The competition for a new Tallinn Town Hall in Estonia was won by Bjark Ingels Group aka BIG.

I'm not gonna write a review since +MOOD has done such an amazing job on featuring the design. Please click the link to find out more.

What I find interesting about the design is it's brilliant ideas and execution. I admit that the form was what attracted me at first. It's somewhat intriguing and has those edgy elements that I like. And trust me, you don't want to land (arse first) on a building like that. It is also one of those designs that people either like or hate. 

But after taking a closer look at the presentation boards I was interested enough to spend half of the afternoon staring at the drawings. 

Personally I think there's a level of sophistication in the thinking, considering the limited time for improvements. The particular idea of transforming the ceiling of the Democratic Tower into a giant periscope is so fantabulous. It's supposed to bring the idea of transparency in politics into the design, as citizens from outside can have a view of what's going on in the building and vice-versa. Who says literalness is a crime? Certainly not if you can handle it.

The spatial arrangement is also interesting to note. The way the squares of different sizes hinged to one another helps retain compactness and organisation while at the same time allowing the designers to play with light and angles.  

You know what to do to enlarge this

Stay tuned for more great stuff. See ya!

Hola I'm back again!

Wonder what's with the long M.I.A? Well, as usual, I was busy and lazy to blog when I had the time to take my mind away from my assignments.

But as I sat in front of my laptop trying to compile my portfolio, I thought hey, why not do a recap on what I've been up to in my blog. It's always fun without having to think about COMPOSITION, CLARITY and CONTINUITY.

So here I am :D.

This semester has been hectic but fun. Well not really hectic for me since I took less subjects. Next semester will not be as fun anymore :P.

Let's start with the fun and funny one. A less serious assignment I think.

FLYING EGG! Not a flying egg, but rather flying an egg.

Basically we had to design and build a simple device that could fly an egg using only a few specified materials.  

final model with egg (inspired by flying saucer)

work in progress

lineup for inspection

me trying out before the real testing

Our model basically failed the test (together with some other groups, if that's supposed to make me feel better :P). 

It flipped midair, smashed into the ground and the poor egg broke. (Yea you can laugh now)

Fortunately this assignment doesn't play a major role in failing us. All I need to do is to make it look good in my portfolio. It's all about faking it, even in Architecture.

Let's move on to the last subject that I would think of as being fun - Building Technology (I'm doing this chronologically)

But it did turn out to be quite fun as well!

We did WONDER WALL for the first assignment. And it was somehow wonderful :D

laying out according to the plan

in process...

I was in charged of the huge opening

and voila!!!

I looked like crap after 7 hours of doing that...

Miss Ummi and Mr Dennis ruining our wall to check if we cheated by gluing the opening...no!!!!

No we didn't cheat :P...So yay for that :D

If you scowled at my group's uninspiring model (as compared to other groups). Let me tell you that we did exactly what the brief wanted - overall height exceeds 300mm, 25% openings with one large enough for a tennis ball to pass through, no blue-tac or gluing for openings, must be breathtaking, exaggeratingly beautiful and over the top in the overall design.

Hence the safe and boring masterpiece. Oh, and we passed ;D (No grades were told though).

The next assignment for design was THE (EXTRA) ORDINARY SPACE or simply The Container. Basically we were required to design a container for a chosen object. It was supposed to train us to be more aware of objects around us and to see things differently. We also learned the basics of dealing with an important element in Architecture - space.

The container has to reflect the essence, namely the distinguished characteristics and qualities of the object. It also has to be exclusively for that particular object ONLY, therefore we couldn't simply design a box that would fit tons of things under the sky.

My object, a pencil holder

My container looks really cool from the top

My object kept and hidden

My object being rotated out

The next project for B.tech was the TOWER OF TERROR, the name alone was enough to strike fear even in the boldest of all.  To simply put it, with balsa wood as the only material, we had to build a tower that would support a person minimum 300mm off the ground for 30 seconds, before collapsing after that within 1 minute.

Yes, it MUST collapse after that 30 seconds, after an extra 5 kg load being added (doesn't make any difference to be frank). So spending RM100 on building the toughest structure isn't gonna pass you. 

Our portfolio (click here for bigger image)

Too bad I don't have the pictures of us testing, because we were too busy supporting our group member. In case you are wondering why I'm not the one doing the testing, well, because the tower ain't gonna budge even the slightest with me on it, not in 10 days.

Moving on the the final project of B.tech. A simple but not that sweet one. The PLANE OF PAIN!!! Yea it hurt a little :'(. 

Why the cheesy names?(I can imagine someone saying The Wonder Wall!!!! The Tower of Terror!!! The Plane of Paiiiiiiiinnnnnnn!!! in a dramatic way) They're supposed to make 'construction hip and cool!' I guess.

(bigger image)

We had to support a brick and elevate it 50mm with an A4 paper (70gsm). We can manipulate the paper anyhow (folding, cutting). No other materials were allowed, no gluing, no stapling, no sticking.

Lastly, the Queen of Pain!!! (I'm not a dotA fan so fans out there I didn't mean the hero) 

This is where the surviving skills of AS 101 were put to the test. 

Actually that was not the exact brief but that's how I interpreted it :). Let's see how I did on the mission :P.

I returned broken, used up and busted. Imagine have not enough water and having to assemble something right below the scorching hot sun. That was probably the first time I sweat that lot in a few years o.O. That site was terrible. Not really a place for relaxation or point of repose like what the lecturers wanted. Anyway, it turned out well and no harm!

That's all for now! See ya later!