Must Check Out!

On the right hand side of my profile there's a link that says Must Check Out. It contains links to websites of interesting people and of course Dezeen Magazine site if you're interested in Architecture, Interior Design and art - you gotta check that out! Haha but my list is very few at the moment and I want it to grow - it will grow :) I'm on the hunt. 

Floor Detail

This project is designing a hotel room in Pisa. I have designed the floor with the pattern and texture to be used as shown above. They are the stages and detailed drawings using Vectorworks It's been a while but I should update everything after my deadlines. 

Bodleian Quadrangle Facade

Here's a detailed elevation drawing of the Bodleian Quadrangle facade. 

Oxford

 

 My weekend involved a visit to Oxford to survey buildings. It's one handsome city and walking around the centre I admire that anywhere you look is historical. It's almost as if you can see how people in that era used to live. It can be a little creepy in the evening and I won't even be surprised if the city is haunted. haha. Other than that, the architecture is just marvellous. 

The  second photo above is the Radcliffe Library which is originally known as the Radcliffe Camera originated with a bequest of £40,000 by Dr. John Radcliffe, for the building of a new library situated close to the Bodleian. Unfortunately, I couldn't come in to the library as only members are allowed to go in to use the library. 

This is the entrance for the Bodleian Library and to Divinity School within the Bodleian Quadrangle. Oxford University was not a wealthy institution and did not have the resources to build up a collection of new printed books to replace the ones that was dispersed, Sir Thomas Bodley rescued the Library and it was opened in 1602. After Bodley died in 1613, they started working on building the spacious quadrangle of buildings to the east of the Library. The buildings were designed to house lecture and examination rooms.

The Sheldonian Theatre designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1664-1668. Its purpose was to provide an appropriate venue for meetings and public ceremonies of the University, and this remains its purpose today. It is also available to hire for recitals of music and other similar functions.

The Exeter College, this really reminded me of being in Hogwarts in a way. It's a huge site for students including the halls where they live, lecture rooms, a chapel and a dining hall where they all eat their dinner/lunch together surrounded with oil paintings of head teacher of the college. I actually wish I went to college here. Ha, as if I'm smart enough!

What I have noticed is that they like to preserve old things, which makes the city really unique. 

For example the Oxford Castle, the Malmaison hotel which used to be a prison. Going in you can imagine how prisoners used to live in their cell. It totally reminded me of the film Shawshank Redemption, it's incredible what they have done to this place. It's a little bit creepy, it's dark and the doors creeked. However, I admire the transformation, putting something modern into something old. 

It was a good trip. :)

Korean Eye 2012 in Saatchi Gallery

Saatchi Gallery located in Sloane Square, London is one of my favourite gallery containing contemporary pieces of art such as;

Yoo Myun Gyun, Korean artist (above) made a big structure made out of ink on newspapers, supposedly a floating world. From what I understood in this piece is that the artist is trying to show his own version of the world showing the connection of nature and human society. The newspapers are always filled with real stories about people all around the world. Therefore, the whole concept of this piece is creating a vision that simply explains that our world today is built around the society. 

Kim Byoungho.

This is one of the beautiful pieces I have seen. The artist created a stunning sound sculpture, which gives an impression of an exploding star.

Kim Hyuen Jun

This is the most interesting piece I have seen. The idea behind it is very well executed. The artist created furnitures and sculptures out of the cardboard boxes which makes us think about what we value and why. In a society dominated by shopping, his works deliberately focus not on the prized object but on the packaging in which it comes and one of the few things in society which is freely given but instantly thrown away.

Harry Potter

One of the best day out ever!!! My friends and I went to the Harry Potter Studios and once I got off the tour bus I got really excited and started running towards the doors like a child. I can understand the humiliation I have caused to my friends chasing after me telling me to calm down. But I didn't care, I am too big of a fan to calm down. Screw Disneyland, this the happiest place in the world for me. I have been a fan since my mother bought me the very first book (Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone) because she thought I would like and I did. I fell in love with it. And she bought every book for me.

I grew up reading the books and watching the films. JK Rowling did a great job, creating a magical world for everyone to expand their imagination and to escape from reality. Here are some of the photos I have taken around the studio. Seeing the things they have created made me realise even more that this is what I want to do in the future. Design something amazing and see it on a big screen. I was in total awe looking at every detail of the set, props and costumes.

The design team did a great job for creating what we imagine from reading the books into reality. Seeing it in real life you can tell a lot of effort was put into it. Every detail of either the structure, texture, surface and materials was thought about thoroughly.

And yes, being a geek I bought Voldemort's collectible wand. I need to get the others now so I can complete the collection (oh dear). 

"...Hogwarts is always there to welcome you home." - J.K. Rowling

Damien Hirst

This definitely was the exhibition of the year. Damien Hirst, English artist born in Bristol showed a series of his work in Tate Modern over the summer. I loved it so much I went there three times. Ha. The exhibition provides an opportunity to trace the development of his career and to experience some of his iconic works.

Most of the things I have seen relates to death or cycle of life. The pieces were incredible and shocking. Showing some gruesome pieces explaining life, death and survival in a beautiful but twisted kind of way. 

The show was brilliant. Yes, even though there were no actors or dancers performing, Damien Hirst really did put on a show! 

I forgot that I did these - part 4

I actually cannot remember what this project is about... but I saw these photos, I remember making them and how much fun I had playing around with different media to make these cocoon-like structures. I just wanna know what I was thinking at that time!!

I forgot that I did these things - part 3

Ah, I remember this. An illustration I made inspired by Barbara Hepworth. We just had a school trip in St. Ives where her house that turned into a museum honouring her work.  Just check the link below, she was a brilliant sculptor. If you're in London and next time you go to Oxford Circus look out for the John Lewis department store, outside their building is  a sculpture made by Barbara Hepworth herself.

http://barbarahepworth.org.uk

I forgot that I did these things - part 2

I have forgotten about my photography skills. Oh, seeing these photos has brought back memories. 

I forgot that I did these things -part 1

Browsing through my computer...well more like panicking that I have lost a file for my presentation tomorrow so I was digging through every folder in my computer and came across to some of my old work. I have found a few in which I will publish in different parts. I am trying to collect my thoughts what these projects were about.

Like the image above, it's one of my anti-animal testing photography for my art project when I was doing my A-levels. Let me just say that I am no heroin addict and that my mother is a brilliant nurse and has given me a few syringes for this project. This image is pretty straight forward. The feather itself symbolises the animal that was used for an experiment. I played around with lights and shadows to create a contrast photo, I wanted to highlight the feather as soft and delicate while the medical equipments are dark and almost opaque.

The writing, I wish I could find the original file, right now I'd prefer it without the writing. As I said earlier the image itself is straight to the point. I guess I could've quoted it better but hey, I believe I was 17 at the time *shrugs* I was trying to be deep and really express what I strongly care about - ha.

The Library Room

Here are some hand drawings I made for the Library Room in the Soane Museum, showing details of the furnitures and the concept of the room. Soane witnessed the excavation of an ancient interior during his stay in Rome in 1778, he then visited Pompeii in 1779 and chose the Pompeiian red and it has inspired to design this room. I will be designing a console for this room, I'm still in the process so watch this space. 

The British Museum

The drawing above is an exploded isometric drawing of the British Museum. The museum was established in 1573 hugely based on the collections of Sir Hans Sloane, a physician and scientist. The British Museum opened to the public in 1579. The building was designed and built by an architect name Robert Smirke. His brother, Sydney Smirke then added the Reading Room right in the middle of the Great Court.

Every book that was ever written was placed around the Reading Room, it was later moved into the British Library. In the 1990s a competition all over the world was held to re-design the British Museum. Norman Foster won and kept the original structure of the building and added a layer to it, and of course the glass roof that takes everyone's breath away as you walk in. They consulted a mathematician to calculate the glazing of the roof in order for an average weight of a person can stand on it without breaking the glass. 

This is a scale model of the Museum we have created using plywood, mdf and plaster. Long hours and hard effort was put in to this project and coming out with this result is overwhelming. We had no floor plans or measurements so we had to start off with an image and research in order to produce this. It is definitely the most beautiful architectural piece I have seen so far in my life.