Apple Store, Sydney

Hi guys, I guess it was about time the Evil White Fruit came to town!

The Archinerd and I went to pay that giant fruit a visit last week. We actually intended to go on the night the Sydney Apple store was launched but I was pretty sure every single Sydneysider you know was in the darn queue so we ended up watching SATC instead.

The structural glass facade that almost puts others of its kind in the CBD to shame. Seriously! Muahahaha..

And definitely one of Sydney’s coolest staircases with equally cool lighting.

I guess this is what my staircase-fetish does to me!

Oh dear! I am sooo going back to get my IPod case. I don’t know about you but I certainly have a serious love-hate relationship with Apple!

Sorry I really had to do this — it was too irresistable! Har har har…

Alright peeps, ciao for now!

Adaptive Reuse Studio – Final presentation pt2

This is how the model was transported to the uni, since you were all so curious!

But of course, you’d probably also need an Archinerd who is willing to wake up early in the morning to help you carry the models and boards to the uni before leaving to work…

Oh, and I also really need to thank dearest Vivien. She cut her finger while helping me trim the edges off my presentation boards the night before!

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Just another photo: Our 1:500 site model of the Walsh Bay Wharves, Sydney Harbour. It was a joint effort by all of us in the Adaptive Reuse Studio.

I’m just feeding you with images first — still very, very busy with uni. Ciao!

Adaptive Reuse Studio – Final presentation

The Adaptive Reuse Design Studio had our final presentation in the Old Main Building today.

The juries.
(Thank you Ryan, for being my photographer)

I occupied the entire hallway, muahaha.

The structural concept model, now completed.

The other side.

Will blog about this project when I can find the time to. No, it’s not the end for me just yet — I still have loads of submissions for my other electives!

But anyway, I can’t wait for the next design studio already! Time really flies when you’re in Architorture. Most of the time you are trying to resolve everything amidst all the Archistress and sleep deprivation and then the next thing you know — it’s over!

Oh well, I’ve gotta go catch up on some sleep for now! Ciao.

Pierre Cardin’s plans for Lacoste

The millionaire fashion designer, Pierre Cardin, has big plans for his hometown Lacoste.

In hope to make Lacoste the “St. Tropez of culture“, he is envisioning the beautiful village as a refuge for world artists — with luxury hotels & cafes. He has already spent millions of dollars refurbishing the Marquis de Sade Castle and is now apparently busy buying houses and employing people to care for his new properties. He has even been fiddling with the idea of building a Greek amphitheater at a local quarry.

Lacoste, Vaucluse.
(Image credit: Corine Brisbois)

More and more locals are starting to protest. They are worried his plans will change the face of the village forever. This, I will have to agree — I mean, a Greek amphitheater, really?! It’s like trying to turn Lacoste into a posh Disney resort.

Read more, here or here.
More images of Lacoste, here.

Oh well! I guess, in times like this, we can always look back at Spain’s Bilbao brought back to life by “gehry-fication” not-all-that-long-ago…

Can Pierre Cardin really buy the dying village back to life?

Jellytecture

Yet another interesting architecture competition! Having blogged about Gingerbread Architecture earlier in 2006, this one sounds just as fun (and edible)!

Jelly model of St. Paul by the competition curators, Bompas & Parr.
(Image credit: Jellymongers)

Anyway the ten shortlisted jelly entries have just been released a few days ago. These designs will be transformed into real jellies and will be exhibited and judged at the Jelly Banquet in conjunction with the 2008 London Festival of Architecture in Bartlett, on July 4. The entries may be auctioned for Architects for Aid.

Looked through the designs, and this one really appealed to me:

“Jelly Airport” by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners.
(Image credit: Bdonline)

Airports are already more-than-fascinating (to me, at least!) — they are now even available as jellies! Har har har.. What a fantasy!

Go check the rest out now, here!

The final weeks

Been busy with the Adaptive Reuse Studio for Pier 2/3, Walsh Bay Wharves.

We finally had our Week 12 Pre-final Presentation yesterday.

The journey so far.

Structural concept model, still under construction.

Final presentation’s in 2 weeks… Wish me luck!

Cardboard architecture

Hi guys! Am still in a serious Archistress mode but was surfing the net while having lunch just now. Came across Paper tea house by Shigeru Ban, reliving many many memories from my Taylor’s Architorture days back home in Malaysia.

Paper tea house by Shigeru Ban
(Image credits: Icon Eye)

See more images and description on Icon Eye, here.

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It strikes a chord in my Taylor’s-days memories. In my very first design studio ever, my class had a similar project which required us to design and build a life-size architectural folly made of corrugated cardboard.

With the Archinewbie enthusiasm and naivety, my group mate and I experimented with different joints to put these flimsy recycled cardboards together. I can still remember how accomplished we felt at the end of the task.

So I decided to dig out these old sketches.

Busy as I am now, it still feels good to slow down and look back at how I entered Architorture with no idea of the sleepless nights that will come. The naivety back then. The stuff that I sketched (I don’t think I even draw like that anymore! Har har har). The many painful cuts Nads and I had during model-making. The progress I’ve made so far. And the great friendships I’ve found along the way.

And this group mate of mine, Kwok Keong, has grown to be one of my very good friends today

Oh dear, I really miss the good old Taylor’s days.

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P/s: Oh Nads, and I will never forget your group’s work too! Because it was utterly ‘contaminated’ by your beloved group mate, our beloved Melvin! Muahahaha.

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UPDATE: The then-Melvin is now better known as Jit. He is apparently very particular about this and so I guess you guys should all know him as Jit. But what the heck, you’ll forever be my beloved Melvin! Don’t expect anything to change!

Dubai urbanism

There is a new type of urbanism: designing islands and coastlines visible from the sky, recorded by satellites and transmitted across the Internet as jpeg attachments. Technologies that are used to monitor wildlife development, hydrography and land drought is now a tool for global transmission of projects under construction. Post-card GIS and reconnaissance technologies turn into spectacle and telegenic fantasy addressing mass tourism. Dubai’s suburbs are rising from the water, in the form of artificial and prosthetic islands, imitating Venice. Dubai is turning into a postcard portrait city of the future. Satellite imagery of unfinished projects gives rise to the exciting promise of fantasy.
– George Katodrytis, Transcity: Dubai’s Satellite Urbanism.

Designing cities to be visible from the sky. It feels to me like SimCity is being played out for real in Dubai. You’ll get what I mean if you are a fan of Google Earth — zoom in and around the Dubai coastline, you’ll find road networks laid out for future developments.

I guess god-games (SimCity, Civilization, etc.) can be extremely addictive because the player is the planner; the all powerful decision-maker; or, quite literally, a god. Quite similarly, we are now planning and designing cities by gazing down on the action from the ‘heavens’ (or watching city growths from Google Earth, in my case).

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Just a thought – Most human advancements in the history of civilization point towards one fact: Man wants to play god.

Are we there yet?

Architects in TEDTalks

He who seeks truth shall find beauty
He who seeks beauty shall find vanity

He who seeks order shall find gratification
He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed

He who consider himself a servant of his fellow beings shall find the joy of self expression
He who seeks self expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance

Arrogance is incompatible with nature
Through nature — the nature of the universe and the nature of man we shall seek truth
If we seek truth we shall find beauty

– Moshe Safdie, in his presentation on TEDTalks

Wooot~ Talk about architects and sentiments!

Anyway listen Moshe Safdie’s talk in full length, here.

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The Archinerd introduced me to TEDTalks quite recently, which he faithfully downloads for his IPod to keep him awake during the bus rides to work in the mornings.

It’s a series of talks/presentations from TED made available to the public for free. There is a whole collection of interesting talks from “the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers , who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes” (quoting the website), sponsored by BMW, Nokia & Autodesk.

There have been quite a few interesting talks that we have came across so far. So you guys should really go check them out on the TEDTalks official website!

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Oh, and you probably should check this one too — Joshua Prince-Ramus, founding partner of OMA New York, on the Seattle Public Library. He talks about the design of the library — how the planning is extremely practical with the diagrams OMA is famous for, and that he designed a space to propose to his then-girlfriend (and she said yes). So yeah, there you go, talk about architects and romance! Har har har.

You can watch Joshua Prince-Ramus’s talk on the website too, here.

So enjoy!

The happy things in life (Pt2)

Hey guys, thanks for all your comments on the Archinerd’s graduation post the other day.

The Archinerd, muahaha!

I was thinking about it, and thought it was really unfair that he is getting all the attention on LBA because he wasn’t the only person who has graduated on that day.

There was also Rhun Ing and See Kuan, for example, and I thought they looked great that day.

See Kuan & Rhun Ing.

Then there was Nathaniel, who has decided to quit Architorture FOREVER.

Nat — He is taller than normal earthlings okay, it’s not that I’m all THAT short!

We graduated that day too!

Raymond, Josh & Nat.

Why wasn’t anyone congratulating ME?! Har har har.

Okay okay, we were supposed to attend that graduation ceremony but we didn’t.. But in fact we turned BArchSt-graduate that day too! I don’t know why Raymond and Joshua decided not to attend, but I just thought it was kinda pointless to go since this is only the first degree and my family won’t be here in Sydney anyway. And besides, I didn’t attend my diploma graduation ceremony back in KL too… No biggie, just aiming for the MArch one which will be happening mid-2010 if all goes well!

I just collected my certificate from the uni today!

Haha, no, I’m not jealous of the attention the Archinerd was getting on LBA. I’m posting this from my laptop simply because computers hate me (!!!) — my desktop was being temperamental and has just restarted by itself. Was just waiting for it to behave again before I can go back to CAD.

Anyway, to all the May 12th graduates (including those unmentioned): CONGRATULATIONS alright! It’s a new beginning

Okay peeps, have a good day! Ciao.