hi..would you like a pebble garden?
mention architecture, and generally, people would go.."oooh.."
mention architect, the same general people would go.." waaaa…"
well..that used to be me. after about 4 months of exposure to the world
of plans, CAD artists and building appreciation, im a little wiser.
well. ok. not wiser. i can do more than "oooh.." and "waaaa..". its
like going back to the days when i used to wonder how the heck they
send SMS’s from one phone to another way on the other side of town. all
that text. in a mobile phone. yes, i was that clueless.
much to my own amazement, thier job is pretty bland. i mean, yeah…its
so cool that they somehow twist and turn thier wrists around, and Walla!..instead
of a rabbit, they pull an entire building out of the hat. things are
just more magical when you dont see them. but really, the botom line
here is, its just plans after plans after plans. and then, after all
that, its more plans.
i used to imagine that the work process consisted of more variations…
and was somewhat more…artsy. maybe it is, in its own architectural
context, like coming up with a design for a building. but in the naked
eye of an obsever, its just plain tedious. which is probably why they
are paid so damn much. and they probably deserve more.
where am i going with this? actually, i dont know. i was having my
after-lunch-ciggie break at the stairwell while browsing through an
interior design magazine when i thought of my thoughts. and it landed
on this pebble garden in one of the magazine pages. and i thought,
there you have it. the zen of today. a dead garden. that probably costs
more than a semi detatched house in taman tun. nice.
then my thoughts (boy they sure are active today) went on to how my
eyes are opening wider as the days pass, to how design is taking over
everything in this world. and yet, we (Malaysia) still cant concieve
something thats Incredibly Original, something that can truly, at the
bottom of our hearts, make us go, "hey, thats a fuckin Malaysian
original aight!".
and then (bear with me) it
went to this firm. ONE of the biggest name in Malaysian architecture.
youd think that being that, its because they came up with something
truly great. but alas, here in Malaysia, you can be ‘one of’ many
things, for a great many reasons. sometimes its valid. sometimes its
stupid. no, the reason for this firms’ name isnt stupid. nor is it
valid. its just a misconception of why it is a big, or rather, a known
name, in the architecture world. dont get me worng though. there are
great minds here. with great ideas. sad thing is, thats where it ends
most of the time. as ideas. why? lets just say its due to external
factors that couldnt be helped. its a bloody crying shame.
finally, i thought of my present job with this firm, and how the enigma
of the whole industry is slowly unfolding right before my squinting
eyes. then i got my answer. not that there really was a question to
begin with. but yeah…its not all fairies and lepricons after all.
just a bigger version of making a cake. that takes a longer time to
bake. and instead of using weighing scales, they use computer
softwares.
ah well. the evolution of this mind continues.
