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.