A VISIT TO GARAGE 51, BANDAR SUNWAY

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, a cup of nice coffee and sinful breakfast was so necessary. Garage 51 is easily spotted by its unique graffiti wall and color. It was located at one of the shops in front of Sunway University.

As you can see finding parking was a quite a pain in the xxx, people tend to double park around the cafe ( not a pleasant thing). We got a little luck that day in getting ourselves a parking spot while we got there.

A waiter opened the door for us and we were welcomed. It was packed with other customers, everyone was enjoying their food. We got ourselves a table on top of the container, which was being designed into a kitchen below.

 Food wise, they serve variety of English breakfast, the usual. I ordered the one listed in brunch's special, chicken piccata with couscous. It was my first time trying couscous, a type of North African semolina in granules made from curshed durum wheat. It was served with Avocado and a fried poached egg. It was delicious.

Up to trend huh? Well it's world cup, everybody loves it. This is the outdoor dining area, as you can see some of their furniture are garage-inspired.

A view from where we were sitting. Since the cafe is seated at one of the shophouses, I believe it was designed into a double volume space by taking out the upper floor area. It totally helped in giving a better sense of soothe to the customers.

They have a brunch at Solaris Dutamas too, namely Coffee Societe.

Garage 51
51, Jalan PJS 11/9,
Bandar Sunway,
46150 Selangor

11am-11pm daily
(closed on monday)

Ratings:

Price: 3/5 Average (imposes 16%tax) Customer Service: 4/5
Food: 3/5
Environment: 4/5

HE WAS JUST A KID WHEN I KNOW HIM

As I was passing by the housing area of jalan kampar, I went to pay a visit to a house that I was once involved designing while working in Kuee architects. It doesn't take me long to look for the house. 

this is how it looks like in Feb 2012

pool view

I still remember while doing the 3D rendering, we struggled on getting design approval from our client. This usually happened when the client doesn't know what they really want. When we come to this design, it was already 3-4 proposal before it. Well, sometimes after your client went travelling outside the country, they saw buildings they love and tend to give inputs into theirs when they come back. Sometimes the ideas may work, but most of the time they don't.

he is all grown-up in 2014

I think there must be a lot of decision making moments during construction period, as you can see it doesn't came out as proposed. Money-Time-Quality, the usual. This final design looks decent, just that I think it somehow loses an identity. The car porch roof is definitely a spoiler :(

Less is more??


all copyrights reserved

BEING AN ARCHITECTURAL INVIGILATOR

It was my pleasure being invited as one of the invigilators for my degree school's student final presentation. Many of my previous lecturers were there to invigilate the students, not to mention Huat Lim, a few seniors and other architects from elsewhere. It was like a small reunion to me.

Semester 6 student's works that I have seen were up to expectation, where visual presentation is good, technical drawings are satisfactory, and one most impressive work  from them is the site analysis video. It was fantastic, I would say, very informative and creative, a successful piece of work that expresses key things about the site. Huat Lim mentioned that the video can sell a couple of dollars to developers in Sentul lol!

After everyone has presented their work, the tutor, us and the students had a sharing session to wrap-up the day. 

This studio focuses on the goal in 'rehabilitate', the design should implement a program that could possibly solving the social issue on site at a minor scale. It was challenging to the students as well, in arguments where the building they design should provide substantial employment, opportunity and independence. We highlighted that, students tend not to spend time in planing, It is the most crucial issue for any projects in practice that the planing of your project requires effectiveness. For instance, the accessible road from the main driveway to your building should be effectively routed. Your client wouldn't spend unnecessary money to build something that is abundant.

Tectonics of the student's design was not highlighted in the assessment. However, some architects pointed out that students should have in mind on how to manage their building at all time. Yes, it has an impact on your site and your building. Sustaining the building is a concern, not in terms of monetary but occupancy. It will be under-utilized if the building serves only a certain period of season or time, despite having a nice program for its user group. Other than that, is also has to do with things like security, location of management office, number of employees in the building, and so on.

As their seniors, i noticed that most of the programs that were proposed by the students are identical: Urban farming, sports centers, cultural hub, and what not. I certainly understand why is this happened since I was like them during my final studio. Most probably it is because these programs are easy to tackle. As if, these programs can be placed at any sites they want as long as there is an empty land. It happened to my studio 2 years ago, and now this culture is some how self-sustaining. I hope students in the future can jump out from the box and able to propose more exciting programs, which would definitely lead them to another level in terms of thinking, planning and designing.

一周年纪念

有没有很惊喜？
(预算有一点紧, 希望诚意可以拉回一些分)

［一周年纪念快乐］

这一年里

我们一起经历开心，喜悦，

悲伤，熬夜赶工，吵架，低潮，吃醋，臭三八

每一刻都非常的独一无二

最喜欢看你迷眼微笑的时候

最不喜欢你低低头滑手机

爱上你的温柔和关心

却不爱你的冷落和嘶吼

反正两人一起就会有正负面要妥协

重要的是

你是那个我愿意认真爱的人

－－－－－－０－－－－－－

我有一点害怕去了英国

会不习惯没有你在身边

即时那里生活可以多姿多彩

没有你就是不一样了

星期六要请谁吃饭

看帅哥要和谁分享

晚上找谁陪我赖床看戏

睡觉谁可以在我耳边呼呼叫
还有吃奇异果要找谁陪

－－－－－－０－－－－－－

我们即将要分隔两地

未来的两年里

情人节，圣诞节，生日之类的日子

没有我在你身边碎碎念了

无论我们是否还能够成为对方的谁

无论我们之间闹翻了多少遍

那些无聊的闹事都会变渺小

我不在你身边的时候

你要更努力，往那些你告诉过我的目标迈进

可以的话，改掉那些我常埋怨你的坏习惯

你会变得更有魅力更有亲和力哦

也希望，你可以找到一个能在你寂寞的时候

可以让你依靠，呵护的人
如果有其他真心对待你的人
可以试试看定下来

最重要是你能幸福

我能够给你的惊喜已经不多

珍惜我们拥有着对方

也相信和你结缘不是巧合，而是冥冥中的安排

爱你

duckiie