Broadmeadows 2032 Exhibition as part of the State of Design Festival

My work

Well, the long awaited exhibition was finally launched . The exhibition showcased a whole range of ideas by designers across the industry, from architects, landscape architects, industrial and communication designers.

The exhibition was well worth hopping on to an overly crowded and delayed train from the city to Broadmeadows and then finding the bus stop at the station to get to the Ericsson Building, where the exhibition was held. I have to thank my 3 bestest mates for their efforts to get there with me!

The launch started with a really good Turkish food refreshment, served by the local business owners. I have to say, the baklava was to die for! I digress.

Anyways, coming back to the exhibition, it was very nicely put together by the Victorian Eco-Innovation Laboratory (VEIL) team and it was definitely great seeing works by other designers from other universities. The launch then proceeded with a string of talks by a few who's who of the VEIL team, Hume City Council, and a few architects.




I also met a couple of good friends there as well as my Studio leader, Simon Cookes. The crowd was a good size better than I would have thought and the use of the old Ericsson Building as an exhibition space was also done really well. All in all, it was a great experience. (well, mainly because my work was exhibited! )

As usual, I'll leave you with a few images to end the post.

My Posters

Wei -out-

An homage to Louis Kahn

Images of Pei Wei Lai's models by photographer Yong Tze Tan (http://www.flickr.com/photos/yongtze/)

So, I've talked about visiting Kahn's work in India and sitting in hours and hours of lectures about Kahn. Part of the travelling studio's work is to design a boutique architecture school in Ahmedabad in the eyes of Kahn or Corbusier or even both. You can bet my design would be heavily inspired by Kahn! (although we all know I won't even get close to designing anywhere like him but I try)

The other requirement of the studio was really to get back to the basics, to get back in touch with pencils, graphic pens and paper. (You've guessed it right, we had to hand draft!) We even brought our drafting tools all the way to India (to later discover that you can get all of those in India for a fraction of the price!!) We also made endless amounts of physical model, which ensured that by the end of the semester, our model making skills were top-notch.

So, we applied whatever we've learnt about Kahn from our studio leader Prof. Haig Beck to our designs. We've also had to incorporate a low-tech environmental sustainable design into our project. We looked at old precedents from the hot-arid climate and examined how the locals incorporated wind towers, courtyards, materials, water and openings into the old courtyard houses to maximize sun light and natural ventilation into the building but also controlling direct sun light and solar radiation into rooms. These were some of the low tech sustainable designs that we took into consideration in our projects.

It was a battle trying to get most of it right especially when the context was the major issue, as we had to design for an earthquake prone zone.

However, in the end all the hard work paid off with great results!

Here are some images of the final model.

Emphasis on geometry and courtyard



Solid continuous columns as structural members and wind towers for natural ventilation

The partis



The wind channeling stairs

India for further studies on Louis Kahn and Corbusier

Images by Pei Wei Lai

People always ask, "Who's your favourite architect?" and there would always be a million images of works by many architects running through my brains in a milisecond! (If that's even possible) I could never come up with an answer that would satisfy myself. If I say, "I don't really have one" many would think that I'm such a snob that I could not be bothered to look up works of architects, be they classical or contemporary or that I do not know much about architecture at all.

I have always felt like I should have one fixed answer just in case someone asked, especially coming from an architect or an architecture academic. But going to India with Prof. Haig Beck had opened my eyes and made me realise that the one architect that had always inspired me and will continue to leave me in an awe everytime I look at his work is Louis Kahn.

I remember the first ever lecture in university, I was bombarded with images after images of works by a long list of architects, of which some names I could not even pronounce. But the one name that had resonated and stay with me throughout my entire academic endeavour was Louis Kahn. I remember falling in deep love with his work in first year but had slowly forgotten what his work has meant to me throughout the years.

In the final year of my studies, I have rediscovered what had gotten me so excited about architecture in the early years. It was the image of pure geometrical form. It was the power of the 'served' and 'servant' spaces. It was light and shade. It was the partis and most of all, it was the respect for materials and that was staying true to the nature of materials.

In Sept 2009, I enrolled myself in a travelling studio to Ahmedabad ('ahm'-'da'-'vad'), India. The studio was about studying the works of Kahn and Corbusier in India and we got to experience first hand what it was like to be in the buildings by possibly two of the greatest architects, ever.

Being in the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) made me realise the power of architecture, the power it has on not only the user but also its context. Words can only merely described the experience but perhaps here, in this context, images would do it more justice.

Geometry

Light and shade

Perhaps now, if someone had asked me "Who's your favourite architect?", I would have an answer.

Thesis Work Published

What would be better than having your work published? At the moment? Because of all my excitement, I would say nothing!

My work was recently published in the Local News under the Hume Leader website in conjuction with the effort to publicize the upcoming Vision Broadmeadows 2032 exhibition, which will be held from July 19-25 at the Ericsson Administration building, corner Blair and Riggall streets, Broadmeadows.

What was the article about? I think Andre Andawalla summed it up best in his article entitled, 'HAVE YOUR SAY: Future Broady'. Below is the link to the publication.

http://hume-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-your-say-future-broady/

I am ecstatic and lost for words. (I shall let the publication do the talking)

Wei -out-

More images from my thesis project...

Southern End illustrating civic space for community gathering

Street view of building

Northern End illustrating market strip