Perfection in scope

As a personal comment, I've learnt a very valuable lesson today: We take most of this world for granted. We judge by first impressions, third-party critiques, and an overall composition. As what we do here is right, it is also senseless. Such judgement speeds up the process of specific selection for what we believe is "best", so given the vast variation of choices, we weigh them, and take the best overall choice - beneficial to us. The cruel world of fittest survive applies everywhere - its 'nature' - somewhat.

I argue now, in the context of best-overalls are the best choices, that they are in fact not.

As for most people, they don't know what they want; greed is like fire to flies. But this security of "i have an overall, it can't possibly go bad anywhere" takes you one small step further while you lose all the other overlooked half flawed selections. What is lost here, is the choices which could've pushed much more the best-overall could are all gone, because as far as balance resides in the universe, newtons equilibrium, yinyang, hell/heaven; these flawed imperfect overall choices may be perfect for just what you need. What we actually needed was something which fit what was necessary, something which performed in our scope of need, hence the product could've been perfect, depending on its scope.

The problem, coming from the fickle minded user, who only wants "best" while not knowing what it even is, is plain greedy by nature.

What we need IS indeed the best.

But that doesn't equate the Most;

The best means the best fit.

The one which strikes Balance.

The one that reaches Enough.

Enough is Enough. be not greedy and take what u can

or greed shall take just as much from you.

Post for Toby, you've taught me something great today =) Thanks a bunch

Because I like it hence therefore..

I get lost when I compare the Working world and the Studio world of architecture. Every cool design we learn about and have to come up with in school, has to have a story, a reason the building is designed the way it is - conceptually, formally, practically. The obvious relevance between school and the outside world is making a building work - but how about what it looks like?

Lecturers will tell you, "if you can't justify your form, it's as good as a box or any other shape - and don't tell me 'because I like it' hence therefore". Really?

In the working world, I hear more often than not, "aw man, the client thinks it looks like a blablabla" Hence, the next step is obviously, design for the client's liking. Back in school, we don't quite have a client, hence the only approval of 'liking' come from ourselves. So technically, there is nothing wrong with the reason "because I like it". Visual appearances plays a big part in first impressions - and with an external crit, you don't get a second impression. Funny isn't it? When it's all about what the crit SEEs, and what makes them like it; when it's up to the client to like what he SEEs then pay you, the form, the appearance, is very impression-based.

If the lecturer believes so much that form making is irrelevant to design, why bother with a visual impression? Why not present everything in plans and sections? It clearly doesn't matter if the building turns out to be a cube or a sphere in the end, as long as the building works well.

This isn't really an argument for random designs eventhough I'm not standing against it either, I understand that justifications prove a better thought out design, and be one less likely to fall apart when it comes to tested situations. But there is a line between how much thought is needed to be done to sell a building and how much is needed to be a perfectly responsive design (ofcourse unless this funny client of yours is an anal one =P ) Form-making is just one example. It could be other random spaces that the architect likes, and wants to shove it in for his own desire and so on.

So, the more justified, the higher chance of success rate? True/False

I pick false, and it's quite obvious why, when your client says "emm.. I don't think I'll go with this design, I'm sorry." You know damn well it's not because it's not thought out enough, but it's because he doesn't like your design from what he sees - be it the funny spaces u have or the funny shape u have.

See, they're both built are they not?

Schools over (follow up video)

Here's a video my team and I did for a subject called Integrated Project - a combination of 3 sub schools Quantity Surveyors, Construction Managers, and Architects. As a role play, we worked together as two companies under the Design&Build contract and had lecturers as Clients.

Site: Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Function: Art Gallery + residential (1 person)

Work team included :

DCL Architects

Andrea Tan Yun Ru

Daniel Ak Seliong

Chia Ei Lyn

Go Chun Yee

Toh Yi Hong

Chua Kwee How

Lim Yeong Chwen

Clank & Pile Contractors

Joseph Chua

Chong Choong Wai

Grace Tan

Wong Jun Hoe

QS - Lee Wan Theng

QS - Law Yean Siong

CM - Benjamin Gung

Schools over

So I've officially completed my Diploma of Architectural Technology @ Taylors, though I didn't have studio in this last semester I participated in a competition (Markkinggeorgetown) hosted in Penang, doubt I'll go very far with it, but besides that, I've also helped out some of my friends in their final studio.

These are some renderings of theirs:

Hey guys, it was a pleasure working with all of you, and I've learnt more in this semester than any other thanks to you =)

Golden Ratios = CHEAT

WARNING: A VERY LONG POST

As I thought over the impossibility of cracking the system to create acceptable architecture, 100% of the time, I resort to my first example of 'cheatsheets' - the divine proportions - a formula thought to have broken the code of freedom, being impossible to hate. Created by Greeks (i think) the Divine Proportion is built upon the Golden Ratios - a calculation wherein "mathematics and the arts, two quantities in the golden ratio; the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to (=) the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one" (wiki, Golden Ratio)

It doesn't quite matter whether if it makes any sense now, soon it will. Hopefully.

As I went through further with this Golden Ratio business, I learnt that it's not only related to maths (Fibonacci sequence, pi, irrational numbers) and arts (divine proportions, davinci) - the only ones I know of, it touches on so much more: biology, music, structure and ofcourse, architecture; also recently what I believe photography should be included =P

Following wiki, I'll break it down into 3 main topics - aesthetics, nature and maths.

1 Aesthetics being the most related to topic, Da Vinci worked on the Vitruvian system of rational proportions and the Divine

Proportions - and how this all linked up from harmonious proportions and more importantly pleasing compositions, to our body's natural proportions in nature's creation. The first link builds between Art and Maths. Though unofficial, it's been claimed DaVinci painted MonaLisa within the scope of the Golden Ratio and at the same time,Pablo Tosto (researcher) listed over 350 works by well-known artists, including more than 100 which have canvasses with golden rectangle and root-5 proportions, and others with proportions like root-2, 3, 4, and 6. The point I'm trying to make here isn't the absolute formula which rules the universe but the similarities which draw these different line of topics together under the same law, all working out in their own way.

2 [Complete copy off wiki] Adolf Zeising, whose main interests were mathematics and philosophy, found the golden ratio expressed in the arrangement of branches along the stems of plants and of veins in leaves. He extended his research to the skeletons of animals and the branchings of their veins and nerves, to the proportions of chemical compounds and the geometry of crystals, even to the use of proportion in artistic endeavors. In these phenomena he saw the golden ratio operating as a universal law. In connection with his scheme for golden-ratio-based human body proportions, Zeising wrote in 1854 of a universal law "in which is contained the ground-principle of all formative striving for beauty and completeness in the realms of both nature and art, and which permeates, as a paramount spiritual ideal, all structures, forms and proportions, whether cosmic or individual, organic or inorganic, acoustic or optical; which finds its fullest realization, however, in the human form"

3 Maths; well all there is to it is the understanding of the Golden ratio, and I choose not to further the discussion into it because it doesn't directly link back to aesthetics. Though we have to keep in mind the things to remember are:

• it almost looks like a 2:1 ratio between a+b
• simplified to closest rationals, b = 1/3 (0.333..)
• actual ratio is 1:1.61803...
• a can be also otherwise substituted with 1.61803 (phi), and b as 1

ULTIMATELY the link,

After all the hustle and bustle of name droppings and formula shoving, one thing remains constant - everyone's relation to the golden ratio is unavoidable. The idea is that the proportions, to its approximate, surges a connection through our visual appreciation metaphysically, to naturally be prone to accept such a composition - while at the same time in it's exact numbers, serves a higher purpose of patterns and systematic pragmatics - in maths, structures, rhythm & music.

I will also not dwell into architecture examples, as I believe it's not hard to study up on Greeks Acropolis, NotreDame, LeCorbusier and MarioBotta's works (all of which quite prominent with relations to the Golden ratio - all serving for harmonious proportions altogether) "rhythms apparent to the eye and clear in their relations with one another. And these rhythms are at the very root of human activities. They resound in man by an organic inevitability, the same fine inevitability which causes the tracing out of the Golden Section by children, old men, savages and the learned." Le Corbusier

As they say,

Practice makes perfect, and

Trial and error gets you one step closer.

As the world act in it's nature of survival and progress

Each individual finds and eventual stage of comfort and solution.

The Law of survival (of the fittest) passes the bests

and the bests make a point.

Linked together across the world, the points make a connection

A connection generates a similarity, and

Similarities generate a pattern.

Patterns make proof,

Proof makes evidence, and

Evidence make inevitability.

Thus the creation of the system of our universe.

The cheat here, (at least for us visual impress-ors) is to easily manipulate your visuals (in composition and proportions) to follow the golden proportions, even slightly, it makes an impact.

E.g. Photographers have been told to follow a rule - The rule of thirds (where your main subject only fills up 2/3 of the frame) - which generally aimed for novices, it teaches them the first steps of composition to create a "nice picture"; looked closer, its 0.66.. much like the proportions of a/a+b (above) = 0.618...

Other examples such as Music, listed, is adherent in terms of structure and rhythm - not entirely related but visible. Further studies could go into Pi, Fibonacci, Da Vinci, and so on, but I warn you. People dedicate their whole lives to the study of the Golden Proportions because of its divinity - I merely want to extract the cheat code here of visual appreciation to create an upper hand in design and effective proportion compositions.

All about MATHS; the complete equation (for Grace)

I said I'll do this post so here I am, and you better listen up good =)

The fine line between arts (music, drama, art) and architecture is that one inevitably deals with people's physical lives and the other only tempers with the psychological mindset.

That being said,

When human lives are directly involved, there come the rules of survival/safety, law of workability, and the improvement of comfort. Similar to all other infrastructural and transportation equations, architecture then inevitably falls under equations and formulae as a rules and boundaries are set.

An example of a formula, would be indications of all REQUIREMENTS and basic necessities of a creation. That would be our very own UBBL given. But what comes next, separates the builders (contractors) and the "highly" taught architects, =P

The complete equation.

The complete equation is a set of formulae put together all under the job description of an architect. Thus pertaining to the rules stated:

REQUIREMENTS + ETHICS becomes the next step to better architecture. Building comfortable zones. (This is currently achieved worldwide) After the workable shelter, architects start improving the spaces, ergonomical functions, and increasing the quality of living. The realworld situation actually stops here - solving human needs.

However. It is not complete without creativity (innovation). The world above sets out the immediate reactions and most economical solutions within the short timeframe. The world we are phasing into is starting to need more than that, or rather is showing the flaw of the existing system.

REQUIREMENTS + ETHICS + CREATIVITY = ARCHITECTURE. (the complete equation)

Creativity brings innovation (either a smarter, friendlier and more economical way of doing our existing tasks, OR combining more tasks doable in one creation) Creativity would come from many angles (eg, experimentation, accidental discoveries, developed concepts, etc) Most commonly, it would appear from a guided path, one which has already set for goals at improving a certain aspect. Developing concepts through close attention payed to existing problems - which conveniently relates directly to our middle equation,

ETHICS. Identifying the problems and the willingness to help for the better lives of the general public, serves as the strongest goals and motivation. (This which I truly believe is most important above all, the belief of a better tomorrow)

*note, to our specific global situation, ethics should include the environment & nature =P

This, Grace, is why I believe you are suited, because you care.

Fight for your beliefs and never never let go, no matter how impossible it sounds. Five days ago, I fought for you, but it would not have been possible without you fighting with me. You made the first step by letting in, now you just have to believe.

Don't get me wrong, I'd support you whole heartedly in everything you believe in. You just have to give me a better reason =)

IF you are still wondering; what about arts?

arts could simply be ignored, and it wouldn't hurt you a single bit. They are passive, like Frederick Hertzberg's hygiene theory, only opposite, it could improve your state of living if you pay attention to it, but it couldn't impair your physical state of living if it never existed. The existence of architecture however, is imminent. The rule-less-ness of art leaves out the two starting equations of requirements and ethics, leaving it only to pure creativity and an expression of true freedom, style and data; limitless and bordered beyond horizons.

It's not impossible, Grace. You've got what it takes and you know it =)

Two routes of sustainability planning

After having a small chat with a good friend of mine from Maldives, I saw what strong passion came from this patriot of pure goodness and optimism for the mere existence of human nature alone. Ahmed Thahseen, take care man! I will definitely go the islands to find you in the near future!

Maldives, a country of islands has officially sought to be the first Carbon-neutral country all in all. Done with an underwater cabinet meeting AND a flag. Quite creative a way to show the 'sinking of maldives' (at the rate of the current rising sea level momentum)

Thus after a little debate we came up with two solutions, a long term and a short term project.

Though this is nothing new I believe setting things out loud and clear sets a good start

1. Education (long term) - such a project would notably been 'infused' with our education programs (and probably show big results every 10 years), at least with the direct relations in my architecture course; however, its too slow a movement and it has got to be thrown in quick. To understand the diminishing resources and rising problems. Bit by bit, cleaning corners for the future.
2. Immediate last resort active solutions (short term) - this would cover from - EVERY single infrastructure & architecture being built this moment on has to be Green, to, throwing on expensive pv panels and windmills where the country can - salvaging and reducing the immediate use of the GHG reduction, carbon reduction & non-renewable resource using stuffs... (right now, Following the curve of supply n demand cross-ref with cost, the world would've died before cost exceed the annihilation risk hits these money-minds. )

Though I do believe the world shall get better in the near future, this curve is going to be a really hard one to pull back up; let alone find equilibrium.

When there's a will, there's a way;

Someone's just gotta take the first leap of faith

to make a better day.

-Thahseen