pearly

A small intervention for the duxton-pearlhill-yorkhill site conceived in one night. It is a place to rest or do whatever you want on Pearl's Hill. Perhaps a place for one to do nothing.

Didn't intend for the box to look like a suspeneded crate but when desperation sets in at 3am, you just have to do whatever way is fastest.

Yan Kit Swimming Pool

A forgotten piece of Singapore, wedged at the periphery of the CBD. The half century old Yan Kit Swimming pool from the pre-independence days.

David's Oyster Farm

The David's Oyster Farm has been in operation for 3 weeks. The initial brief was to rejuvenate the relatively unknown Duxton Plain Park in the Tanjong Pagar Area, which would end in each of the 13 studio members designing a medium size building on seperate sites along the linear park. However, on a whim, David Robson, the studio head (hence the name of the studio), decided to extend the site to link the park all the way to the Singapore River through Pearl's Hill (which gave him the idea of calling our individual projects pearls on a necklace and hence the oyster farm reference). This in effect doubled the whole site area. Not that we are complaining too much, except that the newly added areas are full of contours with buildings set into them.

So we spent practically the whole of last week making the 1.8m long site model. A major accomplishment and quite beautiful, if I dare say, considering all we've done since school started were several case studies and a disastrous site analysis which we got a big dressing down for today. Looks like the whole weekend will be spent on redoing the analysis and hopefully it will be up to his standard.

Oh well, surely things can only get better.

uncle for a month

My baby nephew is one month old! A big cause for celebration to my parents who couldn't be happier to become grandparents.

I think babies are cutest when asleep......



... or when they are irritated and have yet to start crying.

the box

My favorite box in Singapore. The Gallery Hotel (formerly The Gallery Evason) by Tang Guan Bee and William Lim.

Haji Lane

Haji Lane is officially my favorite street in Singapore. A piece of authentic old Singapore that has yet to be touched by Big Brother. The nostalgic quality is balanced with a newly infused bohemian feel brought here by a few off beat but edgy shops and cafes that is scattered among the old tenant mix. Perhaps it is the charm of the unplanned buzz and non-clinical atmosphere that attracts me.

punishment of the innocent

I really couldn't resist posting this picture and letting a crime of architecture go unreported. With all these talk of porous facades, organic spaces and the building being a friendly urban intervention, it seems that Ken Yeang had forgotten to design one of the facades of the new National Library and left it as a gargantuan blank wall which faces the block of flats on the adjacent Bras Basah Complex. It is as if the architect wanted to punish the residents for some reasons unknown, subjecting them to a view of unredeemable boredom that is broken only by the glare of the evening sun.

green and yellow

At the right place, right time with the right shirt and the right bag. Hann showing everyone how not to wear next season's hottest colours even if it is your absolute favorite colours.

En route from Duxton Plain to the Singapore River.

frond on the lake

The new semester has officially started today and it was a nice change of pace after working 12 hour days for a month. And I thought it might be a good time to share some pictures which I took during the vacation, but was too lazy to post, with everyone before work starts to pile up again.

The building that you see is the relatively new Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Designed by CPG Consultants. From how I see it, the building takes its form as a series of giant fronds sprouting out and floating quietly in the lake( that's what they call it, but the size of the water body feels more like a pond and is nowhere as big as what one would imagine a lake to be). The curves are fairly elegant and the overall form is relatively adventurous for something constructed here.

However, having worked at CPG last June and seen the scale model of the stage, I must say that the actual building was somewhat disappointing. From the white model, I could see the whole roof from a bird's eye view and at that time I thought the design looked very promising and the reference to natural forms was very obvious. But when I saw the real thing from the ground level, it felt very stubby and the curves awkward at certain points. The organic curves of the roofs could not be enjoyed from eye level with the viewer seeing mostly the underside rendered in white plaster. I also felt that the cantilever of the roof over the main stage area could do with a longer span. Furthermore, the plaster ceilings were poorly leveled which resulted in a segmented curve rather than a smooth curve. Another thing which I had not noticed before (and was pointed out by Ali whom I had been working for in the past month) was that the clean white underside of the curve roof was being disrupted by the black lighting rigs which was hung across it.

While the building could been better executed, I understand that there might be reasons unknown to me as to why things are being done this way and I applaud the architect for trying to do something different and non-orthogonal.