Penang design weekend

On the 5th of April, Lillian came to Penang for a day to look at no.105.

With her was Incognito Amigo – an engineer friend who has kindly offered to advise on structure related issues. They arrived in the morning at just the right time for breakfast. So, I took them for a leisurely Char Koay Teow in Pulau Tikus after which we made our way to no.105 where Teong Kooi and Joyce, teachers from my Free School days, joined us.

Teong Kooi, proud teacher that he is, offered to take responsibility for providing ambient music for 105, drawing from his vast collection of jazz records and cds. That morning he chatted excitedly, smoked, watched and listened as Joyce quietly read the newspapers.

Meanwhile, Incognito checked the beams, pulled the ceiling boards down nearly killing me, looked at some cracks and kicked the wall (and the bricks crumbled and fell out!), while Lillian took additional measurements and photographed the views from the building. Discussions centered around structural design and choice of materials. We also considered the relationships between the old and new parts of the house and the spatial transitions within the house.

2 sweaty hours later, we adjourned to Keng Kwee Street for cendol which was frantically delicious. This was followed by a much calmer experience at the E&O where we adjourned to for beer, coffee, and more discussion on the transition between the various spaces and elements in the house eg the air-well, pond, entry way and also the human traffic-flow.

Here at the E&O, Teong Kooi extolled the virtues of capitalist opportunism, without which, he said, he would most certainly be unable to enjoy the luxuries of such a hotel for the price of a cup of coffee, including taking a crap in style. We most certainly couldn’t disagree.

It had been an intense day of discussions, and for Lillian and Incognito, designing as well. Teong Kooi and Joyce suggested we rounded off the day with some grilled sea-food in Batu Maung. No one could top that suggestion. And so, despite driving into a freak storm and with Incognito and Teong Kooi ending up in Prai, we did eventually make it in time to catch the picture perfect sunset that sealed a very productive day.

KL Design week

This past month, I have met and discussed renovation plans with my architect and friend, Lillian Tay over 2 major sessions – one in KL and the other in Penang. This is office web-site http://www.veritas.com.my/

The 1st KL meeting was held in Lillian’s house on 22nd March, where 3 other friends and my sister, Heng Leng attended as well. It was a rowdy free-for-all that propelled itself late into the night on copious amounts of food, alcohol and cigarettes.
We talked about a range of issues: what the space will be used for; sustainability of the business; the cost of the renovation; what to retain, to restore or to demolish; being ‘green’; the possible structural solutions that can be used and what it means to be located in the heritage zone.

It was indeed a fabulous brain-storming session that Lillian would mine for design ideas which we looked at and discussed a few days later.

Mark Choo, resident accountant and risk manager who had been away checking on a chicken farm in Sitiawan, came along for the follow-up meeting on 25th March, where we “crunched some numbers” and gawked at Lillian’s design. She presented a simple and very elegant scheme for an 8 – 10 room budget hotel that included a multi-functional studio, a café and maybe a small performance area.

The scheme opened up the house, allowing additional light and ventilation by reclaiming the pre-existing side air-well, and balancing small, compact rooms with lots of common access areas. While the front of the house will be restored, the back section after the air-well will be replaced with a freestanding, 3-storey concrete and steel intervention.

Excited as I was by her bold approach to the design process, I couldn’t help thinking, secretively, about some not-so-lofty things, like where I was going to keep my mop, how to get rid of the stink from the toilet bowl, where are the air-con compressors going to be stacked and stuff like that. But I wasn’t sure if I was “allowed” to, or whether the time was right to bring them up. So I kept quiet and thought I’d better wait a while and see what happens before asking these kinds of mundane questions.