Design 201 External Review

Ohh, I almost forget of not writing a post regarding yesterday’s external review for our Design 201 final project: Riverside Ensemble. Yes, it’s time for me to write this post on it….

External review means that there are people from other universities in architecture profession, coming to listen and review our project based on our presentation board, model and of course oral presentation. To be honest, I did not prepare anything and not ready at all for the presentation.

Our boards were sticked to the exhibition panels in the exhibition hall at plaza. Our models were displayed. Seats were prepared for the reviewers. Everything is prepared except us, the presenters. We do not know where to start with for our presentation. My turn…..I remembered that when I started to speak, I spoke nonsense English…luckily the reviewer understood. Nervous took my English proficiency away…

These are the other works (boards and models) seen in the hall done by my classmates: (of course, only some are seen here, as there are quite a lot of others)…

Presentation ended quite quickly, and we learnt nothing beneficially from it, and it’s time to move back all the stuff to classroom or better name, studio to be kept in boxes, locked, and to be archived for no purpose….why can’t we just take back our own works, and now, all our hard works became property of the university. Goodbye, my beloved works!

Architecture Design 201: Portfolio

Portfolio is basically the compilation of all the works done throughout the whole semester for the most important module, Architecture Design 201 for this semester. Compilation does not mean we need to compile ALL we have did into the A3 portfolio, but to choose the best and suitable ones to be included into the masterpiece.

Portfolio is the only stuff, important for job interview in future, and even important when going for higher level of study…it should be neat, clean, and everything shown in there is self-explanatory. It should be well organized and planned too. It would be good to have a suitable same structure for every pages…

Here shown, is my portfolio…only for reference purpose, copyright reserved….this is definitely not the best, but it is the thing that I can came up with in one day time, for the last assignment of the semester:

There it is, the end of posting of my valuable works throughout the whole semester….

Architecture Design 201 (Project 2: Riverside Ensemble)

The title of this post above is the title of the final project for the first semester of year 2 of my study in Architecture Science. Basically, the task is to choose a suitable site at Kuching Waterfront, Sarawak, Malaysia and design a cafe on it. The building should have different spaces like observation deck, ramp/stair, washroom, kitchen, boat drop off and pick up point, etc.

First of all, we need to go to the site to understand more on the lengthy waterfront, inclusive of 1993’s built Phase 1 and 2009’s built Phase 2. Then, we need to choose our own site, by considering the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (can be summarized in SWOT), which is a good technique for site analysis. Next, it’s time to do the presentation board and booklet for site analysis as well as a large site model of scale 1:250.

Next, we need to create a series of postcard, which combines as a whole, depicting what you understand on the site, and translating it out abstractly on the postcard. My idea is on the water reflection, which the intensity of hardscape is blurred and the reflection on the Sarawak River unites both sides of the land.

Next, time for idea and design to come out. Slowly developing and progressing, many sketches were done, and it took me two pads of butter paper to do that. Messy, but sometimes it is interesting to look back at the developing sketches in it. The process is very important in design. Don’t take it lightly.

Finally, design is finalized. My design concept is basically tropical modern, to suit my cafe in hot and humid climate of Malaysia which is in face of modernism too. Hence, my cafe’s unique name would be ‘Tro+Dern’. I stressed on the whiteness of architecture (when white is the purest form of light in nature), usage of water (circulation throughout the whole cafe, cycle from the Sarawak River, aesthetic and for functional purposes), and levels (play of hierarchy and serial progression). It would be of different experience of sightseeing in my cafe which is of closer distance to water, lower level, as well as close-up detail view, which is very unusual compared to typical observatory.

Here, is my final presentation board, which is in 4 A1 (landscape format): (only for reference purpose, copyright reserved)

As well as some pictures of my final model completed in four days:

Thanks myself for going through all these hard days completing all these crazy stuff…design is forever challenging!

Building Science 201 Project 2:Passive Design Integration…

Building Science 201 is a new module introduced this semester (Year 2, Sem 1). However, I feel that this is a continuation of previous module of Ecologically Sustainable Design module which is taught by the same lecturers too. This module is all about building systems, like passive design strategies, energy-efficient principles and thermal performance. The other aspects that would be studied in future under this module is lighting, acoustic, etc.

Project 1 is about recording temperature and humidity outdoor and indoor of a selected house, then research and analyse on the findings, tabulate the results in proper way, explain on the problems, calculate U-value and OTTV, and suggest passive design strategies to it…which concluded in a over 100 pages booklet for it….and it costs only 15 percent.

Project 2 is individual work, which we have to select one of our design project and suggest at least five passive design strategies with sketches, diagrams, and explanation. This work of 2 nos of A2 size boards cost 25 percent. The percentage seems a bit weird and imbalance, right? The worst thing is that the final examination costs 60 percent of the whole semester…that’s a lot and too much….but it is okay…we managed to answer it well….

I took the current design project ‘Riverside Ensemble’ for passive designs to be integrated. This is the two boards: (Only for reference purpose, copyright reserved)

It is very important for passive design strategies to be implemented into our designs, which would be real in future, as we step into the career of architect…it is our responsibility to design energy-efficient, environmental-friendly,effectively-green building for future….