Talk Architecture

Send us Fan Mail

Architecture should enable and strengthen human connections – a key condition in creating resilient communities to face the 21st century catastrophes. How should we translate our concerns in the work that we do as studio tutors in the architecture design studio projects? This is the central thesis for the Unit 2 studio of the Master of Architecture (M Arch) design thesis studio projects, consisted of twenty-five (25) final year students from 2018 to 2020. The students collaborated to offer the design solutions based on their meticulous study of the site contexts in a ‘context specificity’ approach, focused on deriving ‘specific solutions for specific problems’, that included many hours of site observations as well as interviewing members of the two communities, in the 2018-2019 program at Kampung Kerinchi, Kuala Lumpur and in 2019-2020 program at the old town Petaling Jaya (section 1, 2, 3 and 4). Proposals were derived from the study of both areas, within local and communal private and public realm including religious buildings, markets, schools, housing, adaptive reuse of old buildings, hospital and health-care buildings, transportation buildings, day care and recreational facilities, all based on a site-context issues driven approach. A presentation to the local authorities, councilors and residents were presented at the end of each year. The studio were led by the architectural practitioners Kevin Mark Low and Lisa Foo with the University of Malaya academic, Naziaty Mohd Yaacob, as collaborators to the students’ design process for the year-long academic program. 

This is a conclusion to the series on  'Re-examining community architecture: with site specific issues in local context situations'. The podcast is based on the essay submitted to the organisers of the International Forum for Architecture Thesis Design in Taiwan & Southeast Asia 2020 , National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, in partnership with the Taiwan Ministry of Education.

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere! 

Send us Fan Mail

There are four aspects that is needed in order to create the architect that possesses social-consciousness and it starts at architectural school. In conjunction with the upcoming international webinar on "Reclaim the City" on Friday, 20th November 2020 which is the second in a series jointly organized by USM and DSLU, I will speak on the architect's role in righting and designing with empathy for all and creating inclusive design in the cities. I am suggesting that as an architectural education activist, the training of the architect needs to be oriented to a more site-context driven approach in the architectural design studios rather than focusing on form-making processes or architectural fantasies projects. I will introduce the four aspects of: activist, enabler, collaborator and enterprise to be main proponents of the model of the architect in the 21st century, for the betterment of the society.

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere! 

Send us Fan Mail

The use of 'sketch-up' digital software by architecture students short-cutting the skills development, rushing it from 2D to 3D, due to the lack of time to design, is the "one of the crucial problems" in architecture education. The 2D (plan) need to be read and design together with 3D every step of the design process. Skills of manually drawing axonometric from plan and one point perspectives on the spot are essential skills. This issue need to be dealt with by architecture educators and I would argue causes two problems in the future; one is the lack of skills in designing, together with the lack of theoretical learning, resulting in lack of confidence going into employment; and secondly, the reliance on digital tools resulting in the lack of designing and thinking skills in the architecture profession as a whole, thus not able to command in the construction industry or be a player in making decisions with other professions, as "design" skills is relegated to only thinking of buildings dressed up in green. Thus other professionals do not think of architects as the leader in a consultant team in essence as architecture is just like "building". This lack of critique on the issue of architecture education on the real problems of design skills in schools of architecture must be addressed. This podcast is just an observation piece on this issue, based on final year students and second year students in the last year. We would like to continue with this topic in future podcasts.
© 2020 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere! 

Send us Fan Mail

Readings from Gottfried Semper on "ornament and pattern making" and Christopher Alexander on "form and context", together with learning from vernacular architecture and the ideas that shaped our private realm can actually give ideas on how to solve the design problems in the public spaces and put together a better fit and more harmonious designs for urban designers and architects. This is just an initial discussion to think about how to solve the problems in public spaces in a different way. This is in keeping with the inclusion agenda and designing with empathy for all. 

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere! 

Send us Fan Mail

The Architect has a role to play in righting and designing with empathy for all and creating inclusive open space in the cities. That is the premise for the talk that will be given in an upcoming international webinar on "Reclaim the City", the second in a series jointly organized by USM and DSLU, which I will deliver for 15 minutes. This is a preview of that talk in which I am suggesting that as an architectural education activist, the training of the architect needs to be oriented to a more site-context driven approach in the architectural design studios rather than focusing on form-making processes. However this preview focuses more on the bigger picture rather than specific training courses to add to the webinar discussion. (Artwork photo is Saifull Yusop's presentation in Architalent 2019 on his design thesis of Habitable Waste Infrastructure).

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere! 

Send us Fan Mail

Why did we create a collaborative learning environment where the architecture students need to be challenged comprehensively, covering all bases including be able to read the whole building from the plan. You cannot do this by teaching students to design from software. Students are builders of architecture not merely design a building and wrap it with green. As early as possible, students need to learn theory of architecture and references from the past to help them practice reading architecture from plans thus making them confident to move forward and tackle the next project, with a methodology of design that is recognisable. To be able to critic with proper architectural language and vocabulary and not merely letting the computer design for them. Being adaptable to consider and decide with criticality is essential for the student of architecture to gain confidence in their vocation. (The artwork is by Cheryl Yew who completed her final design using manual drawing technique).

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere! 

Send us Fan Mail

I would like to argue that Architects are Artists, ‘artists with a background of science’ (Pandikar, 1959). I take some theories from Ismail Faruqi's 'Cultural Atlas of Islam', Gottfried Semper (19th century philosopher), Christopher Alexander's 'Notes on the Synthesis of Form' and Colin Davies' book on 'Introduction to architectural theory's chapter on 'Truth'', as the basis for this argument. I would take precedents from phenomenology and the non-architects' architecture of the vernacular tradition, houses and shops, from the 19th and turn of the century right up to the 1930s in Malaysian towns and cities (for the Malaysian audience). The unself-conscious approach in design that uses 'sense and sensibilities' using patterns that have been there for centuries will make a better fit when we design, be it as an architectural student or an architectural designer in practice. 
© 2020 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob
Art work in podcast is the conceptual drawing by Wong Chiang Her's 'Spine Variations', UM design thesis, 2019-2020
Drawing  © Copyright: Universiti Malaya, Author: Wong Chiang Her

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere! 

Send us Fan Mail

The debate arose in India, when Professor Paknikar in a 1959 seminar on architecture practice said: With the increasing influence of science and technology, they (architects) are termed as ‘scientists with a background of art’ rather than ‘artists with a background of science’. This sets off the discourse on the importance of architectural theory and how there is a difference between designing architecture than merely, buildings. The concerns that architecture theory is not the basis in which architecture student thoughts grow from suggests the confusion in recognising architecture, together with the lack of critical thinking amongst architects. Passing of a building cladded in sustainability / green features does not make it architecture, if it is merely dressing and posing as architecture, with little narrative and ticking off boxes for sustainability criteria, for example. This lack of debate and not creating a nurturing ground for debate in Malaysia on architectural theories and philosophies reflect a lot of what architecture schools are not doing in teaching the foundation of the architectural thoughts and theories. Where does the problem lie if we do not care to have this important discourse? Some thoughts are being discussed in the podcast. 
© 2020 Talk Architecture, Author: Naziaty Mohd Yaacob
Art work in podcast is by Liew Yee Hua, UM design thesis 2018-19
Drawing  © Copyright: Universiti Malaya, Author: Liew Yee Hua

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere! 

Send us Fan Mail

This discussion focused on Chapter 1 on "Representation" from Colin Davies' book called "Thinking about Architecture: An Introduction to Architectural Theory". It's that time of year again when we have to prepare for our classes before the semester starts. I was also thinking about the 'Artistic Process vs Architectural Design Process' at the side, with an eye on the architecture design studio programs that students in the first degree of architecture will be undertaking soon. Other than talking about the styles and periods, such as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Architecture, Post Modern Architecture etc., let's focus on what the author of this important book has to say on the nature of architecture in an easy readable way for all, students and academics alike. We need to think about the 'aesthetics, representational and architectural language' and not just based on 'functional and utilitarian' aspects alone in design. But there is a structure to this! Let the perspectives from the arts and humanities, in studying philosophies and theories, having arguments and debates about architectural representations get back to our architectural mainstream thoughts. The artwork shows a moment of the final crit of the 2009-10 design thesis batch, with Wayne Ng (now a registered architect) defending his work with the external critics.

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere! 

Send us Fan Mail

If you are an examiner and you need to evaluate an architecture studio curriculum of a school of architecture, how would you go about it? Should you evaluate the poor (just passed) student, the average student or the best student? And how do you benchmark the performance of that school of architecture compared to other schools? This is an opinion piece on what to look for when you critically appraise students architectural design work. 

Support the show

Do subscribe for premium content and special features which will help to support and sustain Talk Architecture podcast on a more in-depth explanation on design thesis and processes. These special commentaries and ‘how to’ explanations are valuable insights and knowledge not found elsewhere!