Digital Minds, Reality Fantasies

Finally, I got down to finishing up a proposal to exhibit the works of my masters program graduating batch. I am excited after the compilation. Hopefully, the curator will be as well. The gallery I am contacting is located at Alhambra, called Nucleus Gallery. It normally exhibits works from artists, professionals and students who are mostly from Art Center Pasadena. It will be great if we can get SCI-Arc works' published. All the stuff we have been doing for the past 3 years is worthed getting a wider audience to look at. The compilation is hard work, but it's fun after everything came together. Worthed spending 4hrs of a sunny Sunday afternoon. haha... Well, if any of you know any other galleries who would be interested in our works, please do let me know!

Tajuu Kage Bushin No Jutsu!

Just watched the latest episode of Naruto Shippuuden (no. 55). As some of you may know, I started watching this ninja anime a year ago and totally hooked to it. Today's episode got me excited! The kid ninja has to learn an ultimate skill that needs to be learnt urgently to save a friend. So his master told him to use his shadow cloning skill to create as many clones AS THE NUMBER OF LEAVES ON A TREE!! Since all clones' experiences and knowledge will transfer to the original, what takes someone 100 days to learn something, will take him only 1 day if he had 100 of himself. Woohoo! if only I can do that as well! Tajuu Kage Bushin No Jutsu! (meaning ultra mass shadow cloning technique) sigh.... if only!

Graduation[S]

While most, or rather almost ALL, of my friends around my age or older have graduated and moved well into their career life, here's the geeky me that just graduated and gotten my Masters of Architecture. Very coincidentally, recently, I came across an invite to a primary school class gathering and I received a pleasant surprise of seeing a photo of my primary 6 (12yrs-old) graduation! Wow! 2 graduations from extreme ends coming together! Should I look for something else to graduate from? haha...


Primary 6B class in 1991. I'm the plump boy in specs at the last row, 4th person from the left, standing on the bench.


Most of my classmates in the M.Arch 2GAX studio program, SCI-Arc.


16th Sept 2007_SCI-Ar Thesis Final Presentation and Graduation Ceremony (in a cool tent at the parking lot!!!)

Magok Competition team discussion

Since about 1 month ago, I have been going for a competition team discussion every Sunday afternoon. The group is made up of 6 people currently, coming from 4 different offices and from 3 different disciplines; 4 Koreans, 1 Taiwanese and 1 Singaporean (me!).

The competition is to design a new vision for this place called Magok in Korea. It is near the Han River. Pretty intense discussions. I appreciate a lot the open exchanges of ideas even though most of us do not know each other till only a few weeks ago. Hopefully, it will be a truly collaborative effort. Been most interesting to see how architects, landscape designers, urban designers get together, outside of their own office work and schedule to do interesting stuff out of pure passion and interest.

Here are some photos of our previous discussion session.





We gathered at the office of Sang, who's the team leader. He owns a private 1-man office called UN Architects which he passionately operates whenever outside of the official hours of his main job. Which means, he goes to the UN Architects office at nights and weekends!

Some random photos I took during my drive to the competition discussion meeting>>

A peek of life in LA ... SHY boy

My Disastrous Hair Cut (now it turns out to be pretty ok)

Finally, a personal blog. I would not have started this if not for the requests for the photos of my recently disastrous hair-cut and my life here in LA. Rather than sending photos in batches of emails, I decided to do it with a blog, making it easier for everyone. I have a few other blogs but all of them are group blogs and organizations blogs.

Just a quick summary of what I've been up to: Name's Sern Hong. (for those who happened to chance upon this blog and wonder who this person is). Last name is Yu. Since I came to Los Angeles in 2005, people have started calling me You (yu), Sern, Hong, Hongie, S.H.Y boy. I did my BA (Arch) at the National University of Singapore (2000-2003), worked for 2 years in an architecture firm in Singapore. In 2005, I mustered the courage to go overseas for further studies despite the unknowns and risks involving financial and career matters. With the grace and mercy of the Lord, all turned out well and with many pleasant surprises.

My Home in LA >>

The apartment where I stay with 2 other housemates. The living room is where I have been in for the past 2.5years. I think I have grown to like the living room so much, I don't think I can get used to my own room in the future. Natural alarm clock every morning when my housemates go to work. haha...

I graduated from SCI-Arc in 2007 Sept, and currently working at 5+Design Inc, based in Hollywood, working mainly on large-scale projects based mainly in the Asian regions. I stay in Koreatown, about 10mins drive from Downtown Los Angeles. Besides working, I am involved in ReallyArchitecture, re:act, a group I co-founded that does special projects, workshops and research-based endeavors based in Singapore. I am currently doing an architecture competition outside of office. The group is a unique one as it is made up of 6 people from 4 different offices and 3 different disciplines, all with the same passion for design. Passionate enough to make time to meet up every Sunday afternoon. I will elaborate more as I go along. Here goes the galore of photos.... Enjoy!

My comfy couch which I got it free from a friend. Now 'populated' with my clothes and crap.
++ I gotta elaborate on my haircut. I just wanted a normal trim. But in my spirit of stinginess, I decided to go to a nearby hair salon that charges just 7 bucks. Just 30 secs into the salon, I have already regretted my decision. Run by 2 hispanic ladies, they do not speak English and I do not speak Spanish. Hence the major miscommunication and my resulting haircut. haha...


My thesis boards are placed against the windows to stop people at the common corridor from peeking at me having my beauty sleep. Notice my tiny fish tank? The gurgling from the filter provides a nice, soothing effect to put me to sleep.

My housemate, Tien (top) and my former housemate's bro (Samuel) playing Pro Evolution Soccer! We have championship nights every once a while. Tien, from Vietnam, is the reigning champion. Calvin, my other housemate from Singapore, and I just can't figure out how to beat him! We think he rigged the settings!

My new fish tank. 29 gallons!

New Fish. 2 African Chiclids. Quite aggressive ones.

The apartment is #2. Here's the entrance door. Wala! see my laundry basket greeting first at the door.


There are about 8 2-3room apartments. Our landlady is this hispanic lady who is super difficult to contact. Our neighbour at #3 are Kenyans. Very friendly. The ones on the 2nd floor... they are our natural alarm clocks in the morning. They seem to have a wrestling match running around and making noises as early as 6am almost every day!




Views of the neighbourhood




Usual scenes from my car on my way home from work. Jam Jam Jam!


5+Design Inc, the office where I work currently. This is the studio where I sit. There are about 90 people in the firm. I sit on the right front table. The plants are real by the way.


Hard at work with 2 cups of coffee and a snack.


One of the few nights where my team gotta work late. Due to the rush for time, we got mac for dinner. I tried to make it healthy by gorging on a box of strawberries. And a bottle of sparkling water to counter the 3 cups of coffee (2 of which were refilled a few times already).

Yeps, the photo galore stops for now. Will put up more posts. Hope you enjoyed it.