portfolio 2012-2015

P O R T F O L I OMICHELE LIM CHUI YEE

architecture

undergraduate

postgraduate

professional work

2012-2015

Graduating with a Masters of Architecture from the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University in July 2015, I am a passionate young designer seeking to deepen my understanding and knowledge in the field of architecture.

Fuksas's quote is a strong mimicry of my understanding of architecture. I look at each project as layers of interpretation, build upon one's knowledge of the site and the people around it. I believe in the understanding of the real and that architecture is an object capable of shaping its social and physical environment. The following works explores my interpretation of site, people, culture and its surrounding into architecture.

So design something not as it is in itself, but as you interpret it. - Massimiliano Fuksas

85 Newcastle Street, Hulme, Manchester M15 6HF, United Kingdom.Contact Number: (+44)7592392301 E-mail: [email protected]://uk.linkedin.com/pub/michele-lim/b4/86a/b06

Profile

MICHELE LIM CHUI YEE

EDUCATION: University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University Masters of Architecture (RIBA Pt 2)Sep 2013 – July 2015 Awards: Manchester Metropolitan University Vice-Chancellor International Scholarship

Taylor’s University, Malaysia Bachelors in Science (Honours) Architecture: First Class HonoursJan 2010 – Dec 2012 Awards: Taylor’s University Best Student Award (2013), Taylor’s University Book Prize Award for achievement in Architecture Design Project module (2013), Dean’s List Award (in 2011 and 2012), Tertiary Merit Scholarship (2010)

Taylor’s University College, Malaysia Cambridge International Examinations A-Levels: AAABJan 2008 – June 2009Awards: Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Loy Hean Heong Merit Scholarship for Academic Excellence

PROFESSIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE: NWKA Chartered Architects, Malaysia Architectural Project Assistant Mar 2013 – Aug 2013

Taylor’s University School of Architecture, Building and Design, Malaysia Research AssistantDec 2011 – Apr 2012

Clement Wong Architecture, Malaysia Intern, Architectural DesignDec 2011 – Feb 2012

ADDITIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE:Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom Student Ambassador Oct 2014 – June 2015

Manchester Metropolitan University Library, United Kingdom IT AssistantOct 2014 – May 2015

Kumon Education and Research Association of Japan, Malaysia Teaching Assistant Aug 2014 – Sep 2014

IT SKILLS: Microsoft Office 365, Adobe Photoshop (CS6), Adobe InDesign (CS6), Adobe Illustrator (CS6), Autodesk AutoCad (2015), Google SketchUp (2015), Autodesk 3D Max (2014)

LANGUAGES:Native English and Malay, spoken Mandarin and Cantonese

Curriculum Vitae

A centre for a group of artists to work together, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is relevant to the needs of the artist, through to following shared ideologies, aesthetic and political views or living and working together as an extended family. The centre is a cross-combination of multiple creative minds and disciplines, adding to the social richness and networking of Jalan TAR.

The program chosen for this project is an artist’s cultural center with particular focus on performing arts and visual arts. Jalan TAR is publicly renowned for these forms of art brought on by its neighboring street, Jalan Chow Kit to the west of Chow Kit Monorail Station. Despite its fame for art, there is a lack of space for artists of Jalan TAR to conduct their activities, causing artists to privatize streets, columns, walls and alleys.

reactivating dormant site:

arts collective centre

3rd year Undergradraduate - 2012

1. CONCEPT 2. SETBACKS 3. CIRCULATION

Design Narratives


4. SKYLINE 5. CORE SPACES 6. OVERLAP SPACES

The creation of overlapped spaces

allow for an unpredictable mixture

of informal, commercial and

cultural activities where continuous

interaction takes place. In addition

to that, sectional overlap allows

for a mixture of single and double

volume spaces and creation of

distinctively overlapped spaces

which may be multifunctional

spaces or open/terrace spaces.

Development of Facade

CHANGING FACADE

The ramdon perforations mimics the

visualisation of musical composition. The

randomness of the facade responds to the

random mixture of old and new buildings in

Jalan TAR.

The exploration on this project will focus on the creation of a building that functions as part of a theater for the audience. The architecture will represent, not just a functional building but also a symbol of development for the people of Petaling Street in hopes of serving, connecting and uniting the community of Petaling Street in collaborative effort to promote a life-long sustainable community and positive social change. The proposed program is a Community Outreach Centre, with providence of workshops and social service needs to assist in improving the quality of life for the people, especially the business owners, local and foreign alike, and those living in poverty in Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur. A public open space on ground level will function as a festival park which facilitates the various celebrations that takes place in Petaling Street.

The design proposes to manipulate building forms by rotating the floor levels of the building to create an architecture which engages the public, not just on a horizontal level, but on a vertical plane as well. The design will create open space on every level that overlooks the festival park which allows audience to utilize during events. The project reveals through reviews on works of literatures and experiments with series of diagrams and study models to investigate the possibilities in the attempt to connect people vertically and horizontally.

architecture with a social impact:

community outreach centre



Design Narratives

1. Exitsing art mural 2. Facade to respond to mural 3. Facade skewered to open to road

4. Respond to node 5. Balancing the mass 6. Raised Ground level and build up

7. Rotated floor levels for outdoor space 8. Reducing mass 6. View from road level

Detailed perspective section


Night view illustrating the use of public space for festivals

Gallery space linking to outdoor eating/hawker food stalls

5th year Postgraduate - 2013

Influenced by the term ‘parasitic retail’ used by Andrew Simms, which he defines as socially indifferent cloned stores that kill communities, my design has gravitated towards parasitic architecture, which is the personal, informal and unplanned use of a larger structure. The program is based on the idea of reusing and recycling the available resources from Tesco, primarily the 180kg food waste produced by the store on a daily basis, along with water, heat and gas sources - parasitizing from Tesco to benefit the community.

‘Tesco town-ed’ will be a community-led enterprise that will deal with food waste collection and management. Members of the community will also pick up gardening and landscaping skills, using compost to cultivate fruit and vegetables. The facility will provide jobs for aspiring youths and the unemployed as well as tackling food poverty in the area. Driven by the program, which includes a compost garden, kitchens, workshops and a grocery store, the plan adopts a linear circulation to emulate the process of receiving wasted food, recycling them in a compost garden, using the produce for cooking, packaging and selling the produce in the store, and providing teaching in these processes.

manufacturing communities-designing real places:

tesco town-ed


Tesco

Waste

landfill

kitchen/restaurant

compost garden

household

education

active members

immigrants/retiree

children unemployed

allotment

packaging

shop

PROGRAM

reduce food waste sent to

landfill

reduce surplas food

increase household growing

increase ecological thinking

knowledge exchange & community integration

self management,ecological thinking,

community cohesion

increase skill and reduce

unemployment

increase local food production

reduce electricity

consumption in transport

increase local food production

reduce fertilizer use


Design Narratives

1. Linear function and circulation of floor plan

3. Undulation of floor levels for seating areas of demo

5. Intersecting timber ribs with landscape

2. Response to existing timber cladding of wall

4. Organic facade to resemble 'parasite' on wall

6. Integrated landscape and internal spaces


1. Compost Garden / Allotment

2. Outdoor Cooking / BBQ Pit

3. Dining

4. Entrance / Outdoor Dining

5. Kitchen

6. Demo Workshop

7. Workshop

8. Grocery Store

9. Herb garden

1

2

3

456

7

8

9

TESCO CHEETHAM HILL


MSA Prints is a 4-part series for 'Manufacturing Communities: Designing Real Places' end-of-year publication by the atelier. The series explores social technologies in which architects need to become expert in order to design and develop socially relevant architecture in a world of rising population, rapid urbanization and increasing social and spatial inequalities.

My involvement in this publication was in Part 3 of the series entitled EXCESS. This edition addressed the issue of consumption and its affect globally. My project proposed an intervention involving participation of local residents and devising activities which create opportunities for strenghtening community capabilities. In this respect, my design proposal challenge exitsing ways of living, working and inescapable process of wealth generating through consumption. The ideas presented in this publication offer a significant shift from the traditional process of design in architecture with Ann Thorpe’s framework in response to the issue of waste.

manufacturing communities publication:

msa.pRINTS


As part of the 5th year engagement practice in the Manchester School of Architecture, I have partnered with 3 other coursemates, 2 of whom was from different atelier to collaborate with external partners as well as undergraduate stidents in a chosen activity which would be manifested in the city.

The logic behind chosing to work with disaster relief architecture was due to the combination of knowledge from both the MSAp and QED atelier. Dealing with post-disaster scenario engages with both the participation and social aspects which is practiced within the MSAp atelier as well as knowledge in technical constraints and sustainability practiced within the QED atelier.

We chose to focus on Earthquake response as it was the disaster that causes the most damage, and the most unpredictable (compared to hurricanes and tornadoes). The event took place over the course of 6-full day sessions, starting from organizing a lecture delivered by an expert, followed by experimenting, building up 1:1 scale prototypes and testing the scheme with members of the public.

collaboration and external engagement:

disaster relief architecture


This thesis project introduces the idea of "THIRD PLACE' - a social surrounding seperate from the home and work space adjacent to the economic hub of Manchester, Spinningfields. 'THIRD PLACE' is a term coined by Ray Oldenburg in his book 'The Great Good Place' to descrive a social surrounding seperate from the home (first place) and work (second place). Third places host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.

My thesis project introduces this idea of 'Third Place' into the context of Spinningfields, using 'Third Place' as a mediator between home and work. The scheme comprises of a combination of commercial, recreational, and public amenities.

PLEASURES AND INTIMACY:

THIRD PLACE: NOT WORK, NOT HOME

first placeTHIRD PLACE second place


PROGRAM GENERATOR

1850: INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 2015: CONTEMPORARY1751: PRE-INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Map of

Manchester:

Working

Conditions:

Work and Home

Spheres:

How working

conditions affect

work and home

lifestyles: work

home work home

homework

home work

work home

home work

work

work

work

home

home

home

1. Improve work-life balance by

removing the home sphere from

the work sphere

2. Increase social and communal

life outside office and improve

health and wellbeing by placing

an office worker's daily pleasure

away from the office space

3. Program: a mediator between

home and work

pleasure

pleasure

Domestic System:

Work as part of living quarters

Factory System:

Seperate work and living spheres

Multi-Locality:

Bluring boundaries of work and

home

FLOWER

SHOP

PETSHOP

BOOK B

ROW

SING

SEATINGBIC

YCLE

PARKING

BIC

YCLE

SHOP

M&E

FOOD/SERVIC

E TR

UCK

NEWS

STAND

CAFE

LADIES

GENTS

SHOWER

THOROUGHFARE

1. Walls and rooms

(juxtaposition of programs onto site)

2. Activiy and space

(understanding of the type of program and

spatial requirements)

3. Time and movement

(based on physical, visusl and transaction key)

4. Threshold and activity

(using different types of boundaries to de-coomodify

spaces ie a place to stay without obligation to

purchase)

DESIGN NARRATIVES:



WO

OD

STR

EE

TA

NEWS STAND

BICYCLE SHOP

SEATING

Ground floor plan illustrating how spaces are being used: Green box indicating component studied in detail

Series of sketches to study the

various types of threshold in

relation to people/object/space

Detailed sectional model of market stall


BR

IDG

E S

TRE

ET

COFFEE STAND

THOROUGHFARE

SHOWERS

LOCKERS

BOOK BROWSING

FLOWER SHOP

PET SHOP

A

B

B

Entrace into the THIRD SPACE

from Bridge Street looking into

the thoroughfare and overlapping

staircases


This discussed the changing nature of public space in response to the discourse of fear which has been placed at the top of the agenda of British cities since the 9/11 events. The paper examined the various causes and impact of fear in public space in the dimensions of ‘rights’ and ‘control’. This paper discussed the benign and unintended outcomes of fortification designed to secure public space and found that the management of Paternoster Square has contributed to active investment and retail, bolstering the economic profitability of the offices and retail in the area. However, ‘public’ space qualities were violated by its diminishing social accessibility by reinforcing gentrification, social exclusion and stratification. The paper shows that while Paternoster Square is lacking in social and physical function, it has accentuated in economics and aesthetics, has undermined public interest while favouring private interest. It is a public space that favours business over community.

The trends for securing public space has increased the ambiguity between the realms of public and private is something that planners, designers and architects have to deal with in order to address the urbanscape of cities. There is a challenge for local authorities, planners, architects to take into consideration society’s needs and civic functions to ensure a balance between society’s needs and interest as well as genuine civic functions in public spaces. Ultimately, the questioned to be answered would be whether a city is a celebration of differences or an arena where difference is to be feared, and whether it is possible to reconcile the conflicting images of this city.

DISSERTATION:

fortification of public spaces:THE tension between rights, control and fear

The 435 prohibition zone with 5 different types of prohibition in London as chartered by the Manifesto Club

Signages around Paternoster Sqaure to deter loiterers

Dissertation Diagram


“…much of the architecture procured by the 1 per cent is procured for the use of the 99 per cent; whether motivated by purpose or profit. Most mass housing, from high-rise masterplans to suburban developments, is procured by a single client, who is almost never the user.” - Parvin, Alastair (2013)

This essay started with the question, who do we build for? The answer was the ‘Client’ or as the Joint Contracts Tribunal refers this client as the ‘Employer.’ A client may be the state, an administrative body, an organization, a corporation or one from the wealthier class. It has been stated that all of these categories of the client falls into the richest 1 percent of the world’s population. Is this the way in which we want to continue for the future profession, and are the long years of education to prepare us to serve these 1 percent justified? We have established that situation in Malaysia where mass-housing serves the majority of the housing market did not fit into the buyer’s needs and lifestyle, causing the need for extensive renovation and more investment in order to make their newly purchased house into a home.

Other design industry, such as fashion, cars and furniture has found ways to democratize their product, by reaching out to the mass market and making these designs affordable and available to them. These industries have shown that there is a clear economic and social advantage in changing their marketing strategy. This essay encourages architecture to rethink its centuries old practice to accomodate prevailing structures of socioeconomics, by trying to reach out to the mass market in order to create a better, well-intended design that satisfies the needs of end users. The future of architecture would reach out to its customers as a service provider as well as a product provider.

PROFESSIONAL STUDIES: the future of architecture:

who do we build for?

Consumer products are constantly trying to reach out to a variety of customer by producing variances in their products, why should architecture be any different?

Typical scene of the Malaysian terrace housing. Customization such as the gate, adding verandah, color scheme, party walls, windows as well as internal changes are among some of the renovation one would do before moving

into a new house.

Professional Work - 2013

'The Landmark' Bandar Bukit TinggiType: Commercial and Hotel developmentContract Sum: RM 100,000,000.00 (approx. £18,416,206.00)

Stage during involvement: Construction Substructure

Involvement: Managing construction process, Preparing drawings for superstructure tender, Preparing tender documentation and specifications, Issue progress certification and variation orders, Monitor progress report

Alam Desa ResidenceType: Residential developmentContract Sum: RM 15,265,065.23 (approx. £2,811,245.00)

Stage during involvement: Construction Substructure

Involvement: Managing construction process, Preparing drawings for superstructure tender, Preparing tender documentation and specifications, Issue progress certification and variation orders, Monitor progress report

professional works:

architectural assistantnwka architects

Professional Work - 2013

Aman Putri Shop Office DevelopmentType: Retail developmentContract Sum: RM 10,629,920.98 (approx. £1,957,627.00)

Stage during involvement: Construction Superstructure

Involvement: Managing construction process, Issue progress certification and variation orders, Monitor progress report, Monitor defects and work schedule, Check compliance with health and safety, Updating construction drawings as per changes on site

First Baptist ChurchType: Renovation and ExtensionContract Sum: RM 143,156.00 (approx. £26,363.00)

Stage during involvement: Construction Superstructure

Involvement: Updating construction drawings as per changes on site, Preparing drawings and documents for authority submission, Checking compliance with building authority

Toyoma FactoryType: Industrial BuildingContract Sum: -

Stage during involvement: Building Authority Submission

Involvement: Preparing drawings and documents for authority submission, Checking compliance with building authority, Communicate with clients on design development and building requirements

85 Newcastle Street, Hulme, Manchester M15 6HF, United Kingdom. Contact Number: (+44)7592392301

E-mail: [email protected]

MICHELE LIM CHUI YEE

portfolio 2012-2015

Documents