Enjoy~!

Semua House, view was taken from the back of the building

Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur

Plaza City One, Kuala Lumpur

Menara Multi Purpose, Kuala Lumpur

I love taking photos especially photos of people in the city context. Rather emphasis on buildings, my camera lenses catch the lively street more. Sometimes I enjoy take a shot on old peaces of left building rather than new one coated with shiny glass.

As how every architecture students posses the idea of building aesthetic, I’m not. I found beauty in different way which I call ‘the spirit of the building’ and it arise from how it is function to human in present or past.

I love looking at how people interact in spaces. I love to see how a building shapes direction of pedestrian path way while the sound from their conversations mixed in the air. I love to see how people and building respond to the climate and also how the building’s history affect the current building program which then influenced the surrounding.

As the global architecture move from classical period to modern and currently it is unsettled in the postmodern age we can see the choice of material change over time.

It become an interesting exercise if one pick a random building and guess when it was built, how it was built, for what it was used for and how the building affect the environment. To do so you don’t need any architectural knowledge as it is depended on common sense. To make it more interesting one can take a city and guess which building was built first based on their physical appearance.

ps: Need to start my saving now.. I have been using d40x with kit lense for 3 years..

Why do Malaysia lecturers and architects strive for architecture motive pattern for a mosque if there are no comprehensive study on the Muslim activities and the program happen in a mosque?

I have been told by friends who have studied in IIUM that some lecturers’ attention toward Islamic architecture are more toward islamic ornamentation, minaret and dome. I have visited to mosques around Kuala Lumpur and found that most of wudhu places are not convenient. Water from water tap doesn’t pointed right into the drainage designed, unaccessed saff at some corner and etc. I turn more disappointed after I had a quick visit to our latest Malaysia Mega Mosque in Putrajaya, Masjid Besi Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin.

1.I went to perform Maghrib prayer at Masjid Besi Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin on 17 July 2010, a massive steel structure mosque in Putrajaya. The moment I entered the building, I was surprised with the coordination of ‘shoes off’ area. The shoes racks are painted in black and aligned like library book shelf but lit up in very dull light. Thus the shoes are not apparent from the outside.
2. There were 20-30 shoes racks look identical and I got a feeling that I might lose my shoes because i can’t identify which any one of them, so I placed my shoes at a shoes rack next to wudhu room wall. I went in and take wudhu.
3. After I’m done with wudhu in the MASSIVE wudhu area, there was a big transition space which allow woman and man pick the right direction (according to their gender) into the prayer hall.
4. I took stairs, reached the main prayer hall and I was surprised with number of motionless escalators installed. As far as I understand, the escalators do not serve anyone in the main hall as everyone is already barefooted. (for safety issue, escalator is not allowed for barefooted)
5. I think the mosque is a comeback idea of the first Putra Mosque which has failed to tackle climate issue and needs to be air conditioned ( increased the running cost of the building over time). And so the height of the ceiling was designed with 30-40m high to allow natural ventilation.
6. After done with Maghrib prayer, I walked back to the shoes rack, and unfortunately there are more than one ‘shoes off rooms’ and I do not know which room was mine! There was no indication or sign as to differentiate the identical shoes off rooms (and every single shoes rack rooms are located next to the wudhu room!! which means there are numbers of other Massive wudhu room in the mosque as well). It took me 10 to 15 minutes to find back the shoes rack where I left my shoes and I just can’t imagine how troublesome it will be during Friday Prayer!

Masjid Besi Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin is trully a bizzare architecture. It has successfully tackle climate issue and cladded with expensive highly finished tiles, however the gigantic size, excessive and unnecessary utilities and lack of rooms demarcation has neglected the program and user of the building. I dont know how much Malaysia has spent to the building which is inhumane and much more disappointing is, it is a mosque!

fortunately I have no worries about tomorrow :’)

ramadhan is coming! cant wait~!!
time to reboot myself

“architecture is about people, if architecture had not been about people it would not have been our profession,” ZLGdesign

If the Westerners are proud with their 4 seasons climate, Malaysians are diffident to live in their tropical environment.

Mid Valley, Pavilion, Time Square, Suria KLCC and other huge podiums have become one of the main attractions in Malaysia tourism. With the low price offered on the goods and being encapsulated in high end urban finished interior, ‘shopping’ has become the best word to describe Malaysia. Unfortunately having successful shopping malls have created imbalance in local economy and environment.

The demolition of historic Pudu Jail aged 114 years in return of a new shopping mall and 4 condominiums has triggered a question, are we that desperate to erase our historical building for the sake of having another shopping mall?

While Malaysians are blinded by the trend of having gigantic boxes filled with retail premises and fresh cold air, we are actually at a crucial point to decide whether to go on with these non environmental friendly lifestyle or not.

1. The absence of nature.
2. Increasing number of vehicles
3. Old shop houses are neglected.
4. Money wasted for a new ground breaking project

Shopping malls are more attractive and able to pull anyone with promising offer of cold air. However this requires dozens of air conditioner units installed which unfortunately damages the stability of external temperature. Ascribed by the law of energy conversation, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be transformed from one state to another. Not many knows that the air conditioners work by exchanging heat inside the space with the external air and heated up our walking pathway, streets and etc.

Shopping malls consume a lot of greenery space and thus reduce our nature ability to recycle back the produced carbon monoxide. This affectively contributed to the temperature rising and indirectly increases number of cars which again air conditioner in cars release heat. While not forgetting the lack of reliable public transport provided, cars became preferable mean of transportation to get to the shopping mall. Thing come worst when cars are only occupied by single person or two and directly increases number cars on street.

With our new generation which are brought up in a shopping mall culture, the existing shop houses especially with front opened to the air become victim of this raising temperature. They are neglected and left over for the lower classes. Awfully the adjacent roads are congested with high traffic which are not pedestrian friendly and brought down the shop value.

Despite the frustration, whether intentionally or not, Malaysia has found a solution which is successfully practiced at Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur. Petaling Street which is shaded and leaved open for natural ventilation have sustain the backdrop of existing tropical environment. If Petaling Street is filled with low budget retailers, we could imagine that the same operable roof installed on different street filled with refurbished old shop houses, occupied by the big brands such as GUCCI, LACOSTE and CHANEL.

Not only we could save the environment but also help Malaysia magnifies our identity as a vigorous tropical country.