A MEETING AT PRIME MINISTER OFFICE

APRIL 2011, had a meeting with a special bureau of Innovation at Prime Minister's Office.  We get to know first-handedly the innovative products that the government will help to commercialize them.  We had students from universities around the country and we can speak out whatever is in our mind regarding the products enlisted in a booklet provided to us.  The students are from different kind of fields, ranged from economy, architects, planners, computer science, mass communication and even lecturer-to-be.  The most attractive product is a photovoltaic cells coated layer which can be applied to windows in order to decrease the heat gain in the interior and absorb the free solar energy and store them in the batteries.  This product can be really useful for the poor in rural area to gain the free energy.  A product like this has such a good potential to be invested and improved to the next level which we cant even imagine.  Of course, there are lots of green products out there in the market.  However, some of the students think it is a waste for the government to spend money on this kind of product as she think the products can only produce a small amount of energy.  While another student from the economic field suggested that Malaysian government should innovate the petroleum industry to boost up the GDP of our country instead of wasting time and money in the infancy of green technology.

From my perspective, it is clear that Malaysian students spend too much time fighting for better grade and forgot to think out of their fields.  What comes out from their mind and mouth is what they have learnt in their particular field without considering other aspects.  The government call us the Y-generation.  The question is, how can Y-generation governs the country to a better level if the professions from different fields just think of the benefits of their own fields despite the importance of integration of the knowledge to form the balance in life.  What I expect from the meeting in the PM's office is a solution in progress to make use of all knowledge from all the profession to tackle the problem faced, tackling the problems in every aspects.  This is a damn hard job, but at least, we try, better than doing nothing.

The worst thing in the meeting is when the speaker conducting the meeting agreed with the economic student regarding the matter of innovating the petroleum industry, praising him a talented student in the economic field.  Perhaps, talented but not innovative. Malaysia, from the bottom level of the social to the top, is still ignoring the environmental issue.

LYNAS BRAVO ? Coal plant in Sabah Bravo ??  Coal plant in Mukah Bravo ??  Boleh ?

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity, a  nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization building simple, decent, affordable housing in partnership with people in need.  This time, DNA (Design Network Architects) together with the Habitat, helped the poor in Kampung Tun Haji, Kuching, Sarawak. Although a simple shelter, it meant a lot to us and the poor. To be part of the process is the best part.  A 6 hours laborious brick-laying job can be fun with whole bunch of architectural students from (imported) west malaysian and east malaysian, under the lead of the person-in- charge, Eric from the Habitat and the architect, Min from DNA.  Good job, good experience.

 Take a break in the middle of the job with bananas brought to us by Min. 
 (Min with his cellphone behind the bars...)

Bricks laid by me and Freddie. A screw every 3 courses and keep the bricks straight to the orange line, a finger height between the line and the brick for every new course. Curve surface of the bricks always faces downwards.

Every profession needs to help the unfortunate ones in the society in order to create a balance in it.  Malaysian is always unaware of this,  social status is not about driving big cars, living in big houses, helping the poor is the main part of it.

Madonna and Child with Eight Singing Angels

Read through Alain De Botton's "THE ARCHITECTURE OF HAPPINESS", found an inspiring and touching story within the book which I think is worth sharing.

" The German theologian Paul Tilich explained that art had always left him cold as a pampered and trouble-free young man, despite the best pedagogical efforts of his parents and teachers,  Then the First World War broke out, he was called up and, in a period of leave from his battalion(three quarters of whose members would be killed in the course of conflict), he found himself in the Kaiser Friedruch Museum in Berlin during a rain storm.  There, a small upper gallery, he came across Sandro Botticelli's Madonna and Child with Eight Singing Angels and, on meeting the wise, fragile, compassionate gaze of the Virgin, surprised himself by beginning to sob uncontrollably.  He experienced what he described as a moment of 'revelatory ecstasy', tears welling up in his eyes at the disjunction between the exceptionally tender atmosphere of the picture and the barbarous lessons he had learnt in the trenches.

It is in dialogue with that pain that many beautiful things acquire their value."

Alain argued about how does a building respond or speak to us, but somehow, people or even architects just failed to feel the emotional dialogue between the building and us. Designing is not only about making the elevations or the sections looking good, designing the heart of the building is the toughest part.  The architect himself needs to be emotional or artistic enough and play balance between all aspects.       

Just like Alain wrote in the book, " We might, quite aside from all other requirements, need to be a little sad before building can properly touch us.", just like the painting.