Proj. EXPERIENCE K+G

2005-07-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

Let me interrupt the photo uploading with a "short" entry.

Saturday was a long day. We went for a site visit at Myung Dong in the morning and boy did we walk... We walked around the whole area in like two hours and then we had a lunch break before carrying on exploring the little streets within Myung Dong itself. After having been here for more than 48hrs, I must admit that Singaporeans are extremely pampered. The train stations here are similar to Japan's. THERE ARE NO ESCALATORS OR LIFTS!!! *Screams in horror!* Everywhere you go, it's stairs stairs stairs and more stairs.... not forgetting the fact that Seoul is a hill city... *Yeeks!* No wonder despite their high carbo diet, few of the guys here actually look fat... Maybe SMRT should just remove all escalators in Singapore =P

Ok, anyway back to the site visit... We came by this building that has an interesting facade treatment. The windows were slanted randomly and the whole building was suppose to resemble an opened clam-shell phone. Well it hardly looked like one and if not for the fact that it belongs to the largest mobile phone operator in Korea, I think the design is simply.... weird. By the way, it's super difficult to clean the building. Will upload more photos later to show you how bad or good the design is.

After the site visit, we headed back to school where we had two consecutive lectures... Managed to absorb the first but slept through the second... Hopefully we were not te only ones who were asleep... I said we cause the whole Singapore team fell asleep at one point in time... *what's new?!* Bet LBL must have been shaking his head in disbelieve.

So what did we do after the lectures??? Well, we had STUDIO session =D It's an honour to be in the midst of the discussion... There's this aura that I just can't describe... They're all easily 2 years my senior and I feel so inadequate among them... Hopefully it'll be a real eye opener. Anyway, in case you're wondering what we're doing, I'll just give a short description here.

Asian Coalition for Architecture and Urbanism (ACAU) 2005 Seoul - The New Public Space In The Asian Metropolis. Well, as the title suggests, we are suppose to discuss what Public Space means in the Asian context using Korea's Myung Dong street as a contextual example. Our group has this interesting notion of how the virtual community *which is extremely active in Korea - think of the Red Devils* needs a large public space as and when they feel like gathering... So with this being the trigger, we will explore the possibilities and design on the urban level what we think is the Public Space for Asia =) for more info, you can log on to the official website http://campus.uos.ac.kr/acau/

Yup after a good 2 hrs of discussion, we finally break for dinner at 8pm... alot of them went out for shopping and drinking spree... Well, i just went out for a quick dinner with a few colleagues and headed back to the dorm... boring??? nah... just on a tight budget and besides, I can take my time to explore Korea.

Yup so we had a late night's rest... When I feel asleep, our Thai counterparts were not back in the dorm... Boy do I admire their energy levels.. They can actually last through the next day's activities! K, enough of blogging, gotta start work now. It's 1050am and there's only 6 of us in studio... we were suppose to meet at 1000hrs =P haiz... looks like being late is International hahahaha

2005-07-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

Start of the site visit at Myung Dong

2005-07-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

A nice little sculpture at the ground floor of our accom

2005-07-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

The neighbourhood outside our accomodation

2005-07-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

Whee... here's the apartment that we're staying at for the next two weeks =)

2005-07-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Okie, and these are our Thai friends =) Yam and Nat. The girl very cute hahahaha

2005-07-16T08:56:00.001-07:00

Shuyi and Yipei!!! Yipei looks drunk though hahahaha

2005-07-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

Whoahaha, Daya and Ko Byung Hyun

2005-07-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Dinner time =) Austin and me representing NUS for Studio D

2005-07-16T08:51:00.001-07:00

Ok ok.. THEY'RE ALL REALLY VERY FRIENDLY! =) love them!!!

2005-07-16T08:51:00.000-07:00

The registration rocks!!! =P That lady at the counter is very friendly, name is Bae Ji *i think*

2005-07-16T08:49:00.000-07:00

Ok ok... i fell asleep after the 6th shot... anyway, we've reached UOS... sorry, couldn't take any photos till I've put down my luggage...

2005-07-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

6th shot...

2005-07-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

4th shot...

2005-07-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

3rd shot...

2005-07-16T08:43:00.002-07:00

2nd shot...

2005-07-16T08:43:00.001-07:00

1st shot along the way to University of Seoul

2005-07-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

Forgot to take the photo when waiting for the bus so make do with view from inside =P

2005-07-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

Finally they're out...

2005-07-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

trigger happy =)

2005-07-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Why waste on both skylight and artificial light???

2005-07-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

Alternate steel members and girders supporting a frosted glass bridge

2005-07-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

Another one of those arki photos. Structural glass fins for supporting spider clamps??? The architect must be getting a big cut out of this deal =P

2005-07-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

While waiting for the other friends to arrive, i went trigger happy. Tried monochrome with this shot.

2005-07-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

After searching for an hour, finally found the cheapest food store in the airport. Paid 3500 won (S$6) for this don't-know-name-of-dish...

2005-07-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

They're so thoughtful... glasses for OLD PEOPLE... to use when filling up those immigration forms.

2005-07-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Landed in Incheon International Airport... finally.

2005-07-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

This is the "Chandigarh" =P It's actually Taipei's Airport.

2005-07-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Chandigarh look alike????

2005-07-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

Made in Taiwan =)... eh got photoshop this k hahahaha the lens flare i add one =P

2005-07-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

If only =P it's just the corner that I claimed as my workspace in the transit "lounge" hahahaha

2005-07-14T13:19:00.000-07:00

My bunk in the airport hotel???

2005-07-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Back to the present. Thanks ya hahahaha but I wanna tear out that last photo!!! Shhhhhh... FOOSA'S HERE.....

2005-07-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

Check out this pana... Nobody insight....

2005-07-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

Reason why my luggage was so much more over weight... thanks ya! I rolled my eyes the moment i saw this... luckily you guys heed the government's call to stop at three...

2005-07-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

To the TAN sisters:

2005-07-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

Okie, another of the roof structure... Love it!

2005-07-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

For those arki fanatics... floor plans here. Hey call me an egocentric guy but they're USING Y!!!! Y = Yuxun???? LOL...

2005-07-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, one of my favourite shots there... fyi arki pple, top is perforated metal sheeting for skylight to come in, in between the two travellators is a glass floor (I'm at the departure floor which is the upper most level) Cool right!!! Talk about green buildings...

2005-07-14T12:55:00.000-07:00

Check out the never ending span...

2005-07-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

Nice roof at HK's airport

Stop sniggering...

2005-07-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

I know the web address seems so apt considering that I AM SUPPOSE TO BE ON A DIET while on this exchange but let's face it... do you think I'm brainless enough to rub it in??? As it is, I'm already missing my mum's nagging and those 爱心汤哈哈哈. Crap aside, allow me to explain what the address means =P drum rolls please *hints at SX to go practise hard*

ProjectExperienceKG.blogspot.com is not on purpose ya.... if I had my way, it would have been the same as the title of the blog liao. i.e. ProjectExperienceK+G.blogspot.com NOTE THE "+" it means, Korea & God so it's not ProjectExperience(Kilogram) ya... *those who are ROFLOL stop it*

Anyway... now having lotsa fun blogging while doing my guard duty so that Shuyi can get some rest... Sigh... Taipei airport is like a ghost town after midnight, luckily for me, there's wireless connection hahahaha. Eh not easy lei... the guys over the counter told us to come to this corner and plug in the telephone line... hello... who on earth still uses dial up nowadays??? anyway, it didn't work as expected.. luckily we tried wireless access... first one required subscription, second one worked *hehehe* so here I am happily blogging away at my first brainless entry.

Anyway, this was suppose to be a photo blog, so i don't have to waste brain cells composing proper english sentences... but guess what... i'm too bored now to do anything else except fingering the keyboard hahahahaha k la, will add photo.... OH YA!!! Thank you SO SO SO much The TAN sisters and whoever's helped out in the little present... and Isaac, really really pai sei that night made all of us turned up late for SE concert. No second time I promise! *at least not in the next 6 months hahahaha* By the way, there's one picture I really wanna tear out...

Anyway will upload the pics I have taken throughout the exchange here so check back regularly ya =P

AND IN CASE THE YOUNG ONES START SAYING OLD MAN IS FINALLY BLOGGING... fyi, I started blogging donkey years ago... just that it remains a private entry for me to fall back on... this one's more for me to keep myself sane over the next six months hahahaha