Passion.Engineered

Engineered passion or passion engineered?Whatever it is, we need passion to design a thing of beauty and we need engineering to deliver the product( not to forget project management).This sounds like the co-operation of art and science.

This morning,I got stuck for almost half an hour looking at the products on exhibition at the Centre court of KLCC while my wife went to cold Storage  to buy some packaged breakfasts for my kids after our one round of brisk walking around KLCC garden.

Looking at the design drawings of the beautifully engineered car and watch,my mind took me back to my student days at Sheffield University where I did my degree in engineering.It reminded me of the days I took to submit a design project where I had to squeeze my creative jouice and crack my engineering knowledge. I love to produce simple and functional  design but it is very difficult.I think this is what they called complexity of simplicity-another paradox. One example that stood out lately is the latest iPod Nano.

A few months back, I asked my mentor(who is a fellow of IEM) about some great civil engineering works done by our Malaysian engineers in the last decade. To my suprise ,he did not mentioned any that we fellow engineers could be proud of.

To my fellow engineers out there( I am a bit too old),please put in more efforts in your projects so that all of us in engineering fraternity could be proud of.

PS:A few years back when I took a taxi from Bueanos Eires airport to city centre,the taxi driver asked me:" Are you from Malaysia?".I replied yes.Then,he told me,"The tallest twin towers in KL was designed by Cesar Pelli,the famous architect from Argentina".I just kept quiet after that because I don't know what to say if he were to ask me who were the engineers and the contractors for the project?

Comments

[atok]

rasanya abedib, pasal kat msia... R&D tak power > mungkin tak cukup funding and tak ramai yg minat nak buat.

[Reader Jr]

3M - Money, Machine and Man Power :)

[Des]

Mega Structure aired somewhere in last 2 weeks thru National Geographic , talking about our twin tower . One american man who responsible for one tower during the construction told... something like 'i have to jump to the JUNGLE of malaysia...' ... adus! sakit hati dengar. Tapi lama-lama rasa kesian.Educated people like that still tak tau the other side of world punya development.Memang kesian..

[Des]

Mega Structure aired somewhere in last 2 weeks thru National Geographic , talking about our twin tower . One american man who responsible for one tower during the construction told... something like 'i have to jump to the JUNGLE of malaysia...' ... adus! sakit hati dengar. Tapi lama-lama rasa kesian.Educated people like that still tak tau the other side of world punya development.Memang kesian..

[Gukita]

Dont know if he meant it in derogatory manner or positive manner to meant nature conservation.:-)

I think it's the former....

[Gukita]

Ada lagi naratif pedas narrator tu..... `They want it to reflect Malaysian identity. When asked what is it, nobody seems to know...

[atok]

Comments on 'Malaysian identity' tu memang betul. Just look around (he was talking about built environment i guess).... can we see any? Mmm... not really i guess.

And Mr Pelli initially designed the scheme for downtown Chicago... but later made a few amendments to suit ('gurmal' in this case) Msian brief; like changing the plan shape to look like an islamic pattern.

For years, I've been itching to write about Putrajaya especially, but since I've not been able to visit the place just yet, cuma dok tengok photos je... I'm putting it off still. But, since the issue is flagged up here... at least, I would say that it was 'an oppurtunity missed'... and it was rather a great oppurtunity for that matter.

Everything looks alien there... esp the PM's Office...haiya, that dome is really the icing on the cake, in a way that it add to its inappropriateness, big time.

Further inappropriateness which is sadly happening everywhere is on our mosque architecture. Why on earth do they have to look like those of middle east's!!???? Just like the Masjid Wilayah for instance... my goodnees > a bunch of JKR designers went all over the globe looking for a design (why???) and at the end decided to copy the one they saw in Turkey!? Why? why? why? What's wrong with our own architecture?

[atok]

msia no future country,

mmm... have i read the above posting somewhere before? cut & paste eh?

[Gukita]

The article above seemed down right inappropriate here, more like a Malaysiakini kind of article or direct from Sang kancil Forum.

We`re talking about technical identity here I think. The reference point of malaysian architecture is the Kampung Laut Mosque in Kelantan.

Our climate requires airy kind of design which is standard feature in Malaysian Traditional house design, be it Malacca house, Kedah house or other States. Around the house features like clothe lines, verandah, feet washing area with a tempayan and gayung, perigi, walkway to the perigi are feature realting to traditional way of life of the Malays.

Multi-tier roofing pattern of traditional Malay Palace also promotes airiness. However these necessitates bigger base area in relation to the height. This definitely is not viable for twin tower design requirement. Minangkabau roof design is also laughable in this case. Remember Lat's cartoon for Malaysian Concept Car featuring Minangkabau roof before the Proton Saga caught the nation by storm.

The Twin Tower requirement is totally differrent from what the Malays are used to. Difinitely this is not obtainable from Hikayat Hang Tuan, Merong Mahawangsa or even Munshi Abdullah's writings. So when totally new requirement is needed, Malaysian identity need to be REINVENTED. I think Mahathir did a good job in giving the Islamic pattern to portray malaysian identity in THIS case. I think we could still claim it as Malaysian identity as no other building in the world is shaped like that. It defnitely is not like a pagoda. And Mahathir is a Malay, right?

There must be a starting point for everything. The pioneer have the right to claim the first idea as his own. And Mahathir said this brainchild idea of his is Malay characteristic. Who can deny him this right?

How did America get the American identity I wonder? Before the British immigrants arrive, the country belong to red indian tribes. Soon they lost and the cowboys got to become symbol for American spirit; gun slinging heroes in rugged jeans, braving the new frontiers, free from all convention of British aristocracy. The cowboy town with locomotive become American identity. How did that evolve into ultra modern sky scrapers cityscapes and maintain American identity, I wonder?

So my point is we must start somewhere and claim the new approaches, design or findings as malaysian. This will built up a rich repertoire of Malaysian characteristics and we must not be ashame of that. Of course there must be a central idealism. The American prides Freedom and their identity. I think we can claim Unity as our idealism.

In malay house design there is a feature called `tunjuk langit' at the roof edge; a spike-like object pointing to the sky to symbolise the kalimah Tauhid. A tower pointing direct to the Sky is the modern Tunjuk Langit and we must claim it as our own, malaysian identity and not be ashamed of it.

[atok]

Well, actually the architecture of Masjid Kg Laut is of Javanese, not Kelantanese... it's very similar to Masjid Demak.

Indeed, modern buildings with modern requirements need modern building typology... especially the skyscrappers. Nevertheless, local (or national) characters and identity could simply be manifested into the details ("God is in the details"). Why should we copy the onion dome, persian muqannas, and turkish minarets? It has indeed become a chaotic eclectic built environment (probably we can be proud of this too).

[Gukita]

Atok, it's true that the Kg Laut Mosque ORIGINATES from the Javanese; they brought Islam to Tanah Melayu. It has since EVOLVED into Malay identity and refered to in modern Malay design e.g the Kota DarulNaim of Kota Bharu.

The cut and paste features of Putrajaya buildings and new `Islamic Buildings' is only chaotic to those who have seen the features elsewhere. Sever that connection and look anew; well .... not bad, eh? It looks quire refreshing, rather like a modern car with strong lineage - like the modern Volkswagen beetle.

[Honeytar]

Last year I went to visit a museum near Pagaruyung (West Sumatera) and there's this framed picture of a mosque that EXACTLY resembled Masjid Kg Laut (in Tumpat, if i'm not mistaken).

I heard that Masjid Kg laut has been moved to Nilam Puri (the UM) and became "bangunan peninggalan sejarah".

I'm very sure that the architecture of the Masjid was brought to Kelantan by the Pagaruyung Sultanate descendants when they fled to Tanah Melayu after the Dutch invasion.

[atok]

Masjid Kg Laut is a combination of Javanese and IndoChina influence (more of the later); built by Javanese missionaries and seafarers who plied the north-south route.