// 9 Days in Tibet

Tibet July 17-25, 2010

Back in July it has been over two month since I started interning in Beijing, by then I was quite burned out by Beijing's city life, and the overwhelming workload within the office. Along with two other colleagues, the three of us decided to reward ourselves with a mini vacation to get away from the unsettling urban frenzy of Beijing. Tibet became the obvious target as the ultimate earthly paradise, an utopian isolated from the rest of the world is just what we needed. 

Little did we know Tibet was more forbidden than what we had imagined. As foreigners we had to apply for three different permits to go where we wanted, on top of that we had to be under supervision by a local travel agency at all times. After twenty thousand phone calls and emails corresponding with the local agencies, we were eventually ready for the land of harsh landscapes and dizzying altitudes. 

In 9 days we traveled from the barren, stark snow capped mountains of Lhasa to the fertile, heavily forested mountains of Nyingchi, and witnessed the surreal transformation in between. We did camping, hiking, rafting, and overdosed on monasteries. This is a video of my photographs compiled as a series of stop motion clips. Smile!

Music: 印流行 (Indian), Diamond by Klint

Video put together with iMovie

// hell week begins

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// expo

// project review 2010

"The Projects Review Exhibition offers a glimpse into the design research and creativity of the University of Waterloo School of Architecture captured and distilled through exemplary student projects completed between May 2009-April 2010.

Celebrating works from the undergraduate design studios, graduate and undergraduate courses and commended theses from the professional Master’s of Architecture grogram, a picture is drawn of architecture in the making."

// side dishes for the summer

For an architecture student, making a new years resolution is indeed an exercise in futility. Eight out of the twelve month I spent in school is bombarded with studio studio studio, it suffocates the possibility to do anything on the side. I am off to Beijing this summer for a four month work term, in comparison to a school term it is really a vacation in disguise. So in attempt to avoid spending endless hours of ‘free time’ in front of my MacBook, I’ve created a four month compact version of a NYR. Here are what’s on my agenda for the summer besides my day job.

Start studying for GRE, and possibly do a trial run. I think I need something like 1200+.

I will take full advantage of China’s cheap labor force and hire a personal trainer. This will be my After photo come September.

Teach myself Grasshopper, and web design.

Spent time with my beloved toy, I like to look as badass as her.

Put together a reading list, then fulfill at least half the list. 

This is by the way an incomplete list of resolutions, it is meant to evolve over the course of the summer. I will check back in September for a completion report.

// BaliYo Pen

I love this pen-toy hybrid I found on Coolhunting. It’s made by Spyderco and Fisher Space Pen, so summing up the best of both world, you get a well functioned pen that flips just like a balisong. Sweet...

// South Parkdale Revitalization

A little GIF animation I made for the 3A collective housing proposal. More to come at the end of the term.

// studio

// the faintest ink

These are some quotes from movies and shows I have seen in the past week. I love quotes, I love the way they can articulate my thoughts and feelings better than I could ever imagine. In the past, quotes that at the time have made a deep impression in my mind always seem to vanish over time. This has been proven tragically true time and time again, and leaves me with the feeling of losing a valuable possession. So to remedy that, I am making the effort to record them in the form of writing, now this should be an appreciate lead-in to the first quote on the list...

The faintest ink is better than the best memory. -Mad Men
I love the way a photo can capture a moment before it’s gone. -The Lovely Bones The longest journey begin with a single step. -Precious You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind. -Irish Proverb The older you get the fewer the thing you’ll love, by the time you get to my age maybe it’s only one or two things. -The Hurt Locker

// "the slab lab"

This was the most recent project produce by my studio. Each of us was given a box of the same dimension, within it we were to design a test unit for habitation that challenge the typical mass housing conventions. A total of 70 boxes with radical architectural variations were produced in the end. The finished products were momentarily stacked together in a slab building fashion, one can imagine an apartment building with a pixelated facade, where each pixel/unit is expressed differently according to the occupant's unique way of living. For a moment, the project became a model of domesticity with an agenda of celebrating individuality within the collective herd. Imagine the Borneo Sporenburg in stacks.