VIDEO: IIT Spring 2009 Studio Project - Social Housing in Milwaukee, WI

Here's a video of my presentation for last semester's project at IIT (Spring 2009).

A series of fortunate events

This is for my family and close friends, whom requested me to continue writing my blog. Also, for other interested people who wants to get to know me and what I've been doing since I decided to pursue architecture. I also think that it might be good to keep a general journal which I could always refer back next year, or in 5 years, 10 years, or maybe when I become an architect with an exemplary portfolio of built work (that's provided if blogspot is still active).

A Series of Fortunate Events
Many great and fortunate things had happened in my life since I wrote my last blog.


Winning a Design Competition (and a great experience at a prominent Chicago architecture firm)
My experience at DeStefano + Partners last year has been very rewarding, where I learned a real life experience working for a big and prominent architecture firm with a great working culture and environment. Not only that, the people that I associated with within the company were the best people in their field and everyone, especially my project manager, has been very supportive with my development. I worked on a high-rise residential project in San Francisco, California (~43 floors) and a design competition for a mid-rise commercial project, a Bank Headquarters in Amman, Jordan directly with my Project Manager and Partner. Another fortunate thing.... after I left the company in August, my project manager told me in October that we WON the design competition!!


First Comprehensive Studio
My first real comprehensive studio was last Fall 2008 and the studio project is a Lacrosse stadium complex which includes an indoor and outdoor stadium. This is the first studio where we had the whole semester to design a project, compared to the first two semesters where they were more conceptual and as preparations for the advanced studios. Then, where I really excelled was during last semester in Spring 2009.


Precast Concrete Institute Award
Last Spring 2009, the studio project was designing a social housing in Milwaukee, WI using total precast concrete solution. I was so excited and enthusiastic about the project, because I've always been interested in high rise residential projects. Applying the working method I learned from D+P last year, I used Revit for this project which proven to be very effective and efficient.

I was very fortunate to be awarded a PCI Award by the Precast Concrete Institute (http://www.pci.org) for the design excellence, the innovative use of precast concrete as building structural solution, and the thorough understanding of building exploration.


London and Cambridge Research Trip
For a week in Spring 2009, I was sponsored by Precast Concrete Institute to undergo a precast concrete research in the UK, since the technology for precast concrete in the UK and Europe in general is in light years ahead of that in the US. Specifically, I did a research and extensive documentation of the American Air Museum in Duxford, UK designed by Foster + Partners. The most interesting thing of this building is the elegant use of curved precast concrete panels to form the toroidal shape of its roof (which also inspires the curved shape of my design studio). It was almost a dream come true as I also could visit numerous architectural icons in London, such as the Gherkin Tower, the London Eye, Lloyd's of London, and many others.


Work exhibited during IIT Spring Open House 2009
I was also fortunate to be picked by my professors to have my large presentation board to be exhibited for the IIT Spring Open House 2009. One of my professors even told me that a couple of visitors asked him if the project was a thesis project, judging from the amount of work done (so I guess I did enough work last semester LOL). It was a great end of the semester and payoff for all my hard work and sleepless nights figuring out how to solve the building curve problem (much challenges with precast concrete structure and panelized facade solution).


Summer 2009 Internship

Also, I had a couple of internship offers at the end of the semester, and all of them were the only few that I applied to. Lesson learned: for you, architecture students, you have to apply to many companies 3-4 months before summer starts, since as an architecture student, you will not have any time at the end of the semester as studio work will pile up like Mount Everest and never ending.

So, I picked one that I felt that I would learn much more about the process of how building are put together, much construction detailing, and be involved in projects other than commercial and residential... such as health care, automotive, and food processing industries... projects that I consider... out of my comfort zone, where I will be pushed much more to learn faster and in the end will broaden my architectural experience.

Alex's Updates

Time really flies by, this blog which I usually updated at least every 2 weeks, now is almost forgotten. I guess it's time to put an update, and it's also nice for me personally to be able to look back to what I have done in the past and also especially for my family back home to read what's going on with my life here.

Today is Halloween day, although yesterday and the last several days had been very cold, today is surprisingly very nice, very warm weather and bright sky. I just had my Jimmy John sandwich right outside Crown Hall for my lunch, and I'm sitting on a rectangular concrete outside enjoying the nice weather.

So, yeah, lots of things had happened since my last posting on this blog. But, one of the reason why I stopped blogging is that I have been extremely busy and the second reason is that, when you stop blogging for a certain time period, it's harder to get back to it again. So, here's some events that has happened since then:
1. Done with my first year, yay!
2. Had a great internship at D+P
3. Back to school for my second year
4. My Birthday last month

The big highlight is the internship. I took only a week off after I'm done with my first year, pretty much to get all the rest I can. Then, the internship at D+P, a prominent architectural firm in Chicago with a great portfolio of work such as ABN AMRO building, Dearborn Plaza, the upcoming Waldorf=Astoria Hotel, and many other high-rise residential building in Chicago and also many projects internationally. I got to work on two projects, a high-rise residential tower in San Francisco and a design competition for a headquarters for an investment bank in Amman, Jordan. I had the opportunity to work using the brand new Revit 2009 over the summer under my project manager who's a 'master' in Revit and I had the chance to work on so many different variety of job, such as construction detailing, mass modeling, rendering, 3d modeling, doing presentation boards, etc. It was a really great experience working there and would hope to be back next year.

Other than that is my second year of architectural studies. The following day after I'm done with my internship, I started my first day of class on August 21st and moved to a new place at the end of August. I really felt like it's still September now, I can't believe that it will be Nov 1st tomorrow. Things keeps coming and I have to always perform my best in everything, that the most stressful part. Internship... back to school... moving to a new place... studio projects...and coping with 18 credits of graduate classes. But at least today is a very nice day out. And I'm going to relax today and go somewhere tonight for Halloween Party.

Tokyo Int'l Forum Dynamic Model

Last Friday was the due date for our Dynamic Model project. We just got back from our Europe trip on Saturday evening, so we basically had only about 5 days to work on the model. It's a 2-person project, we (I and Welson) did the model for the Tokyo International Forum by Rafael Vinoly. We spent the whole Monday-Wednesday to do research on materials that are suitable for the project, we went back and forth to Home Depot so many times. We laser cut the roof steel ribs and use flexible thread and thin dowels to construct this very complicated structure. It took us more than 15 hours to put everything together after we got all the materials/laser cut stuff.

What's a Dynamic Model?
It's trickier than presentational model, since a dynamic model has to show movement in the structure in reaction to external/internal forces. It has to be able to show how it reacts when we apply:
- bending, twisting, torsion, push, pull, vertical and horizontal loads, etc

So, we experimented (with lots of trial and errors) the type of materials suitable for this model. We used:
- flexible thread for the cables to show tension
- thin dowels for the pipes to show compression
- glue gun (rubbery effect) to show movement in points of joint (2 columns connection to the roof system)
- plywood for the roof ribs

Switzerland Main Architectural Trip: March 24-29

Day 8 March 24: Basel, Switzerland and Saint Louis, France

No journal entry - too busy traveling


Day 9 March 25: Basel, Switzerland and Vitra, Germany
No journal entry - too busy traveling


Day 10 March 26: Basel to Chur, Switzerland (& Ilanz, Trun, Sumvitg, Vals)

Today, we left Basel very early at 7.07 am sharp to Chur for 2.5 hours. The train system in Europe, particularly Switzerland, is very efficient and punctual. We had a very scenic trip with Swiss Alps view, very beautiful, very white, because we had a quite heavy snow the night before.
We all checked into our JBN hostel (around 20 of us, archi students), got 4 rental cars for 21 of us (Skoda, VW Polo, VW Jetta, and Audi), then headed right away to the Therme Vals by Peter Zumthor, 55 km from the hostel. It was a very scenic drive, Bill on the driver seat, and the rest of us Eung Joo, Welson, Linda, and I, it was a good crowd in the car.

The Therme Vals is much better in real than those in the pictures. There are many rooms or corridors that invite the curiosity of the bathers: 33 C flower petal bath, very tall showers, main bath area, cold 14 C pool, hot 42 C pool, indoo and outdoor pool, sunbathing and viewing area of Swiss alps. There were also steam room with different temperature (mild, medium, and hot) for both clothed and naked ones. It was a great bathing experience in the Swiss Alps and I felt so rejuvenated.

After about 2 hours there, we went to Sumvitg to visit St Benedict's chapel by Peter Zumthor with its teardrop shape. Pictures and reality are always different and I got to appreciate this small buidling more and more for its careful details and efforts that were put in building it. On the way home we passed little towns of Ilanz, Trun, then finally Chur.

We had cheese fondue for dinner which were outrageously overpriced and expensive with about half of the group and our two studio professors. We shared 2 servings of cheese fondue, 2 main entrees, among 6 of us (Eung Joo, Anna, Audrey, Bryan, Bill and I) where each of us just had a bite of appetizer and literally 1 spoon of pasta with white wine that cost us more than US$100 (around $25/person). We all went to grocery store COOP to get more food for dinner LOL and I had bananas, apples, juices for only 10 Euros. It was a pretty solid and refreshing day in general and I definitely refreshed by the Therme Vals.


Day 11 March 27: Chur to Zurich, Switzerland
Today, we left Chur and headed to Zurich at 1 pm. In the morning, Bill, Linda, and I explored this little charming town on the valley of Swiss Alps and went to several late Gothic churches in town, we didn't join the bigger group to go to Peter Zumthor office because we didn't have an appointment and would only have been able to see the building from the outside. The train trip from Chur is probably my most beautiful scenic train trip I ever had....

Swiss alps... covered in snow, some green and snowy valley, sparkling white rivers and blue lakes. It was just breathtakingly gorgeous... simply beautiful.


Day 12 March 28: Zurich, Switzerland

No journal entry - too busy traveling


Day 13 March 29: Zurich, Switzerland - NY JFK - NJ LaGuardia - Chicago, IL

No journal entry - too busy traveling

Munich, Germany: March 22-23

Day 6 March 22: Munich, Germany

No journal entry - too busy traveling


Day 7 March 23: Munich, Germany

No journal entry - too busy traveling

Vienna, Austria: March 20-21

Day 4 March 20: Vienna, Austria

No journal entry - too busy traveling






































Day 5 March 21: Vienna, Austria

No journal entry - too busy traveling

Prague, Czech Republic: March 17-19

Studio work has been keeping me away from updating my blog, especially that our dynamic model is due a week after our trip to Europe. Now that, I just finished my model, I'll try to update my 14-day trip to Europe (Prague, Vienna, Munich, Basel, Chur, Vals, Zurich, etc). I'll rewrite my travel journal that I did throughout the trip on my sketch book, I missed some of the days due to extensive travel.


Day 1 March 17: Chicago - New York - London - Prague, Czech

Today is the day we left Chicago for our Euro trip. Studio work has been piling up; exhaustion from midterms and other class homework hasn't receded yet, but, oh well, it's Spring Break and I decided to enjoy our Euro Trip and I purposely didn't bring my laptop with me coz I know I won't do any work anyways.

At 11 am today we left Chicago on American Airlines to New York, then London, and finally switched to British Airways to Prague, Czech Republic. There were 3 of us in this flight (Welson, Cat, and me) and we also met Joel and his wife, too, but we parted in NY since they were going to Zurich directly.

We got to Prague at 11 am, then took the shuttle bus (which cost us 500 CZK or $35) from the airport to the Fortuna Rhea Hotel. Lucky me, I didn't have anything in my stomach, otherwise I would prolly throw up because of the way the driver drove, LOL. We got to our hotel at around 11 pm, took a shower and left to the city center to start our first day in Prague.

We first went to the Wenceslas Square. Transportation in Czech is very affordable and reliable, it is an honest system like most European countries, but make sure to always get your ticket since we got checked about 50% of the time.

Wenceslas Square: National Museum, Jan Palach Memorial
Wenceslas Square is located in Nove Mesto, Prague's closest equivalent to a modern Western capital and has become the living heart of the city with its mix of grand architecture, low street life, glitzy stores, and crumbling remnants and reminders of life under foreign oppressors.

The National Museum built from 1885-1890 was a neo-Renaissance palace. Street Graffiti has become common in prague since the Velvet Revolution. The Jan Palach memorial is right in front of the museum, a memorial to a Czech student who set himself on fire in Jan 1969 to protest against Soviet oppression.

Fred and Ginger Building
Or also called the Dancing House (Tancici Dum) was designed by Frank Gehry in 1996 as an office building. It was awesome to actually be there and touched this building by Gehry in Prague, the building I only saw in pictures and it's hard to believe that I was there in front of this building. Because of the cold, we went to a bar nearby to have a big glass of beer (0.5 Liter) to warm up. Then we headed back to our hotel since we were very tired and lacked sleep.


Day 2 March 18: Prague, Czech

Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord and Zizkov Tower (Crawling Baby tower)
I got up at 9 am today, thanks to the door knock by Eung Joo, I totally forgot to set my alarm last night since I went straight asleep once I touched the bed. We had good breakfast at the hotel, lots of ham, sausages, cheese, egg salad, ham salad, bread, and juices, so I was ready for the long day ahead. We took the tram then metro to Jiriho z Podebrad. We visited the church and took pictures there, it was a great modern church that merges Classical Greek and Cubist, with an enormous see-through clock, designed by Joze Plecnic, a Slovenian architect. Then, we walked to the Zizkov Tower with 10 gigantic babies sculpture crawling up Prague's TV transmitter, an art installation by David Cerny on the city's tallest landmark (93 m observation deck). Then, all 8 of us went to the castle.

Prague Castle: St Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, St George's Basilica, Golden Lane, Toy Museum, Lobkowicz Palace, Plecnic Monolith
We took the metro from Strasnicka to Malostranska, then climbed up the old castle steps and entered the magnificent Prague Castle Complex. The weather was very unpredictable, sunny then snow then sunny again within minutes. The view of Prague city is simply beautiful and breathtaking from the castle. The enormous Gothic St Vitus Cathedral has a golden gate main doorway with a mosaic of Last Judgment, St George's Basilica is also very beautiful with its red/pink facade.

U Cerneho Vola Pub ("Black Ox")
Being so cold because of the chaotic sudden snow storm, we had a beer at a nearby cafe then headed to U Cerneho vola Pub and had their delicious Kozel Beer (local black beer) in an ancient decor restaurant/pub that was built after WWII on Loretta Square.

Funny thing is that beer in Prague is much cheaper than water, averaging in price of beer being twice cheaper compared to the price of water.

Strahov Monastery, Nerudova Street, Church of St Nicholas, Maltese Square, Charles Bridge, Piss Sculpture
Then, we walked towards the Strahov Monastery, before that we passed the Loretta Square and Cernin Palace. There's an awesome view of foggy Prague from the hill after the snow storm. The Strahov Library has a grandiose ceiling fresco, with stucco encrusted halls. Then, we walked downhill along Nerudova Street, Malastrana's busy street with Baroque Renaissance facades then passed the church of St Nicholas and the Church of Lady Victorious and old Maltese Square, then Charles Bridge and rubbed one of the statues so we'd be back to Prague in the future. We took some pictures there and quickly headed to the Piss Sculpture in front of Franz Kafka Museum (you can send sms and they'll spell out the message) before the sun set.

Bily Konicek Restaurant
We gathered with everybody nearby the Astronomical clock and picked up a restaurant nearby that is actually located underground. I had an awesome Czech traditional food 1.2 kg roasted pork knee with beer (cost 420 CZK or US$ 28). It was a full solid day ended with great food.


Day 3 March 19: Prague, Czech - Vienna, Austria

Wenceslas Square: Church of Our Lady of the Snow, Cubist Lamp Post, Lucerna Passage
I'm writing this on our way to Vienna, Austria on a EuroRail train. We're in the 6-person compartment with luggages on racks above us like in the Harry Potter movie, the Hogwartz Express.

We first went to Wenceslas Square earlier today, then visited the Lucerna Passage, a 1920s Art Nouveau shopping arcade below the Lucerna Palace, with David Cerny's Horse sculpture. Then, we walked to the world's only Cubist Lamp Post and then the Church of Our Lady of the Snows, a 14th century church that was planned as Prague's largest church, but only it's chancel ever finished.

Strate Mesto: Estates Theatre, Astronomical Clock, Old Town Square, Old Jewish Cemetery
We walked towards the Astronomical clock although we got lost a little bit because we have 3 maps and all of them have minor differences that really messed up our routes through the small passages in central Prague. On the way there we passed the Estates Theatre and the Old Town Square. Finally, we went to the Old Jewish Cemetery that costs CKZ 200 so we didn't get in. We also passed the Spanish Synagogue on the way to the cemetery

We had lunch nearby the area and I purchased some souvenirs (fridge magnets, shot glass, beer mug) before leaving Prague to Vienna. Prices of food in Prague is quite cheap, but their souvenirs are quite expensive considering u have to pay CZK 150 for a simple mug ($10), fridge magnets CZK 120 ($8), etc. Beer here costs only between 20-70 CZK depending where you go, but they generally taste really good and smooth. With quite some beer belly, we went to Praha Holesovice train station in our last day and the very last hour in Prague.

We left Prague at 17.33 sharp using Euro Rail. It's 9.30 pm now, and in 30 minutes we will arrive in Vienna, yay!

Architects 'are sexiest'

Found this from some random architecture blog. What do you think?

Snow Bean!!!

Today, I went to the Czech Republic Consulate General in Chicago to apply for Schengen visa for my trip to Europe this Spring Break. I basically live only about 10 blocks from the building where the consulate general is located and the park is right in the middle. On the way back home, I was walking on the busy street of Michigan avenue. We just had a pretty big snow storm the previous night, and Michigan avenue looked very pretty and Millenium Park was covered with snow, fresh white soft snow. Since I had been extremely busy with my studio work and classes, and no time for myself, so I thought, hey, why not take a 30-minute break for myself and actually enjoy winter for once. It's cold, but it's not so bad if we have this beautiful snow. Lucky, I always bring my camera wherever I go.


The Millenium Park has an ice painting exhibition by Gordon Halloran in its outdoor Museum of Modern Ice. It's my first time visiting it since its opening early this month (more information here: http://www.museumofmodernice.com/). It amazes me how they could keep the ice paintings in tact outdoor for about a month with all the snow storm and strong lake wind.

In this time of year, there are not as many visitors as in Summer time, so I could get a clear picture of the bean or officially-named the Cloud Gate sculpture by Anish Kapoor. A beautiful reflective bean-shaped sculpture partially covered by thick fresh snow. The Jay Pritzker Pavillion by Frank Gehry was also covered in snow. Some facts about this cool pavillion: it stands 120-feet high, with a billowing headdress of brushed stainless steel ribbons that frame the stage opening and connect to an overhead trellis of crisscrossing steel pipes. The trellis supports the sound system, which spans the 4,000 fixed seats and the Great Lawn, which accommodates an additional 7,000 people.

On the way home, I took a snap of this undergoing construction of the Modern Wing of the Art Museum by Renzo Piano. I can't wait until it's done and actually experience the architecture. More information here: the modern wing of Chicago Art Museum.

An idea that's lost in translation

In architecture world, it's all about presenting your ideas clearly and effectively. It's what I have learnt more and more since I started my studies in architecture. I think I have gained so much knowledge in presenting my ideas in terms of printed works and model, including using different materials such as chip boards, plywood, different kinds of wood, plastic, foam boards, acrylic sheet, and also using laser cutting techniques. One thing that I have to sharpen my skill is in presenting my ideas orally in an effective way. I was in an English debating club when I was in high school in Indonesia and I was pretty good in it, but the language used in debating and presenting ideas are different, especially when I am still learning new architectural terms.

I came up with my idea of "Green Bubbles" for my new urban agricultural center, a green sustainable concept in an urban development. I spent quite some time researching ideas and supporting facts to support my concept, including my program concept, sustainability concept, and site concept. But, I don't think I have presented it in an effective way which I should have, it's like a great idea that's lost in translation. Presenting an idea verbally in an effective way is one of the key factor for success in architecture circle. And I know I have to improve much on this, at least by acknowledging the importance of it is my first step towards progress; I need to learn new and more advanced techniques in using architectural terms and presenting them verbally for the future, and I hope I'll master the technique over the time... soon.

Anyways, my idea for my new project is inspired by the idea of capillary system that is used in the transportation system of vascular plants. The structure, the specific functions of each parts, and the form of this plant system intrigued me, and on the same time I found it very aesthetic. I applied this idea in the form of translucent canopy made of light-weight material such as flexicomb or vinyl over my site that has similar function to those of the plant cells (to harvest rain water during rainy days and to water plants during dry days), with similar organic shape that gives it a certain aesthetic and structural form. It's still in the conceptual stage, I'll post more as I have more drawings and a more detailed model.

Can't wait for the winter to be over!!

I totally can't wait for the winter to be over. It's almost the end of February but it still feels like in the worst time of winter. The weather has been acting crazy lately, yesterday it rained all day and no snow meaning that the temperature is above freezing point, and today it suddenly dropped more than 40 degrees to -12 F (or -24 C). This weather starts to make me feel depressed and lazy as well. I can no longer wait to wear my t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops again. It's getting tiring to always wear layers of clothing, gloves, scarf, and boots before going out... yeah you can wear more fashionable clothing but come on... I can't wait for the summer sun to shine again and do my running outdoors. I totally feel like a gym-rat right now, running endlessly in my own cage to get my exercise. I tend to eat more and do less exercise during winter, it's just so hard to push yourself to do anything other than eating and sleeping in this cold. (picture on the left is from last week after snow storm in Lakeview)

Today, I visited the site that is being used for my new studio project: urban agricultural center. It's a huge site with the size of approx. 800'x200', it's like 4 Crown Halls put next to each other and it's located by Chicago river. Linda, Bill, Cat, and I visited the site today to collect some information and documentation, but we could only stand around 5 minutes outside, it was too cold and I forgot my ear covers that I felt like my ears were going to fall off just in 5 minutes. So, I took many pictures by doing 360 degree turns and took a video without really looking what I was doing, LOL. I hope I get enough documentation, otherwise I'll be back some other time this week.

I am now trying to finish reading 500+ pages of architectural history book, and while reading I took this picture on the right from my apartment window on the 37th floor in Chicago South Loop. It's -24 C outside, no snow, just wind... my hand shivered just a minute after opening the window and trying to take the picture without shaking. I really can't wait for the winter to be over...

Tomorrow, I am going to apply for my Switzerland tourist visa, wish me luck and hopefully I'll have enough time to apply for Schengen visa as well... crossing my fingers...

Stone Museum by Kengo Kuma

It's my first project this Spring semester, it's only been a little more than 2 weeks where we are to research and study on a particular building of wood or masonry. So, I picked the Stone Museum in Nasu, Japan designed by Kengo Kuma that was done in 2000. It's an addition to the three existing stone warehouse buildings (1919-1920) and Kuma's concept is to create a relationship between the interior and exterior space using two types of soft walls, the stone louvers and porous walls. The type of stone used in the new additions is the same stone used in the existing buildings, Ashino stone, a heavy material that involves a challenge in processing. A sense of lightness, ambiguity, and softness can be obtained from this hard and heavy object by de-solidifying the material by series of slats. New passage ways on the pools of water would all together create spatial unification between the inside spaces and their immediate environment.

After much research from more than 6-7 sources, all obtained from GRC library, Galvin library, Chicago public library and some bookstores, I studied in detail the plan, section, and elevation of the building, including the materials used and the wall pattern. Then, began construction of a 1/10 model last Friday and done last Tuesday.

I did a sectional construction model and picked the location of the building that can effectively show the two important walls (louvers and porous walls) including the passageway and pool of water. I used poplar wood for both walls, cut individual wood sticks for the louvers with the columns complete with the grooves so I can fit the louvers into it. And for the porous wall, I stacked the poplar wood and inserted sanded acrylic glass into the voids to represent translucent thin Bianco Carrara marbles. I used plywood for the flooring (which has similar material to the walls) and MDF board for the base. A bigger piece of acrylic glass also used to represent the pool of water.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!! For my friends and family, and also those who celebrate it, may good health and fortune abound, wealth increase in your prosperous new year!

This time around I usually miss being home, where we usually would gather at my grandma and grandpa's house where my grandma would have a pretty big feast, a big table full of food. I miss all her cookings, especially her pork dishes and that awesome haisom (yeah, it's actually a sea cucumber dish and it's a Chinese delicacy, very hard to prepare, and tastes awesome!).

I guess I won't get my angpao again this year, LOL. Anyways, Happy Chinese New Year!

What does your handwriting say about You?

http://handwriting.feedbucket.com/articles/

Out of boredom, my friend Lim told me to take some quiz about the character of our own handwriting. It only takes 5 minutes or less to take the quiz.

Here's my result:
You plan ahead, and are interested in beauty, design, outward appearance, and symmetry.
You are a social person who likes to talk and meet others.
You are affectionate, passionate, expressive, and future-oriented.
You are not very reserved, impatient, self-confident and fond of action.
You are self-confident and like to bring attention to yourself.

I'm always skeptical about superstitious things, but I believe those little gestures and things that we normally do could represent our own unique character, like the way we take up the space of the bed while sleeping, or even the way we write.

Falstaff by Giueseppe Verdi

Just less than two weeks, I went for my second opera performance at Chicago Lyric Opera. I wasn't very entertained with my first opera, Dr. Atomic, because it was too contemporary, too modern, and... too boring. This time, I watched Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi based on a story by Shakespeare. This comic opera by Guiseppe Verdi is a tale of love, jealousy, confusion and laughter filled with plot twists and turns. The lead character, Sir John Falstaff, convinces all that harmony and joy are the best sustenance in life.

I am totally entertained by their performances. I slept at 7 am this morning for about 4 hours before my studio hours, because I had to prepare a 19-page presentation for my stone museum project by Kengo Kuma. I didn't have any coffee prior to the performance, but I didn't fall asleep at all. I found that the character Falstaff is very intriguing, very entertaining, and very funny. Falstaff Opera also has a much better setting with much better costumes and also that beautiful voices and songs. No wonder people say that this particular opera performance is a masterpiece. Next opera: The Barber of Seville! Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!

Dr Atomic Opera

Last Tuesday, January 15th I went to see my first big opera, Dr Atomic, at the Chicago Lyric Opera. I usually watch musical plays such as the Phantom of the Opera or just plain classical music/orchestra, although I've watched some singers sang opera before but never watched a real opera. The theater building interior looks like typical classical theater interior with art-deco ornaments.

Dr. Atomic is a contemporary Opera and is a lot simpler in terms of decoration and costumes. More information about the opera here. My friend and I got a very nice seat on the main floor, literally only 20 seats from the stage, really awesome view of the stage. It was a full house and was packed with people. I, personally, not that much entertained and fell a sleep a couple times hehehehe, although I think the ending was quite surprising and scary. I think I'll go for more traditional Operas next time and looking forward to see The Barber of Seville next February and be entertained with its clear plot and beautiful costumes and songs.

Christmas Trip Part II: Las Vegas Dec 22-23

While I was in Los Angeles from San Francisco, we drove to Las Vegas on Dec 22 and back to LA the next day.

DEC 22, 2007 - Day 1 in Las Vegas

We left Los Angeles at around 9 am, before that we picked up Denise and Robert. There were 6 of us in the Chevy Pacifica that I rented once I got to LA that can fit 6-7 people. It was a pretty long journey to Las Vegas, one that would normally take around 4 hours according to google maps, but it actually took us 6 hours because of the traffic jam. But overall it wasn't that boring since I got to see the desert which I think has some interesting landscapes, including the Mojave Desert. And we also passed by this very interesting road without any vowels, Zzyzx Road.

We arrived in Las Vegas at around 4 pm and checked in to our hotel at the Treasure Island. This whole Las Vegas trip was almost a last-minute plan and we booked our hotel just a few days earlier, but we got lucky that we still could get a room since most of the hotels on the Strip were fully booked. I laid around for about an hour or two, since I drove for straight 6-7 hours and then headed to the Fashion Show Mall. We were going to have dinner at the Buffet Wynn Hotel for around $35, but once we got there the expected line wait was 2 hours, and we were too hungry to wait. Maggiano's was also around 2 hours wait, so we ended up having dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Yeah, it was a bit disappointing, but at least we got something to eat (you can watch a video of us walking to the Fashion Show Mall).

Since we didn't do much planning before, all of the Cirque Du Soleil shows were fully booked. So, we spent the night just walking along Las Vegas Strip. Taking lots of pictures and watched that elegant Bellagio water show (you can watch the video of the water show here and also another one with Christmas song). Picture on the right is the Bellagio Hotel. After watching that awesome water show at the Bellagio, we walked inside some of the hotels nearby, such as Caesars Palace, the Bellagio, Showcase Mall, Planet Hollwood Hotel (used to be Aladdin Hotel), Wynn Hotel, The Mirage, and Treasure Island Hotel. Caesars Palace, one of the Strip's oldest and most glamorous hotels that was built in 1966 is still looking great and luxurious. I took a naughty picture of me waiting to get whipped (and some of the passerbys were laughing when they saw me hehehe) in front of one of the lingerie stores in Caesars Palace.

We went back to the hotel at around 11 pm, and I got so tired and took a nap. Got up around 1 am and went for clubbing at the Tangerine in Treasure Island hotel. It was pretty cool for a small clubbing place and I spent only about an hour there because I was so tired and I only went there for the girls' request. On the way back to our rooms at around 3.30 am, I spent a couple minutes trying my luck with the slot machines and thats all for the long long long fun and tiring day.


DEC 23, 2007 - Day 2 in Las Vegas

Today is the day we had to leave Las Vegas. I felt like I wanted to spend more time there, but I also wanted to spend enough time in Los Angeles as well. We got up at around 10 am, got ready, and checked out at 12 pm. We planned to have breakfast at the Wynn (second attempt to try their buffet) but again the line was a 2-hour wait and the one at the Bellagio was also around 2-hour wait. So, we just had breakfast at the Treasure Island, since it's only 45 minutes wait. For around 22 dollars, we had a brunch buffet with champagne. I love the champagne part, but the buffet was OK, not the best that I have been. I probably had 5-6 glasses of champagne there. I took a funny picture of me with a cotton candy there hehe.

We put our stuff in the car and walked around the Strip again. The girls went shopping, and Alex Kwa and I just accompanied them and looked around as well. We spent most of our time at the Caesars Palace and the Bellagio where we watch the water show again (watch the interior of the Bellagio and its Christmas display here). We took a picture in front of Paris Hotel (picture on the right). Then, we went to Venetian Hotel where we had a pretty good gelato ice cream (watch the interior of the Venetian Hotel with its gondolas). I had coffee there and we headed back to LA at around 9 pm. Driving for around 4 hours, we arrived in LA at around 1 am. It was a great trip, especially with friends. I felt really tired when we got to LA, but I had so much fun.

California Trip Part I: San Francisco Dec 18-20

After a long and extremely busy semester, I rewarded myself a trip to California to visit some of my friends there, including San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, Nevada. The first trip is my 2-day trip to San Francisco.


DAY 1 - Ti Couz Crepes, Japan Town, Ghirardelli Square
I arrived in San Francisco at around 8 pm because of some (expected) 1.5-hour delay in Chicago O'Hare airport. Indah picked me up and we went directly for dinner at Thai Cafe and had their awesome Duck fried rice. From there we had our dessert at Ti Couz, I felt like being on our trip to Bandung again earlier this summer, with all the fun and the culinary tour. I had flambe rum and vanilla ice cream crepe at Ti Couz and there were some dramatic fire show by the waiter (watch the fire show on youtube).

Then, I went to Japantown and took some pictures in front of the five-tiered pagoda. The shops were mostly closed there since we got there around 10 pm, then we went to Ghirardelli Square where the first Ghirardelli chocolate shop first opened.


DAY 2 - Sushimaru, Silicon Valley, Google, Stanford U, Golden Gate Bridge
We started the following day having sushi lunch at Sushimaru. (Watch us having sushi at youtube). We had white tuna tataki, grilled salmon, soft shell crab, fatty tuna sushi, eel sushi, and lots of other sashimi... it was awesome. Then we headed to Palo Alto to visit Stanford University.

The Romanesque and Mission style Stanford University campus is really huge covering 8,200 acres and larger than the downtown district of San Francisco. The chapel in the university is also very beautiful and can only be used by Stanford alumni for wedding ceremonies. Next destination is driving around Mountain View and Silicon Valley to see many software company headquarters such as Google, etc.

Then we picked up Levina and headed to San Francisco for dinner at Bamboo Village where we had Indonesian food: risoles, siomay bandung, kwetiau siram, nasi rames, etc. After having dinner, we went to the Golden Gate Bridge and took some pictures there. The Golden Gate Bridge has a single span of 4,200 ft (1,280 m).

DAY 3 - Maru Ichi, SF MoMA, Yerba Buena
It's my last day in San Francisco and I had to leave at 4 pm to Los Angeles. We had breakfast at Maru Ichi Japanese Noodle House in Mountain View having their awesome spicy noodle pork and pork fat nyummm hahah there you go, I need to add some more lbs to my weight anyways. After lunch, we visited San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Mario Botta. The highlight of this building is the 125-ft (38 m) cylindrical skylight, which channels light down to the first floor atrium court.

I walked across the museum to visit Yerba Buena Center for the Arts which is situated at the heart of SoMa (south of Market). The Yerba Buena Gardens has an awesome landscape. We then rushed to SF Int'l airport since I had to catch a flight at 4 pm and I freaked out coz we had pretty bad traffic jam on the way to the airport. I took a picture of the Transamerica Pyramid Building, the tallest building in the city by William Pereira that reaches 853 ft (260 m) in height on our way to the airport. Good thing the highway was pretty clear, thanks to the help of iPhone for dodging heavy traffic that I got to the airport right an hour before it took off.

First Winter Storm this year

Last Saturday was the first winter storm of this winter season. I took both pictures on the left from my apartment, the first one is during the snow storm and the second one is when the storm has passed by. It's good to see some snow after all the cold weather the past several days.

And according to weather.com, there will be two winter storms--one in the Northeast, one in the Northwest--impacting the country today.

My Super Messy Desk during Final Week

Picture on the left is my super messy desk I took today... It's actually a lot messier before I took the picture, but I have cleared out a bunch of tracing paper that were scattered around. It's one more week until final review... I'm so excited that this semester is almost over and I finally will be able to get enough sleep, but on the same time I am quite nervous for the final review next Thursday. I have planned to sleep for 4 hours a day starting last Sunday (the end of Thanksgiving holiday). It works out pretty well. I got many things done... I just have to perform my best for the final review.

Again, coming from strong science background, I have to try to put more effort than most people who have design background to be able to compete and deliver good result. It's pretty much all new to me: model-making, wood-cutting, presentation boards, AutoCAD, 3D Max, and other architectural software. Yeap, I learnt the logic and algorithm behind softwares during my undergraduate and I was taught how to make software; but simply using architectural softwares is a whole different thing. It's all about precision and details.

First picture on the left is my first model with a curve, the second one is my current conceptual model that I have been working on. The project is to design a kayak facility located on Chicago downtown waterfront. It's very interesting project and we are to think about all the details: flooring, roofing, walls, ramps, slopes, drainage system, water management, natural lights, kayak storage system, kayak paddles, how to bring kayak to the water, and so many other things.

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving 2007!!!

This is probably my first entry about my personal life after a while... yeah and it's probably my first long weekend with friends without doing any of the studio work at all (and I am having panic attack now!!). It was worth it, I think being an architect in the future, a strong network and many friends are very very important. And also I had so much stress lifted out and I had so much fun this long Thanksgiving holiday.

I don't have any family in the US (just some distant ones in different states), so all I have are friends. And I am so excited living in Chicago that it is the destination for most people living in the surroundings for Thanksgiving. I met so many friends (planned and unplanned) just in the last 3 days, old and new friends from all over... Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Madison, LA, SF, St Louis, etc.

On Thursday, we went to Penang for late lunch had their awesome stingray, hainanese chicken, kangkung belacan, mango shrimp, and rendang beef, and some other food, nyummy! Then, we went to Millenium Park to see people ice skate and to visit the Cloud Gate sculpture, and I recorded a video there and picture on the right of us underneath the Bean. Most of places on Thanksgiving Thursday are closed and the only places open are mostly located in Chinatown, so we could not go to any jazz lounges or any other places. I called my friend, Felita, to ask what's open and she told me that she was going to Aurora Factory Outlet coz they were open at midnight. So, we had dinner first in Joy Yee's and met so many friends there before going to the outlet (picture on the right). We tried to go there but stuck in traffic for freakin 3 hours (one that should take about 30 minutes), and most of my friends and I didnt buy anything, only the girls, coz it was too crowded and felt rushed.

Black Friday
Back from the outlet, we all slept and woke up at noon hahaha. Renato, Vincent, Mitriya, and Jerry spent the night in my apt and it was fun, especially to share the one and only bathroom when all of us got up hahaha. We had really late lunch at Ken Kee in Chinatown and started our shopping in the afternoon while Mitriya and Jerry went to see Wicked broadway show. I got couple of things from Armani Exchange and Ban Rep, and it's just on regular sale since the Black Friday sale is only for this morning. It's much better since there were less customers and much less chaotic. After most of the stores closed at 10 pm, we had dinner at Giordano's Chicago deep dish pizza... nyummmm....

On Saturday, we had dim sum breakfast at Phoenix and I was very excited since I surprisingly met Michael (from Milwaukee) and Vincent (Chicago suburbs) my old high school friends. And then I met my old friends from Madison and guess what... we had 47 dimsum entries... it was crazy. Hahahaha... After that we went to University of Chicago since Vincent was really excited to see the Physics department; and finally attended a mass at Old St Mary's church in the end of the day.

Final Review for Visual Training

My theme is constant in variable, variable in constant. Or in other words similarity in variety, and vice versa. It's pretty much a sum up of what I have done throughout the semester for this visual training class and all its countless hours of taking pictures of all the buildings on sunny days (and I tell you it's very hard to find sunny days during fall season and if it's sunny it's usually very windy), editing them, finding connection, figuring out concepts, looking for patterns, including my attempt to do some video project for the final two weeks but not presented. My initial study was doors in Chicago then I took a departure to vertical perspective study of skyscrapers in Chicago. And finally, for my final reviews I combined all of them together with the outlines to show the patterns I can find in terms of space and geometry in the variety of buildings (alleys, facades, doors) in Chicago.

Video of My Desk in Crown Hall

I got bored, so I recorded what I usually see when I work in Crown Hall including my messy desk which gets much messier towards the end of the semester. We are working on designing a Kayak facility by the Chicago riverfront in downtown Chicago and I made an initial model for it. I spent overnight in Crown Hall (with a bunch of other people too) last Thursday night and Sunday night coz of mid and final reviews of some classes/studio work. It's gonna get worse for the next few weeks before winter break.

LED light is the new future

Picture on the right is a cool twisted info/news/ad display on some Chicago street using LED (light-emitting-diode) lights that I took a while ago. This display wouldn't have been available a decade ago before the perfection of LED lights and the invention of blue LED using gallium nitride (GaN) by Shuji Nakamura in 1993 making it now possible to create white light by combining the separate red, green, and blue LEDs.

I came across this city of Ann Arbor, Michigan press release for plans to convert all of its more than 1,000 streetlights to LED lamps, at a cost of over $600,000. The city expects to save at least $100,000 a year in costs and reduce greenhouse emissions by over 2,400 tons annually.

Some of its advantages (based on Wikipedia):

• High durability - no filament or tube to break
• Long life span - LEDs last approximately 100,000 hours
• Low power consumption - reduces overall electricity bill
• Flexible application – small size of LEDs can lead to unique lighting devices. For example, with a cluster of LEDs a wide variety of illumination distributions can be generated
• Low heat generation – very little parasitic energy loss

With this great invention and more research, it's possible that in the near future LED lights will replace all current incandescent and florescent light bulbs.

Chicago Ten Tallest Buildings Video (and Other Vids)

Ten Tallest Buildings in Chicago: From the Ground Up. A perspective study of pedestrian's point of view. This is my project extension using photographs/video for my visual training class.


I also tried some other experiments with time lapse before editing the video for the class project. My original plan was to create a video that shows the dynamic Chicago using time lapse, but since the time won't allow me to do it (Nov 19 is Final Presentation) so I presented the "Ten Tallest Buildings in Chicago" instead.

Experiment 1: a video with individual pictures taken from Crown Hall south porch to north porch showing how architecture students work in the studio.

Experiment 2: Another time lapse experiment for my visual training class while I was still waiting for my tripod and wireless remote for my nikon camera to arrive in mail. The first minute taken from Professor Mallgrave's condo on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago Downtown (in one of Mies's building) when we had a social party there. The second half is Roosevelet train station taken from my apartment.

Lawn Nation Proposal for Nature Museum

I have finally finished writing proposal last Thursday and then shipped it on Friday for the Lawn Nation exhibit that is set to open in May 2008 at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. It's about a week late since the deadline due to my studio work and trip to Minneapolis, but my professor told us that it should be okay as long as we notified them that we were working on it.

My 17-page proposal (with lots of pictures ^_^) basically argues that lawn is the new "brown" or not environmentally friendly and I also give some "green" alternative solutions, such as native plants, green roofs, and living walls. PDF file is availabe upon request, just let me know.

2nd Place in IIT Photo Contest

I'm so excited that I just got email from IIT International center that I won 2nd place in the People category for my Sanghyang Jaran Dance photo. I don't really care about the gift card prize since I submitted the pictures just for fun anyways, I'm just excited that I won and it will be displayed during the Education Week. I took the picture during my vacation to Bali in July this year.

Sanghyang Jaran or Kuda Lumping Dance, Bali, Indonesia
An entranced male who dances like a horse (jaran). He dances around fire created by burning and scorching coconut shell. If the sanghyang song leads him to fire, then he will dance on the fire (kicking the coconut shell, making a burning effects, biting the burning coconut shell). A priest is always on hand to help bring the dancers out of their trance-state at the end of the performance.

Chicago Downtown Riverfront Model

This is what occupied my whole time after the Minneapolis trip. I am amazed how a team of 7 people could pull it off in just 5 days to make this model (1' = 1/32" scale) of Chicago Downtown Riverfront. There are 3 groups that made 3 models of different scales and my group did the middle scale among the three. The purpose of making this model is to be used as a site study or a base for our next project: a Kayak Post on Chicago River (I'm so excited! Finally real projects). We used MDF board for the 4-part base and chipboard of different thickness for all of the buildings and landscape. It was my first attempt in model-making and it's great how I could learn so much by doing it and from other people. I made the London Guarantee building, One Illinois Center building, Columbus Plaza building, and some other details.

Our model being reviewed

Chicago downtown riverfront model

More detailed view of the model

Finally, Watchout! Bum bum bum... Lindazilla has come to destroy the city... hehehe..

Minneapolis Architectural Field Trip Oct 25-27

My mom just asked what my blog is, so I guess it's time to update it. I've been so busy with studio and other classes after the trip from Minneapolis about a week ago making it impossible to spare some time to update my blog. After the model-making assignment is done, I think I can spare about an hour to update this blog.

Minneapolis trip is very insightful and inspiring. I have been to Minneapolis several times, but not for intensive architectural trip like this one.

DAY 1 - National Farmer's Bank and Mankato Kasota Stone Quarry
We left Chicago at 5 am in Paul's rockin' car, there were five of us in the car: Paul, Linda, Eung Joo, Cat, and I. It's a studio class field trip, so we all met in Minneapolis and left Chicago on our own. It took us about 7 hour to drive from Chicago to our first destination.

National Farmer's Bank
We first went to National Farmer's Bank designed by Louis H. Sullivan. It was built in 1908, and was the first of Sullivan's "jewel boxes". The building is clad in red brick with green terra cotta bands, and features two large arches.

Louis Sullivan's vision in designing this building is not create a style of architecture that truly represents the people in the present without any reminiscence from the past. His idea "Form should follow function" would much influence future great architects such as his young draftsman Frank Lloyd Wright.

Mankato Kasota Stone Quarry

We had a three-hour long tour with a very passionate tour guide for our trip to the stone quarry. It's probably one of my favorite destination in this trip where I actually got a hand-on experience to learn how they process the stone from taking the stone from nature until the end product. We went to the quarry and saw how they cut and transported thousands kilograms of stones and also learnt the process of picking the land that is good to be stone quarry. At the workshop (a big one) that was started about a hundred years ago, it was really insightful to see several process of cutting wood.

DAY 2 - Blu Dot, VJAA, Flat Pak House, Guthrie Theater, MS&R, Minneapolis Public Library, Minneapolis Federal Courthouse

Blu Dot
http://www.bludot.com/
We started our day by visiting the office of Blu Dot, a design company that was formed in 1997 and now has grown with 70 employees. Their furniture design clients includes Crate and Barrel, Target, etc. We went to see where the design process takes place, some of their product lines, workplace, workshop, and the unexpected huge warehouse.

Vincent James Associates Architects Office
http://www.vjaa.com/
After visiting Blu Dot, we went straight to Vincent James Associates Architects Office. They have lots of conceptual and very detailed models and their office is very clean and cozy with lots of natural lights. I noticed they didn't use any artificial lights during the day. Jennifer Yoos talked a lot about VJAA's recent projects, choices of materials in construction, and many other insightful information one would expect working in an architectural firm.

Flat Pak House
http://www.flatpackhouse.com/
It's interesting that the founder FlatPak house system also worked for Blu Dot before and I noticed many Blu Dot furniture in this house. FlatPak sells a configuration system that is based on costumized modulation of components; consultations can be made in several hours and a house could be done as fast as 6 months.

Guthrie Theater
http://www.guthrietheater.org/
Designed by Jean Nouvel, this multi-million dollar project is one of my favorite new buildings in Minneapolis for it's engineering feat and artistic look both indoor and outdoor.

Called "a 21st century dream factory" by Time Magazine, the new Guthrie boasts three stages, a full-service restaurant, pre-show dining, numerous bars and some of the best views of Minneapolis to be found in the city.

The famous cantilevered lobby known as the "Endless Bridge" is an observatory for the Mississippi River falls and landscape. Jean Nouvel's primary goal was to create an exciting and inspiring place for people to gather at the river. Stretching more than half a block (178 feet) from the building face, the 30-foot-wide Endless Bridge towers over West River Parkway. One of the longest occupied cantilevers in the world, the Guthrie's Endless Bridge is quite an engineering feat.

Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle
http://www.msrltd.com/
This is the kind of architecture firm I would want to work for, it looks chaotic, fun, and creative. Their office is big and spacious with a great sense of openness. It is located in a restored building that was saved after the great explosion back then. Their projects are very interesting and according to Jackie (the director of marketing) they don't do hotels or malls, but focuses on public service buildings such as schools and libraries. I also noticed that they did a restoration of an abandoned warehouse for a training/university facility for Urban Outfitters employees.

Minneapolis Public Library
http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/
We didn't have enough time to get in, but we drove by it. It's designed by Cesar Pelli and its construction was done in 2006 that costed $140 million. I didn't take a picture of this library, but I uploaded a picture of the library from wikipedia on the left.


Minneapolis Federal Courthouse
Minneapolis Federal Courthouse was our last stop for the long long day. We didn't go inside the building but observe the landscape of the plaza. The plaza includes the popular and whimsical "Rockman" sculptures, designed by Tom Otterness.

Paul, fellow classmate, who is pursuing Master's in Landscape Architecture got excited with the landscape and nature, jumped around and even climbed the sculpture... err only for the first 10 minutes since the security guard came out from the building and gave warning.


DAY 3 - UMN Ralph Rapson Hall, Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis Rowing Club Boathouse, Christ Church Lutheran, Women's Suffrage Memorial

UMN Ralph Rapson Hall
We began our third day by visiting the University of Minnesota Ralph Rapson Hall or the Architecture department building extension. It's good to see how architecture students from other universities do their work and I personally like their chaotic workspace, although I prefer Crown Hall's openness instead of UMN's seemingly segregated/private workspace for the architecture students.

The addition to the Archietcture building was designed by Steven Holl and completed in 2002 and it also won an American Institute of Architects award for its innovative design.

Weisman Art Museum
http://www.weisman.umn.edu/
The Weisman Art Museum designed by Frank Gehry and completed in 1993 is located just within a walking distance from UMN Ralph Rapson Hall.


Minneapolis Rowing Club Boathouse
http://www.mplsrowing.org/
The original Boathouse was tragically burned in 1997 destroying nearling everything the Club owned, and in this new building the architect (Vincent James architect) put emphasis on choosing exterior materials that can withstand fire. The new boathouse which was opened for official use in 2002 has a distinctive parabolic roof and very distinctive wood ribbing in the interior.

According to the architect Dave Shepard, who gave us the tour to the boathouse, the cost of the building construction is approximately $70 per square footage. Its roof is wedge-shaped, rising to peaks in the northeast and the southwest corners with roof trusses that was inspired by the arc of rowers' oars as they dip and rise in the water.

Christ Church Lutheran
http://www.christchurchluth.org/
This church is a Saarinen masterpiece in Minneapolis. It is a landmark building designed by Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen and built in 1494. Later on, his son, Eero Saarinen did the education wing expansion in 1962. Since it was initially built, there has been no renovation done to the church. The first time I arrived at this church, I was not compelled with the exterior, but I was amazed with the interior of the church as I stepped into the church. It is a work of architectural genius, a place of piece and quiet exhilaration. Through a sublime use of materials and light, Finnish-American architect Eliel Saarinen created a masterpiece in 1949, an "honest" church that he claimed sprang "from the physical and spiritual characteristics of the people."

Women's Suffrage Memorial
It's our last stop in this architectural trip. The Women's Suffrage Memorial/the Garden of Time was designed by Ralph Nelson and Raveevarn Choksombatchi in 2000. It is a memorial to the women who fought for the right to vote. I was not very familiar with the names, but I was very attracted with the construction of the memorial and the logic and meaning of the horizontal and vertical pipes that represent the life of the significant women involved in the efforts. A living-organic memorial, it uses native flowers, grasses, and trees surrounding a woven metal trellis timeline that documents the people and events around the suffrage movement.

Box of Solitude 3D Model

I did a more detailed 3D Model of my previous third project for my studio class using 3D Max 9 Studio. It is now rendered with pine wood material applied to it and also the box in exploded axonometric views is available. It is my first time using 3D Max Studio, still much room for improvement. Link to previous entry is here: Box of Solitude.

Another Hail Storm Video

Here's another hail storm video from someone else in downtown Chicago that happened last Thursday. It looks really that bad from the streets.

American Dream song, Jakatta

Currently, I really like this song, cool vid clip. American Dream, by Jakatta.

AKOENADI.COM is Gone

I have been soooo busy for the past several weeks that I forgot to renew my domain name www.akoenadi.com, and it's past due for more than 19 days and it's already cancelled. I called my web hosting company and they said that the cost for getting the domain name back is $80 + some other cost and I am not willing to pay that much. The name will be released in the earliest 90 days to the public, provided if noone has backordered it. If I have renewed it yesterday, I would be fine... oh well...

For now, akoenadi.com is not available, and I am thinking about buying a different domain name since I still have all the website files on my web hosting server. A back up of my website is available through my old campus CS account: http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~koenadi/

The information I have online was last updated in January 2006 (1.5 years ago), so it's not current. But, you can see all my work up to January 2006.

Hail Storm in Chicago

It happened so quick, just less than five minutes. I saw these gloomy and ominous cloud coming from the west towards Chicago downtown and it suddenly passed us just in a matter of couple minutes bringing hail storm. I uploaded the video I took, you could just click the play button below to see what happened in 2-3 minutes.
(picture on the right: It's coming... it's coming...)

World Families and Their One Week of Food

I got this pictures from my visual training professor and I thought it would be interesting to post on my blog. Pay attention to the amount of fresh foods vs. processed foods. Also to the quantity and variety. Dollar numbers may not be current. Eye opening!

Japan: The Ukita family of Kodaira City
Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 yen or $317.25

Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11

Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98

Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09

Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27

Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53

Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55

Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03

Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23

What an Architecture Professor Would Say

Much thanks to my classmate Michael in keeping notes of interesting quotes from our architecture professors during our reviews. Now you know why it's not easy switching from hard core science to understanding a much conceptual approach of architecture, something I have to get used to and learn. It's interesting though, I get to learn lots of cool vocabs ^_^

"within the distortion, it is distorted"
"the hummer is for the gas"
"the poor kid.. and she has on those god awful overalls"
"the family had bananas"
"i wonder, so what?"
"This drawing is just hanging here like a piece of underwear"
"It's a project that talks about the penetration of the members"
"maniacal precision"
"just offset, ding ding ding ding ding"
"this thing would be exploding in the direction that it operates"
"DASH DOT!"
"it looks wrong. it looks stubby"
"fear is good."
"you are not exposing something that is concealed"
"after you say it, it says it"
"maybe we need a vintage earth"
"these are more vacuous"
"phenominonlogically"
"the sense of the non-bean, what does that mean?"
"your line becomes a field"
"absorb the corbity of the forms"
"aestheticize"
"he's done a lot of interesting things like shot himself and documented it"
"dirty bales are clean bales made of dirty things"
"maybe you shouldn't run an idea to end game... no you should"
"burn it. ... i don't know"
"are you mad at this project?"
"it is much happier horizontally"
"it mimics or apes the multicolored project"
"super bale"
"i think your bale really wants to work"
"The sheet as a Field"
"propitiously rapidly imposing images"
"demeomorphic"
"you can't just co-op geometry willy nilly"
"the point of manifestation of an intention"
"you got to have something sharp up there that blows our brains out"

Rainy Day in Chicago

It's mid October, but lately the weather's been acting funny, it's so humid and warm. So, we might be getting late fall and later on late winter. The average temperature during the day for the past week is like above 20 C or in the 80s F. I took the picture above from my desk that is facing the window, it's Roosevelt and Wabash Ave after rain. I like the reflection of the lights on the wet roads.

It's Wednesday, and finally the much-needed-time-to-have-a-freakin
-enough-sleep Fall Break has come!! So, the next Thursday and Friday are holidays and I could catch up finishing all my projects and have much needed rest... and oh yeah, workout, it hasn't been as routine as I wanted it to be since I started school this semester.

I had panda eyes yesterday coz I slept only for 4 hours in the last 72 hours to prepare the take home essay for my Architectural History class, and I am glad that I'm finally done. I just have to have a much more efficient time management next time, but I still have to keep up my blog, coz it's for you all my family in Jakarta to keep track on how I'm doing here ;).

Mies van der Rohe Way

I was so excited today when I found that there actually exists Mies van der Rohe Way! He's the founder of the college of architecture at IIT and a famous modern architect, and most of all he's one of my main reasons why I chose to study architecture here. I was taking pictures downtown for my Visual Training class, my project to do study on vertical perspective. Mies van der Rohe Way is somewhere behind John Hancock building. It's cool to know that there's actually a road named for this influential architect at his time.

I took more than 200 pictures today although the weather wasn't very good (cloudy), but it's better than doing it tomorrow (it'll be raining). I did 3 series of the pictures below.

Officially a member of the Quarter Century Club

Yeah, I am finally 25 years old now, what most people say a prime age for a guy's age. Lots of things that I have accomplished so far, got my bachelor's degree in computer science from one of the top ten school in the US for CS major, and now finally starting to do my long-time passion, architecture. I would regard my age as the starting point of my career, the starting point of my life, where I know for sure what I want to do with my life. Not that I have planned everything for the next ten years or more, but at least I know I am doing what I am passionate about and I hope to be successful in it after I graduated and got my Master in Architecture degree.

I haven't found a circle of Indonesian friends in Chicago yet, but I'm lucky to have my fellow classmates to celebrate my birthday with. On Friday, we went to Grace O'Malleys on S Michigan Ave nearby my place to have couple of drinks and dinner, it was nice to have cool friends with so many different backgrounds.

The following day, Kiki actually drove from Madison to Chicago to celebrate my bday and with Suwandi we went to Cho Sun Ok Korean restaurant to have dinner. It was awesome awesome dinner, lots of kimchi selection, cooking slices of beef on the grill, nyummy gal bi, spicy soup, dumplings, and ended with huge portion of kimchi fried rice. I still couldnt believe how three of us actually finished it.

Feeling guilty for the amount of food we had, we had a stroll from my apartment to Millenium park since Kiki haven't seen the new Cloud Gate structure, the Crown Fountain, and Jay Pritzker Pavillion up to Chicago River and North Michigan Ave. Took a couple pictures there and headed back home.

Box Worx Review Day

It's the third project for my studio class after the field project in downtown Chicago and bale project. I did a bale of pine cones before. The third project is about a Box of Solitude, with regards to the previous project as well.

My concept for this project is separation from the surrounding crowd and influences into your inner state of solitude in your own mind. I chose pine wood since I used pine cone from my last project and I cut them into 108 sticks to create a 5x5x5 cube units. The inner cube in the center-most is enclosed with pine wood panel representing my state of solitude in the form of solid cube; the middle cube (3x3x3) is randomly enclosed with 12 wood panels in the form of semi-solid cube representing the influences from the surrounding crowd/noises in my journey to solitude. The outer most are cube frames, and there's supposed to be an imaginary cube outside of that in the form of invisible cubes.

Pine wood is used since I used pine cone from last project. It is actually a pretty hard wood to work on especially in thinner pieces.

We had 1.5 weeks time to work on this project: from concepts, choosing and researching types of wood, learning woodworking in the workshop, and to the final result. I did many conceptual drawings, even on 3D model as well, then did 2-3 experiments using different methods with pine wood, and final method to be used in the end. Challenging... yet rewarding...

Coming from a strong science background, I am finally getting adjusted to the nature of architecture schools, it's not all about direct solutions and clear goals. We are expected to think beyond that, conceptually and critically. Other than that, I also learn a lot from my peers who came from many different backgrounds. Most student projects presented today I found very interesting and very good conceptually and design-wise. What made my day, I think I had a fairly good review for all of my hard work, and it motivates me for the next projects (which is as motivating as my fairly bad review for my previous project, I guess bad or good review doesn't matter, I just have to give it all). Reviewers are professors Catherine Wetzel, Peter Osler, and Martin Klaeschen.

Field Work Project

Abstract... abstract... abstract. Most of the assignments from the studio and some other classes are pretty abstract and initially I had difficulties in understanding them. But as more and more assignments are coming, I get to understand the idea is to force us to think.

The first site project was very interesting that we learn about field and only field... the space, the expansion of something. We were to create a new field as a temporary public work that affords the opportunity for public viewing. So we picked six trees by the south side of the river, nearby Michigan Avenue to work on. I think the project was pretty successful as many passerby stopped and asked what we are doing, and some of them even gave compliments to our work.

The nature of the project is to explore field in the scale of an urban context. Field within a field of the city, with consideration of site relationships, scale, alignment, redefinition, and clarification. Picture: our project actually glows in the dark at night.

Materials: we used almost 1000 bamboo sticks and 1000 florescent and high reflective straws to cover an area under 6 trees. The idea came from the random shadow of the sunlight that goes through the leaves and the falling dead leaves to the ground, so the straws were placed and bent towards the tree and went vertical as they were farther from the tree. The lines show the region of the trees (localized center) and continuity, the idea of the lines came from the reflection of the water from the river. Overall we spent about 9-10 hours in project execution. But it was fun, except for the fierce mosquitoes ha ha ha. I can't wait to work on the next project, hope it will be fun.

Set up Flickr account

Since my Canon SD600 broke, I have been carrying around my bulky Nikon D50 dslr camera around, and although it's not as convenient as my tiny canon, actually it gives much better result ^_^ with its weight and size trade off. So, I set up a new Flickr account with initial pictures of Chicago architecture and I am planning to add more awesome architectural pictures down the road.
So have a look at my flickr album which I will be actively adding new pictures: My Flickr album

I have been doing my endless class assignments. Having had lesser sleep since I started my graduate studies in architecture, I will probably be much less active in blogging and focus my time on my studio work. But I will definitely upload new pictures, including the studio and my project partners and also my grad friends. Pictures tell a thousand words, don't they? ^_^

Hiks My Camera is Broken :(

Several days ago... my camera suddenly died. It just won't turn on. It has taken tens of thousands pictures since December 2006, I couldn't find the receipt and the warranty card is also gone... So my blog would be pictureless for a while until I get a new camera. So far, my broken camera was the best... gave great picture quality, great lighting, and lots of great features... Canon Powershot SD 600... I'll just wait a while until a get a new one... for now.. no pictures :(. Maybe I'll put 1 mega pixel picture from my cellphone once in a while.

Getting Settled in Chicago: Thunderstorm, Class Schedule, Chicago Architecture, and Why IIT

It's 8 pm now, got a class at 6.25 pm that was cancelled at Crown Hall building. Now stranded in the building because there's a thunderstorm out there and I won't be running with my backpack and get soaking wet. My schedule this semester looks scary and the following semester as well, in fact my 3-year study at the IIT would be crazy... it would be 18 graduate credits every semester. In an average of 4-to-5-hour-a-day classes with additional projects and homework outside class... I'll be literally swarmed with work.

IIT probably in general is an average school (96th National rank from usnews) especially compared to my undergrad study at the UW-Madison (38th rank, with it's National top 10 Computer Science major). But it's Architecture program is exceptional, in fact this school was started as an Architecture school by Mies van der Rohe (with it's famous quote "Less is More"). I am glad that I chose this school compared to other schools (and that I have to reject that project assistant position offer from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with its full tuition + living stipend benefit). It's location in Chicago, where there are so many modern and famous architecture makes it the best place to study architecture. Mies also built many landmark buildings during his lifetime here, including Crown Hall building, where I am so excited that I will be using it during my first year here as my studio workspace (first picture on the left taken last evening on my way home).

As a benefit for being a Morgenstern scholar, I am very grateful that I will have the opportunity to do a paid internship next year with one of sponsoring Chicago architectural firms: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Murphy/Jahn, DeStefano & PArtners, Krueck and Sexton, and Annex 5. I am really really looking forward to it, I just have to give my best effort, above and beyond, for all my period of studies here... This is the starting year of my career... (pic on the left was taken last night, can u spot who that celebrity is?)

Finally back to Chicago

I am finally back to Chicago. It felt very surreal during my initial arrival back to the US; I didn't know what to feel - excited? sad? happy?

Being four months in Indonesia, I was in my comfort zone already around my good friends and my family. Now, I am in the US, the greatest country in the world, but without any family members and limited number of friends that I got to know so far. I know it's for the greater plan in the future: I am finally pursuing my dream. And I smile... It isn't so bad. I do miss home, but my ambition for future overcomes that.

It's been a week here. I had most things settled: got a new cellphone, bought a new laptop, met my advisor, got a bank account set up, and got an apartment to live. I am so excited that I won't be homeless and will be staying in downtown Chicago on Michigan ave; one block away from subway station, right next to Grant Park, and a block away from grocery store. The most exciting part is it will be on the 37th floor with a-million-dollar city view of downtown Chicago; I know where to put my drafting table with that inspiring view.

I took my stuff from my friend's house yesterday with much help from Kiki and Suwandi (my new roommate), then planning to move this weekend. We went to this awesome Brazilian steakhouse for dinner, Texas de Brazil Churrascaria in Schaumburg. They serve unlimited fillet mignon, steaks, lamb chops, chicken steak, baby back ribs... hmm....

Sudden Trip to Bandung City

Bandung offers numerous options of places to eat and pamper yourself. So, after another boring days in Jakarta... I decided to visit Bandung again (for the third time this summer) just to eat and have fun. There were only three of us: Ferdy, Indah, and I; then my good old friend Sondhi and Indah's friend Levina joined us afterwards in Bandung.

This is surprisingly Indah's first visit to Bandung. So, this is a perfect opportunity to use the little time we have to explore as many places to eat as we can. It was a very intensive culinary tour. We went to try different foods at an average of 6 restaurants a day.

List of places we went to eat:
DAY 1
1.Mie Aloy Palembang in Gading before leaving to Bandung
2. Rumah Strawberry - Strawberry milk and strawberry original and poffertjes
3. Sate Kelinci Pak Rusli - Gulai kambing, rabbit satay
4. Cafe Du Chocolate - Choco Pizza
5. Warung Lela - Yamien asin special + bakso etc2
6. The Valley Bistro - 4 various dessert/cakes





DAY 2
1. 1 full portion of Gudeg and breakfast at Prima Rasa
2. Cafe Bali - Pacar Cina Dessert, Kolak Pisang
3. Kopi Selasar Soenaryo - Hazelnut Coffee
4. Bakso Malang Enggal - 12 pieces of big bakso!!
5. Roemah Nenek - Pizza, nasi nori, nasi lidah, potato wedges
6. Yoghurt Cisangkuy - Lychee and strawberry yoghurt
7. Paris Von Java Mocha Blend - Some latte/coffe mix




DAY 3
1. Rm Evin - Tahu Gempol, ikan nori
2. Warung Kopi Purnama - Roti Srikaya, Mie Kocok, Kopi Susu
3. Cizz - Fruit mix cheesecake, Strawberry Cheese cake

Vacation in Bali

Bali offers you a gazillion things that you can do. From family activities to great night life choices. A week of vacation is not enough to explore Bali thoroughly. I went with my family there, so no clubbing and mostly are family activities.

DAY 1 - Arrival in Bali, Made's Warung, and the Ahimsa villas

We got an afternoon flight from Jakarta, so we lost like half a day on our first day. We stayed at the Ahimsa in Seminyak area for the first 3 nights in a 2-bedroom villa with a private pool (first night was in a 1-bedroom villa then upgraded to a 2-bedroom the following nights). Seminyak area is more popular to foreigners as I saw more Europeans, Australians, Japanese, and Koreans here because most domestic visitors would choose Kuta. We’re in fact the only Indonesians who stayed at the Ahimsa. If you go to Bali, you should really consider staying in Seminyak area because it’s not as commercialized as Kuta and there are lots of bars and clubs here as well (nearby Ku de Ta, Hu’u, Made’s Warung, etc). We went to Made’s Warung in Seminyak for dinner and then went swimming in the pool.

DAY 2 - Café Marzano, Sunset in Seminyak Beach, Sungai Seafood

We found this awesome Italian restaurant on Jalan Kunti, Café Marzano; the prices are pretty cheap (30-60 K rupiah) and most of the pastas are homemade. I talked to the owner who took her family to Bali from Naples, Italy and opened a restaurant there; her mom makes the pasta and her dad cooks. We ordered tortellini, gnocchi, mixed pasta, pizza, and tiramisu; you should definitely try this restaurant when you’re here, coz it’s very reasonably priced, great food, and nice atmosphere as well.

We then took a long-two-hour walk on Seminyak beach and Laksmana road back to the hotel. Seminyak beach is not as crowded as Kuta Beach, but it is still nice to watch sunset there. You can also go to the famous Ku de Ta restaurant/lounge by the beach.

We went for a swim again in our villa then went to Sungai Seafood resto for dinner in Tuban area (Chinese food), where you can eat fresh live fish. But be careful when you choose the fish, as it could be pricy (we ordered 1 kg fish worth 35K/ounce = 350K rupiah or $40 for 1 damn fish without checking the price, but it was so damn good).

DAY 3 - Lazy Day, Barong Show, Prana Spa, Balé Bali

A lazy day in our villa. We started our day eating awesome Ahimsa bfast and also Indo bfast prepared by maids who cooked in our kitchen. Then we went to see Barong performance in Suwung. If you go to Bali, you should go to one of these shows and make sure to check their schedule coz some of them are not available daily. It usually costs 50K rupiah (~5 dollars) per person to watch these one-hour shows. Watch a video of Barong dance I recorded on youtube.

We then just got lazy in the villa, chatted, and went for a swim. In the afternoon my mom and dad went for a spa at Prana spa, a gift from me for my mom’s birthday. Prana spa is one of the well-known spa and it has Turkish décor and style, make sure you ask for local price (they would give you a 30% discount), the cost for the spa starts from $60 + 21% tax, but you should try the Spirit of Bali package. Then dinner at Balé Bali, a nice and cozy restaurant on Jalan Kunti, bring your laptop here as they provide free wireless internet.

DAY 4 - Tirtaempul Pura, Kintamani, Ubud, and Awesome Kecak Show

Today we planned to go to Ubud area in central Bali Island. We rented a car with the driver from the same person we always had before with very good knowledge about where to go in Bali. It cost us 65 dollars, but it usually costs around 40-50 dollars to rent a Toyota Innova (mini SUV) for around 8-10 hours a day, a great deal compared to in the US which would cost 60-70 dollars a day (insurance + under 25 y/o) for car rental only. We first went to Tampaksiring in Ubud area. Here we visited Tirtaempul Pura (temple) and its famous sacred water source. Watch the video of Tampaksiring on youtube.

Then we went to Kintamani and had a nice Indonesian buffet for lunch in a restaurant with a magnificent view overlooking Lake Batur and Mount Batur. We then went to Tegalalang to enjoy a nice view of terasering system of the paddy field, a traditional practice that has been done for hundreds of years and managed by a Subak. Then we went to a gallery in Ubud to see some paintings. At 6.30 pm, we arrived in Batubulan where we watched an awesome Kecak performance, Legong dance, and Kuda Lumping dance. Watch Kecak Dance on my youtube or watch Kuda Lumping Dance performance on youtube. Our day was ended with dinner at the Jimbaran Bay with great ocean view (but horrible and overpriced seafood).

DAY 5 - Kuta Beach, Surfing, and Panther Tattoo that looks like an iguana

We moved to Kuta and stayed at the Kuta Paradiso Hotel, so that we can enjoy Kuta beach and its surroundings in walking distance. I was planning to learn diving which I thought would only take a day to learn, but I was so disappointed to know that in fact it takes 4 days to complete. I wish I had more time in Indonesia to learn diving in Bali. So, the whole afternoon was spent for shopping around Kuta, although the job was being done by my mom and sisters. Then, I took surfing lessons from the locals.

First day surfing = could only stand up for 1 second or less. I also had a temporary panther tattoo, that most people think that it’s an iguana, a lizard, or a female figure hahaha.

DAY 6 - Surfing at Kuta Beach and Departure from Bali

Got up late! It’s the day that we have to leave Bali. I used the opportunity to go the beach again and learnt surfing from 10-12 pm and I got a pretty bad sun burn hahaha.

Second day surfing = proudly announce that I could stand up for more than 5 seconds till the shore. Finally, we had to go to the airport and bye bye Bali, thanks for the awesome culture and people. It still remains the most beautiful place on earth for me.

My Four-Day Escape to Puncak

We were so damn bored in Jakarta, so we planned to have an escape to Puncak last Tuesday-Friday. We stayed at Indrawan's villa nearby Taman Safari. Our trip were so much fun, and lucky enough there were not so many Jakarta people visiting Puncak this time, so there were almost no traffic jam. We initially planned to stay there for 2 days... but ended up staying for 4 days...

DAY 1 - Cimory Resto and a late-night swim
We arrived in Puncak in the afternoon, put our stuff, checked out the villa and the pool, and then went to Cimory Restaurant for dinner. I had Asem asem daging which sucked really bad, but the zuppa zuppa soup and the seafood fried rice were pretty good. This restaurant specializes in dairy and processes their own milk, so you should buy their milk which costs 10K rupiah (around $1) for a bottle (~1 liter), it's really fresh although I didn't see a single cow around. Next time you visit this place, you should order the sausage/bratwurst. Then we went back to the villa and had a late-night-jump-to-the-super-cold-swimming-pool challenge...

DAY 2 - Taman Safari, Rindu Alam, Puncak Pass, Jagung Bakar
We went to Taman Safari Zoo. This particular zoo in Puncak (about 50 miles from Jakarta) is unique compared to most zoos in the world, you can actually drive in it while watching the animals and you can even feed them with carrots. Watch a video of me teasing the zebras on youtube here, or watch us driving in the African village.

And then we went to Rindu Alam for dinner and surprisingly all the food were great. We ordered: gurame bakar kecap, ayam pop/spesial rindu alam, and chicken satay; and all of them were awesome. We went to Puncak Pass and had their pancake for dessert. And then took some time to digest the food we just ate and drove around (stopped by simpang raya to buy dodol garut and visited a factory outlet). Finally we went to this warung which has Karaoke and stayed there for couple hours... singing and eating smoked corn (jagung bakar).

DAY 3 - Lazy day by the pool, monopoly game, and hookah bar
We didn't do much today, just being lazy in the villa. I took a swim in apparently... really really cold water... but it was fun, I needed to burn some calories I had been binging the last few days. Then, I played a monopoly game with Indrawan's little sister and her friends (high school students), I felt like a big brother hahaha. But, it was so much fun and brought back my high school memories. It was not until around 11 pm that we actually went out.

We went out to have roasted corn (jagung bakar) with everyone (Indah, Indrawan, Indrawan's sisters and friends) at the same place we went yesterday. Then we stopped by to a hookah bar on the way home and stayed there until around 3 am... simply having good conversation and jokes. We had an apple-and-mint hookah that night, and it was a bit strong that made me a bit... high. Good thing I didn't have to drive that far to the villa, otherwise.... it would be scary. Then, we went back to the villa and went straight to our beds, it was quite a long day.

DAY 4 - Bale Cipayung and finally back to Jakarta
This is our last day in Puncak and the picture on the left is everybody who went there: Indah, Indrawan, his sister and friends, and I. It was such a fun escape to Puncak and we could finally see more greens, less concrete walls, and breathe fresh air... and finally strengthen our friendship.

We had lunch at Bale Cipayung, it's a Sundanese restaurant and we had Gurame bakar, tahu, tempe, pete goreng, pepes ikan mas, and ayam goreng. It was sooo good and the place is also quite nice and unique. You can watch how the restaurant looks like here (youtube).

About Wealth... and Life

Upon graduation, I got to think a lot about my life and lots of other aspects of life. What is life and what is one's purpose to live in this world? This is a very general topic and everyone has their own stories, but this blog entry would be an Alexander Koenadi's point of view about life and wealth.

I got into deep conversation about wealth and life with my new friend, Indah, whom I just knew for about 2 weeks but felt like we've been best friends for years. She told me that wealth only lasts for two generations, which I think is true in most cases, except if your grandparents are as filthy rich as Mr. Liem. Life is all about choices and opportunities. It was a big big moment when I chose to pursue a career in architecture and it was a great relief that my parents support my dream, that they didn't expect me to continue the family business and gave me the opportunity to pursue my dream.

I come to realize that people are all the same just with different standards, some people play with cheap toys, some other people play with fancy toys like yachts or ferraris. But basically, everybody has the same needs: the sense of accomplishment, to be loved, to be happy.... although in different standards... but the essence is the same.

Some people really do inspire me, especially those who start from scratch and become big because of their passion. I spent a couple of hours flipping Indah's dad's photography portfolio (aside from spending hours of playing nintendo wii on her huge plasma tv until 6 am), and it really amazes me how he started his career from just opening a small photography studio to be as big and famous as now. Since my dream is in architecture, my career path would be similar to her dad's. I will have to get an experience in architecture... and get some trusted partners and create a partnership before being able to have my own architecture company.

I guess that's my definition of being wealthy... To follow your dream and do your passion as your job, and I believe that money will come along with it. I believe that people will sense it if you are not passionate of what you do. About life... I also believe that happiness and sadness are just states of mind. Think positive and respect everybody... and be happy...

What do "pengangguran" people do in Jakarta?

1. WE EAT OUT

Of course, what else? Jakarta is full with good food, from street vendors to fancy restaurants, from cheap ass restaurants to freakin' expensive ones. Even if you eat out everyday, you would not be able to try all restaurants in Jakarta. I've been in Jakarta technically for about 1.5 months (and about 3 weeks in Singapore), and I can actually count with my fingers the days that I didn't go out to eat. But I am still yet to try so many other different food such as soup bakut, wotiek sanjaya, kwetiau siram, bakmi gang kelinci, and many others.

2. WE DRINK (controllably of course)

Jakarta is full with street vendors and restaurants that are open 24 hours or late at night only. This is a perfect time for.... beer and liquor!! Since we don't have to work the following day, we can simply drink, sleep late, and wake up late as well.

Jakarta imposes a very high taxation on liquor, so the prices of liquors here are usually very high compared to the US, especially the imported ones. I'm a big big big wine drinker, but I have to lower the notch down to just hard liquors like vodkas in Jakarta, coz the wine prices here are freakin expensive!!! I usually would spend between 10-15 dollars for a bottle of wine, but here it's at least twice the price.

3. WE GO CLUBBING/LOUNGING

Jakarta has, what I would say, world-class night clubs. Such as the Dragonfly, Blowfish, X2, Red Square, and many others. You can see more detailed information about some of the clubs here (based on my own experience) on my article about clubbing below "Clubbing in Jakarta."

Other than clubs, there are also lots of lounges where you can listen to live music. One of my favorites is the Black Cat Jazz Lounge that is located on the second floor in Senayan Arcadia, where you can listen to live Jazz music and even request some songs. Another lounge that I am planning to go soon is Cilantro Bar (above Cilantro restaurant); I went to the restaurant during the day and went up to the bar, the view is just magnificent (Jakarta landscape from the highest point) and it has a grand piano in the middle of the bar, it looks so classy.

4. WE GO TO KARAOKE

There are lots of good places to go Karaoke in Jakarta. This is one way to release your boredom, no matter how good or bad you sing, but Karaoke is a good way to release your stress and frustration. NAV or Happy Puppies are good places to go to for Karaoke. I usually go to NAV at Megamall Pluit and the price range is between 45-80K rupiah (5-9 dollars) per room per hour, with 40% off after 11 pm, it's not bad if you go in a group and share the expenses.

5. WE GO TO MASSAGE/SPA

Day spa and massage places start to get popular in Jakarta with competitive prices. You can get a foot massage from between 30-50K rupiah (4-6 dollars) for an hour, which includes neck and back massage. Day spa also usually would only cost around 300K rupiah (around 33 dollars) and up depends on where you get it, compared to at least 200 dollars in the US for a 3-hour spa.

6. WE GO TO BED LATE AND WAKE UP LATE

We would usually sleep late, and thus wake up late.

Disclaimer: we don't do this all the time ok, only during this vacation time; and for my case it is quite a long sabbatical before I start my master's degree in Archi-torture field (quoted by Helen, my Architecture friend who is going back for master's as well).

Driving in Jakarta

(pictures: Tomang highways from my friend's Taman Anggrek Apartment 45th floor, second picture: Traffic in Stasiun Jakarta Kota)

Some people say that if you can drive in Jakarta, you can drive almost anywhere else in the world. I would say it's probably true. I set my mind that driving in Jakarta would be the same as 3 years before, I only need to get used to driving on the left side of the road. But, I was totally wrong. I was amazed that being in the US for 3 years in a row without coming back home once in a while could greatly reduce my driving skills. .. I was totally HORRIFIED the first day I got to Jakarta.

There are more cars, many many more motorcycles, crazy angkot and mikrolet drivers, and lastly the king-of-the-road-the-big-bulky-and-
scary-soap-box-shaped buses. The first 2-3 weeks, I was terrified and could only drove 20-30 km/h (equivalent to 10-15 mph). Cars are like 1-2 inches next to each other and there are motorcycles all around you passing you from both left and right. Motorcycles are truly the flies of the road... I feel like I want to hit them flat and squeeze them like flies... or throw them to the electric net and see them electrocuted and burnt.

Now it's been more than 2 months and so far I had 2 dents hahaha. Stupidly, the dents were not created by other drivers, but in my own house... I hit my own house gate... same spot... twice!!

Jakarta and other cities in Indonesia have really bad transportation and road systems. Most of the roads are not designed very well, with no street lines and lots of road obstructions in the middle of the road, such as holes and even concrete stones. Some street users would drive on the opposite side of the road to get a shortcut endangering others (mostly motorcyclists and sometimes car drivers as well). I don't know what the Minister of Transportation does in this country, but for sure he doesn't do anything. Because of the bad road condition and traffic jam, Jakarta lose millions of dollars a day. If only the transportation system is well designed, with good public transportation and better roads, it will boost the economy and attract better investors.

The video below is me driving in Tanah Abang area on the way to Plaza Indonesia.

Clubbing in Jakarta

(2 first pictures below were taken in X2 Club, last pic was taken in Blowfish)

Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, a country that I would consider a poor third world country with one of the worst infrastructure and government system in the world, apparently... has one of the best clubs in the world ha ha ha. I've been to several clubs in different cities in the US, but none of them are comparable to some of the clubs in Jakarta in terms of the scale and the luxury.

In Singapore for 2 weeks: May 20-June 2

I'm writing this blog entry almost 2 weeks since I got home from Singapore. My days in Singapore were.... extremely busy. There were times that I would start writing blog, but then there were always things came up. The purpose being in Singapore for 2 weeks was to accompany my grandma for her surgery and recovery. She had a hip replacement surgery, quite a big surgery. I was the translator and took care almost everything, starting from looking and renting an apartment to checking in and out from the hospital. So, not much time to write a blog, not even a mood to write one.

We stayed at the Le Grove serviced apartment, it's perfect because it's not too close from the buzz of downtown Singapore but still accessible, convenient, daily maid service and breakfast, and its cheaper than getting 3 hotel rooms on Orchard (we rented 2 bedrooms for about 6-8 occupants). I'm not gonna write in details how the surgery went, how my family went through this process, etc. Bottom line, the surgery was successful and we were glad and happy about it.

Other news.... I got a new haircut: Mohawk style.

I went to this hair studio that my friend suggested, at Shunji Matsuo, and spontaneously told the stylist: "I'm in a crazy mood, let's do a Mohawk!" Hahaha. Im on a long sabbatical and I dont have to meet any supervisors or professors, so I guess having this crazy hair should be ok and I will enjoy it as long as I can (the stylist told me it would last about a month). However, all my family hated it and told me I looked like a gangster. Well, I guess what matters is what I have on the inside and this hair style is just the spontaneous and humorous side of me.


Other than that, I was so happy and excited that I could meet Fuja and Ira again. Also, I am happy to hear that Ira just got her Singaporean PR, way to go Ira!! Fuja also works for Reuters now, and he looks like he's gonna be a big boss later on, at least he got the look now. I also met Hellen, my old friend as well that I met in Seattle during my first 2 years in the US. I havent met her since we transferred to different schools, I went to UW Madison and she went to University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She works for an architecture company in Singapore and I was so damn excited that she took me to her office; the architecture office looks so cool, someday I would work in one of those offices. We exchanged lots of thoughts about architecture and she's going back for her master's degree and so am I. I told her, maybe one day we could create an architectural partnership or something. It's funny how things are destined for everyone... everyone has his/her own path of life to live...

Another damn good news from Grad School

This morning I checked my email and got an email from the Dean (or Dekan in Indonesian) of the Architecture department from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee congratulating me for my admission to the UWM Master's in Architecture program. I knew I was accepted there a week ago, but this time the Dean herself emailed me saying that the admission committees were impressed with my website design work in the past. So, my reply was to thank her for my acceptance and told her that I am considering other school in Chicago which has already offered me two scholarships combined, one of which is very prestigious and hard to get.

30 minutes later she replied (it was midnight in Milwaukee), that she, the dean herself, offered me to be a project assistant and to redesign the website of the Architecture department at the UWM. It was a very very pleasant surprise... since it includes full tuition remission for 3.5 years + living stipend. Although my parents told me that they would support me financially and morally if I didn't get any scholarship when I applied for master's degree, this great opportunity would save them that substantial amount of money and could save the money for future investments instead.

Again... thank God for this... thank you for everybody who helped me in my life so far; who helped me during my applications, during my job search, and when I am down and depressed.

Stupid, funny, and nostalgic things at La Piazza

Yesterday, I went to Jakarta Food and Fashion Festival at La Piazza, Kelapa Gading, Jakarta, which is being held for about week until the next few days. I was there definitely for the food, Indonesian food. We had to exchange our money with fake old Indonesian money, which I think is a creative idea. The setting was old Javanese setup and most of the food stalls are “street-vendor-ish.” I had quail egg satay, small oyster satay, rujak (assorted fruits with spicy peanut/sweet soy sauce), rocking ice cream (es krim goyang), es cendol, es cincau hijau, and of course a bottle of Sosro tea. There were stupid, funny, and nostalgic things happened there that involved me and my new group of friends.

Finally, I’ve found out a good idea for a job or something to do before going back for my master’s: a traditional becak driver.

Oh ya, at that food festival I had a nostalgic experience the time I saw a small tube of blowing balloon. But, too bad I couldn’t buy it, only thing I could get it is to WIN it. Can you imagine that? So, I had to play bakiak with my other two friends, Jullian and Yan, embarrassing ourselves in front of other visitors, just to win it. And you know what, we won it.

We were so excited that when we had dinner at bakmi gm, we blew the ballons like when we were little kids. I wonder where they sell these things now.

And then the extremely super duper funny, ridiculous, stupid, and surprising thing that happened is that when Nancy and friends gave Yan a joke gift: Fulla action figure, "A Muslim Barbie." It was so funny that there are such things that people sell for certain market, Fulla also wears a jilbab. It's eerie in a way, but also extremely funny that Nancy had to buy it the time she saw it. On the bottom right, Oo and Nancy peeking what is underneath Fulla's skirt. She also came with complete lingerie that is also decorated with embroidery. Out of my curiosity, I even searched online whether Fulla is that famous in Muslim market, and it actually is the "Muslim Barbie." More information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulla_(doll)

Reflection of my 2006, and why 2007 is so gonna be my year!

If I try to recall my life in 2006, I felt as if it was quite a trial in my life. The year 2006 wasn’t pretty at all for me, but I took a lot of life lessons from it: to be strong, to believe… that little voice in everybody’s hearts really desperately need to be heard.

The Data Collector/Quality Assurance job I took in Florida taught me a lot about self organization, teamwork, and independence. Living in hotels everyday for about 3 months, from average hotels to as nice as Sheraton or a suite in Marriott, taught me that how nice a hotel can be it will never be as comfortable as my own home. I also started to fall in love with beaches… just simply sitting on the beach watching the sunset, simple things, but it’s just so beautiful.

Then I quit my job because I had to prepare my application for my master’s degree. Thanks to my mom for giving me much moral support, that I had the guts to quit the job and focus on my applications. I learnt GRE for a couple months and took it in December with pretty good results (got full points 800 out of 800 for my Math ^_^). Then I prepared my portfolio and researched potential universities that are good for Architecture. I spent more than a week to write a two-page personal statement, with much help from Yuyun, my journalist friend (thanks a lot Yun) and also Leslie, my English lit friend for the proof reading. These include great recommendations from several professors. Thanks again to everybody who have helped me on my applications.

What started all these efforts? I listened to my heart; I know that I have been wanting to study Architecture since a long long time ago. And it took a great courage to actually do it, and I finally did it.

In March/April 2007, I started to receive acceptance letters. And thank God that I received some prestigious scholarship (only 6 recipients per year out of hundreds of applicants) from Illinois Institute of Technology. It’s a pretty good school for architecture in downtown Chicago, with Mies Van Der Rohe’s heritage: “Less is more.” I know I am more interested in modern/contemporary design, and this school seems to be the best for me for its design philosophy, its focus on construction, and finally its location in Chicago as the best city for studying architecture. Maybe this is the path of my life that has been set for me that I should have followed since the beginning.

Everything seems to go very smoothly since early this year. I finally went home in March, finally was able to reunite with my whole family since I came back more than 3 years ago from the US. Then, I had my first investment on a property in Jakarta, nothing much, but at least it’s from my own money and sweat. And I also found out today that I got another scholarship on top of the other scholarship from IIT by several sponsoring architectural companies that would include paid contract internship on summers, which would help me much financially and I don’t have to depend much on my parents anymore. Everything seems to go smoothly, again thanks to God. If you read the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, it is said that if you’re willing to listen to your heart, the whole universe will help you to achieve it. And it’s so true… just believe…

(pics from top to bottom: me and my coworker, Jake, watching the sunset on Clearwater beach - pic was taken by Khai; the historical and famous Mies' Crown Hall building in IIT now being used as an open-space-no-columns studio; Chicago-bird view; Chicago-night view)

Friends from UW Madison in Singapore

I was very excited to be able to meet Fuja and Ira last night. We shared lots of thoughts, memories about our past, and especially our plans and opportunities for the future. We had dinner at some western restaurant in Takashimaya, I forgot the name of the restaurant, it was right across NYDC restaurant on basement floor, but I had pretty good baby back ribs. The waiter told me I should order it if I wanted something big and filling, but actually it’s just about 1/3 of a rack, big for Asian standard (I thought it would be a rack of ribs like I usually had in the US). But the taste was excellent. And then we ordered 2 desserts, aphrodisiac (chocolate cake) and durian covered chocolate cake. Aphrodisiac was very filling and chocolaty, and the durian cake was refreshing.

Singapore for Grandma's Health Check up

I’m in Singapore right now. Sitting behind the desk, writing this blog entry. I’m here accompanying my grandma for a health check up at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. We went to the doctor yesterday afternoon and all morning today. It was funny and also very very annoying meeting the doctor as we speak three different languages. My grandma talks in Mandarin to the doctor, but I couldn’t understand and my mom could only catch some words. The doctor could talk in English (broken English, and couldn’t talk in Indonesian) to me and my mom, but my grandma couldn’t understand a bit. Then I also had to talk to both my mom and grandma in Indonesian. So it was a little bit of a hassle in the doctor’s room.

We had an excellent dim sum at Crystal Jade Palace Restaurant at Takashimaya right next to the Meritus Mandarin hotel we stayed at, then my mom and grandma shopped shoes, which from their looks it seems as if they were in heaven hahaha. I was just sitting there waiting with big bags in my hands.

It’s 5:30 pm now, my grandma’s sleeping, mom’s out there shopping, and I’m here writing blog. I’m too tired to walk around, and I have made a plan to meet Fuja and Ira. I’m soooo excited that I can finally meet them again, my colleagues from UW Madison. I’m going to meet them at 6:30 pm nearby Wisma Atria. Fuja is working for Reuters now, so cool. And Ira had the same degree as I do, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, and we were in a very very similar situation when we were in college. I wonder how she’s doing now.

I’m going to take a bath now, relax a bit, and get ready around 6 pm. I’ll write another update laterz. (picture on the left is the night view of Orchard road from our room on the 33th floor, picture on the top left is the famous nasi hainan from Chatterbox restaurant located in Meritus Mandarin Hotel)

Living in Jakarta for a month

(pictures from top to bottom: me at Pondok Laguna Restaurant so happy after 3 years craving for it; the famous fish head curry from Pondok Laguna; UW Madison students reunion at Ahyat Restaurant; Gelatto ice cream at Gelatto Bar, Senayan Arcadia)

There are many previous attempts to write a new blog entry, but none of them ever got published. I guess this is my first blog entry this year. I'm writing this in my bedroom in my parents' house in Jakarta, Indonesia. Yeah, I'm finally home.

Jakarta hasn't changed much since I got home more than 3 years ago in December 2003. There are more buildings, more cars, and definitely more motorcycles. The trans-Jakarta bus system is working now. More rich people and more poor people as well. It feels surreal. Like most people that have spent a long time abroad, I had my culture shock again in my own home country during my first few weeks. I had to relearn to drive in a city where jungle law is enforced, getting adjusted to drive on the left side (it's opposite in the US) and getting used to the crazy drivers and motorcyclists. But, It's been a month now and I am getting more adjusted, with the people and also the traffic.

I probably have lived in the Midwest for too long, that I initially get sick with Jakarta people, how they behave, how they talk big, how they love to show off their stuff especially their LVs. It seems that the way people live here is to work hard, earn money, and spend it all on branded stuff and then show them off. But after about a month here, I am getting adjusted with the people as well. It’s such an irony that living in the most powerful country on the planet for several years could make me somehow more humble now that I come back to this poor third world country, my home country, Indonesia. I could see people based on more than branded stuff that people wear; I don’t judge people by their look anymore, but by their personality, character, and skill. Everybody is the same, although some people were lucky enough to be born with a silver spoon in their mouth. It’s such an irony.