First wish on 29th April 2011

Thank you, Mye.

Haha. I put different birth date in my online profile for a few sites (never reveal your personal info online, remember?) and my friends are all getting confuse. I am getting birthday wish, like, every two months but the real one is actually on 30th April. So, you can wish me a Happy Birthday starting today.

My MyHabitat in WHD 2011 brochure

I've been contacted by Ms Flossie Mbiriri, UN-HABITAT's HQ official, based in Nairobi, Kenya after a few months I'd posted an entry on MyHabitat design for World Habitat Day 2010 in this blog. See the comment section for this post.

We've exchanging emails and she said UN-HABITAT is interested to put my MyHabitat design in World Habitat Day (WHD) 2011 promotional brochure. How can I say NO? Today, I've downloaded the promotional brochure for WHD 2011 from UN-HABITAT website and I cant stop smiling, thinking about my design that has been circulated to 192 United Nations member countries since 11 April 2011. Although it is tiny, but, MY DESIGN IS GOING INTERNATIONAL, y'all!

OMG, this is crazy! Kudos to myself and asante sana UN-HABITAT!

(All silhouettes were Googled. Credit to the owner)

People come and go

This is my 7th year in the International Unit. Bye-bye and welcome has been the words I uttered the most. People come and go... I just said bye-bye to Raiz last week and today, welcome to Nadia! Since I joined this unit, these are my :

DIRECTORS :

Mr Lee Soon Hong (2004-2005)

Datin Maziah Adnan (2005-2006)

Mdm Nor Hamidah Hamid (2007)

*edited* Datin Fatmah Illadad Khan - (2007- 2011)
*edited* Mr Ooi Seong Hoe - (2012 - current)

SUPERIORS :

Mr Ambalawan Suppiah (2004-2006) - retired

Mr Zureen Zubir (2006-2008)

(nobody nobody but me : 2008-2009)

Mr Kolony Gunting (2009-2010)

Mr Abdullah Abdul Rahman (2010-current)

COLLEAGUES :

Ms Wee Li Ling (left 2006)

Mr Ahmad Naji Mohd Nawi (left 2006)

*edited* Mr Yasir Muda Azizi (left 2011)

Mr Raiz Razally (left 2011)

*edited* Mrs Rosdiana Mohd Radzi (2011-current)
*edited* Ms Nadia Aimi (2011-current)
*edited* Mr Amirulhusni (2011-current)

SUPPORTING STAFFS :

Ms Hanizah (left 2005)

Mrs Norhaslinda (left 2006)

Mdm Saripah (left 2007)

Ms Faridza Uzair (left 2007)

Mrs Zaitun Akmar (left 2008)

Mr Abul (left 2008)

Ms Nor Anita (left 2008)

Ms Wan Murni (left 2008)

Ms Safarina (left 2009)

Ms Daisy Denny (left 2010)

Mdm Maimum (left 2010)

Ms Tadzmahar (left 2010)

Ms Serina (left 2010)

Mr Hasbullah (left 2010)

Mrs Khairiyah (left 2010)

Mr Hafifi (left 2010)

Ms Surya Hani (left 2010)

Ms Tengku Nurashiha (still here)

Ms Rafidah (still here)

Mr Ezulfazli (left 2011)
*edited* Mr Gunaseelgn (left 2011)
*edited* Siti Zabedah (2011-current)

AND I AM STILL HERE. Hmmm... talk about being loyal....

KAED : Monochromatic Site Model in 3D

This is a monochromatic 3D site model for my thesis project - Riverside Civic Centre in Klang - in KAED, IIUM. I use silver glossy paper for the river to symbolise tin mining activities which once was popular along the Klang river.

KAED : Pre-Design Thesis Conceptual Diagram - Final Year Project

I was an architecture student from the year 1998 to 2004, at Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design (KAED), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). For my final year's Pre-Design Thesis, I choose to develop a Riverside Civic Centre at both sides of Klang River.

It was not an easy task to design a new building in the historical city of Klang without taking into account its outstanding image as the trading city. This is how I end up with the final building design that looks like a capsized boat. The boat relates to the river and the history behind the present Klang. I also relocated existing shoplots nearby into the "boat" to symbolise the boat as the medium of trading activities rooted a few centuries back in Klang.

KAED : MEMORY LANE!!!

Before my PC went kaput a few years back, I had a chance to create backup CDs. And while searching for a Photoshop installer inside a drawer full of CDs just now, I found those backup CDs at the back of the drawer, neatly arranged inside a transparent CD organiser.

It was a strange feeling to have. Happy and sad at the same time. Happy because I cant wait to see my old photo collections (as an architecture student, we traveled a lot!) and sad because I know I am going to miss that moment and my friends. I've successfully retrieved files on 20 out of 24 CDs. I laughed at every photos and feel proud at the same time looking at my drawings, sketches and 3Ds.

Bare with me. I am going to post a few entries on this. For the time being, this was my first attempt doing building on 3D Studio Max back in 2003. Considering we were given a short period of time and my PC was not capable to handle more realistic rendering, it was not bad for a beginner, huh?

Stand still, people!

The most effective way to get them to stand still during photography session. (@ PD Ostrich Farm).

Family : Port Dickson, April 2011

I was invited to be a speaker, again. In Port Dickson, again. But this time we stayed at Le Paris International Hotel & Resort. For those who are not familiar with this hotel, you just have to follow the road to Glory Beach Resort because there are a lot of signages for Glory along the main road and junctions, but only two for Le Paris. It is quite challenging to search for the hotel as locals refered it as 'Costa Rica' (apartment adjacent to the hotel).

Since we arrived there quite early, Papa decided to have a photoshoot by the beach during high tide while waiting for the sunset. He found an old jetty, connected to a wave breaker and he wanted THE WHOLE FAMILY to take a photo there. The idea is great but you know how paranoid I am with the SEA. I didnt dare to follow my hubby, Nabil and Nazreen for a photoshoot at the end of the jetty. I just stood at the other end with Nazran (the gap between the old wood plank is quite huge and I wore high heels) and pray that no one will fall into the sea.

NO ENTRY!

Next year, my office will move to Putrajaya. We are so glad because this old building is seriously infested with these tiny-dark-brown crawlers a.k.a co**roa** or in Malay we called it l***s. You can find them in the toilet, in our cabinet, under our table, everywhere. Some of them even died tragically inside our CPU and printers. In this office, Ridsect is a must-have in every room. I have TWO.

Some of them like to sneak into our room (my previous room – shared with Mimi and Juju) by crawling slowly through the gap under the door leaf, so I decided to put up a signage for them. To our surprise, their visit to our room has dropped drastically since. You should try.

Moving In : Part 02 - Kid's room, purple or red? BOTH

Nabil wants red for his room wall. Nazreen wants purple. After series of "negotiation", still, they stand firm on their desicions. It is tough dealing with two strong personalities. In the end, we bought both red and purple paint and we let them paint their room on their own.

Since my grandparent's house was constructed in the early 70s, you can see the wall was made of huge cement blocks and the floor is just a plain cement render. The house is very spacious!

Everybody suggested me to plaster the whole room but I choose to keep the existing groovy walls. It gaves the walls so much character!! Some people creates groove as their main design feature (i.e Geneto - a Japanese architect) while some others will buy wall panels just to add a texture onto their boring wall. I believe it is a waste to plaster the beautiful groove and end up with a typical plain straight wall.

More on our MOVING IN Adventures! Click here.

World Habitat Day celebration - design evolution

World Habitat Day (WHD) celebration has become an important part of my life for seven years now. I really enjoy doing it.

WHY?

ONE – because I am really passionate on housing the poor and to be able to raise the public awareness towards issues related to human settlement. Although I am no longer practising as an architect, but I am still embracing the spirit :: Everyone deserves a comfortable shelter.

TWO – because it is the only area of my work that I could put my personal touch, be it on paper, graphic design, storyboard, video editing, photography, gimmick preparation, you name it.

This post is about the latter. In 2010, I've designed one simple slide for WHD meeting, but it took me up to 4 hours just to get the right composition and colour (why oh why?). I did not attend my office's futsal tournament because I was so into the design that evening. I was still there when my colleagues came back to the office after the tournament. This is my slide. (I also posted it here).

I was glad everyone in the meeting likes it. Then, I was given the task to design a booklet and backdrop for WHD 2010 launching ceremony. Well, that’s great since it will be attended by 400 people from 25 countries! More people will be able to see my design! yay!

The booklet cover :

The backdrop. Proposal and final :

Backdrop in action (dang those plants!).

Some snapshot of the evening. Kak Adibah was there too. (Adibah Noor is Malaysian multi-talented artist). This is our fifth event involving Kak Adibah. She attended our WHD meetings, sponsored prizes for our competition and launching gimmick in 2009. She is so generous, very professional, intelligent and funny. She was our Ambassador of Habitat (2009).

Then, to my surprise, on 4th October 2010, on the WORLD HABITAT DAY 2010 itself, someone showed me the mainstream newspaper and there it was…. My design. Although it was not credited properly, I am still proud.

Modus Operandi : Fruits

My division plan to have a makan-makan (eat-eat *lol*), potluck style and my unit was given a task to bring F-R-U-I-T-S. (Unit Antarabangsa - Buah-buahan / International Unit - Fruits)

First thing first >> sit down with the ladies and set our modus operandi. What to buy, what to serve, how is it going to be presented, etc etc... As usual, using my signature mind maps (more here).

This morning, we did everything in my room, just to keep the surprise from everybody (we have to juggle between entertaining delegates from Vietnam and the fruit prep). Surprisingly, we still have time to plant a banana tree in my room!

We prepare grapes, nicely rounded watermelon and honey dew to match the shape of the grapes, banana split (from our 'banana tree') with vanilla ice cream and lotsa garnishes - chocolate fondue, butterscotch sauce, chocolate chips, almond, cornflakes, grated dark chocolate and many more.

Kudos to Ros, Nura and MissPi. Now, go get yourselves 10 bowls of banana split! You guys deserved it.