www.stacypeh.com

The journey to Project Happy Feet Hanoi had been both fruitful and fulfilling. I am very grateful for this opportunity to be part of the PHF family, to be able to contribute and do my small part in helping the under privileged. The visit to the various families and orphanages was a good reminder to how fortunate I am back home. While we start to wonder how they could live in a house filled with flies and dust, do we realise that what is more important to them, is their hope in providing enough food and education for their children. I am looking forward to the day that i will be able to design and provide better living conditions for these people to live in.

不管那是大江小江，
还是大海小河，
水到之处就有浪花。
浪花激起就能打开人们的视野，
甚至进而触动人们的心弦。 - 易一

The sharing sessions with the 3 beneficiaries, KOTO Hanoi (Know One Teach One), Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation and HSCV (Humanitarian Services for children of Vietnam) were good learning experiences and i was encouraged by how much these organizations had done for them. It is through their act of giving that transformed the lives of these youths greatly. They’ve not only provided them with the basics, food and shelter, they’ve also given them the right education. By equipping them with a precious set of skills, it becomes the key to their future, and in many cases, their family’s future as well. What truly inspired me was how the street kids that had gone through these life-changing processes, are looking forward to becoming social volunteers so that they could help the less fortunate around them. That’s the return. It becomes a powerful ripple effect that transforms lives, one at a time.

孩子们玩乐的笑脸，让我看到了世人神奇奥妙的一面。他们的内心照耀出如斯单纯的真善美。
他们要的很简单 : 能存活下来就足够了。

Money is one way that could help make a difference to their lives but does that really make a problem disappear ? Sometimes all it takes is to give some of our time to show some care and concern, be it painting of their houses or fixing a desk and chair. It is the moment when they truly smile.

孩子们是我们未来的主人翁，现在扶他们一把，对你我的未来，有深远的影响。

Special thanks to my dearest friends and teachers for the donations made. I really appreciate all the help given. These children have a whole life ahead of them, and it is because of your kind generosity and assistance that touched and made a difference to their lives in future.

Charmine Gan - $100, Geraint Wong - $200, Louis Ang Rong Hui - $100, Leow Jia Quan - $50, Lim Hao Wen - $50, Tian Min - $50, Tan Yun Liang - $100, Azizah Sudar, Eden Wee Guan Pu, Derrick Chua Wei Xiong, Chua Zhen Hao, Gay Wei Kean, Ho Hon Loong, Chong Wei Rong, Zun Pwint Phyu, Stephanie Choong, Zenas Deng, Oliver Ong, Lydia Chua Min Li , Stacy Peh - $157

Once again, a big thank you to all fans of Project Happy Feet ! Without your support and trust in us, we could not have done what we did :D More updates of the trip at Project Happy Feet Hanoi 2009 Blog

With Love, Stacy Peh

Exhibition
24 – 27 Nov 2009
10:00am–8:00pm daily, except 27 Nov 10:00am - 6:00pm
Free admission

Suntec City, Halls 402 & 403 (Co-located with the Icsid Congress Exhibition)

The Portfolio Show for Young Designers presents the best collection of portfolios by young Singaporean or Singapore-based designers. It is presented as an exhibition across all design disciplines, presenting the progression and ambitions of Singapore design.It aims to benchmark the standards of young designers in Singapore, inspire current and future design students towards excellence, and to communicate their potential to established designers and design clients. The show provides exposure for these young designers, who would otherwise have little or no such opportunity.

The Portfolio Show features work from the best graduating designers from the Class of 2009 and young design agencies with less than five years of practice. For more info : DesignSingapore Council

will be bringing the models down for setup tomorrow evening. Weirong, Haowen and my works will be exhibited at this portfolio show. One of my st nicks classmate, Si Ping will be there as well !

A VOID EXPERIENCE is a collaborative design-based multi-sensory exhibition by Lim Si Ping, Pixel Pastry and Tribal DDB Singapore that observes the mainstream asocial behaviour of HDB residents in Singapore.

Project 2 - Atmosphere
10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 5

natural vs artificial

chosen site : abandoned railway located at Sunset Way.

As one walks along the railway tracks, there is an experience of distrust, which makes one constantly aware of what he/she is stepping on. The sense of fear and uncertainty starts to creep in as we start to wonder what is hiding in the tall grass. As compared to the manicured and well maintained landscape around us, the plants on the site just keeps growing and starts to take over the tracks and concrete slabs. We can assume that generally people are afraid or uncomfortable in wild nature.

The design intention is to help address children’s fear of nature through involvement. By bringing them close to nature, it could allow them to embrace and confront their fears, and at the same time, have a better understanding of wild nature. The program of the space is designed for the children nature society. The main focus is the circulation, whereby the teacher will guide them through a series of spaces, 1) walkthrough 2) close to nature and communities 3) story telling 4) gallery, which showcases different species of plants and insects.

The site is naturally covered with wild nature and instead of destroying the existing qualities of it, the architecture will be placed on the existing concrete slab. By opening up spaces, the gaps and cracks would allow the surrounding greens to encroach into the building. The materials employed will react over time. Concrete gets stained easily and cracks while steel rusts and corrodes in relation to the climate changes and surroundings. After a period of time, wild nature will start to encroach and creep into the building and the whole design would eventually blend and be part of the site.

Proposed design panels :

well, crit was alright. the design could definitely have been better and more into detail. two projects down, two more to go for next semester ! looking forward to it !

Louis, Hendry, Rongzi and i did a presentation for the ideas module last week. Our two objects were egg crate and aluminum drinking can. We had to analyse the physical properties and describe the emotive and associational impact of it and from there, we proposed ideas on how to undo and redo it. Our main idea was to tackle the problem of fragility of eggs and to design such that it is more portable.

Wed’s final submission for project 2. that’s damn fast, 5 weeks just zooooom past like that ! spent like 4 weeks doing site stuff and now it’s production time. will update on that soon once crit’s over. hopefully my first indv work will be go well.

overdue portrait photos taken few weeks back, ready for submission soon ! thank you Yuchen, Priscillia and friends for taking time off to be our models, really appreciate it ! i enjoyed doing these portrait shoots, though the lighting part was not easy to grasp, getting the hang of it. products next !

What is Nature ? Nature is outside, everything around us.
But Nature is also inside, who we are. Human Nature.
The result of human nature is Culture.

Bamboo is a natural material. But it is also a cultural material.
We studied about bamboo and found that it has many qualities:
soft, bendable, a grass.
The outside is hard, resistant, tough.
The inside is soft, vulnerable, destructible. Much like us.

This is not natural bamboo - selected, treated.
It has been processed.
So, we processed it further.
What is inside ? What is outside ? How are they related ?

This is outside, i am standing in an outside space.
If i have a platform to stand on, am i now inside ?
And if there is a wall, which side of the wall is inside ?
Which side is outside ?
What if there is a floor ? can the outside come inside ?
Sometimes, even though we are vulnerable inside,
it is better to let the outside in and take the risk.
Sometimes it is necessary to go outside, express yourself, to show the world who you are.

I found that nature is not static but changing, growing, dying;
It is cyclic and infinite.
I found that it is natural for man to design, to make things, to create.
I found that in the process of making things, we also destroy, waste and pollute.
We are not sustainable.
I found that it is not easy to know what is right and what is wrong.
It is not natural for humans to fly,
but it is natural for humans to want to fly.
It is natural to dreamt what we dream of is not of the natural world.
So, what happens when we make our dreams come true ?
Is that natural ?

it was interesting to see what the different studios came up with. photos i’ve taken shows the different explorations, designs and jointing methods of the different groups.

so yup, the write up above kinda sums up my studio’s focus and what we did for the first project (6 weeks). questioning the idea of nature & culture. understanding of the material itself. coming up with different possibilities - making paper, flying bamboo lantern, clean and woven joints. creating spaces - inside outside, for meditation, a canopy and dancing bamboos. final critique went quite smoothly, it was quite well received, the whole presentation was interactive and fun with the dancing bamboos and meditative space in the middle !  overall, it was a good experience, and i’ve definitely learnt a lot from my studio mates, from technical to design stuff, everything ! studio 13 : )

glad this whole bamboo thing is over man.. like finally.

totally zen !

hungry ? serving up some pasta !

i did a photoshoot for Tristan’s 2nd Birthday few weeks back ! more uploads soon after project 1.

once again, i am standing at a new starting line, running the tortoise and hare race with myself. 和龟兔赛跑, a story my coach told me when i was training as a gymnast. looking back, from primary to secondary school and to the polytechnic, from combined school to national team, the bittersweet days are over. old friends leave, new friends are here. i am grateful to the coaches, teachers, lecturers, classmates, teammates for this enriching journey i’ve walked through so far.. let’s continue to work hard together ! another 4 years of university life.. well, hope to make full use of this opportunity to learn as much, at the same time, to produce some good results as well.

have you heard of the story of the tortoise and hare race ? it’s one of the few short stories i love to read, the idea behind the story really inspires me. would you like to be the tortoise or the hare ? haha… as an architecture student, i suppose we got to be both… just like the hare, we work smart and fast to meet the datelines, while at times, we got to be like the tortoise, to slow down and think through. both is necessary i suppose.. what do you think ?

my dad always joked about not having anything for us.. but instead, he has three lenses for my brothers and i. a set of binoculars 望远镜 to look far, a magnifying glass 放大镜 to magnify and understand a problem we are unsure of, and the microscopic lens 显微镜 to do lots of research and questioning.. these are precious ‘tools’ that are brought along with me all the time. and not forgetting my camera tooo ! how it captures the moments in life. we can’t see the future through a rearview mirror.. we look forward..

we’re at the 3rd week already, next mon’s interim crit ! im really happy to be working with my studio mates, working hard… we’ve got lots of research on the nature/ culture of bamboo and the idea of zen, the joints and love stories except for a 1:5 scaled model which has to be presented soon !

I’ve been going to school for briefings and to settle some admin stuff. orientation was not too bad, more to come next week.. made new friends from different courses within the SDE faculty, met seniors who graduated from sp too.

since graduation, i’ve been reflecting on my studies in poly. having gone through the 3 years, i am sure that is what i want. i’ve learnt that it is important to be honest, and to stay true to oneself. there maybe factors that makes one change directions along the way.. no doubt architecture is a taxing course, it requires not only the passion but also more time and effort as compared to some other courses, due to the long working hours and pressure to complete an assignment. many give up halfway because they cannot commit or give excuses that it is bad for health. long way to go man… after 4 years of study to get my masters, i will have two years to build my portfolio before i take the exam and interview to become a qualified person.

architecture might seem like a ‘wow’ career to many. yes, it is a professional job, just like doctors, lawyers and accountants but it does not guarantee a high income. there are many graduates each year, but not all will eventually become architects. in fact, singapore has many graduates that end up doing drafting or becoming graphic/interior designers. there are many other career options for architecture students such as industrial/environmental design, architectural programmer, renderer, city planners, architectural photographer, engineers or even lawyers, journalists etc. It is a unique study which is the combination of art and practicality. there are architects who specializes in different fields, like teaching, writing or city planning. afterall, the main objective is to understand the needs of the clients and bring it together as a whole.

got to brush up on my software and sketching before term starts. will be bidding for classes next week, got to get the timetable planned out really soon ! hopefully yoga classes dont clash.. way to go, aje aje fighting !