Empathize

From a designer's point of view , having to empathize about the client's needs is a very essential skill. First of all , by putting one into the client's shoes trying to feel and experience things from his or her point of view can help us to understand what the client actually wants and thus , by understanding that , the designer can draft out his design which suits almost perfectly for the user. For example , lets just say that I am an Architect or Interior Designer. I have been given the task of having to build an Old Folks home , I will firstly consider what an old folk's essential needs , in this case , probably more elevators and more handle bars.  And then , I will go into more details , like for example , the design and the layout of toilets , it should not be too cramped up and must be equipped with handles for the old folks to hold on to , and what if some accident happened in the cubicle?? An alarm system may be installed in case of emergency , when the old folk accidentally slip and fall for example , they can press the alarm button that should be located at a convenient location. Therefore , by imagining myself as an old folk using all the facilities in the Old Folks home, I will know which are the areas that are most important and some of the very important support tools that should not be overlooked. Thus through this example , having empathy towards a client's or users' needs can significantly improve one's design and also greatly satisfy the client and user.  

Stakeholders.

After doing the mindmap and presenting it my own class 1F as well as 1D , we were told by our teachers that we need to find out who the stakeholders are in relation to our topic. So we came up with 3 stakeholders. A 45 year-old man with mid-income and is a father of 4 , a student and a 30 year-old bachelor. As for me , I am given the role of the 45-year old man and we were suppose to express our thoughts and feelings about stepping into this person's shoe.
Being a father of 4 , the expenses is going to be really high , i thought that if my children were arts students , the material costs is going to be so high , for example Copic markers and Rotring technical pens , and i would have to give them sufficient amount of money for their studies. Not to forget daily necessities too such as food  and water. I am also living in a relatively small flat with my parents , I can sense how cramp the living space will be having 8 people cramped up in a limited area of personal space.

Design Process 2.

In the previous post , my group and I discussed about Overpopulation and Land Shortage as two of the main issues that led to living space getting smaller and smaller. Now we will talk about the money factor. Money , which is a very important resource perhaps the most important thing anybody could possibly have.
Buy a living space for your own personal or social needs obviously requires money and what happens when property prices in some cities or countries , like Hong Kong, Singapore, Monaco are sky-high?? The result , a small apartment.

Take Hong Kong for example , its property prices are the world's highest in a Savills survey of ten cities including the likes of New York , London and Tokyo. And with the gap between top-end markets and cheaper ones are getting narrowing , thus resulting in an overall increase in property prices. For example , Residential buildings stand in the Mid-levels of Hong Kong , a 1000- square foot apartment would cost about HK$15.9 million on average. ( Source : bloomburg.com)

Residential building in Hong Kong.

In conclusion , if the price of an apartment per square foot is too high for a mid-income working adult to afford, then , the only thing they could possibly do is to buy and move in a small area of living space as we all need a shelter above our heads.

Design Process 1

The first week of Design Process and we were split into groups and choose our topic , for us , group xky , we choose "Living spaces are getting smaller". We choose this topic because as all Singaporeans know , we are currently paying a very high amount for very little space. We also researched about other countries such as Monaco , Hong Kong , Mumbai and Shanghai.

We researched on the causes for smaller living spaces and came out with a few relevant points.
1. Land Shortage. The most obvious reason in our opinion. Residential estates are built on land of course , and if there is not a sufficient amount of land?? The house are cramped together in a small area , leading to more housing units , but smaller in size.

Singapore , one of the smallest countries in the world.
Source: travel-singapore.com

   2. Overpopulation. Overpopulation can lead to a higher demand for housing , and when the population over-powers the land available , the city or country will be a extremely dense city. Take Mumbai for example , the largest city in India is ranked top in the world's most dense cities ranking table. It has a population of 14.3 Million cramped up in a space of 484 square kilometers , with some mathematics , we will end up with a number of 29 650 people living per square kilometer in the city. ( Source: citymayors.com). With so many people living in a single square kilometer , the government obviously could not afford to built big house to fully house those people , thus living spaces are smaller when there is overpopulation.

Mumbai , the world's most density populated city. Source : saphana.com 

VA1M

Awesome class!

Its been about 2 and a half months since the start of the academic year , and I must say that I am very privileged to have these group of classmates! We all bonded well together and learned some of the cultures from other countries with my class mates such as Bryan , Nessie , Clara and Mischelle from Indonesiaaaa , Jade and Lourein from Malaysia , Hailun and Fang Hong from China and Maria from Russia! I think its cool to have such good classmates as there are there when you needed them and they are the ones you'll always interact with everyday during lessons and we depend on each other to support each other and to help others out with their work , for example , teaching people like me how to paint because I totally suck in painting. Well , as time goes by and the weeks starts to past really really quickly , we will soon be separated and proceed on to our majors but I will definitely miss this class and our awesome class representative Rig , because they bring so much fun and laughter to my everyday classes in school. :) Note: Not all of them are in this picture.

Sand Boarding ~

 Sand boarding is a sport similar to snowboarding. It is a recreational activity that takes place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered mountains. During my trip to Western Australia in 2009 , my family and I tired sand boarding for the first time in our lives. I must say that i was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot! But , there is a down side of it. Making your way up to the top of the sand dune is like a snail making it's way up a wall. The sand is so fine that when you step on it , it sinks instantly and plus the strong winds that blows the sand straight into your face makes it an even tougher challenge to 'hike' up the sand dune rather than sand boarding down itself. We used our boards as supports to anchor our way up up up the tallest sand dune we can find and sure enough , me and my sister were totally out of breath and exhausted. But all of that is worth it as we slide down the dune with great speed and the adrenaline rush was great. If you have the chance to try sand boarding , go try it out :) but beware of the process of getting up. ;)

Bhaktapur.

Street of Bhaktapur 

 Bhaktapur , Nepal , a place full of history , tradition , culture and art. I had to upload a post about this place. It was back then in 2010 year-end when my family visited Nepal. I still remembered back then when my parents announced that we were going to a third-world country like Nepal , my sister and I were whining non-stop because of the fact that we were all influenced by Western Media that we love Western and developed countries more. However , I was shocked that I actually fell in love with Nepal and hope to revisit it some other day. Bhaktapur is one of my favourite places. It is an ancient Newar town in the east corner of Kathmandu Valley , the place is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its rich culture , temples , wood , metal and stone artwork. As we walked along the narrow streets of Bhaktapur , we are surrounded by traditional art and architecture , historically monuments and craft works , magnificent windows , pottery and weaving industries , excellent temples , beautiful ponds , rich local customs , culture , religion , festivals , musical mystic and many more! Bhaktapur till now , is still an untouched as well as preserved ancient city that is itself a world to explore for tourists.

Traditional houses.

Wooden cravings on the pillers.