100% coverage

The congested and messy Asian city. I have not understood the extent of how Ho Chi Minh City fits into that stereotype until today when we did a quick tally of the number of buildings we have made in the model of the area that we are studying for the semester's studio. The city on first impression seemed fairly well structured with much of the urbanscape composed by buildings developed on plots of land mostly 4m wide. And with the opening of the economy in recent years, people have been able to buy these narrow urban plots on which low rise colonial-era buildings have (once) stood and redevelop them into higher density buildings serving a wide range of functions. This has given rise to an interesting urban phenomenon, where these narrow 4m wide plots are being used to erect buildings of up to 7 or eight storeys and in some cases where 2 adjacent plots are concurrently being developed, 13-14 storeys. The result is a an interesting composition of tall, narrow slabs, that more often than not, sit beside old zinc roof buildings, and designed in a variety of styles and colours, aiming to outshine each other in an explosion of pastels, mouldings and shiny stainless steel grilles. And if one was to have been to Europe or has some knowledge of European urban structure, he would imagine that an open courtyard or some kind of open space would exist in the interior of these large urban blocks, being bounded by the "street" buildings" at the periphery. A fair assumption given the city was a French colonial city. Indeed, in the research that we did, a French map of Saigon in the late 1800s showed that those courtyard did exist previously. However, if one were to attempt to verify this today, he would be in for a shock, as a venture into the heart of the urban block would reveal a whole new world with the original courtyards colonized by old sheds and low rise concrete buildings, not too dissimilar to their streetfront counterparts, and accessible only through an inconspicuous gate from the street. A village in a city in which a local economy of street vendors and cottage industry, resides, invisible to the unknowing.

On the plot, that Weihui and I was in charge of, was a total 161 buildings. The whole site model will have a total of more than 850 buildings and we are not even making much of the surroundings. Perhaps the densest site model that I've ever made and a startling awakening to the speed and accompanying disorder and disparity that plagues (or "characterize" if you prefer a milder word) the developing Asian city.

live in concert

woohoo! something to look forward to after Chinese New Year.

mindless fun

mindless fun on a mindless day

urban workshop

urban workshop with Mr Josef Acebillo

creation/ destruction/ creation

what better way to start the new semester than to rid yourself of remnants from the previous one.

pak ho in studio

dawn of a new year

New Year's day is more than a week ago but the year begins for me tomorrow morning when the school semester starts, right after my stint at ar+d had ended last Friday.

Reflecting on the last year, I can surely say it wasn't my best one (especially when compared to the year before that with the months in Sweden, DT studio and some unexpected rewards). School-wise, I had both a pretty good studio and also an awful one but both ended with bad crits. While bad crits are probably not the best thing to go through, it's not something that had discouraged me from wanting to pursue architecture; they in fact make me realize the great amount of subjectivity that one has to face in this field and one needs to know and hold true to what he aims to achieve.

Goods things that happened, made some new friends in school, and some more than mere acquaintances; managed to keep in touch with friends from Lund; a couple of trips out of the country. I'm also grateful to have met Ali and company at ar+d, learnt a lot and got some good advice on work and school.

Hopes for the next year? I don't know. I'll take whatever comes to me, the best things that have happened in my life have been fairly unexpected. I guess no one is ever fully in control of his life. Although one thing that I need to do this year is to to shrug off my post-exchange lethargy which has been bugging me since I returned from Sweden and work harder and be more enthusiatic about the things I do.

Something is telling me that I will make a major life-changing decision this year. I still don't know what it is now but I'll be waiting for an epiphany to come to me.

Enough of my boring post..... have a great new year.