Talk Architecture

Send us Fan Mail Thinking out loud on the issues of the social responsibility of an architectural educator or an academic that teaches architecture design, reflections based on quotes from Kenneth Frampton's book Modern Architecture: A Critical History, particularly the chapter on the Bauhaus. This discussion is purely reflections which will in turn be more focused on the current state of arc...

Send us Fan Mail Irfan Mahzan's honest opinion on what had transpired in his design thesis journey in 2019-2020, on how he left it late to get the concept right in semester 2, where he did the UiTM PJ Old Town, School of Built Environment. The criticism centred on the role of higher education institution such as UiTM, and the blue and white collar workers knowledge and skills. Touching on the...

Send us Fan Mail TEASER Introduction! We will interview Irfan Mahzan on his design thesis project: UiTM PJ Old Town, School of Built Environment. The sad state of neglect is pervasive in PJ old town, where Irfan mentioned about "how old spaces are not utilized", reflected on the state of the campus at Jalan Othman.  For the design thesis, the focus was on higher education and how in Mala...

Send us Fan Mail A critical piece of a story, where the designer started by asking the pertinent question of "what do we do with an under-utilized high rise building", Wong Joe Yee from the 2019-2020 design thesis batch, did what he needed to do. He designed the Vertical Neighbourhood Shared Space , taking the Menara Mutiara, a 13 storey building, and transforming it into a place for the...

Send us Fan Mail INTRODUCTION TEASER! Watch out for the next interview with Wong Joe Yee on his design thesis project called: Vertical Neighbourhood Shared Space at Jalan Othman, Petaling Jaya. We will discuss about how in the year long 2019-2020 project, Joe Yee conceptualized at once: (1) adaptive reuse of a high rise building that is under-used and unpopular thus rejuvenating the use of the bui...

Send us Fan Mail This is what I discovered at FAUP (Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto) in 2015 when I did the Erasmus Mundus exchange programme. The "architecture design process" is not confused with the "art process" in the first year course, unlike in many other schools of architecture. This is my kind of school! Where else should I have went in search of the...

Send us Fan Mail Francis Poh in his interview talked about how being sensitive to "gender" issues helped him design the Petaling Jaya All Girls' Primary Schools. After exploring Section 4, in the earlier stages of the design thesis, he discovered the interesting waterways network that created pedestrian linkages and shortcuts for workers and students in that area. That led him to th...

Send us Fan Mail Students from time to time would choose to do 'school of architecture' for their design thesis topic, and obviously all of us, architectural educators would love to say something about it. I came across the name Hannes Meyer, the 2nd director of Bauhaus as I was reading about both topics (him and the school) and I quote from this blog: Graham McKay, "Architecture Mi...

Send us Fan Mail TEASER & PREVIEW OF WHAT'S TO COME! SEASON 3! COMING SOON - End of August & Early September 2020: Interviews with the studio masters of Unit 2 Design Thesis Studio where we will chat about the way we conduct the studio programs and the biggest challenges we face and why we run the studio as we did, especially when it comes to site context issues driven projects and co...

Send us Fan Mail A reflection on the topic of "Re-examining community architecture: site specific issues in local context situations" provides an introduction to proposing for a case for a new agenda and preparing for the book publication. Referring to the interviews that we had been doing with the graduates from the  Kampung Kerinchi batch and the graduating students fresh from finishin...

Send us Fan Mail INTRODUCTION TEASER on Francis Poh's PJ Old Town All Girls' Primary Schools This design thesis successfully explored the opportunity that can be done to bring the 2 girls’ primary schools together with a shared programme that is the canteen and the library. It is strategically located along the edge of the monsoon drain to provide a certain level of natural surveillance...

Send us Fan Mail A hidden and unassuming church in Section 4, Petaling Jaya, the Assumption Church was actually a significant first religious building in PJ Old Town, built and established beside the Assunta Hospital. During our walkabout, we stumbled upon it as a unit and Geraldine, a Protestant, took the challenge, by first interviewing the pastor and later did a study on Catholicism, leading to...

Send us Fan Mail INTRODUCTION TEASER on  Geraldine Bong's The Assumption Catholic Church and Columbarium, the podcast interview is coming soon. Do listen in to this teaser, about the exceptional enigmatic design (can we say that for a building) testing our usual beliefs on what a church should look like. A brave attempt to deal with the symbolism and at the same time challenged by technical i...

Send us Fan Mail A revival of the 40 year old market to meet current demands yet being self sufficient. Another podcast on Raymond Bu, who loves details, presenting to you The Market Hub, a contemporary local marketplace that still retains the authenticity and core functions of a traditional market located in the heart of Petaling Jaya Old Town. The interview outlines how Raymond dealt with the di...

Send us Fan Mail TEASER INTRODUCTION on a highly commended The Market Hub at Jalan Othman, Petaling Jaya Old Town by Raymond Bu. unit 2, design thesis studio, 2019-2020.   The issue here is the relevance of the market building, often called the "wet market" in Malaysia, a social hub especially with a higher than average older persons population in this community. Seen as a sight for sore...

Send us Fan Mail An intriguing interview with the author of the Old Town Botanic Gardens, Chiang Her, expressing his thoughts on his design thesis journey in 2019-2020 session. We felt the concept as one of the most excellent ever done by a design thesis student from UM, however controversially it is a master planning project, which is deemed "lack building" but that is why it is such a...

Send us Fan Mail Introducing another urban design and master planning project that proposes to rejuvenate Petaling Jaya (PJ) old town with a Botanic Gardens project for the design thesis batch 2019-2020. Wong Chiang Her's main contention were on the issues of the lack of identity; lack of outdoor and natural environment for educational facilities and the relocation of the railway station (KTM...

Send us Fan Mail A compelling story of Eva Liew's design thesis journey, including her struggles on doing an urban design and master planning project. Eva Liew identified that the biggest problem was the lack of spaces for recreation, and an urgent need to reclaim the public realm for the people. The road is designed for cars and not for humans. Trying to create a better public environment fo...

Send us Fan Mail Learning has no boundaries. The design of a school should not have boundaries. The school is part of Kampung Kerinchi.   Amirul Hakim Ismar's Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) school is a design thesis project that dealt with the B40 community's problems of kids not interested in education. The image of the technical and vocational school in Malaysia...

Send us Fan Mail We are reviving this teaser as the EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Eva Liew is coming up next week. Check out Eva Liew's Kerinchi Neighbourhood Park Linkage, a "controversial" project that was debatable whether it is an "architecture" project, but it was a very necessary urban design project to be done for the Unit 2 Design Thesis Studio at University of Malaya&a...

Send us Fan Mail Malaysia's solution to help reduce school drop-outs and employment is the creation of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) school ( believed to have been introduced just recently in the last 15 years), and this teaser provides a glimpse to the issues and design thesis concept that Amirul Hakim Ismar explored in his design thesis project in 2018-19 at Kam...

Send us Fan Mail A sincere viewpoint in this interview with Ahmad Zaldarriaga Sadain’s with his design thesis project of the Kerinchi Market Link undertook to solve a bigger area straddling from the main sites of Kampung Kerinchi to the other side of the highway at Kampung Pasir and beyond to Jalan Klang Lama. (Key – “kampung” is village, “jalan” is road). In order to solve the problems that beset...

Send us Fan Mail Ahmad Zaldarriaga Sadain's Kerinchi Market Link is a complex programmatic urban link that connects Kampung Pasir to Kampung Kerinchi and Jalan Klang Lama, including small businesses and enterprises, transportation and agriculture. The project proposed to solve many community problems such as poor living conditions, malnutrition and economic uncertainty. The design proposal at...

Send us Fan Mail First Day Special Semester (Pre Design Thesis) Site Visit: Today's University of Malaya's campus site visit started at 7 am and was in most parts a drizzly rainy affair. We walked from the front of the Law Faculty, to the Faculty of the Built Environment, Faculty of Medicine, chatted at 9:45 am at the University Malaya Medical Centre's Food Court and continued throu...

Send us Fan Mail Find here in this refreshing podcast interview, Low Joo Yin's related account, both personal and objective, providing the listener clues to how she interpreted a "client" which at the outset is uncertain as the "local authority", when a street market has to do with the community, it's social-cultural identity and basic needs for household items and fo...