Talk Architecture

Send us Fan Mail The 'architecture anarchist' is a recent trend amongst the young architectural graduates to comment about architecture but without design practice experience. Is that acceptable? However, this could be due to the "instability" of the architecture profession in terms of not allowing for a diversity of thoughts to emerge in architecture education. Are fewer archi...

Send us Fan Mail Architecture education is the key factor to making accessibility happen to include all people into mainstream development. This piece discusses the salient points needed to happen to make an impact in society: 1) The anthropometric and ergonomic aspects in the first year and universal design is integrated into the main studio course at first degree; 2) Continuous professional deve...

Send us Fan Mail My explanation on how we integrate and assess theory in the students assignment and studio work for second year first semester.  © 2022 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob Photo: Talk Architecture image by Naziaty Mohd Yaacob Support the show Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more...

Send us Fan Mail As a social entrepreneur, I would like to pose two ideas of which the first one being, whether it is possible to teach a blind person to be an architect? A different way to approach architecture design, where we may call it "sensory design" or "multi-sensory design" or an extension of "universal design" even.  For the second idea, we could be more exp...

Send us Fan Mail The discussion continues with two other articles and principles learned from "multisensory" design and approach, and "sensory design" apart from David Eagleman, the neuroscientist. I extracted some of the principles and discussed them further to summarize some way forward to design the universal design bus stop Version 3 and other designs.  © 2022 Talk Architec...

Send us Fan Mail The discussion refers to the "Now concept" episodes and "Architecture and Disability" with reference to a Ted Talk by David Eagleman on "Can We Create New Senses for Humans" where I find this talk by the neuroscientist amazing exploring ideas on sensory substitution and sensory addition working with blind and deaf persons, such as the "umvelt&quo...

Send us Fan Mail "Designing an experience is a unique responsibility of an architect. The theory of phenomenology acknowledges this responsibility by implementing sensory design in order to establish experiential, architectural space. Phenomenology demonstrated in architecture is the manipulation of space, material, and light and shadow to create a memorable encounter through an impact on the...

Send us Fan Mail The final part of the discussion on the assessment and examination processes called the Portfolio Review which is symptomatic of the architecture education system in Malaysian schools of architecture. Focusing on the Design Thesis.  © 2022 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob Photo: Design Thesis 2019-2020 unit 2 online discussion by Naziaty Mohd Yaacob Leadership Lesson...

Send us Fan Mail Continuing the discussion on the assessment and examination processes called the Portfolio Review which is symptomatic of the architecture education system in Malaysian schools of architecture. Is it just a way to verify the grades or a way to ensure quality is maintained? What is it for really?  © 2022 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob Photo: Talk Architecture image...

Send us Fan Mail This discussion compares the assessment and examination processes with the AA School of Architecture, and other schools that have terms, with Malaysian schools of architecture. Many architecture schools in Malaysia follow what is practised among others more established and also the incorporation of portfolio review in the examination process. This is not the only mechanism that is...

Send us Fan Mail Viewing from the mental health perspective, including mind, body and soul concept, we ventured into the notion of "time and space". The relevance of the past only as precedents and only to learn from, and any recollection is for the "now" suggests that "time is relative" and there is no such thing as time, actually. "Space" therefore needs a...

Send us Fan Mail The 1st day Lunar Year chat around the dining table. Four individuals chatting about Part 3 Professional Certification and comparing it to getting doctorate. Issues of getting jobs and mentoring. Same protagonists as Part 3 & 4 episodes on Architecture Design Problems, but more about practice. Excuse the language used and it’s partly in Malay language about 1/4 of the time in...

Send us Fan Mail Why do we have practical training subjects in architecture schools? In particular to be done traditionally as a "year out" course after the 3rd year and before the M Arch or 4th year. I found the experience an essential part of learning and gaining confidence, and believe that at least 6 months and better still, a year of practical training having a certain role in an ar...

Send us Fan Mail An informal chat on the first day of the Lunar Year of the Tiger (February 1, 2022) with Kamelia Jambari and Amalina Azizan, where we started off with "research by design" or "design by research" conundrum. Then somehow, it led to us having a chat about senior living and accessibility. We tried to steer back to what we started. Hopefully some insights on the th...

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...