Travel Diary : Site visit to Melaka

Hi! I know its been awhile since I last updated. Recently I just recovered from a really bad cough and had various project submissions the past weeks. In fact, I just got back from a site visit a few days.

Our project this semester is located in Melaka. We are to design a boutique hotel and currently in the process of analysing our site. I wasn't sure what I should've labeled this blog post to be...but here it goes anyways!

Day 1 : 12.3.2014 KL to Melaka

We left for Melaka at about 9.30 am on Thursday and arrived in Melaka at about 11.30 pm. Since we were still early to check into our hotel, we went to visit our site which is situated exactly opposite of the famous Kampung Morten.

We were briefed by our lecturer about the site and about our project when we noticed a few people inspecting a demolished building (or what remains of the building) 

After some small talk, we found out that the remains of the building was in fact a piece of history. It was once a church that was built during the Portuguese invasion of Melaka. It was known as St Lawrence Church. Not much that I can talk about the church, however, it is now under the protection of the national heritage act. 

What was interesting is that, in the site of the ruins, there are 2 graves. 1 of the graves still had the tombstone perfectly intact and was known as Emerici de Souza. The tombstone was written in Portuguese so I think thats who was written on the tombstone. 

So after exploring the site, we decided to walk over to Kampung Morten and enter Villa Sentosa, a living museum. It is home to the descendent of the founder of Kampung Morten. 

At about 1.30 pm, we headed to Jonker street, Melaka where we stayed in Layang-Layang Guest house. 

After checking in, we had lunch at Jonker 88 and then went to visit Cheng Ho Museum. 

Foo, Hafiz & Iqbal

other days were spent collecting data and going for seafood (which I didn't take..sorryyyyy)

Pancakes and coffee at Daily Fix Cafe

Sunset at Umbai

Quayside hotel! 

Studio archiDOD 

Nurul did a video of our trip. Feel free to watch it and see the rest of the places we went when we were in Melaka ! :D Melaka trip 

thats all for now !

Xx,

Sarah

Architecture stuff || Studio Trip 1 : Petaling Jaya Trade Centre, Point 92, Ikea, Sasana Kijang

Last Thursday, our studio went on our first field trip together to a few places in the city to 'shop for details in design' as said by my studiomaster. We went to Petaling Jaya Trade Centre, Point 92, Ikea and Sasana Kijang. 

We arrived at Petaling Jaya Trade Centre (PJTC) at about 10.20 am and immediately split into 2 groups. PJTC was designed by one of my favourite local architects, Kevin Low.

I admire the way he used the materials and his details especially with the stairs and various pockets of spaces where people can sit down and relax.

It is hot season now in Malaysia, however due to the way the building was designed, we hardly felt the heat. Especially when we were standing in the public area.

The landscape of the building was designed by Seksan (also one of my favourite local architects). All in all, it was a really impressive building however we weren't allowed to take photos once we were in the building. Weird policy.

After that, we walked to Point 92 which was designed by ZLG architects and was signed by my history lecturer, Ar Mastor. Since it was an office building, we could only walk around the public space.

We proceeded to Ikea for lunch and window shopping for interior designs.

After lunch, we went to Sasana Kijang and walked around the gallery. There were various galleries including an art gallery and a children's gallery on money. Sasana Kijang was designed by Hijjas Kasturi's daughter and is used as the office for the national bank.

Thats all for now! 

I've got a big day tomorrow! I'll tell you more about it soon !

Xx,

Sarah