Last Sunday, I had a discussion with Gary and Ryoga. They are the next generation of Malaysian and Indonesian designers who will color the future of regional architecture. It’s explicit that their questions and point of view are about how to come back to their homeland and improve the discussions, discourse, making further dialogue to deconstruct the post-colonial limitation. It appreciates what the region has and improves it along the way with more analysis and participation to enrich the current progress and revealing state of each architecture DNA.
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With the questions they raise in the session, I feel humbled and privileged to see their progress and curiosity. I shared about life around my practice, my library, the teaching, writing, and designing activity. The sharing is about to uncover the backstage of architecture practice, especially the relations with craftsmen, engineers, and my background as a builder. These realities unfold my consciousness and also remind me that the roots are just fundamental. It’s beyond form, beyond the collage of shapes. It’s a bricolage, a moment of growth.
I met Gary from the last session in PAM (Malaysian Institute of Architect). At that moment, I can recall our discussion with Jan, Sarah, Joyee, and Haziq. I got this chance because of the session held by Design United in India, which I discuss with Jan and Anne Herringer, also Wendy Teoh at the event as panelists. Moments are stitched into another moment, I feel grateful to finally meet Gary and Ryoga, the promising architecture intellect.
Here is the conclusion from Gary, in the prologue of the Pod cast. He wrote
“ I have invited Realrich for a sharing session and discussion, along with Jan and Sarah to talk about other ways of doing architecture in PAM Event that I co-moderated with Joyee and Haziq. This topic comes even stronger in this second conversation, co-hosted with my friend Ryoga to further explore the architectural knowledge from both practical and pedagogical perspectives. In the end of this interview session, Realrich asked, ‘ what is the best ingredient of Indonesian architectural DNA?” – We wish to invite you to reflect and share with us as well! – Some might not think the cultural identity or locality is an important reference point in the design process, but it is, perhaps, subconsciously designing the thought and mentality of a designer to translate into produced works for the users. Maybe my take to answer Realrich, that the best ingredient is actually the awareness and actualisation with the materiality as a realistic composition… and most of the time this composition might be an incomplete collage of unpredictably beautiful pieces of time and memories… for more to come.” – garyeow, xyz
Gary and Ryoga brought the discussions in several milestone.
5:00 childhood : toy making and builder family
12:05 dynamics of practice bridging theory and practice
21:03 ‘life is heaven on earth’ : hardships and thought of giving up?
30:00 form making and transformation via fundamental complexity
38:08 taste : engagement with builder and general public + ornaments as crime?
49:30 architectural evolution and in search of identity
57:25 design process : experiment on imagination and reality
1:08:00 literacy, publication and discourse
1:11:08 throwback to final year project (tisna sanjaya)
1:16:38 strategised architectural practice : sharing economy + arts of war
1:37:20 carlo scarpa, alvar aalto, yb mangunwijaya, boonserm premthada
1:49:03 what is the best ingredient for indonesian architecture dna?
I wish all the best from them and I appreciate their hard-work and effort, the process will drive the best result. Kudos
My Mayonnaise Jar 