Are we ready for seemingly alien-designed buildings?

The futuristic Seoul Commune designed by Minsuk Cho.

Futuristic, strange and sexy architectural concepts that seem out of this world await visitors to the 8th Malaysia Architecture, Interior Design & Building Exhibition (ARCHIDEX 07) in Kuala Lumpur.

A total of 15 avant garde architects and designers from around the world will present their latest ideas at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre from July 5-8.

Organised by the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) and C.I.S. Sdn Bhd, ARCHIDEX 07 incorporates an international conference of architects as well as a design forum and other industry-related programmes.

Some 800 local and foreign participants are expected. That will be more than 600 booths, accommodating 200 local and foreign exhibitors in five halls at the convention centre.

According to PAM president Dr Tan Loke Mun, this year’s DATUM: KL 2007 conference celebrates architecture which exhibit “design energy”. And the vision in creating exciting, inspiring spaces and buildings that are innovative and founded strongly in personal ideas and beliefs.

“This year, we have a comprehensive exhibition that showcases high standard products, designs and services for the architecture, interior design and building industry.”

At the Expos exhibition, there will be a design mock-up to showcase designs and products by world renowned designers and futurists that were launched around the world this year.

Says Tan: “Dream works by students in architecture and interior design will also be featured at the exhibition. Design Energy – Part II, an exhibition of innovative and exciting projects by the firms of PAM members will also be exhibited.

Tan: "Many international architects, designers and academicians will grace this year’s event".

“The convention highlight will be PAM’s annual International Architecture Design Conference - DATUM: KL 2007 and KL Design Forum 2007 where local and international architects and designers present their recent works.

PAM is also hosting the International Union of Architects (UIA) bureau meeting and the UIA regional forum 2007 in conjunction with DATUM: KL 2007

The sexy Absolute Tower in Toronto that has been dubbed the Marilyn Monroe building. Designed by Ma Yansong.

“In addition we will also be hosting the Architects Regional Council of Asia (ARCASIA) office bearers and Zone B meeting. As such, many international architects, designers and academicians will grace this year’s event including UIA president Gaetan Siew.”

5 July 2007

KL DESIGN FORUM 07 The forum focuses on the latest trends and developments in the field of interiors and design. Speakers are from Bali, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and Brazil.

MADE WIJAYA (Bali, Indonesia)

Made Wijaya autographs one of his many groundbreaking publications on Balinese gardens and architecture.

Designer and author Made Wijaya has been delighting us with his books and gardens for the past 30 years. He is best known for his romantic Balinese garden designs – and for his books and films on the architecture and culture of Bali. His resort gardens are particularly famous in properties such as the Bali Hyatt, The Bali Oberoi, The Four Seasons Jimbarab, Bali, The Amandari, Taj Wellington Mews – India, Bulgari, Bali. Currently, he is working on designs for the Asian Garden section of the new Naples Botanical Garden in Florida, USA.

He has written the five books on architecture and landscape design; one of which, the “Tropical Garden Design” has sold over 100,000 copies and has been translated into French and Chinese. At present Made Wijaya writes three regular columns: Stranger in Paradise – the diary of an expatriate in Bali, for Hello Bali. Low-Res – the travel diaries of an amateur photographer” for the Sunday Express. Chennai: Frequent Flier on Maximum Alert for Travel and Leisure magazine (Bangkok). His latest book will be out by the end of July and advance order of the book with 25% discount can be made after the forum.

Made Wijaya’s talk will be on Post-Zen Depression.

WARAPONG CHANGCHAT (Thailand)

Obtained his degree from Raugsit University, Bangkok where he majored in industrial design. His training in industrial design finds its expressions in the exquisite details of his interior design components.

He is currently the design director at P Interior and Associates Co Ltd, one of the most avant garde interior design firms in Bangkok.

Warapong Changchat has completed projects not only in Thailand, but also in Abu Dhabi and India. In 2003, he was the Antron Design Award Asia Pacific, corporate / office category for his “Krungthai Card Plc”.

MICHEL ROJKIND (Mexico)

He is not yet 40, and he has only been designing buildings for a dozen years. He was a rock ‘n’ roll drummer for a decade before. But he is fast gaining an international reputation that places him in very heady competition.

Since 2002 Michel Rojkind has had his own Mexico City firm, rojkind arquitectos, which was recognized in 2005 by Architectural Record as one of the world’s 10 best “design vanguard” firms. He has built about 15 projects to date in Mexico, has multiple projects underway worldwide, and has been short-listed in competitions in Canada and Spain.

Most impressively, he was one of just five architectural firms worldwide invited to submit designs for an enormous cultural centre in the Middle East. “It is a very big deal,” he acknowledges. “I get invited to lots of competitions, but this one was different because of the large scale and few entries. The other four are these monster architectural firms, so just to be included in that circle with the big guys is such an honour.”

He was on track towards the traditional definition of success when he stepped back and thought hard about what he really wanted. “I had the opportunity to work in a big architectural office,” he says with a shrug. “But I hate conforming with what I’m supposed to be.” Instead he took the riskier path of launching his own firm so he could design buildings his own way.

He delves deep into his clients’ lives, exploring their families, careers, pursuits and interests to inform his designs. “It’s about knowing the person I’m working for,” he says. “I want to know how the husband and wife met, how they see themselves and their children in the future, what moves them, and so on. All that influences the design of the house.”

CARLOS ANDRÈS RIOS ESTEVES (Brazil)

São Paulo / Brazil, Carlos worked for Aflalo & Gasperini Architects in South America where he developed mostly high-profile multi-family residential and commercial buildings like the Rochavera Plaza building in São Paulo.

With the Hoye Buell International Architecture Award for the proposal for the Olympic Games in São Paulo, Carlos went to London where he completed the external degree in “Real Estate Development Economy & Design” awarded by Columbia University, USA. It was also in London where he met architects like Bernard Tschumi and Norman Foster.

While in Europe, he participated in the winning London Bid for the 2012 Olympic Games and also worked in Ateliers Jean Nouvel.

Joining Somfy’s International Living Architecture Unit, he has been responsible for the interaction with international projects, providing consultancy for the design of façades and sun-protection systems for the well-being of the users, and faster return of investment.

6 & 7 July 2007

Nishizawa's futuristic building design.

DATUM: KL 2007 / UIA REGIONAL FORUM 2007

Theme: Design Energy

PAM’s International Architectural Design Conference

Moderator: Prof. Philip Goad from Melbourne University

This year’s DATUM: KL 2007 celebrates the architecture of architects who have exhibited “design energy” and vision in pursuing their craft of creating exciting, inspiring spaces and buildings that are innovative and founded strongly in their personal ideas and beliefs.

Ryue Nishizawa was born in Tokyo in1966. He graduated from Yokohama National University with Masters Degree in Architecture in 1990.

Nishizawa's firm is rated No. 1 in Japan.

He joined Kazuyo Sejima & Associates and established SANAA with Kazuyo Sejima in 1995 and also established Office of Ryue Nishizawa in 1997. He is also an Associate Professor at Yokohama National University since 2001.

SANAA is about to make their mark on cities from Amsterdam to Valencia, New York to Basel. Their first project outside Japan, a glass pavilion for the glass collection of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, opened in early 2006. Their theatre in Almere, near Amsterdam is under construction and their New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan broke ground in late 2005.

Both Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa do not like to repeat themselves as one of their most important philosophies is that they are always trying to create something new. But all their designs share a lightness and elegant simplicity. And they like to connect the inside with the outside, often using transparent or translucent materials. Their buildings may look effortlessly light, but there is that passion lies behind all of them. They want to make architecture that keeps some independence but relates to its surroundings.

Ryue will present some of SANAA’s recent works Learning Centre, EPFL, Switzerland.

MAD founder Ma.

Ma Yansong, founder partner of MAD office, Beijing, China, graduated from Yale University School of Architecture in 2002 with a Masters Degree in Architecture and the Samuel J Fogelson Memorial Award of Design Excellence.

He was the winner for the Architecture League New York, Young Architect Award for year 2006.

He worked with Zaha Hadid Architects and Eisenman Architects as Project Designer. He also taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Yansong won the AIA scholarship for Advanced Architecture Research in 2001 and numerous international design competitions, including the recent Absolute Tower in Toronto Canada, and Solar Plaza in Guangzhou, China.

His work, Floating Island - rebuilds WTC New York, was exhibited in the Beijing Architectural Biennale and collected by the National Art Museum of China in 2004. His art installation “Ink Ice” was featured in the Chinese Calligraphy Art exhibition in 2005.

MAD is a young design office dedicated to create innovative projects. It combines sophisticated design philosophy with advanced technology in exploring the contemporary social and culture issues in today’s China.

The Pixel House by Cho.

He and his 2 partners, Yosuke Hayano and Dang Qun, examine and develop their unique concept of futurism through the current theoretical practices in architectural design, landscape design and urban design.

Minsuk Cho is the principal of Mass Studies, based in Seoul, Korea, since 2003. He studied architecture at Yonsei University’s Architectural Engineering Department in Korea and at the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University in New York.

Prior to establishing his own practice, he gained experience in the U.S. and the Netherlands in a wide range of architectural and urban projects implemented in various locations.

He has received numerous awards, including first prize in the 1994 Shinkenchiku International Residential Architecture Competition for new dwelling design; the Architectural League of New York's Young Architects Award in 2000, and two U.S. Progressive Architecture Awards (1999, 2003 Citations). He has participated in a variety of exhibitions, such as the main exhibit at the 2004 La Biennale di Venezia. Most recently, he was a part of the Open House exhibition in Essen, Germany, and the “New Trends of Architecture 2006-2007” travelling exhibit, which started in Patras, Greece.

Cho is intrigued by "intensely over-populated urban conditions".

Minsuk founded Mass Studies to investigate architecture in the context of a market-privileged culture of mass production and intensely over-populated urban conditions, as well as new conditions that emerge from them. Mass Studies explores a vast range of building materials/techniques, spatial matrixes and building typologies in order to articulate a vision specific to each project.

Minsuk will be showing recent Mass Studies architectural works within two contrasting urban conditions in Seoul.

Zhao believes in "spiritual liberation".

Zhao Xiaojun is the GM of China Construction (Shenzhen) Design International Co. (CCDI). He is a Senior Architect/Registered Class I Architect in China. He graduated form Tianjin University, China in 1989 with a Bachelor degree in Architecture. In 2005, he completed his CEIBS EMBA Master degree programme.

He is a Board member of the Guangdong Province Association of Registered Architects and Shenzhen Urban Planning Committee. He worked at the Architectural Design Institute of Shandong Province from 1989 to 1991; with the Architectural Design Institute of Fujian, Shenzhen from 1991 to 1994 before he joined CCDI in 1994.

Zhao is general manager of CCDI, the local architect for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Acquatic Centre, dubbed the "The Water Cube".

As an architect, Xiaojun believes every design is a process of spiritual liberation and that spiritual aesthetics originate from common human emotions, such as selflessness, altruism and love. When these emotions seep into the works and in the work processes, they can generate the “energy” that is powerful enough to achieve joyful harmony.

Success to Xiaojun is more of a feeling of joy than an achievement. He has two goals. The first is to build a valuable firm that reaches the critical mass so that it can contribute to the growth of the industry as a whole on the one hand, but at the same time to provide a powerful platform for individual architects to develop their career. The second goal is his personal goal and that is to pursue an auspicious and tranquil mood, in which he can maintain enthusiasm and forthrightness with conscientiousness.

CCDI employs more than 800 staff in their Shanghai and Shenzhen offices and the firm is growing rapidly and is becoming more influential in the industry. CCDI is the local Architect for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Acquatic Centre (The Water Cube). In addition they designed the Jinan Olympic Sports Centre, China Hi-Tec Convention and Exhibition Centre in Shenzhen; the Shenzhen Metro HQ Building, Shenzhen China Unicom HQ Building, numerous residential developments and urban planning projects.

Billie Tsien is an architect and artist trained in fine arts at Yale University (1971) and in architecture at the University of California at Los Angeles (1977).

She has worked with Tod Williams since 1977 and they have been in partnership since 1986, setting up the firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. She has taught at the Parsons School of Design, Yale University, Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and the University of Texas at Austin.

Tsien has a particular interest in work that bridges art and architecture.

Completed works by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects include the American Museum of Folk Art in New York city, the Students Art centre at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Feinburg Hall in Princeton University and the Neurosciences Institute at La Jolla in California.

Billie has a particular interest in work that bridges art and architecture. She is an advisor for the Wexner Prize and serves on the boards of the Public Art Fund, the Architectural League and the American Academy of Rome.

With Tod Williams, she is the recipient of the Brunner Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Medal of Honour from the New York City Branch of AIA, the Thomas Jefferson Medal from the University of Virginia, the Chrysler Award for Design Innovation and the Smithsonian Institution/Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. A monograph of their work entitled Work Life was published in 2000.

Billie has served as a Master Jury of the 2004 Aga Khan Award for Architecture and is a current member of the 2007 Steering Committee for the 2007 Award.

Chris Lee obtained his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the National University of Singapore in 1995 and his Architectural Association Diploma, AA Dip Honours in 1998. Chris was the design co-ordinator for RSP Architects, Planners & Engineers, Singapore, from 1998 to 2000 and Raglan Squire & Partners London, 2001 to 2002. Unit Master at the AA since 2002 as well as running his own small practice, Chris Lee Architecture & Urbanism.

Chris was placed first in the Rabin Square International Design Competition in 2001; Second Place in the Shinkenjiku-sha Residential Design Competition.

Lee & Gupta

Current projects of Lee & Gupta include the deGustibus Mumbai, C house, Bangalore and Fort School, Mumbai.

Kapil Gupta graduated with his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Sir JJ College of Architecture in 1995 and did postgraduate studies at the Architectural Association in 1998. Has his own practice Contemporary Urban India Pte, in Mumbai. Kapil was a member of the prize-winning team at the Sustainable Urban System design Competition, Japan in 2003.

London-based Chris and Mumbai-based Kapil enjoy a thriving is slightly unorthodox long-distance design collaboration. Chris and Kapil met while savouring the cultural and intellectual melting pot of AA in the late 1990s. This transnational partnership relishes its sense of informality and the notion of moving fluidity between the global and the local. As Chris noted “We like to think that we operate between these two extremes; neither taking the position of the catch-all brand, nor being the paralyzed sensitive local architect.”

With currently no desire to become a big-name firm, churning out signature architecture, Chris and Kapil hope to cultivate the freedom, spontaneity, and capacity for intellectual enquiry that a more loose improvisation with other creative spirits can bring. Most of the completed projects are in Mumbai, and the key current projects include the deGustibus Mumbai, C house, Bangalore and Fort School, Mumbai.

Mok believes understanding local identity and heritage issues is essential.

Mok Wei Wei is the Director of W Architects Pte, Singapore, which was formed in 2003, as a continuation of William Lim Associates, which was founded in 1981. Wei Wei runs a medium-sized practice, where architects from different cultural background and experiences are employed largely based on their professional commitment and design capability.

Mok's practice places emphasis on generating innovative ideas and exciting design solutions.

His practice places emphasis on generating innovative ideas and exciting design solutions. He believes that an understanding of local identity and heritage issues is an essential part of the process as they are often re-interpreted and incorporated in a relevant manner.

His firm’s projects include Three Three Robin, a condominium project, The Tanglin Residences, the Paya Lebar Methodist Girls School and the Beijing house.

Lillian Tay is a principal at VERITAS Architects, Kuala Lumpur. She was Vice President of PAM in 2000-01 and a former editor of Architecture Malaysia where she had written on works of Malaysian architecture and ran a comment column called Buka Mata.

Lillian seeks to foster critical discourse on urbanism and architecture in Malaysia through her involvement in education, exhibitions and publications. She has curated exhibitions on architecture and the city at the National Art Gallery and Galeri Petronas. A Council Member of Badan Warisan Malaysia, Lillian advocates the conservation of urban architectural heritage particularly in Kuala Lumpur.

Tay seeks to foster critical discourse on urbanism and architecture.

Tay's presentation shall examine design strategies employed and issues explored by Malaysian architects.

Lillian trained as a civil engineer and architect at Princeton University, USA and previously worked in New York and Frankfurt. Recent works include the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Putrajaya, TH-Sentral One office tower and DiGi corporate HQ in Subang.

In her presentation, Lillian will look at the urban design and building works in the new administrative capital city of Putrajaya including several works of VERITAS Architects. The presentation shall examine design strategies employed and issues explored by Malaysian architects in the continuing pursuit of national expression and a renewed modernism.

Rory McGowan is a structural engineer and is currently Director at Arup, based in Beijing, where he leads a multidisciplinary office. Rory joined the partnership following a placement with the Technical University of Budapest. On joining Arup he worked on several multi-disciplinary building designs in Britain and Ireland and subsequently he designed and built bridges in Cameroon for the WWF.

On his return to London he became involved in the Kansai Airport Project as a project leader, including one year running the project office in Osaka, Japan. During 1994 he spent 8 months working in Tanzania for a rural development organisation providing engineering input into a social-anthropological study focusing on rural health. Since then he has worked on many projects as Project Structural Engineer, Manager, and Director including projects in France, Hungary, Holland, Spain, Portugal, India, USA, China and the UK on a wide range of building types and sizes. This involvement has extended into the site phase of many.

McGowan has wide-ranging experience with international projects, typically in multi-national teams with leading architects.

Rory has an excellent multi-disciplinary engineering and project management background with wide-ranging experience of international projects, typically in multi-national teams with leading architects.

He has been involved in numerous successful high profile design competitions where he has collaborated closely with Architects and other professionals and subsequently led the Engineering Team to realize the project. Projects include CCTV China, National Space Centre UK, and Casa da Musica, Porto.

Rory has also interest and experience in development and environmental work in the UK and overseas. He lectures frequently and has acted as a Technical Tutor at Architectural schools including the Berlage Institute Rotterdam, Architectural Association London, and Bartlett London.

Teo will talk about his planning of the Palm Deira in Dubai.

Teo Ah Khing is the Principal of Teo Ah Khing Design Consultants and also the founder and Managing Director of the TAK Group of Companies.

He graduated with a B.Arch from the University of NSW, Australia in 1986 and obtained his M.A. (Urban Design) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1989.

The early years of his career were spent in Australia, USA, Japan and Singapore. His vision to form a multi-faceted entity in the field of design and development to meet clients’ needs resulted in him bringing together like-minded professionals of different disciplines and the TAK Group now employs over 100 such professionals serving clients in South-east Asia, South Asia and the Middle East.

Teo Ah Khing will talk about his planning of the Palm Deira, Dubai, the world's largest land reclamation project, and the third of Dubai's Palm triology. The development philosophy of Palm Deira stems from its linkage to Dubai’s old town district-Deira-home of Dubai’s historic centre. He will also present his design of the 1km long new grandstand, rich in iconic forms and symbols for the 2010 Dubai World Cup.

• 
• 
•