Introducing Method Of Production

The programme is nothing new. It has its genesis from the Bauhaus and via the migration of the MODERNIST GURUS to the US; the same sort of programme has been implanted into the curriculum of the MIT, School of Architecture. Through the generosity of the Malaysian Government, JPA to be specific, at one time, to send the crème de la crème of the MARA scholar to the US, some of these scholars had the opportunity to dip into the these ex-Bauhaus programme and surface upward to be brought back to the Malaysian School of Architecture particularly the misnamed School of Housing Building and Planning, University Science Malaysia through the undying spirit of the avant garde ‘Guru’ of individual of this sort, En. Wan Burhanuddin (on the rim of retiring into the business of HOLISTIC HEALTH CARE then architecture); to be installed into the naive minds of the 2^nd year freshies of whom, at the material time, the author was one of them. The curriculum was rigid for the sake that there are more old garde existed since the inception of the programme and the birth of the phrase “if you want a degree, go to the school and if you want architecture, go to the club”, takes form as a manifestation of the sort of suffering and loneliness one of this sort of avant garde has to bear in the mainstream school of Architecture in Malaysia. The seed of seeing beyond the four walls of the formalized curriculum has been sowed to create an undercurrent of movements in the students club which co-incidentally shared by all schools of Architecture including the AA which has manifested in the forms of publication named ACROSS ARCHITECTURE as compared to the official publication of AA FILES, Picking on this premise, the Architecture Club of USM has initiated a series of publication raging from INTERSTICES to AMOK at the students’ own pocket money without subsidy and aligned with the manifestos of the Architectural Workshops, at the time has managed to put forth a declaration to be further crystallized in the more current workshops in UM and UIA and to be met with a pre-mature DEATH of the commercial and institutional onslaught of insufficient funds and the lack of momentum and commitment.

Unlike the local scenarios, the neighboring school of Architecture across the Straight of Tebrau, namely NUS has a better luck due to its fame and the fact that it is the only school of Architecture in Singapore. This school hires experts from all over the globe. The ex-Bauhaus programme was infused in an Atelier Concept of Master-Pupil of which the author has the opportunities to experience from the credits of SIF-ASEAN Student Fellowship Funding which meets it natural death somewhere in 2004, from the prominent Dr. Edward Ng, now lecturing in HKU. The emphasis on Urban Design in the Singapore experience is prominent and it is not surprising to note that the UM curriculum, from the perspective of Prof. Wood, has a very strong grounding on Urbanism for which along side with the accreditation process from LAM has been criticized as being too urban scale inclined rather then building scale inclined. Again, the paradoxes of what is Architecture, an urban matter or just a building tech-tonic has been raised similar to the age old question of who is the planner for which LAM-PAM itself has a difficulty to qualify and just don’t mentioned what Housing, Building and Planning stands for as for that the genetic make up of architectural strand has been mutated and transformed into new species like COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE, totally beyond the scope of this discussion. The disgrace of lack of regard to urban design issues has led to the many embarrassments within the built environment fraternities some of which has been highlighted in the PAM-Discourse in the 80’s with the participation of Mega Stars liked Kisho Kurokawa, Dr. Ken Yeang (now, a Dato’), En. Hijjas Kasturi, Datuk Lim Chong Keat and the prominent educator from the AA the late Alvin Boyarsky. The shed of dirty linens are obvious and until today, not much improvement has been recorded unlike otherwise the revival of new classicism via the Putrajaya Master plan in accordance to the Middle East Model, of which spark another debate on its socio-cultural contextual relevance.

In the college things are different. Firstly, with the concern of legitimacy as a recognized school, the school of Architecture should not have existed. The author with many others would have probably out of jobs following strictly by a matter of recognition of the programme by LAM. Only with the virtue of LAN that the programme has been made legitimate but to an extend that, all of those in the system know too well, the graduates are not recognize as Pt I in the career path of an Architect. Secondly, college is not a drafting school either for the Diploma that is offered was tagged with the title Architecture for which the school serves as feeding platforms for overseas universities. In view of the paradox of such nature, with the lack of both direction and niche architectural education model or philosophy, again the ex-Bauhaus programme has been modified incorporating the 3 scale of artifact, building and urban in the modus operandi of discourses, implementation and documentation within the scope of master, project manager and crews has been implemented and tested and this time around the subject is DESIGN STUDIO 4. Presenting herewith are the accounts of such experimentation with the overview of the Brief and the products brought to you from the People who believes there is still tomorrow for Architecture.

Introducing The Practice

We are Architects by profession, Designers by career. We aim at instigating design at every levels from the smallest of the furniture to the largest of urban design. In between we dwell in the realm of design management, ultimately leading to the role of managing problems, from inception to execution. Sometimes, we wish that we could provide all possible artistic solutions, but reality bites as we will have to address the financial portions of the scheme as well. So, the collective works are somewhat compromised. However, we do keep the spirit burning of pure design, now available from our alter ego site: yiarchitechtonic.blogspot.com Take a dip, when you have the interest and time to explore more. As metaphysical as we would liked to be, we also provide authentic Chinese FengShui (KanYu) services ranging from astrological readings, site audits, site selection, date selection and finally, incorporating FengShui in our Design Management. We had bitter experiences with various Masters, resulting in gross butchering of our design process beyond recognition. We ultimately strive to excel in this area, by venturing into it. Next time around, designing memorial park or residential enclave is no longer a constraint. At the same time, we take the trouble to debunk fallacies and to advise potential client on the use of FengShui via our blog: yifengshui.blogspot.com

As with all services, we do accommodate reasonable revisions and with an appropriate professional fee, currently modeled on LAM scale of minimum fee rule.

Visit us at: The Practice

Introducing The Path of Metaphysics

YI has been my surname or the Clan name. In Cantonese pronunciation, it is called YEK. Among others, it brings forth the notion of change. As in YI JING, the Classic of Change. This classic has been the fundamental of the Chinese 5 arts, inclusive the science and art of recognizing the surface formation of earthly matters. The earliest form of the YI is recognize by the emblematic graphs containing a distinct compositions of the binary of YING and YANG. Further metamorphosis of these binaries resulted in a series of permutations called HEXAGRAM. These are sometimes called, YI without words, or the original YI, ZHOU YI. It is read as an emblematic YI, the fundamental of XUAN KONG. It reads as the following: -

Dragon is divided into TWO,
Trigram is derived into THREE portions,
The WAY is natural,
The MYSTERIOUS is within XUAN KONG.

The notion of XUAN KONG has been mentioned as a phrase in Grand Master Yang's Text, probable the most eminent master in the Art of KANYU. However, liken to any arts of Chinese Metaphysics, it was left undefined. Some notable definitions are by Grand Master Jiang in his commentaries liked DI LI BIAN ZHEN, although with much invited debate from the SANHE purist school.

In token, this Blog is dedicated to the FENGSHUI studies as an integrated subject with Architecture, Built-Environment and the Antropo-Cosmo. Hopefully it will accumulate enough substances to be taken seriously by the western liked models of Scientific Inquisition, based on the ancient wisdom of YI.

Introducing Experimentation In Architecture

This is an experimental portal for Architecture from the smallest of a shed to the biggest of a City. Naturally, we find ourself dealing with S, M, L and XL. It is from these scales of artifacts, buildings and urban that we find our soul in design. Most of the products are either too avant-garde to be materialized or simply mind boggling in nature, so this is the place we shelf our seed of creativity for future use.


Here, we serve design raw as our breakfast, lunch and dinner, occasionally supper. There is no superstar here but just a smear of art, models, icon, poems, essays, frustration, commitment and rejection. Meanings there is a place called home for un-built works.



Occasionally it will serve as a domain for self reflection and self criticism, let alone as a document for an action and inaction in reflective of a thought in monologue. Feel free to explore...

Experimentation In Architecture

Introducing Exploration Of Life

It took me a while to understand as so much had been spent to travel and yet we are overly busy to snap shot our existence in every backdrops of scenery captured in the travel photos. Do we really need to proof we had indeed arrived at the destination?

Do we need to proof our existence? If not, why do we dwell in the dilemma of proof, given the beauty of a place, enjoying its spirit in form, smell, sound and essence of senses. Some times, simply difficult to even put into writings, let alone words of wisdom. Indeed life as we traveled, is the scenery of existence that most had taken for granted.

Perhaps we need to snap shot such proof of life in the photo of our existence consciously reminding myself as I had lived to see the world and I had lived long to tell a tale, but yet not long enough to behold its changes. Yes, from the generation of now to the others. Perhaps the sky no longer blue, sea no longer blue and the grass no longer green.

Until such a time, I knew for sure, I had lived to proof my existence. That the photo is no longer my tool of remembrance. Perhaps, memory itself is the very proof of the existence I had been bestowed upon. Yet, vividly be my companion of sorrow and happiness.

Perhaps all I need is drinking tea, living LIFE...