20 minutes presentation of research doesn't seem enough

we were given a task of doing a research of everything that relates to what we are doing this semester; Zero Carbon House. Since this is a group work the class is split into groups of 3 or 4. and I got into a group with Gabi and Victoria both of whom have done a similar subject to this when we were in second year. so expectation is really high on us to score high marks for this assignment because Terry liked our mock presentation and he remembered the girls and their work well in the previous subject. so just in case we got this one low, I blame myself for bringing down the mark as I am new in this and have little idea what to do.

Victoria and Gabi were kind enough to help me with this assignment and they even point out every single step guiding me in this. I am really grateful for that. What I learned when I worked with them was that they are a perfectionist unlike me. They have high standards of work and never want a blank space on the paper. If they could, they would put EVERYTHING to get a HD. opportunity like this is rare for me but its really a precious one. it opens up and change my views of the way I should approach my design. though I know that I still lack the creativity that they have.

Anyway back to our topic. The Research. as for our group, Gabi divided all the workload for each one of us, well actually Viki did it in the first place but somehow Gabi seems to be the one who rearrange and organizing it. as for my work, I was given task to cover the history, people and water storage part out of GOD-KNOWS-HOW-MANY chapters that we need to cover. and the rest are split between the two others. after we have all completed our research, Gabi organized and composed them in an A0 poster using inDesign software which I am keen to learn when I have time. I should put that in my To-Do list. 

as far as I can recall, we basically covered everything as we can't fit anymore into our poster. but once we finished our presentation Terry pointed out that we didn't specify how long is the life span of our building will be, what age of people that will be using it and we didn't cover glass/glazing. but oh well. we slipped a few out of so many. I guess we could maybe get a Credit for that. but hey, it could be my first Credit of the semester or even the year cause I don't recall getting so many grades better than P. hmph! but good effort though with this one. I felt I can nail this subject. with some assistance. InshaAllah.

Machine in Dual Colours

all photos taken by FM otherwise mention.

what you produce when you have a grumpy lecturer

This is a project that I did for my Urban Design Studio. There was very limited options of urban design project that I could do. initially I wanted to improve its streetscape but I had very little knowledge AND interest in doing it so I decided to try and propose a residential for factory workers. The idea wasn't that bad but it got rejected by the lecturer and tutor because of my suggested location which is just opposite to Bradken Foundry. and it made me realised it was really a stupid idea to waste such a huge space for that stupid idea.

After reading few reports and articles regarding Kilburn, and also the community facebook page, I came up with an idea of providing an open public space by using the existing stormwater drainage site. I was first had that idea stuck in my mind way before I chose to do the streetscape but I don't know why I hesitate on using this idea.

Once I sort out all the research and programs for this project, I then went to consult the lecturer and tutor as well as some of my friends all of which gave a great respond to it.

So if you want to know about it in detail just click on the picture above.

Zero Carbon Challenge

just to give you a heads up. my major project for this course will be this. actually it uses this competition as our assignment but we are not going to submit it as a competition. visit the website for more info.

Beautiful Day

If you haven't heard of this you should give it a try. a nice song by U2.

ok that is me being random. yesterday was the start of my new subject called Zero Carbon House. going into the class without any idea what it was about is really not a good start. and it gets worse when I was late for an hour. as soon as I get there Terry was talking about global temperatures. I repeat, TEMPERATURES. not climate. and I became clueless as he kept on giving lecture on temperatures for another hour. 

so after a short coffee break we got back to our class and Terry introduced us to a guest architect named Max Pritchard. soon afterwards Max begin his slideshow presentation of his projects showing us range of residential houses that he has built over the years of his career. He even told us a story of how one day he was approached by one company who wanted to hire him but giving him a task of developing a series of plans and ideas of his ideal home. and he did like 30 different version of floor plans in just ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON! that shows how experience is important for your career and the time when it matter the most.

After Max has gone home, we were given our project for this subject which is to build a Zero Carbon house with an energy rating of 7.5. I was told by some people that it is hard enough to get the rating to 5.5 let alone 7.5. A friend of mine, Chunyin, spent his whole week at uni when he was doing a similar subject to this in  previous years trying to improve his house rating from 2.8 to 5. Even Terry told us the average rating of Max's house is between 0-3. 

So what we can do now is try to improve on what these people can't do. If we can't do this I don't think Terry will give us this task. so there should be a way after all. lets just hope for the best!