Kitab Atok: tuturan alambina

Yang Terpinggir

Mundar mandir di bandar tadi, atok teringat lagu ni...

Senandung Buruh Kasar
Lagu: M Nasir. Lirik: S Amin Shahab . Kembara 1981

Lihatlah bangunan yang tinggi mengawan
Menghiasi kotaraya
Menjadi kemegahan dari zaman ke zaman
Kejayaan negara

Pandanglah aku yang bermandi keringat
Di bawah terik mentari
Bekerja dengan berhempas pulas
Mencari nafkah sehari

Aku hanyalah seorang buruh kasar
Di tengah kota besar turut merasa bangga
Kerana telah berjasa

Kerana tanpa kami tak mungkin terlaksana
Sebuah kota yang menjadi impian sezaman

Cukup hidup sederhana
Sedang bekerja
Bisa bernyanyi, ketawa dan bersenda

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"An ordinary man cannot live without rules to guide his conduct... i am not ordinary."
- FLlW: Dec 25 1911 Press Conference, Taliesin

posted by Atok @ 11:56:00 am (0) comments

Remover

It was an early wet and gloomy day for us. Went to pick up the truck we booked for hire at 8:30am. I must admit that it was almost 3 years ago when I last drove such a big vehicle. However, the 35 miles journey northward to The City of Dreaming Spires went without a glitch. Then, only the real work commenced. By the time our long awaited reinforcement arrived, three of us had already filled the white beast with all those boxes. We were helping our friend, Abd Rahim (soon to be Dr. Abd. Rahim) and family moved. Soon after nasi minyak lunch, when we finished with the downloading, it was my turn to clear my garage which was in absolute mess. A quick trip to the Civic Amenity to dump all those stuff managed to lend some space for me to manoeuvre in the garage. And that's gonna be my next job, to tidy the garage. Fair to say, in the UK, 99% use their garage for storage or sometimes as 'junk yard', not for their cars.

Tomorrow's forecast seems to be good, sunny with 22degC. Good prospect to finish my DIY; a bit of woodworking on my work bench with my mitre saw (hopefully).

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

posted by Atok @ 10:40:00 pm (0) comments

Bertukang

Tadi siang atok tolong friends yg baru beli/pindah rumah to assemble his new furniture, ie dining table + chairs. They were delivered in flat packs and we had 'fun' putting it all together. It has been a rather gloomy and wet day today. I guess we were all knacked at the end of it. And a good nasi ayam was the incentive we had...yum yum.

"Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep."
- Le Corbusier

posted by Atok @ 12:19:00 am (0) comments

Sliding the shoji

"Here I found what I had hoped to find in Japan - human equilibrium, calm and elegant proportions."
- Saul Bellow, entry in the Tawaraya ryokan guest book, Kyoto.

Today atok's reading (for the 2nd time) a beautifully illustrated book by Gabriele Fahr-Becker, RYOKAN - A Japanese Tradition. Ryokan is traditional Japanese inn, or travel lodge. The book is not about architecture per se, however, in discussing about ryokan, it gives a 'complete' insight of Japanese romantic and delicate traditions; painting, calligraphy, dance, geisha, tea ceremony, foodware, shrine, landscape, belief, inspirations as well as built environment.

In my opinion, Japanese culture (and architecture) is so deeply spritual and imbued with so much intrinsic values that one has to experience it first hand in order to have a meaningful understanding of its existence. Looking deeply into it is a very good start to decipher the concept of proportion, serenity, romantic, organic and many more; the key components for designers. No wonder it has produced the great FLlW.

"The reality of the building does not consist of roof and walls but in the space within to be lived in."
- Lao-tse(b. 604 BC)

"The reality of the building was not in its plans, sections or elevations, nor even in its perspective rendering, but in its space."
- FLlW (a paraphrase of Lao-tse's?)

posted by Atok @ 10:07:00 am (0) comments

Alma Mater

Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to visit my alma mater. The Head of Dept brought me around to show 'new' stuff; new CAD Suite with its hi-tech fittings, new workshop, etc. Then, we had lunch whilst sitting and chatting at the central green. Things have changed a lot since my student days at Gipsy Lane. The peaceful mid summer day was occasionally broke by laughter and pranks by those 'summer english school kids'; an annual summer thingy at many British universities. I'm sure the uni earns a lot from these foreign kids; italian, french, taiwanese, spanish, japanese ... you name it, they all came to embrace the language of the world: english.

PhD... was the matter that brought me back to my alma mater. Yes, I'm thinking of going back to school and be a student again. How? Where? When? Mmm... things I've to sort out. Again, money matters.

"The heart is the chief feature of a functioning mind" - FLlW

posted by Atok @ 4:02:00 pm (0) comments

Kisah rumah tangga

Lebih 5 tahun atok bergelumang dalam bidang perumahan di sini. Sememangnya jika dibandingkan, amat jauh sekali kaedah, cara, design, layout, dsbnya dengan Msia. Atok nampak, cuma akhir2 ini ada sedikit 'kemajuan' di tanahair with some new housing concept intoduced esp. at Putrajaya. Though i've not seen it with my very naked eyes, but from what i gathered via the net, i must say that such things are long overdued.

On the planning and layout, what Msian have been using are the one introduced by the British in centuries ago. One can still find those precedent in a few once-upon-a-time industrial cities in Britain such as Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, etc. Rows of terraced hosues with service lane which has, most of the time, become a breeding ground for anti-social behaviour and contributed much to the house-breaking cases. This kind of housing typology has long been abandoned decades ago, and yet Msian are still using it to these vary days eventhough technology has long provided much better solutions to the services and other infrastructure needs. Why do we still stick to the very rigid layout? I guess, as most other matters... it all come down to money. Yes, RM matters. All we the designers... are still the slaves of developers. sad....
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"Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house a world; and beyond its world, a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you... build, therefore, your own world."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

posted by Atok @ 10:08:00 am (0) comments

Rebab digesek, pentas dibuka

Dah lama atok dok baca blogs orang ramai, terasa nak ber-blog jugalah.

Atok nak berbicara pasal alambina (built environment), bersesuaian dengan alam atok sebagai seorang arkitek dan juga urban designer. walaupun pada dasarnya atok amat tidak selesa untuk menyatakan career atok pada umum atas berbagai sebab. tapi takpa lah, sebagai pengenalan akan diri atok dan juga punca pilihan tajuk bicara.

Di mana nak mulakan bicara alambina? Mmmm.... begitu banyak tuturan dan luas sekali alamnya, terutamanya dengan bermukimnya atok di pulau inggeris ini sejak 10 tahun yang lampau. Ternyata sekali jauh bezanya akan alam itu; antara tanah tumpah darah malaysia tercinta dengan bumi omputeh ini. Mungkin nanti ada yg ingin mulakan bicara ini dengan pertanyaan yang lebih specific, bolehlah atok mulakan cerita dan hikayat.

"An architect's most useful tools are an eraser at the drafting board, and a wrecking bar at the site" - FLlW

posted by Atok @ 7:49:00 pm (0) comments