion, hiding it from preying eyes unless one takes a closer look only we can see the stairways leading down to the basement.

The upper level of this mansion is also built with a different concept of design, which i think it is a beautiful design, where William Kellie Smith incorporated a plaster wall along the walkways leading to the rooms. The room designed for his daughter is the biggest in the mansion, built wide enough with a dressing room within the bedroom itself. This symbolizes his deep love and affection for his daughter, Helen. As I descended back to the lower floor, the living room captured my attention as this room is connected to the dining room, so it makes it easier for his guest to mingle around while having their favourite food. The space planning which William Kellie Smith designed is great as the kitchen is built on the exterior of the building, so there would be less sooth and dust pertaining to the cooking.

On the second floor, William Kellie Smith built an emergency escape route via the roof of this mansion, having a narrow, concrete stairway as the only mean of escaping. This stairway is built with his child’s safety in mind, as the concrete stairway may only fit a small child.

There is also a wide balcony on the second floor, leading to the open air. This is built to allow his wife, Agnes, to have a first hand view on the beauty of the state of Perak during the day, and having a quiet evening accompanied by stars overhead at night.

In my imagination, this would be William Kellie Smith's Daughter (Helen) bedroom if it would be completed. A queen size bed with her own dressing table would be suitable for her as i have seen her bedroom was quite big to fit her.

The mansion is restored in its original state to preserve its beauty from the colonial ages, signifying the deep affection and love that William Kellie Smith had for his family, driving him to create such a masterpiece. This mansion is a symbol of how far the extent that a man could go for his family, at the same time not forgetting the style and elegance of the colonial times.

In conclusion, Kellie's castle is still a mystery mansion to me, as it has not completed yet, because who knows that William Kellie Smith would build more different type of buildings in the surrounding? After all, it is to be a heritage in Malaysia.

Reference: http://mmadventure.com/camping/belum/kellie's_castle.htm

An Architecture of the Seven Senses...

Talking about this topic, in the first place, senses are important, not only for architecture building, but in our life as well, we need senses to feel the surrounding, to taste, to smell, to hear and to touch.

In this topic, an architecture of the seven senses consist of building, structure and even landscape. To build a high rise building or even a small project, senses are important and it play important roles in building it. Through my experience, the architecture building that has leave great experience to me is my elementary school, SRJK (C) Kepong 2. It was the school that grown me up and gave me the basic education.

Basically, when i first step into this school, the first thing i could see is the big entrance hall which gave me the feeling of height and wide space. The space were surrounded with big column and the floor with just cement finishes. Every monday we will have an assembly in the hall, and i still remember i can smell the "freshness" of the concrete and cement material which lay on the floor, and sometimes there were few pot holes on the floor which i always like to touch it to feel the sandy texture of the cement flooring, and that makes me automatically to know that isn't a thing to play with because it cause dusty. But when in the library, the flooring were made of marble tiles, and it gave me the feeling of licking it because it was so smooth and shinny, hence, i know how to differentiate the type of material. What makes me to feel that the place i studied is a school is the noise that made, for example, whenever my teacher wrote on the blackboard made me think back of the studying life in primary school, the chalk that cause the sound on the blackboard. Senses are not only can be touch, smell, hear, see, talk, but there are other senses can be taken, which is logic, whenever i hear the sound of the chalk writing on the blackboard, it will reflect back it is school that will have such scenery.

Peter-John Cantrill and Rebecca Maxwell had given their opinion of senses of architecture through their interview with Alan Saunders. "I find that when I see a well-weathered building, that's what delights me, and when I see a building that's kind of caught in its moment of conception and destined never to change, I'm a little saddened." This shows that Peter-John Cantrill prefer a solid and strong building that can stand longer by looking at it.http://www.ebility.com/articles/beyondappearances.php

Last but not least, I do hope everyone can appreciate the building by not just looking at it and judge by its cover, but to use all the senses to feel the uniqueness of the architecture. Seek and explore more on the structure and texture =).

Monuments, Testimony & Memory..Museum..

Museum, usually people take it as a place of history or a place to commemorating the dead, a place for heritage purpose, keep the culture and tradition of certain things from one generation to one generation.

In Malaysia, there are a few of places consist memorable of the dead and heritage purpose, for example National Monument and National Museum, these 2 are one of the famous heritage and cultural architecture building. During the ancient time, there were alots of history of Malaysia that being told from the old time till this generation. It is very important for us to know our own history of our country and even those heroes that had contribute to out country during those war. Hence, museum and monument is the place for the history being taken down and things that had heritage.


Whereas if to compare with Jewish Museum which located at Berlin, the design of the building different with the design in Malaysia. Jewish Museum has 2 elements in their concept of design. One if it was in zig-zag style, a continuous linear form of building, which is the latest building, whereas the other is in fragmented style, tortuous line, but continuing indefinitely, is the older building. The purpose of having these 2 combination of building is to formed the link of Jewish tradition and German cultural. The inspiration is from Libeskind, a musician himself, took inspiration from music and considered the museum the final act of Arnold Schoenberg's unfinished opera, Moses und Aron. The design of the architecture begins with the history of Berlin, then integrate the consciousness and memory city of Berlin. Lastly, through the acknowledgement and see through the void of Jewish life in Berlin.


In Malaysia, National Museum is mainly focus on local culture, history and also traditions, arts and crafts. Hence, the design of the building is based on wooden house, which brings back the old village style before Malaysia Independent Day. It has the uniqueness of back to the past instead of futuristic, hence it successful in commemorating the dead because the heroes has sacrificed for Malaysia during the ancient time, so it should be shown in respect way by using the concept of atap style.


Last but not least, museum is a historical heritage place to visit and be respected, as it consist of our ancient time tradition and cultural. In different country has different background, and build in different design, but as long it has the functionality in it.

Remembering the home..

HOME, in my definition it is a place where we stay and rest with our family or beloved one, and a place to store our personal property. After reading the Mies Van de Rohe's "the house that made Mies", I totally agree with it as home has always influenced my thinking on design.

Actually I don't have a fix house, I have shifted to many houses since i was born. When i was born to this world, I live in Brunei, I still remember I stay in a "long house", which is a staff quarter with my family and also other neighbours as well, everyone stays at a same house, as that was the cheapest house to stay in Brunei. I still remember the house was very long and i can run here and there, its like i have a very big space to do what i want! And I always play with the few kids behind my house, which there was a yard there. The house was different with Dayak House, as it is built with bricks and painted with white colour painting. Its like a modern style of rumah panjang, but slightly shorter than rumah panjang.

Till when im 5 years old, we have move back to Malaysia, and that time we stay at my grandpa's house in PJ. My grandpa's house was a terraced house, I have not much memory about that house because we were like staying there in short term, till we shift to other place at Damansara Jaya, which my parents had rent a single-storey house there. That time was the time where my mum starts her own business, which is a saloon, so its like we were staying in a home-based business house, my mum started with a single saloon bed as her first working space in a room, there was where i learnt how my mum and my dad arrange a working space in such a small house, just a single bed, with some saloon products, lighting, and curtain to cover up to make it feel very cozy and relaxing.

Soon the time passed, from a house to a shop, and finally we have our own house to stay which is a true HOME to us, in my memory, i love this place so much, its more to classical concept. Most of the furniture were made of timber, something like Pakistan furniture, with a lot of craving decoration on it, and there was an antique gramophone as well. The whole place made me feel so relaxing, and that was where i started to love timber material, because it gave me a comfort feeling. Besides, I have a garden at my backyard, as my parents likes gardening, it has a table and chair there for chit chatting purpose as well. Overall it gave me a back to nature feeling, somehow, now we are no longer staying there, as it was too far for us to work from the place, hence now we are staying in a double stories house, which is just a simple but nice.

Although the house now is not as comfort as the house before, still home is home, as long there is my family, im happy with it, because a house without family or beloved one is not a home yet. I really appreciate the moment i had throughout my life in different type of houses=).

Heidegger's Thinking on Architecture....

According to Heidegger's theory of art, building and dwelling are related. For building is not merely a means and a way towards dwelling ,to build is in itself already to dwell. A building is a dwelling place for all, depending of the purpose of building. For example, a temple is a place to respect the Gods, thus making it a place for people to worship God, and so the design of a temple is different from a normal person's dwelling. A temple may just be a building in common, if there is no God to dwell there. So, the functionality of a building that makes the building stand out from the rest.

Minaretthe outside hall that lead prayers to the worship place

For example, a mosque is a place for followers of Islam worshiping to their God. A minaret has play an important roles in mosque. The top of the minaret is always the highest point in mosques that have one, and often the highest point in the immediate area, which were used for essentially the same purpose — calling the faithful to prayer. This means, minaret is like a place to reach the prayers by God.

As for "Earth & sky", it means God rules from the top to the bottom. A tower or a building represents the sky, humans may reach the calling of the God by going to the temple, mosque, or their respective prayer's place. Thus, earth and sky can be just connected through temple. Besides, according to Heidegger, bridge is not just an object, it is a connection of the two different object and brought together into one place, this makes the surrounding combine together. World will be like a connection of everything, and it's like an overall picture of everything. The relationship of Man and nature has strong relations as well, nature include Earth, lanscape, plants and even river can create a place for dwelling place. Some may believe God create nature for humans living, and follow the elements of fourfold( mortal, God,Earth and implicitly), combine it into one world.

Other than just using building as a dwelling place, Heidegger had thought that Language has play a primary role in a source of understanding. Language is the "original art" according to Heidegger. In my opinion, i think that language is like a house for everyone, humans will follow for what it takes. It is just like a representative for an object and keep it forever, just like an identification according to what it follows, as long it brings meaning to fourfold.

Last but not least, landscape is where we dwell between earth and sky. It can be define as building is just like built the space to live, when there is a building, there will be a space for used. Place is a definition of how big you need to live or dwell. In conclusion, nowadays most of the building were built without consideration of functionalism. A building is not just for aesthetic view or beautiful, but with purpose and function for certain things. Thus, this can made the place or space to be special, and keep the tradition of it till the next generation.

REFERENCES:
http://roundtable.kein.org/node/557 (Martin heidegger)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque (Mosque information)

Essay- "The concept of place"

PLACE, can be defined in different words. It can be said as a habitat for human as a city, house or a country. An area that could not be moved or instable. In architecture terms, it is very important in our life as we need place to stay, to work and to rest as well.

Now, human tends to move on and evolved to a better place which not just to stay or work, but has more function and to live a more mobile life. The concept of place has 2 meanings: place of action and point of departure. Which means, a place can be said meaning to the path, such as from one point departure to one point of arrival, like the terms of "behind" and "before". Besides, 2 dimensional space including interior and exterior can be defined as space, for example, from one zone to another different zone, it is indicated by the terms of "inside" and "outside".

As what Rudolf Schwarz said, "To become a home, a domain has to be small. The settlement must possess a livable scale." The American Robert Venturi had tried intentionally to create contrast and contradiction between interior and exterior. The importance Venturi gives to the wall is enhanced when it is curved. This shows that the relationship of convexity and concavity is fundamental importance to architecture. It can be used to define zones of varying directions and density.

Free plan, as what Le Corbusier and Mies Van de Rohe, defined that place is where the space-defining element are separated from the load bearing structure. Architectural space may comprise a great number of different spatial organizations, besides, it may comprise mobile elements, which includes degrees of "freedom". Somehow, there were some people show that a mobile world would limit man to mere egocentric scheme.

In conclusion, place can be defined in many different ways, including mobile element or interior and exterior zones. As long humans are comfortable with the place they are staying in and able to have function such as house, city or country.

Minority Report

Today Ms Sue has shown us a science-fiction movie called "Minority Report" which directed by Steven Speilberg and the cast includes Tom Cruise as the main character. After watching the show, we were required to analyze the plot of the movie as part of our assignment. It's kinda fun to have this kind of learning and using analytical thinking.

Overall, i find that this story line is nice, especially the high technology such as doing stuff by motion control kinda impressed me. Besides, i like the way Tom Cruise(acted as John Anderton) carried the show as the chief of Precrime officer, the courage and determination of solving the case. The basic plotline of this movie Tom Cruise is convicted of a murder he hasn't committed yet, by a team of psychics called "precogs", which can view the murderers in the future using precognition, in 2054. Besides,the impressive part of this show is also premeditated murder and victim ball coming out after the vision of the "precogs".

But, the unimpressive part of this movie is the background of the scene, the movie shows that it is during 2054, but there were some of the places still the same architecture and design as 20's, i suppose 2054 should be all in high standard of urban city and places, which sounds like not fit the plot of the movie. Besides, the end part of the movie which is the case of Burgess set up Anderton in order to cover up Anderton's knowledge, is kind of confusing.

In the other hand, im sure the intention of the director for the movie is that humans are always selfish and greedy. For instance, it is tortured to keep the three "precogs" under the water and wait for their vision of the future, as they were humans too, and they have feelings as well, luckily in the end it shows that the three of them have their own private life and free from giving vision for Precrime. If one knows his or her own future, he or she can change it, this quote was told by Tom Cruise's character in this movie. I do agree with that, if i were him i wish i can change, but to think deeply, sometimes we can't just change as we like, because, it may bring different consequences to the others as well.

Lastly, the design of the railway for the transport flowing are kinda impress as they can even travel towards up in vertical way, not just in horizontal, other than that, i can't see any impact of design thinking from this movie. But, we can learn to be a more caring and understanding person, as simple life is the best=).

My story..

It has been long time i have never write blog, and now because of subject Theories of Architecture, im back to blogging line=).

Now, the task of writing this blog is to create awareness of interior architecture and theory through reading. Before this, as the first step, i would like to talk about myself before i proceed to the next step=).

Seriously, i have never talk about myself especially childhood time to anyone except my close friends. Actually, my childhood moments that lead to design or interior architecture is when i was 10years old.

That time when i was young, my dad was a contractor, he has playing a role in influencing me into life of design, as he always come back with tools and drawing plan, and i was curious what was he doing on that big paper, which is A1 size paper, he also starting to teach me drawing and tell me about what is building. Since that, im interested in drawing and playing all kinds of stacking toy. Besides, sometimes my dad will bring to me his site to have a look on his work and learn from it, it was just some basic learning actually=). The reason i take this field is because i just love design of interior space. Honestly, i really prefer flexible work more than memorizing things such as science field. Building is at everywhere, we need design to survive and make things comfort. I just love design especially residential design, because living space is so essential in everyone's life!

And i always tend to look around my surrounding and observe, just to get some ideas and learn from it.

After since i enter to UCSI Uni and taking Interior Architecture course, i have gone through alot of experiences, best and worst. Throughout this 2 years from Foundation to Degree Year 2, i have met alot of friends and most of them are from other state, we have gone through alot of tough assignments together and also spending time together in studying=). Besides, the best experience is we went to different place for site visiting together, share thoughts with each other, and even laughter. I feel glad to have them throughout the whole semester=). Of course, the lecturers, they have taught me alot of things and even giving me inspiration. But, the lecturer that i admire the most is Ms Diana, she had taught me alot of things in design studio, giving me good ideas for my assignments during last semester 2, Year 1, yet, i kept disappointing her, by not giving her a good one. But, i really appreciate what she has taught me, and the patience that she has in teaching me. Really thanks alot.

Yet, I also have the worst experiences in studying this course, which is not enough time to finish up my assignment! As what architecture students always face, one day 24hour is never enough, we always have sleepless night, rushing for assignment, and less outing. But, in the end, i will always make sure i can submit on time=), this is what i can say im good in it, i always make sure i complete all my work although it is not the best one. I really put effort and passion in completing it. Ever since i have enter to this field, i have learn to draw better and the things i like the most is making model=), as it can show out my thoughts of idea and design.

But, procrastination always have in my mind! this is the bad habit i can't resist, i just used to doing things in the last minute. Sigh, really have to get rid of this bad habit thou.

Lastly, I just want to say, Thanks to my parents, my fellow friends who keep supporting me in what i do although sometimes i tend to give up, still, i will continue my journey of design till i graduate.