Singapore Trip 2008 [July-August 2008]

It's been a while since I have uploaded any entries in this blog. Well, to make up for it, I'll do a few at one go. This entry shows photos of my recent trip back to Singapore. Most of the time was spent helping out coordinate the Singapore Pavilion curatorial logistics and setup where I shuffled between several places (DesignSingapore, FARM office, NUS, Chinatown). It was intense but fun and very rewarding as I got to meet so many more young creatives firms that are willing to share and interact. Indeed, the design scene of Singapore looks very promising and exciting. Please enjoy the photos!

REALLY AR? Design Sharing

An architecture design public sharing event organized by ReallyArchitecture [re:act]. I was one of the speakers in the event. Met a lot of interesting and inspiring people.

Supergarden Team Celebration Dinner

A dinner celebration gathering of the Venice Biennale Singapore Pavilion Supergarden team. A job well done! I really enjoyed working with and learning from everyone.


Me actively gesturing while chatting. Actually I was trying to talk more so I can eat less. Diet lah... haha.

HDB HQ TRIP

My dad brought me to visit his office, HDB, to see an exhibition that showcase the recent works of HDB and its architectural branch, Surbana. Pretty impressive I must say. I remember it was these visits to my dad's office when I was young that inspired me to take up architecture.

A public housing design scheme by WOHA.

A public housing design scheme by SCDA.

JAKARTA TRIP

In the middle of my stay in Singapore, I took a short 2 day trip to Jakarta, Indonesia. A good friend, Mingxiao, whose entire family is in the business of architecture, kindly took me in and took care of me. Very interesting trip. I also met up with a secondary school classmate Philip Hamdani, now a director of a big business enterprise. Shucks, and I have only just started working my way into the industry. Nevertheless, he treated me to pempek! Below are some photos I took in the trip.

All shopping malls have security police inspecting all cars with bomb detectors.

Cool shopping mall interiors.

SINGAPORE NATIONAL DAY PARADE

One of the highlights in my trip back to Singapore is the much anticipated National Day Parade. My family has been to at least 5-7 of these parades since my sisters and I were young. I remember we used to queue overnight outside the stadium ir order to get tickets for us, as well as for our cousins. Very interesting experience, as we get to mix around with people from different backgrounds and races. There were even midnight soccer matches in the parking lots among the kids. This year, a friend of mine, Joshua, who helped out in the preparation of the event, managed to get me some rehearsal tickets. So, I went with my mum, my aunt, cousins and their relatives from Wenzhou. It was an unique experience. Instead of the stadium, this year's parade is held at the Marina Bay, on a floating platform. Enjoyable time we had.

Tight security measures taken after the recent terrorist escape. However, the army personnel were very efficient and manage to maintain a smooth flow for all.

The public audience getting warmed up as the celebrity hosts emcees play some games and coordinating moves with the props everyone is given in their goodie bags.

Not only the army personnel were called in to help with the ushering and crowd control. Secondary schools also provided volunteer students to be cheerleaders!

The floating platform. The Singapore Flyer can be seen in the background on the far left.

The opening performance! The Singapore Lions para-troopers!

The famous Kallang Wave! It is fun seeing old and young, all races, just jumping up and waving around wildly when it's their turn to stand and be part of the Singapore wave.

The fly-past of the Singapore National Flag. This part of the event never fails to raise goosebumps for me. With everyone around me standing, with their right fist on their left chest, we sang the National anthem and proclaim the pledge, with the majestic fly-past view of the flag by the squadron consisting of a chinook and apaches. Simply amazing. Definitely something that can only be experienced live at the event.

Okay, that's all for my Singapore trip updates.

Santa Barbara Winery Escapade

Just went on a rare trip to Santa Barbara this past weekend. It was a long-awaited one planned in early April this year. Everyone was skeptical to its manifestation but eventually it did happen! And it was fun! Enjoy the pics! Photos are courtesy of our lovely Sylvia!



Our entering poses to the first winery I am visiting in my life.


One-legged hopping in the vineyard.

Scenic vineyard.


Yan dao or not? hahaha...

Cool barrels. This winery belongs to the Firestone family. Their youngest son was one of the guys featured in the Bachelor reality show.


Taking a shady break after some wine tasting.


Santa Barbara downtown here we come! very nice place! I definitely will wanna come to visit again!

Sylvia and Rachel couldn't resist such a charming guy sitting along State Street on the streetside bench.






Super nice pier! Shall go fishing next time. Great relaxing outing!

SCI-Arc Alumni Summer Open House

Here are the photos of the SCI-Arc Alumni Summer Open House event held last Sunday. The house was at Venice, Los Angeles. The house owner Robert Thibodeau kindly showed us around the house which he designed. Really sleek and cool house. Lots of timber and big swinging glass doors. About 20-30 people turned up. Chatted with a few, the people that came include alumni from the 70's till now and also current students. Some parents and friends came along too. Overall, it was a really nice experience to mingle around. Santino, the current Alumni president contacted me a few weeks ago and asked me to get a few recent graduates to present our academic works at the open house, with the objective of updating the alumni members with the current situation of SCI-Arc.




Josh Sprinkling, Kris Conner and I turned up and presented our work. Josh presented a group project about bringing back the Raiders' Stadium to LA, next to the Dodger's Stadium. The animation video, ala MTV-style, blew everyone over.

Kris presented his thesis work, Case Study House 22.1. And I presented my thesis, Advent of the Pirates, and the Dragonfly Office building (a group project with Greg). For a moment, we felt like we were transported back in time to presented our work in front of a critic jury. As usual, I began perspiring like crazy. haha...



Overall, it was a very casual affair, light-hearted chats and Santino commented afterwards that it was a great success, asking for more recent grads to come forward to share their works.



Great house, generous host, friendly, interactive alumni, good food and drinks, and more opportunities to show off one's works to gather more feedback! Enjoy the pics!