Highrise Initial Design

We were assigned to roughly design a highrise building, and study the structural system of such design. I have come out with a design inspired by Jean Nouvel, he's an architect from France which produce excellent works (at least most of them are). The new Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan has such unique personality; which although it doesn't seem has to be there (due to the height of it) but it fits the surrounding nicely (with it tall and slender 'figure').

I'm inspired by the structural system of the building that creates distinctive character to it. So, i try to adapt it to the design. Enough of the gibberish. Here are the images of the design.

But it is just the initial design. It's not complete yet. Enjoy guys. Leave me messages if you have any comments.

New Semester, New Resolution.

The new semester has started and I, as an architecture student will be given with tedious tasks, extraordinary challenges and mind-boggling workload AGAIN. We'll be doing highrise, which is building exceeds 20 storey high. Hope it will be a satisfying semester and maybe it will be the time i can vanquish my procrastination habit.

Read more, surf more, struggle more, come out on top.

Mature thinking at 4 o'clock in the afternoon

I've got in to a debate with a friend of mine yesterday night. it's about the taxes that we have to pay. I don't have any issues with paying the taxes but where do our taxes money go?? without paying the taxes, the economy wouldn't move. I know we have to be thankful to live in Malaysia since the government doesn't take 30 percent of our monthly paycheck. I got it.

But, where do all the money goes? into the pocket of the rulers? although UK government takes a hell a lot of money from their citizen, but they state it inside the paper what sort of new development, projects they spent all the money on. That is fair. What I am trying to say is, our government hasn't been transparent enough to stop crapping with us and tell us the truth.

Well, what is the point of keeping 60% of the money to themselves and the rest of the 40% to develop the country?? Solution- increase the price of everything. Rationale- inflation. what i think - stupid!

so, try to think about it. the price of goods has risen tremendously but not our salary. we don't have minimum wage. the government doesn't seems to effectively solve or at least come out with any solutions to these. so, what is the future of Malaysia and us? very dark indeed.. hmm.. What i think is, we are lacking of good leader. There will only be one Mahathir, and Malaysia is not a democracy country anymore. It is a monarchy of UMNO bloodline.

So, what is the point of voting if you know the system doesn't work? So, what can the government do to compensate the trust we have lost to them? 1Malaysia? that is the most stupid idea the government has come up with!!

okay, enough of my jibberish talking.. better get back to work now.

PRESENTATION BOARD - Segregate or Not Segregate

I've got a comment on my presentation board which the professor asked me to include all of my research in one board and the rest of the boards should be just drawings. i found it kinda silly to cramp everything in one board and the rest would be just drawings.

What i think is, it is not effective because you would just focus on the drawings and not the research which i've been busting my ass off through out the semester to gather all that and you wouldn't wanna read it??

lecturers and professors are intrigued by the graphics rather than the main point of the project, which the solutions, ideas and the researches we had wasted our time on. so, now im at the crossroad whether to segregate or not to..

well, whatever it is i think you guys should decide because i need to do some amendment to my boards.. to cramp everything just to make the lecturer happy.. dang!

So-called mature thinking at 4 o'clock in the morning.

While i can't focus on doing anything since i'm out of cigarette to keep me going. suddenly i wonder, what does it takes to be a good architect. what is the criteria to be a good architect? or is there any such thing as good architect? it is easy to be a rich architect, just open up a firm, make friends with the high rolers in the government and just wait for the projects to roll in. but it's a bit hard to be the famous ones since you have to come up with your own bullcrap theories which makes you distinctive from the others. although they're famous, doesn't mean they're good.. right?

so a good architect must have ethics? i've read it somewhere about ethics and architecture. i know it suppose to go hand in hand but does it still valid in today's world where money controls everything.. money moves everything, even we have to pay to take a dump nowadays! so, what i think is, ethics and morality among architects are long lost. it is all about the survival of the fittest!

and talking about Malaysian architecture.. which my professor always complains about in class.. Putrajaya is not a good example to reflect Malaysian architecture. We focus too much on Islamic and Malay and yada yada.. well, what is Malaysia anyway? and if we focus on the primary races like the malays, chinese and indians.. then what about the minority races? like the ibans, dayaks, and the immigrants that start to pouring in like tsunamis? (ahh, the indonesians.. hmmm) within 20 years from now, don't you think Malaysia would be internationalized?

so that is why i think 1Malaysia is just another crap that they try to bull with us with so they can steal more of our tax money. And the people would be fooled by the false shadowy direction that Najib try to lead us to..

and talking about the Malays, hmm.. the youngsters (excluding me since i'm a grown ups now!) (owh, why would i be bother about the Malays, im Puerto Rican! totally forgot!) they are getting stupider.. especially the ones that shuffling their future to nowhere (maybe they will still be in front of Maybank Bukit Bintang 15 years from now..) and the chinese is getting wiser and cleverer and i am not surprise if one day Malaysia will actually be ruled by the chinese or infact the Indians! Parents are getting more ignorant (among Malays especially the ones that have gazillion children but get a paycheck to sustain 2 souls.), why would you have a child if you would let them stray like a rat! Better get a chipmunk instead! (i would prefer hamster since i can't stand it's singing)

Whatever it is, i just want to point out that, if parents don't do anything to get their child behaved and well educated like the others, well do something about it! and make sure your child know how to speak in english.. learning malay language solely won't bring you anywhere. i am so shocked when they make such a fuss about implementing english as the language for science and maths. it is a good thing! can't they realize it?

okay, i'm going to stop my bullcrappy mature thinking now and head straight off to bed.. =)

The old folks have returned..

This semester i'm required to do a research on the elderly and the current situations here in Malaysia. I've started the research with an article i've found in a book which explains the situations they are facing now. They are the 'INTERIM GENERATION' which the generation that has gotten stuck in between the government's agenda and the social paradox that we are living now (this applies to the developing countries like Malaysia and the surrounding countries in South East Asia region).

1. Government focuses their money on economical issues to boost up the economy which less money is provided for the social welfare of the citizen.
2. We tend to have nuclear family rather than big extended family which as we grow old, our children don't have the time to take care of us since they too got busy with their life. and we don't have the 'spare' children to look after us.

As i go on with my research, i have found that the numbers of elderly in malaysia had doubled for the past 20 years which in 2000, there are 1.4 million elderly in Malaysia. and the number will quadrupled in 2030!!

You can get the info from this PDF file. Click Here

and the issues with the existing old folks home in Malaysia, we don't have proper old folks home here and not even one of them are like or close to the facilities provided at the Almshouse in UK! You need to check out the facilities they have there and some old folks home in U.S. I have found a research paper on the swedish old folks home and the solutions that they have come up with to make the elderly feels like home.

Click Here

(feel free to just email me at izreeh87@gmail.com to get further info's that i have gathered through out the semester. I got alot more really.)

the solutions that i have come out with for this project is to integrate the living, working and leisure activities among elderly as;

1. most elderly (64 percent of them ) is living in urban areas.. (surprising isn't it?)
2. most of them are not working and they aren't the 'best' social group to be hired due to the physical constraints and lack of primary education.
3. they haven't been given the freedom to live in a community like they used to.

Living

1. community within community dwellings.
8 units of houses which in every single unit comprise of 2 bedrooms, 2 separate bathrooms which cater either 2, 3, or 4 people (depending on the types of units that i have designed) in one area where i called a 'module' which basic necessity like open kitchen, living area, laundry room, a staff room and a courtyard (as the threshold space for the elderly) is provided.


2. working zone as the elderly can teach us the secondary or tertiary education which we are lacking now (or the much needed skills to survive in life, cooking, sewing, etc.)

3. the leisure activities such as gymnasium, mini library, tai chi ground, green house for gardening, hobby room and workshop to enhance their health and mind state as we all know, as you age, your physical and mental health will deteriorate. i've planned to segregate all the activities as i try to make them walk which it is some sort of unconscious physical activity.

4. but we all know, elderly tends to get lost easily and they will get body ache if they walk too much. so the senses gardens act as a node and stopping point for them to relax while enjoying the interactive fun with the senses triggering technology like the 'motion pole' which sense the motions of passersby and produce different tunes based on how fast the motion it sensed moves. or the color sticks which emit different color depends on the speed of the passerby.

but sadly, i don't have enough time to produce excellent design outcomes (so as the other students in my work base) because there are just too many presentations that we have to do (almost every 2-3 weeks we will have a presentation and there are times when we did presentations 3 weeks in a row! it's just crazy!). Here are my final presentation boards for the project.



i know it is not as up to as what you guys expected it to be. but hey, i've did all these in 1 and a half weeks, so i know somehow i should be proud of it! =)

The Beginning

i'm in my third year second semester now. It's almost at the end of the semester (which within a few days, it'll be over by the time i'm writing this) and i realize i've made a wise decision to retake the semester since i'd screwed up the last one. I really enjoy the semester as i have to do a lot of research which i've never required to do such. (it's just i don't wanna admit that i've been a pure procrastinator all this while)

suddenly it strikes me to start such blog as a journal of my life as an achitecture student. (should have realized about this few years ago! damn!) architecture has changed my perception of perceiving normal everyday things. which somehow i appreciate life better now (although sometimes i do feel i'm such a pain in the ass to my partner). but somehow architecture shape us (architecture students) to be individualistics. we compete among each other too much and somehow we feel our friends as foes and tend to just stab them at the back!(fuck you fuckerss!! i would love to just run them over in the street!)

although i love architecture alot but somehow it got its ways to fuck me back! i don't need sex, architecture fucks me alot! hypothetically speaking. but architecture is the only thing i can do and it has been my life and passion since i was a kid. come on architecture! fuck me more!! =P