A Talk from Mr. James Lim (Ng Shi Qi 1001542350)

Mr. James Lim currently a lecturer at UCSI University. He has been working in Singapore. He has shown us some example from his previous work.

First building he talked about was Point 92 at Petaling Jaya in 2012.The building is floating from the site as the lower part is for the basement and car park while the upper part is for office use.In between the floating part, he used trees to cover up the column which supports the upper building. The use of the trees is to fluid from nature. There's is L shape break up the area as a void punched hole to avoid the feeling of boring. From the elevation the building is surrounded by small little opening is inspired by the street light on the street in the nighttime. It aims to give awareness to peoples. The tree which covered the floating part is specially chosen by seksan as this building is located beside the high way. With those tree, the traffic noise can be reduced and the green brings relaxing mood to the lobby.

Another interesting building he mentioned about is Onyx Tower. It is an office tower. The idea of this building is from onyx stone which it is black and in sharp shape. The form of the building is designed as onyx stone and in classic black. However, the interior of this building which is a mall is in clean and white. The exterior and the interior of this building is totally in opposite which makes it so interesting and outstanding.

After few years of working experience in kl, he said he was lucky to have chance to work in Singapore. Although it is a small country but they design for an international project as well. From there, he has designed another interesting project which calls old rich home at Kolkata, India. The design purpose was to design a home to old parents. In others word, it's a building which gathers old parents when the family decides to send them there. The site is a jungle area and it is pricey. After it, Mr. James testing the form by sketching. He drew few drawing to find out the most suitable form for it which is a cluster building as an exterior. Then he sketched again for the space planning for the building. The space planning which opens up with a courtyard in the middle was accepted. So, the old people can appreciate the nature. The major material of this building is brick, concrete, and creeper. For the final exterior design, the building looked like a cluster of a mountain which gives the feeling of growing higher and higher.

Lastly, a project which looked interesting to me as well but a failed project to Mr. James is a glass cafe project at Taman Desa. He used poly carbonate to replace the glass as poly carbonate looks like glass but actually not a glass. It gives the mystic feeling to surrounding as the people inside cannot have a clear view to outside but only blur shadow. He explained one of the failures for this project is the communication problem. For the poly carbonate part, it is in two strips of white, blue and black. But due to the bad communication, the contractor used the color which is harsher instead the fainted color that he wanted. Not only this, another failure is budget as the material comes in the huge piece, the contractor wants to make it in faster and cheaper way. He used zinc metal sheet as interior wall and merge it with the poly carbonate which giving a cold and industrial feeling. This project was special to him because it was his first time using these materials for a cafe. He said the material is talking to each other but some cannot as to show that he is interesting is trying different of material and merging them together to become a conversation of the materials.

From his talk we knowing a design shall not be obstinate and boring as it shall bring interesting to the surrounding. From most his project, I realized he likes to bring in the green element to the building which I think this is a good idea as we shall not abandon the element of nature which it giving the feeling of relaxing as well. It can be either surrounded the building or in the center of the building. He also showed the importance of the sketched and model to test for the form and material. Not only this, the glass project also showed the importance of a communication a designer with the contractor and the importance of a budget. With money, any form any material any structure can be done. Lastly, it is important to choose the material and we have to have a good knowledge of how the materials work so we can make the conversation between the material continues.


We have asked him few question and he answered us as;

1.From all of the design, is there any issue with the end user feedback?  by Novi

There is feedback received like it's too iconic even though it's not on a big scale, but mostly, the main point of the feedback from the end user is that they liked it and enjoy using the space.

2.Comparing Malaysia and Singapore, do you think Singapore is a better platform for architects to explore and be given more opportunities in terms of exposure and experiences? by Pang Shi Han

Yes, as Singapore is a small country, it becomes a design hub where architects from Singapore will receive various projects from other countries around south east Asia. As an architect will be given more exposure toward international projects and be able to work with people from all around the world.

3.In your opinion, do you think the architect still following the theories of architecture in terms of designing rather than just follow the clients’ needs? by Yap Yen Ling

Of course, we still follow those theories somehow but when architects design also need to refer back to the client's requirement and as I mentioned just now the project Point 92, we do pursuit and try to educate them with our typology and design sense. If you talk about theories in term of philosophy kind I think this seldom happens in Malaysia and it is too individualism to practice in Malaysia too.

4.Your (Mr. James) designs speak a lot about random openings and allow natural phenomenon penetrate through the building. What if the client likes the idea, but with neat and less opening on the facade? by Logeish

Yea. Convincing the client is hard but work smart with what you can substitute with clients needs with a proposed cost.

Reference:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-AOxRoYGtyJNlp0ajM3cEJja2s/view
https://www.google.com/search?q=Onyx+Tower&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOyc3x8IHWAhXFv48KHXKMCZwQ_AUICygC&biw=1536&bih=687#imgrc=_