Talk Architecture

Send us Fan Mail A continuation of the informal chat on the first day of the Lunar Year of the Tiger (February 1, 2022) with Kamelia Jambari and Amalina Azizan, from the last podcast episode on "designing with confidence". Kamelia, started her own architectural design business called Studio Ti. Tinta, and Amalina started a design and build business called Se Bulan Design (both are Instag...

Send us Fan Mail We need to be mindful of how the design studio curriculum and the corresponding subjects are set up in the first degree. This podcast episode is on the second-year studio projects but led the discussion on how soon the 'theory of architecture' needs to be learned. The design problem at this level will relate more to the building type rather than the size of the project....

Send us Fan Mail The most complicated project when it comes to identifying the design problems is the design thesis course at the final year of an M Arch education or the fifth year final project. The students will need to choose a topic and a site, for the issues-driven project or building type project where inevitably the site issues are less addressed and the design is more to do with justifyin...

Send us Fan Mail The second part of our proposal of the Basics of A School of Architecture is on: "How are we teaching sustainability?" I referred to my architectural theory notes from this semester, defining the difference between 'green building' and 'sustainability'. My opinion is that we are in danger of not teaching properly 'sustainability' to future a...

Send us Fan Mail Some invaluable insights (from the article with the link below)  "Designing with accessibility in mind: a conversation". We continue the 2nd Part on Design Thinking and how we need to include all persons' needs when designing architecture or a product. However, this article author sends another message where it is equally important to include persons with different...

Send us Fan Mail There is a need to address the bias or imbalance in the design of the curriculum in an architecture school in 2022. How are we teaching sustainability? Have we relegated architecture theory and philosophy, cultural and social contexts to the end zone of our architecture curriculum? Are we regurgitating the same knowledge again and again and students will not be well equipped and c...

Send us Fan Mail What are the biases that we have when finding a solution for a disabled person? Would a physically disabled person be able to work as a farmer or a mechanic? Would a blind person be able to practice architecture? Referring to the article (link below) at ideo.org popularly advocating design thinking, one of the authors did research on this topic of 'disabled persons and liveli...

Send us Fan Mail Happy New Year - 2022! In the last 9 weeks, students came back to the campus and tutors conducted hybrid learning with a mixture of online and face-to-face interactions. Despite the fears of getting Covid-19, we, both students and tutors relied on our trust and instinct, with SOPs (standard operating procedures) to conduct the latter mode especially. I discussed how I developed a...

Send us Fan Mail Using my second-year students as an example, I explained how I am teaching my students to design to come up with the scheme. This is the batch where they did online learning for the whole of the first year and had only been at the campus in the last 9 weeks.  Focusing on the use of precedents and the critical part before getting the narrative and concept. This gives a sense of wha...

Send us Fan Mail Designing for disability helps everyone We refer to Elise Roy's talks and an article that stated why accessibility is important, not only from a moral and legal standpoint but also from a business perspective that gives value to the product and solution. "I believe that losing my hearing was one of the greatest gifts I've ever received," says Elise Roy. As a di...

Send us Fan Mail Part 2 review of an article by Zach Mortice found at the AIA website (American Institute of Architecture), which told a story of the current phenomenon on disability access and inclusion practice by architects. The idea that the 'design intent' of architecture is based on inclusion, is the most ideal situation for any buildings.  “Accessibility is a topic that should be...

Send us Fan Mail In conjunction with the International Day for Disabled Persons on 3rd December, this is a special podcast focusing on 'what is embracing disability and designing for accessibility for an architect and designer?' Why is it important to design for accessibility as part of any design approach from the beginning? For further information, do join the Facebook Group: Smart Des...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when an architect meets a biologist and chat about "Genius Loci" [Sense of Place]? However, Dr. N. Hashim has been around architects most of her life and is familiar with architectural terms. As a keen geographer and writer herself, the discussion revolved around the kind of design approach needed and learning experience necessary to even understand what &ap...

Send us Fan Mail This two-part commentary and part review of an article by Zach Mortice found at the AIA website (American Institute of Architecture), tells a story of the current phenomenon on disability access and inclusion practice by architects and provides insights on how architects still need to 'own the process' of designing for inclusion from the beginning or as part of the desig...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the 1st in a new series of podcasts on the topic: Architecture Design with Design Empathy, Accessibility, and Universal Design. We start off with an introduction on: Understanding Barriers Understanding Disability For further information, do join the Facebook Group: Smart Design with Disabled Access in Mind © 2021 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob Photo (ar...

Send us Fan Mail Reflecting on situations when we encounter the student is stuck and cannot move forward with his design, we ask why? A couple of conclusions based on some deliberations: 1) Lack of understanding 'context' for the first-degree student where there is too much fixation on 'form' learned in the first year; 2) Lack of design approach on dealing with the context and...

Send us Fan Mail You cannot take out 'people' from the context. Context is arguably very tangible, as we can assume that form is obviously tangible. Chris Alexander, 1971, said that: form is the design solution whereas, context defines the design problem. Context comes first, form later.  Defining the context well, understanding people and relationships, she is trying to be 'in the...

Send us Fan Mail Context is about people and relationships. “The ultimate object of design is form” (Christopher Alexander, 1977). He further stated that: “Every design problem begins with an effort to achieve fitness between two entities: the form in question and its context”. The form is the solution to the problem; the context defines the problem” But what is 'context'? We continue th...

Send us Fan Mail We continue the conversation around this quote: "Design is the Conversation Between Creativity and Context" (Kevin Mark Low (author) in Small Projects, ORO Editions (May 1, 2014)) Introducing on 'specific context', which later was often quoted as 'context specificities' (after Low), when dealing with a design project, may it be a real-life project or...

Send us Fan Mail Discussion on how to design for inclusivity, focusing on adaptive re-use and conservation practice, suggesting ways on how to go about this based on some case studies.  You would want your design to include as many people as possible, especially if it is a public building. But you do not want to make your building feel like it's a 'medical facility' with all those s...

Send us Fan Mail We continue with the readings from the next 3 pages of the book entitled: The Model and Its Architecture by Patrick Healy, where he examines the architectural model. The readings so far touched upon, metaphors, concepts, ideology and other assertions. What I find most useful so far with what was discussed in part 1 & 2, is how to think and argue the relationship between '...

Send us Fan Mail You would want your design to include as many people as possible, especially if it is a public building. But you do not want to make your building feel like it's a 'medical facility' with all those stainless steel railings, for example. What can you do? Some thoughts here on how to approach your design and achieve a balance in making it more functional and yet, aest...

Send us Fan Mail What are the pre-occupations that the architect has with the model? Is it always to do with depicting exactly what one needs to build? That depends on the context the model is being made for. And models are not always about architecture, as we have models of atoms and molecules in chemistry and mathematical models. The first 3 page reading of the book entitled: The Model and Its A...

Send us Fan Mail If students or architecture/graduates are not able to hold a conversation and be engaged with others such as their tutors and peers, their employers, the other consultants, the contractor and supplier, the design team members, they would not be able to form a connection and be able to do their job in a satisfactory manner. Extending our discussion on the topic of how to compete gl...

Send us Fan Mail What do you learn in architecture schools nowadays? There are so many things to learn apart from your studio work, you would have a few other classes going on concurrently. What has been gained and what is at a loss? Can a student/graduate be able to hold a conversation? Consistently, this point was made by Huat Lim in our podcast and clubhouse event [School of Architecture Sessio...