Some Pics

Studio Stuff

So our project is going really well and we still need to work out some things but I think we have a solid concept and are working towards making it work completely. Our site is an Iban village in Borneo and it faces the river which we took to get there. There are also two existing long houses on the site. We are supposed to be building a visitors center because there are a lot of people coming to visit but they have no designated space for them. This is a huge source of income for the Iban so this addition would hopefully help them. On the other hand a large amount of us don't think anything should be built on the site because it might further interfere with their culture and way of life. From this our group has taken a few stances. One being that we are not recreating a long house. We want the visitors to know the difference between our built structure and the original Iban structures. Secondly, we want to minimize the built environment that we do put on the site so that the visitor is drawn towards the rest of the village and will only be coming back to our site to sleep. Thirdly, we are not giving the visitor a 5 star accommodation space because we feel that if you drive 5 hrs and boat 1 hr to get there you want to experience the village and the culture... not a large visitors center. I will be attaching some of our basic diagrams along with initial sketchups of the site. Basically our concept stems from their tradition of weaving. By laying down a grid based on site forces we have set up a modular system so that the Iban can continually change the site and construct these modules when they have the time. The grid is based off their system of measurement called a Depa. One depa = 6 feet = about 2 m. We set up a 2 depa system although the grid can deviate for landscape, entry, etc. Hopefully the pictures help... remember we have only been working for 2 weeks!

KL Update

Full swing studio mode... we have to be done by the 4th... ahhh so yes there will be less calling home and less updating of the blog I am sorry to say :( Plus internet is crazy and we rarely get it... oh well. Our concept was approved today yay! We weren't even sure that we had a concept... haha... our studio group is doing really well and i think we will be creating an interesting yet feasible project for the Iban. Oh! my atm card got eaten! I was trying to get money out and it took my card and semi spit it out and it read "verifying account" so i was like... ok... ill let it verify... and then it ate it and said "your card has been retained"... i was like oh thanks for telling me. And it was a Sunday so I couldn't do anything. I decided to not cancel it in hopes that I could get it back from the machine this morning which luckily i did... after describing the card, handing over my id and doing a signature check... phew! Went to an insane massage the other day where I think she put me in pain each time she did anything... other than that we have been in studio a lot, fast-forwarding the design process. Haven't taken any new pictures really, I'll try to. My trek to studio each morning is basically either thru campus or thru a semi-jungle... actually our hotel, hostel residence is set within the jungle and there are tonnnnnnnnns of monkeys running around and on our balconies. Luckily I am on the not so jungle side so they don't come over to our room... at least I think so. My partner was saying that they are very smart monkeys that use straws to drink things and live on campus because there is a lot of food for them. I think we have hit every decent bar in KL that you dont have to pay to get in to... still no one there until we come... most have live bands so thats entertaining. Other than that I'll be home in less than a month! My parter asked if i missed home... and I do but I guess I'm used to being away from home... especially because someone hasn't moved to california *cough* chi parents *cough*... I've come to realize I'm a nomad and can adapt to wherever I am... especially denmark... thats my newest place to venture off to.. :) why denmark? well look at big.dk (website) and you shall see why

B-day extravaganza

some pics from my 22nd... ahh im old...

Happy b-day to me! Last night we went to the bar at the Westin for some salsa dancing and drinks at midnight… stayed out much later than expected. This morning we went for dim sum with uncle k k and tonight he is organizing a dinner party at his friend’s restaurant then maybe karaoke and club later. Some of the Malaysian students should be joining us also. Until then I think I’ll go shop for some presents  Mom reminded me that it’s the first birthday without the parentals in well 22 years… I have a surrogate family here with everyone though so it should be a good time. Hope you all are celebrating my b-day back home too! Have some cheesecake for me… still haven’t been able to find a real cheesecake in Asia. I’ll try to upload the last batch of pictures… should be a random bunch too… petronas towers, view from our hotel in borneo, orangutan pics, Malaysian dancing, our last three beds in the longhouse because we slept in, us attempting traditional dancing, boys playing soccer volleyball with the local iban, random longhouse shots, and a puppy pic that looks like teddy. They wont be in that order but I’m sure you can figure it out. Until next time ttfn… as chi dad would say.

Leftover Pics...

Major Update

Lets see, I’ve been to a few countries, couple islands and many towns since I’ve updated last. Sooo Cambodia was unreal. I felt like I was in some sort of Disneyland/Indiana Jones movie because everything seemed fake just because it was unfathomable to think of how these structures were made. Our tour guide was amazing also and he told us his life story of how he watched his father dig his own grave and then get killed along with his grandfather and uncle… which makes me wonder why anyone could complain about the little things that bother us in our daily lives. On a brighter note we traveled to KL and met our Malaysian counterparts and had a mini tour of the area. KFC is huge there and we have no clue why. Shopping is much the same, I felt like I was back home until I had to pay in Ringgit. Then on to Penang and Langkawi… honestly I have no clue where I’m going most of the time… I just follow… we thought we were going to head east and we definitely went west. Anywho, our hotel was at the Chuong Fatt Tze Mansion which I guess is in the top ten places to stay on some list… not five star status… its on there because of its uniqueness. Even the semi-manager was crazy. He apologized for not having his coffee and speed… then proceeded to offer us speed if need be… quite a weird fellow. So the mansion was built in 1880 but the design is a traditional Chinese home used thousands of years ago. We slept in a room called Sinkeh which he explained is a term used for fobs because it means new guest. Which then turned into meaning new space… and some how also means hooker… didn’t quite get that transition. It was really nice and fun to stay somewhere not in the pristine hotel condition. We went on a city tour on Rickshaws and went to the beach where I got wrapped up in an awesome riptide-ish wave which carried me to shore and took my sunglasses… Then off to langkawi where we stayed in traditional houses… I’ll post a picture of my house… quite nice. Oh I forgot to mention the horrible trip to Langkawi in a hover boat thing with screaming kids and air conditioning blasted to 10 degrees Celsius. We eventually had to leave and flew to KL to meet up with the Malaysian students and then we all took a flight to Kuching. We are staying at this cute hostel place with a nice bar up top where we attempted to have our first lecture. We set up the projector and all but when the lecturer started so did the rain. It didn’t help that the roof is corrugated metal so we all decided to postpone the lecture until tonight and just drank the rest of the night. Ended up staying up till 6am… that’s another long story. Left at 7am to our site which was a 5 hour bus ride away and another hour boat ride because it is only accessible by boat. We stayed in an Iban village and was greeted at the door with rice wine and the head man of the house. It was an amazing experience including lots of drinking with them and dancing their local dances for them. We all wanted to sleep in the longhouse which made the chief very happy and he gave us a long speech about how he wants the children of his tribe to look to us as an example. We didn’t think that was too good of an idea but what he meant was that we were attempting to help them and traveled so far to do so. After we all danced we sat down with this 120 year old man and drank with him. Another long story includes how our beds were infested with fire ants and the families that were taking care of us pulled up all the beds and made sure there were no ants before we went to bed. We were still afraid so three of us slept together under one mosquito net. The next day we found out the site that they want us to build on and were able to ask them programming questions to understand what they really want. I won’t bore you with the architectural details but basically we are designing a cultural center for them to have guests experience the Iban culture while still maintaining the village’s traditions and privacy. Then after a brief demonstration of some weapons we were off on our canoes down the river back to our bus. Then a 5 hour drive took us back here and we decided to sleep that night. Today we went to a Sarawak cultural center to see traditional houses and dances which ended up being like a Malaysian PACN… including a crazy guy climbing a pole and twirling around on top *cough*Justin*cough*… :) Then on to the orangutan center where we walked in the jungle and they were feeding them all around us… until the angry mom started to slowly walk towards us… then we had to leave. She wouldn’t leave us alone either… and I guess she has attacked tourists before so we weren’t taking any chances. Then back on our bus to our hostel where I am now… Phew! That was a huge update… mainly for Chicago Mom who says I don’t write enough and put up too many pictures :) Anywho I’ll go thru my videos and post some of those later so keep checking for more updates.