Warning to idiots like me

Hey guys.
Just a TINY notice. About the townplanning meddling, friends who are thinking of messing with it, this is a warning. Be sure that you deal with cars and pedestrians and also how the roads affect the buildings. I have been thinking of doing flyovers and tunnels in my project and I've hit alot of dead ends basically because of the amount of space they need and the safety offset boundaries to buildings/pedestrian pathways/ parking lots.

















This here is a picture of how I drew up the traffic to see my space limitations. My proposed idea was to be in the center of the road in between the new and old markets. So points for lookout is mainly:-
1) Pedestrian pathway
2) Where and how the pedestrian enters buildings (not necessarily your own only)
3) Car/ Motorcycle traffic (one-way or two-way/direction/crossroads/turnings)
4) Entry/Parking of vehicles (Any emergency stop points?)
*5) If flyovers, does the start of the rise interfere with entry/front facade visual appearance to adjacent buildings?

If you zoomed in on the pictures below, you'll be able to see traffic boundaries of one ways and turnings. Generally, Taiping's roads are fairly wide, it won't be too hard to deal with it if you have little changes. But precaution is always good... Singaporeans maybe known best for it... being DAMN kiasu. =) (We don't wanna be shot by the panelists now do we?)

Hope this helped...... also hoping someone was as un-smart as me to almost make the mistake so the post won't be useless haha =)
-jsopeh

4 varieties of Market re-arrangement

pic.1: highlighted area is where I propose to redevelop(basically rearrangements of existing buildings). Rearrangements are based on 3 conditions:
1. Connecting the boulevard,
2. Generating public square(s) spaces, &
3. Take away the Ugly Monument, Food court building & another recent-built free-standing building at the far right end.
P/S: just discovered that around 1971, they were thinking of converting the far right part of the highlighted zone into a public square sort of space, but duno why it ended up like today.


pic.2: option 1 & 2. Option 2 requires chopping across the market building, not really favourable.

pic.3: option 3 & 4, and an Adjacent Zones diagram.

I am thinking the new public square would go well with the food & shopping junction (indicated in green).

.....so far I favor Option 1 & 3, based mainly on traffic/access consideration.

Sharing is caring.

My email to Ian:

"im still struggling with my event, which is Birch. I've found more infos about him such as his thoughts before he was killed (from his personal journal), how the malay viewed him, how important his death was, the impact on the people of Perak, etc etc.

But that's the problem, he influenced the whole Perak, not specifically on taiping alone. One far connection is : larut war > pangkor treaty > resident in perak.

He also mentioned about managing taiping in his journal but those were pretty common. I have yet to finished his journal (which is in national library private collection, means no borrowing, no photostating/digital copy)

At this point, what would u suggest?"

Ian's reply:

"Wow! I am impressed by your depth of research! Anytime you wanna help me with my Master of Arts research, now ongoing but not moving, just let me know! Haha....serious.

You have stumbled onto a wonderful angle for ur visitor centre. It could well be a center to commemorate Birch as Birch saw himself---an autobiographical visitor centre for Birch in Malaya, which happens to be located in Taiping: Why not? It would be so unique, and as far as I know, it would probably be the first in the world: Phew, take a load of that! You'll be famous!

I think it's do-able, and it's what you've wanted from the start--to show the "good" side of Birch, bucking all (local) trends, you sneaky little Anglophile!

I'm quite excited with your proposal!

What do I suggest?

Finish your research quickly, and don't let it wear you down. You still have your building to design. The salient points of research on him would do. You may want to focus on his most important period which would actually take you to the Perak/Taiping period. Look for those facts that can give you impressionistic spaces, the stuff that would endear him to visitors.

And you will have to post this conversation of ours on blog, cos, as always....we have to share. And I think you owe me a teh tarik."

[ i'll add on roti telur if i can tie all the loose strings together (=

...a nasi pattaya if i become famous ((= ]

TAIPING MARKET SITE (discussion)

This well deserves its 13 point DD (Degree of Difficulty). As Ed mentioned yesterday (lunchtime) it requires an ingenious solution, as it may well turn out to be a red herring (a non-site, for being so enormously difficult a design problem to be a site).

The challenge, nevertheless, remains; and Taiping Market is worth exploring for its full potential. Your recorded design exploration should form part of your final presentation.

More importantly, the process will sharpen your skill and your understanding of the design project and almost certainly will make your selection and development of the (next) appropriate site a breeze (susupsuey).

But I think you need to run that process quickly. Hence, it would be good if those tackling this site lay it all out, discuss and share your thots, for some kind of composite conclusion. Better discuss before we hit Egypt, as I'll be quite likely out of reach for those 7 days. I mean start talking NOW.

images taken from: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2071/2182697234_38786bbecf.jpg?v=0 & http://www.hbp.usm.my/conservation/imagesJPG/images10/m'kettpg.jpg

Random pics

I guess this will be my first post in this studio blog.

Here are some pics that I took during Studio 3's Taiping trip.

Enjoy!


No Parking


Superman's telephone booth


VrrooOOMM


zhou yi - yan ee(is that how I spell her name?) - sam


Back alley


sam & charlene


joo emo-ing


pork satay! where on earth can you find that back in KL?


The touching moment


old bike


old man

Sasaranakkha



Sasaranakkha



The interior


Natural lighting


azrul meditating


joined by the whole group later on


sweeeettt


mr ian does what he do best


love this shot


the monks call this doggie "ah boy"


they didn't want to pose for my camera at first..


..but finally they wanted to. One camera ain't enough for them I suppose


chi ming checking himself out


the path taken


groupie shot!

Overall I did enjoy myself in Taiping though it is a boring place!!! The people I went with made it memorable and yeahh..thx guys!

Okay larh..time to watch liv vs mu.
The score is now Liv 1 - 1 MU.
Eat my shoes liv.
Hahaha
Don't kill me =D

Taiping - City of Downpour

Pictures courtesy of Daniel, Toby, Van Yenn. . . and more
Welcome to Taiping, a small and quiet town we which have been selected to be part of our Studio 3 site. The continuous rain for the past few days have made lives of us fellow Studio 3 people miserable as work progress was slow and unsatisfying.

Taiping; land of limitless rain

The journey was a rough three hours excluding all stops. As we traveled we kept entertained by performers. . .

. . . yup, performers

On the first day, we were given the choice to partake in a night safari which was around town. Pictures were scarce as flash photography would annoy the animals. . . and we wouldn't want that now would we.

Rare zoo night safari pictures

Probably the most fun we had was inside the hotel lobby itself. . . along the corridors.

Scaring the crap out of friends,

watching videos and pictures,

exercising,

. . . and setting up multiple tolls

The city itself was entertaining as we managed to

stalk the locals,

watch food eating food,

getting to know the chef's pets,

learn about the circle of life,

witness an accident just inches away,

and watch out for unwarned incoming dangers that lurk

A valuable lesson was taught on the trip; one of which is to NEVER mess with girls

Daniel taught us that lesson at the cost of his life. . . thanks man!

The girls. . . mess not with them fellow dudes

Lesson two is more visual. For those who are snacking now i suggest you stop for the meantime. It was unfortunate but it seemed that Daniel had made it his obligation to teach us lesson two as well.

He managed to convince us that hotel food will always remain yucks

We were lucky to be able to celebrate two very lovely lady's birthday as it fell on the day of the trip itself.

Birthday girl Yann Ee

Birthday girl Xe Wei

We had prior to the trip planned a self-initiated fun as well which included guitars and clothes.

What trip could do without a guitar

And the main event of the trip was a fashion show organized by yours truly.

Hosted by Chi Ming

Coming to the end of the trip, we had our final destination; Sasanarakkha Hill. A hill that allocates a meditation temple.

If we had more time I wouldn't mind dipping

Unfortunately, to reach the temple we had to hike a 30° angled hill. It was insane. . .

Some had needed help, some needed rest, while others needed more exercise

It was a long and tiring journey, but the fruits of our efforts paid off. . . i think.

We managed to experience meditation

I must have forgot to mention, but the journey up the hill was filled with weird mechanisms you would never imagine. . . like this.

Just bring along your laptop

With some of the rules of the temple stating we must remove our footwear. . . we were prone to leech attacks

Like this! Or is the rule some ingenious arrangement for some diabolic plan

The architects managed to place some fish eye mirrors much to our convenience.

Now we can have a proper group picture with everyone in it

It was by the end of the trip that our fellow studio mates FINALLY had pity on us DSLR users and decided to snap us in just one shot. Thanks!

Daniel and his weird hobby

It was further into the temple did we stumble upon a space perfect for mass meditation. . .

. . . and group picture

And what have our fellow studio mates have to say about the Sasanarakkha hike

Fun and somewhat bursting with joy

Our only organized mass group picture

Lets organize another trip Ms. V

PS: We did visit Gua Tempurung as well. . . but thats another complicated story to tell