fabesaa limkokwing university

The first design project for this year (2010) Architecture Science Year One student in Semester One is Kinetic Aesthetics. For year 2009, the first project is Flying Egg, which students in each group design a flying device that carries an egg during the flight. The egg should be broken after the flight and the device should be able to fly over certain distance.

This year, Kinetic Aesthetics project seems to be more interesting, since all group works are connected to form a continuous kinetic aesthetics masterpiece. Many people are watching from the corridors over the place where the project is presented, FABE Courtyard.

As soon as the presentation begins, everyone have their eyes on it. Many interesting things were seen, like balls rolling and dropping, fire targetting balloon, blocks falling one by one, water transferring, and even birds releasing from a cage, and many more. Eventhough the presentation is not very smooth, since it does not continue as expected, it is still an exciting work to see.

Garage sales is held this week, selling items like T-squares, clothes, writing and drawing equipments, electrical items, furnitures like drafting table, architecture books, and many more. All items are sold in cheaper and reasonable prices. Check these out before it is too late! It is held at the FABE courtyard too.

Pictures taken during the day:

The current timetable of AS201 in year 2010 is uploaded under the AS201 section.

The semester will officially begins by next Monday (1st March 2010) as the beginning of Week One.

The total number of weeks per semester is 16.

A meeting between Dato’ Chin, management side and students was held today (25/2/2010) and the lecturers stressed on our disciplines, punctual to classes, and submission (datelines). There will be a number of new lecturers, mainly full-time this time, replacing some previous lecturers.

Anyway, welcome back to study in Limkokwing University! More events coming soon by FABE!

The registration day for returning students of Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment (FABE) is 25th February 2010 (Thursday).

All students shall register within the university no later than 12th March which is end of Week 2.

Reminder: There is a meeting organized by President of FABESAA, Khengwei tomorrow (same day as registration) from 9.30am between the management side, Dato’ Chin and students at Studio 73. Please attend if possible.

To all returning students, welcome back to Cyberjaya, Limkokwing University and FABE!

Welcome back to FABESAA website too! Enjoy your upcoming semester!

It have come to a crucial moment where u guys have the own right to know what is happening about the lecturers problem. After a conversation within me and Ms.Zatur, I have decided that we organize a meeting between the lecturers and students to get the doubts clear and hoping the best welfare of education. I have tried to request the list of lecturers which the university intend to maintain and the new lecturers they have hired, however i m powerless to get the list,so that i can give you a clear msg. The faculty desire to meet whole group of u all, to explain and clarify the matters.

Hence, I truly HOPED THAT all of you can attend for the conversation, invold yourself to voice out the problem. Ibelieve the letters I have sent you all are clear enough to understand the problem occurs. We are just a brunch of students hoping the faculty to provide us the ‘good’ lecturers.

Last but not least, parents are most welcomed for the conversation,it will provide us a strong support behind in handling the problem.

Thank you for being a part of class. As for me, I cant defend alone, if there is no supporting behind. Rumours remain rumours, but its best if we solve before the semester starts.

After taking consideration for both sides, I have come to a suggestion on our petition agenda, while waiting for Tan Sri or Dato to reply back our letter (Icertainly hope that we wont reach until that solution):

A general meeting will be held on 25th of February 2010.Class to be confirmed, within our studio around 10am. Parents WILL BE most welcomed, is different when ur parents get to know the problem, and more confidence when we have them to negotiate wif the management side. They talk differently…trust me for that. So ask ur parents to come along, I will be most most most appreciated. We r going to invite someone especially our new Program Leaders,let them know who r they facing with,what we actually want.
Delay your payment, make sure it is worth, Uhave one week to make the payment, although wil take sum times at the end. But is better than u face the problem in future.
We have to request them to convince us with a list of new hired lecturers, either they are sufficient number.
 
After the meeting, we shall able to come to a decision.If u and your parents dont feel right with that, voice out!!!Either we pay or we refuse until they action.This have to be a big brunch of group to support, I cant work on my own.

I have received rumours(I cant tell u my resources) that ur core subject design, will be seperated into 2 classes, morning and afternoon session, but with the same lecturers tutoring from morning til night. Imagine ur lecturer is a robot, so u wil get ‘dead robot’ result…U have been through tutorials, u know the time, think urself how ur lecturer capable of handling total students of 30 to 40 student a day. Hence, I believed u dont have much time to wait until ur second or third week….

Last but not least, any suggestion or feedback u wish to give will be most appreciated to drop me a msg or call. Looking forward the day to meet u guys. Issue this to your parents, dont just keep quiet waiting for a response. Ur help wil be most grateful.

December 8^th 2009

Prof Dato’ Ar W.Y. Chin

Dean of Faculty of Architecture and Build Environment

Limkokwing University of Creative Technology

Cyberjaya

To whom it may concern,

The reconsideration upon the potential discontinuation of the contract staffs, part-time staff

We as the representative of FABESAA (Faculty of Architecture and Build Environment Student Association and Alumni), would like to express our deepest concern over the potential discontinuation of contract upon the part-time lecturers who have been tutoring us since we joined this university.

It has come to our concern that, we being part of the faculty should assist in making a better change as to improve the quality and reputation of university, in terms of assessment criteria and work delegations. Given a well-experienced lecturer not just in the architectural field but with the upper hand with the mutual understandings with the Curtin standards, our lecturers, priory the contract staffs has proven worthy of the position. This is indeed beneficial for the students due to the assurance of guidance and motivations given by the lecturers. The learning experience between the lecturers and students is cultivated through various means of sharing life experiences on both parties, thus it is something that the fellow students are very grateful about.

It has come to our deepest concern that, the faculty and the respective departments will seriously reconsider the decision upon the termination of the contract staffs. As the student body representative and a student who is merging into the graduating semester, it has come to my concern that the availability of lecturers that can cater the needs of the students are of importance.  To be able to work with lecturers of our interest would help in the overall productivity of the studio works which we had been able to excel for the past few semester. Indeed the working environment that has been cultivate is not something that can be replace at a blink of an eye, as there is an old saying ‘ Rome is not build in one day’.

We, as the student body, understand that the faculty have their own policy to fulfill and it has  never came to our minds a sense of doubt on working ethic of the faculty. We are just a bunch of students who wants to highlight that discussed matter, where this group of lecturers deserves a better acknowledgement and treatment from the faculty management. In due respect, most of the contract staffs are indeed under-paid for the amount of work loads that has been delegated to their work scope as per mentioned in the assigned contract which they received from the starting of the semester. On the other hand, there are incidents where the respective employees of the faculty were under-paid as compared to the amount of work load delegated by the management.  This has intern caused drastic change in reputation to the university is appropriate action is not taken care of.

Last but not least, with this letter, we as a group of students hope that the faculty will consider our welfare of education as its ultimate priority.

Thank you for your kind consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

President of FABESAA

Saw Kheng Wei

Finally, after 16 weeks of study, Semester 2 of all years (Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3) ended.

Happy Holiday to all FABE students and lecturers!

It’s been surely hard and tiring days faced during the whole semester…now it’s the time to enjoy, relax, play, and get enough rest, in preparation for a new year (2010) study.

For Foundation students, it’s time for some to move on to Architecture Science programme (AS 101), the beginning of the programme, countless effort is needed! 

For AS 102 students, it’s time to move on to AS201 next year, harder days are expected, so be well-prepared with all the assignments coming up next year!

For AS 202 students, it’s time to step further to the last year of Architecture Science programme (AS 301), countless nights of no sleep is expected too, anyway, take good care!

For AS 302 students, it’s time to graduate from the programme after a tiring 4 years of study in Limkokwing University (including foundation year). Congratulations! And it’s time to move on to Master study!

Anyway, Happy Holiday and all the best to all students who are now waiting for the results to be released…When? No one knows yet.

Pictures of some of the boards presented today during the Design Review from 9am till around 12pm.

There are still time for me to take photographs of almost all of the models submitted today, excluding the late ones, since the submission is delayed from 3.00pm till 4.30pm. Today is not the actual final submission, the final submission will be on this Friday (20/11/2009), while the presentation will be on next week’s Monday (23/11/2009) and submission of portfolio will be on next week’s Wednesday (25/11/2009)

Some models are really nice..knowing students have put countless effort on it…good luck to all AS102 students!

The examination for AS 102 begins on Tuesday (10/11/2009) and will ends by this Saturday (14/11/2009)

Monday (9/11) - Architecture and Culture 102 Final submission only.

Tuesday (10/11) - Building Technology 102 Final Examination

                              (Lecture Theatre 1 & 2, 6.00 - 8.00pm)

Wednesday (11/11) - Ecologically Sustainable Design 102 Final Examination

                                  (Lecture Theatre 1 & 2, 5.00 - 7.00pm)

Thursday (12/11) - No examination on this day. Design Communications (Manual) submission.

Friday (13/11) - Communication Principles 112 Final Examination

                          (Lecture Theatre 1 & 2, 5.00 - 7.00pm)

Saturday (14/11) - Architecture and Culture 102 Final Quiz.

                                  (Lecture Theatre 1 & 2, 10.00am - 12.00pm)

—-Extra:

Tuesday (17/11) - Architecture Design 102 Final Overall Submission.

———————————————————————-

Please remember to bring your examination docket to the examination hall during examination for identification purpose. If you haven’t collect the docket, please go to bursary to collect it by showing your ID card.

Good Luck ! Wishing all AS102 students the best! After examinations, presentations, and final submissions, it’s time for semester break, and let’s enjoy after that!

UPDATES:

1. Everyone is not satisfied with the Building Technology 102 examination which is supposed to be a two-hours exam. The faculty timetable stated three hours somemore, and finally, we ended up in a one-hour exam to answer all 28 subjective questions. Ridiculous, petition will be brought up for judgement.

2. Another weird thing is that the Ecologically Sustainable Design (ESD 102) examination is a two-hours exam, to answer only 40 objective questions. I wonder how they plan the time duration of the examinations.

Architecture is a field with no boundary, designs varies from one point to another, even every person’s perception towards a design is different. This is what makes architecture, being favourited, as well as being hated. For instance, some people might love Taipei 101, but some dislike the design of the tower. You like it or not? Why? Or do you recognize this building?

Architecture makes people proud. It is a symbol of strength, an icon of a site, or even can be a landmark of a country. Architects will be recognized in completion of a structure designed by him or her. Everyone envy architects. However, do you know that behind all these, architects suffer a lot.

From the process of designing, sketches come first, based on initial ideas and appropriate concepts. Architecture has no boundary but it is limited by technology, engineering, budget, site, and climate resistance. The technology available might not be able to build such amazing structure, the engineering skill might be not enough to build such creative structure, financial problem prevents architect from designing further, site prevents architect to build beyond boundary, and climate sometimes give challenges to architects.

Finish designing, it’s time for possibility in construction. Is the structure designed so beautifully on papers, or even on computer, be possible to be built, to be turn into real? Time to consult engineers, construction workers, developers, and even the government to approve the design project.

Even when you finished compiled your designs into proper working drawings, there is a risk of not being successful to be built. There are now design competitions that will only select best design to be built. Many architects, representing their firm will submit their brilliant designs too with their own concepts too. It is intense, who wins, only will be decided by those who do not know much on architecture (the developers).

Architects usually have their hair fully white or even empty head with no hair, even at young age. They think a lot (on design, construction, etc), they worry a lot (on safety, stability, possibility, etc), eventhough they earn a lot. However, only famous architects earn a lot. Many unknown architects around the world are still struggling to find a project to do. Architects die early? I’m not sure. Maybe architecture will train architects’ brains to be more active (or maybe more tiring)

Recently, I have discovered a survey that shows architecture is the sexiest profession. Other people will see architects, as very cool, like bringing large roll of papers, or even a huge T-square, or even long piece of presentation board, and beautiful model. Do you know architects or even architecture students are like exhausted ghosts when they are doing all these works? It will frighten you, especially when you approach them by midnight, because they won’t sleep due to submission and deadlines.

The most grateful moment for an architect is not when he get paid for his design and works, is not when he has completed and submitted his or her works, the most grateful moment is when an architect is able to see his or her design being turn into real structure, being able to be entered into, being able to be explored, being able to be touched, being able to be feel for, not only by himself or herself, but as well as by all people.

Architecture is not only ‘architorture’, but also ‘archithriller’, something that delights not only architects, but all.

Notes:

1. This post is obtained directly from my own personal site: http://vincentloy.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/architecture-is-architorture-or-archithriller/

2. Any comment, feel free to reply.