Monday, October 22, 2012

Idea and Practice

Idea lives forever. Practice does not.

Think of the books and all the text we've read. The ideas and philosophy by Plato which were written for more than two thousands year are still read until today.
But the manager of let's say a certain company will not be remembered.

Even some of the texts written to convince us regarding the importance of practicality are theorized. Perhaps it is not a fair comparison, because there is certainly no contradiction between theory and practice because theory supports practice and vice versa. We often forget that though things appeared to be contradicting, they actually compliment each other.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

My Current State of Mind and The Office I Am Working In

There has been quite a number of arguments in my head regarding a type of drawing called shop drawing. Shop drawing is a drawing or set of drawings produced by contractor, supplier, manufacturer, subcontractor, or fabricator, which typically required for pre-fabricated component such as elevators, structural steels, trusses, pre-casts, windows, appliances, cabinets, air-handling units, and millworks.
Hence, the architect does not produce the shop drawing, but evaluates and decides whether to approve the shop drawing proposed.
I dislike this idea of shop drawing, and I would decide for myself to have as less of this kind of drawing as possible because the architect will lose the control over the design. If possible, I think the architect should provide all of the drawings with close consultation and collaboration with the specialists and contractors. Because only by doing this, we, as a participant of construction, are able to cut the loss time waiting for approval and checking and re-checking all the submitted drawings.


It has been almost five months since I worked in my new office here at Batam. I observed many things and what crossed my mind today is the management system.
I find the people here very inefficient and produce less impressive work, and I am being very kind with my comment. I wonder whether it is in our culture as an Indonesian to work in such lenient manner. I felt hopeless to the people here and at some point I was thinking of firing everyone and replacing them with new staffs.
I might be wrong.
Lately I got to thinking that the employees are just as good as the leader's skill to lead. I started to analyze how the management works and slowly I can grasp the management system in this office. It is not good, in fact it's horrible.
There are too many hierarchy in an architecture office for small size projects, it hinders the progress of the construction and Design, if there is any Design at all.
I also notice that my boss, though quite smart and charismatic, not wise nor Design oriented. He is not a nurturer but instead an autocratic leader who expects and demands. I can see this by the people who works for him and whom he surrounds himself with: the yes-men.
Those who have opinions will not stay long in the office, and those who stays are nothing but cowards looking for decent salary to survive in this world.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Design is Personal

Personally, I always believe that Design should come from one person and one person only. Hence, with this belief, I spell Design with a capital 'D'.

Design is personal. Some of the greatest Architecture ever built were built for very selfish purposes: the pyramids for the tomb of the Egyptian kings, the Gothic Cathedrals for God, the Taj Mahal for an emperor's wife, and so many more.
Tough it is undeniable that there are also great Architecture built for less selfish or selfless purposes, those Architecture appealed less than those of which built for selfish reason. Hence, Architecture to me is very personal.

For the mentioned reasons, therefore I do not believe that there is either right or wrong in Architecture Design, because Design is subjected to personality. Each of us have or should have our own take and taste on Design, we should design individually to contribute to the diversity of Architecture and Design.