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In light of my rather glum entry about unemployment, I decided to put a lighter note to this.
After speaking to my mentor on the importance of networking, I illustrated some of my experiences and feelings of job hunting*. Due to the unfortunate events of the market as of late, the competition of finding a job increased, and it’s not making it easier.
Read MoreThe video game industry has and still continues to provide entertainment for many years. Covering many genres like sports, action, strategy and simulation to suit every person. For instance, the classic life-simulation game – The Sims™, has been made popular by its open-ended, no-objective gameplay and free will. The game grants the gamer full control; from fulfilling the whims of their sim (avatar) to the very shape of their nose. This kind of flexibility has attracted many types of players. There are gamers who dream of leading a different life and live vicariously through their sims, there are those who enjoy pushing moral boundaries and those who enthuse and appreciate the design aspect of the game. In this virtual realm, there are no rules, no legal restrictions, no complaining neighbours, and best of all, no budgets!
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Ping! Ping! Ping!
Comedian Anna Akana’s video ‘You can’t care about everything’ was also ironically released that day, explaining on the issue of compassion fatigue. The timing couldn’t be more perfect when I stumbled across the video in which she explained the overwhelming feeling of the constant broadcasting of crisis and issues happening at every nation. There was a sense of relieve when she consolidated the issues and that it is okay to have your beliefs – so long as we understand and separate ourselves what we want to put value on and work towards it, that’s okay also.
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General rule: Utopia becomes Dystopia….
As an avid Y.A. fiction reader, I have read enough books to understand the general rule of thumb that utopia is a mask of dystopic nature. As architects (or in my case, architecture graduate), wanting to create a harmonious community can be disguised in the forms of renders – but because we lack the ability to communicate with every possible user to understand and predict how their physicality and mentality will evolve over time, the idea of utopia can only reach so far in time.
I want to believe that we are somewhat living together, we all breathe the same air, share the same sun, ocean, etc. in the poetic sense. However, when we have such a complex mind and emotions becomes involved – it is very hard to define an on point solution to understanding the future of sharing this space together.
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Last month, expression of interest for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2020 was released to the architecture community. Under the theme of ‘How will we live together?’, it was an extremely enticing and straightforward topic. Albeit, having entered a few competitions now – the level of depth and overthinking of the conversation is challenging but exciting.
We can look at this philosophically, pragmatically, utopically, optimistically otherwise realistic perspective. Following from this year’s announcement for Venice Architecture Biennale’s main brief “How will we live together?” has made me raise eyebrows at the sentence. In many ways – although not religious, I can’t help but think of the scene where Jesus feeds the five thousand. There is some irony to the thought of questioning how architecture or through architecture how do we demonstrate the possibility of everyone living together.
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How do you stay positive when your positivity and optimism slowly disappears?
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One day, I bumped into my construction tutor at a social work event. We conversed about uni and work, laughed over the fun moments during class. One thing he shared about that was particularly insightful to me was that he finds joy to see his students continue to develop into outstanding architects. But beyond that, the most rewarding experience to being a tutor is to be able to see students grow away from the education bubble and becoming good mentors for other students as well.
I’m interested to hear their stories again in ten years time. And how will my journey continue?
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I will never forget a classmate of mine commented on how I looked haggard and worn down after putting up with my optimistic personality in life drawing class in first year. Till this day I still don’t know how to feel about the comment. Perhaps it is the experience from first year of architecture and to be able to be in the studio of our choice, our decision makings are different, and should we land in something that matters to us, our optimism may still be there, but the first year experience has given us some layer of realities of what’s to come.
Continuing from our previous conversation, Lily and I have reflected on the lessons we have learned during our time at architecture school – ones that we learned and applied along the way.
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In this series, I’ve teamed up with my friend Lily Jiang. The two of us have experienced very different paths and have reflected on different issues that we would’ve like to have known, things we have encountered during and after leaving architecture school. These are small memos to ourselves in the past and future and for anyone really.
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Alright, alright, I understand that you need a professional to address the serious questions when it comes to designing architecture - we need to know whether the building can hold itself up well, whether it is structurally sound, and whether it is capable of evacuating people safely in case of a fire…
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