I would like to wish all my Malay & Muslim coursemates and my lecturer Cik Wan Selmat Hari Raya Aidifitri~! Best wishes to all of u..

Regards,
Fred

Intension

What i have got from my lectures and my lecturer Cik Wan?
I started to realise that i've gain many information and knowledge while i'm constructing my virtual site. In order to make my site more infomative, i have to browse the internet and read up some books. We were also given a chance to gain real experience through our assignment in building a dome and take photograph of the convocation. In the process of constructing the dome, i have got a clearer picture of all the elements of a production.

Besides that, Cik Wan have explored me with many new vocabs that i've never seen or hear before like "iatrogenocide", "eurocentrism", "celestial".... I have to read up the links that Cik Wan have posted in his site and browse the internet in order to understand all these terms. In the process, i have gain many extra information and it's like exploring something which is new to me. I feel that my lecturer, Cik Wan have came out with a good approach for us as we have to read up for ourself, find information through internet and books, experience a real construction of a dome in order to understand the lectures more clearly and gather everything what we have gain in a virtual site. This approach has been very useful to me as a uni student and there is no more spoon feeding like when we were in high school.

Although it is only a short 4 weeks lecture, i would like to thank my lecturer Cik Wan again for his hard work to prepare all the contents for his site and slides which have explored me with such a great number of new things and knowledge. I do appreciate all of it.

The Dome Spine

The dome spine can also be seen in the built environment by using different scale that we have learnt. I will use my dome as an example.

Object: The components

Ropes

Woods (Kayu Mertam)

Interior: The interior of the dome can accommodate 5 person

Building: The Dome

Premise: The dome with lanscape around it

Urban: The Dome SpineThe dome spine in USM

Regional: Penang Island (Gelugor)

For region i would say Gelugor of the penang island where USM is located.

Global: My Virtual SiteMy virtual site can be viewed by everyone around the world so i would consider it as a global scale.

Assignment B- Geodesic Dome(10/9/08)

Report on Project Schedule
1st Meeting: Planning and Material Determination
Date: 27 August 2008
Data: Gather opinions from each member. Material selection has been made. Opinion analysis has been made and choice of selection is made.
Conclusion: Choose for wood material but not too heavy to enable transportation system. We search for wood in forest but failed. We sketch and calculate the size of the dome. We found out that 2V dome is suitable for us and we decided to use the appropriate scale that we have calculated for our dome.

2nd Meeting: Practical Building 1
Date: 3 September 2008
Data: Material gathered. Practice on merging the product and design the structure.
Conclusion: Finally one of our members passed a coffin shop and she sees lights. We decided to use the wood that those material that has been used by that shop. The shopkeeper agreed to provide us excessive wood material. After gathered up all the material, we started to build our foundation for the dome. We accomplished the dome foundation within 4 hours.

3rd Meeting: Practical Building 2
Date: 5 September 2008
Data: Structure confirmation has been made.
Conclusion: We started to make our roof and finally combined them together to form a dome. Sugar bags are collected and sealed them up into one piece. We are trying to form a large piece of shelter for the dome. We succeed.

4th Meeting: 30 Minutes Training
Date: 9 September 2008
Data: Trial on overall project. Prefabricated pieces are formed into one in time.
Conclusion: We practice on how we build the dome in time. We separate the job evenly. Final practice has been made.

Intension
Idea:
- To experience a real construction.
- To enable a practical learning space for actors to learn the actual construction.
- To be holistic, analyzing the whole system of believes.
- Learn to consider all factors before construction.
- To be simulative, reproduce features of something exist.

Decision Made:
- Rules given

- Site given
- Actors selected
- Product detail given

Group formed: 5 people with at least one different in major
Product to be established: A Geodesic Dome
Rules: Zero cost, Packaged, Prefabricated, Accommodate 5, Carry able by 3, Assembled in 30min.
Site: Inside of campus, starting from school of HBP.

Actor

The actors for this production involved 5 people(me and the other 4 members).

Me and my team members work together to tie the knots.

Act

With 5 members in a group, we worked together in the process of preparing the pentagon for the dome and built the dome on dome's day which was on 10/9/08.

The innitial phase:-

Prepare the pentagon to bring to the site.

Below are the processes involved to prepare the pentagon.

1. Collecting and cutting the woods(kayu mertam).

2. Tying up the pentagons with different knots

Final Phase:-
Build up the dome on the site given by connecting all the pentagon.

~working on site~

Rules
The rules given are:-
1. Zero cost
2. Packaged
3. Prefabricated
4. Accommodate 5
5. Carry able by 3
6. Assembled in 30min.

Zero Cost
Ropes are collected at dock where fisherman used to tie boat knot. We cleaned it with fresh water before we used it.

Kayu Mertam is collected from hearse and coffin shop where Chinese used them to construct sculpture to burn for dead people. The woods were cut into the size we want.

All our material is recyclable. Coconut ropes can be connected by using machine into long-chain coconut fiber ropes. The Kayu Mertam is a natural and biodegradable material; light and not heavy, merging into one piece by factory to form a wood platform. It can be said that our dome is environmental friendly.

Accomodate by 5 people

It’s packaged and formed by 6 pieces of pentagon wall. It can accommodate 5 people and carry able by 3peoples. No steel material has been used, therefore no rusting condition will occur.
It’s prefabricated. The lifespan of the dome should be more than one year due to the product has been strengthen and reinforced with x-panel.

The entire dome fulfills all the requirements listed. Rules is followed.

Site
The site given is shown as below. My group was place in no.3.

The PRODUCTION

Geodesic Dome Selected: 2VSize of radius: 1 meter. The walls were constructed with 5 pentagons and 1 roof (pentagon also).

Pentagon: Formed by 5 sticks with 0.55 meters tie at the center and the other end of the sticks is connected with another stick with 0.62 meters.The pentagon is actually formed by 5 isosecles triangles.

6 pentagons will merge with each other at each edge to form a geodesic dome. After merging the pentagon’s wall, many equilateral triangles with 0.62 meters will be formed at each side of the triangles.

Our Production~!

With this project, i have a better view about the production model and i would like to thanks Cik Wan, my lecturer for his intension to help us to gain so many extra knowledge.

Brief for Assignment B

Geodesic Dome

1. Intension- Experiential, holistic, stimulative learning

2. Act-Design, build, assemble

3. Actor- Team of 5 people

4. Rule- zero cost, packaged, prefabricated, accommodate by 5, carryable by 3, assemble in 30 minutes, show team identity.

5. Site- On HBP premise

6. Product- A geodesic dome

Assembly: 10 September 2008

Time: 11.30-12.00noon

Life: 2 month

Recyclable

Further changes in rule:

Team members: at least ONE from a different major.
Team leaders need to submit the particular of their team in the form provided in the web site.

Lifespan: Not more than 12 months.
Links: Not linked to other domes, i.e. independent, standalone.

Team Report:
-Each team must submit a report illustrating all the above rules including the lifespan of the proposed dome and what the materials can be recycled into.
-Report (210mmX210mm) must be bound with a front and back covers.
-The front cover must carry the team name, the members and majors, motto, and a sketch of the proposed dome.
-Submission: 10:00am, 10 September, E48A.

Lecture 3- Product: Basis of Forms of the Built Environment.(3/09/08)

On all seven scales, a product may be viewed as having the following elements- form-space, nodes-paths and illusion.

FORM
"Architectural form is the point of contact between mass and space... Architectural forms, textures, materials, modulation of light and shade, colour, all combine to inject a quality or spirit that articulate space. The quality of the architecture will be determined by the skill of the designer in using and relating these elements, both in the interior spaces around building."

Edmund N. Bacon
The Design Cities
1974

Defination
Form is an inclusive term that has severalmeaning. It may refer to an external appearance that can be recognized, as that of a chair or the human body that sit on it. It may also allude to a particular condition in which something acts or manifests itself, as when we spaeck of water in the form of ice ar steam. In art and design, we often usethe term to denote the formal structure of a work- the manner of arranging and coordinating the elements and parts of a compostition so as to produce a coherent image. Form also suggests reference to both internal strcuture and external outline and the priciple tha gives unity to the whole. while form often includes a sence of three dimensional mass or volume, shape refers more specifically to the essential aspect of form that governs its appearance- the configuration of relative disposition of the lines or contours that delimit a fogure or form.

Attributes of form
Shape
Size
Colour
Texture
Finished
Glow
Shine
Pattern
Transparency/ translucency
Heavy
Light
Proportion
Scale

Forms also have relational properties that govern the pattern and composition of elements:
Position
Orientation
Visual Innertia

Space
"We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; But it's on the space where there is nothing that the utiliry of the wheel depends. We turn clay to make a vessel; But it is on the space where there is nothing that the utility of the vessel depends. We pierce doors and windows to make a house; and it's on these spaces where there is nothing that the utility of the house depends. Therefore, just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize theutility of what is not."

Lao-tzu
Tao Te Ching
6th century B.C.

Space constantly encompasses our being. Through the volume of space, we move, see forms, hear sounds, feel breezes, smellthe fragrances of a flower garden in bloom. It is a material substance like wood or stone. Yet is is an inherently formless vapor. Its visual form, its dimensions and scale, the quality of its light- all of these qualities depend on our perception of the spatial boundaries defined by elements of form. As space begins to be captured, enclosed, molded, and organized by the element s of mass, architecture comes into being.

A space would also be structured as nodes and path.

Illusion
A product may also be an illusion.

What is illusion?
We can perceive our environment through visual and auditory sensations. Since we do this easily and naturally, we are generally unaware of our visual and auditory functions in daily life. Occasionally, however, we fail to acquire information correctly. Dreams or hallucinations, of course, are not real, and we can have wrong perceptions if we are seriously ill, injured, or tired. Abnormal sensations are also common in cases of brain damage or drug abuse. Illusions, on the other hand, are wrong visual or auditory perceptions that an unimpaired person, even though s/he understands them to be false, still sees or hears.

In a visual illusion, one will see the wrong size or position of a figure or fail to judge brightness, color, and motion. In audition, one will hear a sound that does not actually exist, or make mistakes judging loudness, pitch, and location. We have two types of illusions. The first type happens when all information is given at the same time. The other type happens when pieces of information are presented sequentially. This is called the aftereffect. Vision and audition may work together to cause illusions. We know that because of a familiar phenomenon called constancy, we usually do not recognize illusions. Size constancy means we see the same size figures independent of their distance from us. Color constancy causes us to see the same hue of surfaces of objects independent of lightning. Our tactile sensation may also give us interesting illusions that are analogous to visual illusions. Though we do not have comprehensive information, olfactory and gustatory sensations might happen to provide illusions.

References:
1. My lecturer, Cik Wan site: http://www.hbp.usm.my/1b/RAG132/2008/L3product.htm
2. http://www.brl.ntt.co.jp/IllusionForum/basics/index-e.html
3. Architecture- Form, Space, & Order (Third Edition)

Lecture 2- Site (7 Scale of the built environment) (27/08/08)

Scale

1. From nano to celestial

Milk Way- Our Galaxy

The Solar System

The Earth

CellCromatin in nano scale

However, there are only 7 scales used by various profession in the build environment.
1. Object
2. Interior
3. Building
4. Premise
5. Urban
6. Regional

We can describe the 6 scales by the images below:-

An object

An object in an interior space

Building

Premise (with some lanscape)Global

How about the 7th scale? The global scale. How do we look at the globe?
The Eurocentric view?

The Pacific, Malaka perspective?
Or the Buckminster Fuller's view?

As for me, i would look at the globe in the eurocentric view as it is what i familiar with. Most of the globe map today is in eurocetric view and this make it easily available.


Something interesting i found about Buckminster Fuller in Wikipedia...
Buclminster Fuller was an American architect, author, designer, futurist, inventor, and visionary. He was the second president of Mensa. He also worked in the development of numerous inventions, chiefly in the fields of design and architecture, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. One of his work:-

The Montreal Biosphère by Buckminster Fuller, 1967

The earth as a dying planet can be explained with the production model:
Intension- Gold, glory
Act- Design & build
Actor- earthling, inhabitant of earth, global villager, designer, builder, developer.
Rule- Economic
Site- Earth
Product- Destruction

How do i look at the world as a dying planet?
As for me, when i look at the globe i see destruction, anger and chaos scattered around. One of the most obvious example is when we look back on September 11, 2001, with an aching sadness, with our memories of that awful day crystallized around images seared into our minds and hearts. For many people that day changed how they thought of the world, of their country, of their country’s place in the world. Sometimes it feels like we have been thrown into a world in which everything is chaos, nothing is recognizable, nothing goes according to plan. Human are destroying mother earth by their selfish mind and create destruction and pollution. Our globe is sick and it seems like no one have realise it. What we think is that "some one will take care of it and my contribution to the destruction is just very little and it dont count at all". With this kind of selfish mind, how is our mother earth going to get well?



Iatrogenic

Article on Iatrogenic:

Iatrogenic is defined as disease caused by medical examination or treatment. This includes disease, illness, or death from Drug Reactions, Vaccines, irresponsibly prescribed drugs such as Ritalin, et al, turning a blind eye to the dangers of such approved (and deadly) chemicals as Aspartame, ignoring many societal caused maladies (everything from EMF Dangers to Computer Game Problems), disregarding negative effects of Mental Health on individual’s general welfare, and mistakes, errors, omissions, and blunders by hospitals, medical doctors, nurses, and other individuals in the mainstream medical establishment.


A recent study published in The Journal of The American Medical Association (2000:284:94) by Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, showed that in the U.S. there are:
· 12,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery

· 7,000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals

· 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals

· 80,000 deaths/year from nosocomial infections in hospitals

· 106,000 deaths/year from adverse effects of medications
This totals 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes, placing iatrogeny as the third leading cause of death in the U.S., second only to heart disease and cancer.


It would be humanly impossible to eliminate genuine mistakes entirely. "But how many times does a mistake happen until it's not just a mistake anymore, but negligence?"
This author believes that 225,000 deaths every year may be an example of when mistakes cross over to the darkness of negligence. If so, then we are witnessing the greatest holocaust to befall mankind ever.

Assignment A- USM 37th Convocation (From Event to Oval)

We know that production must consist of six elements INTENTION, ACT, PRODUCT, ACTOR, RULE and SITE. By refering to this model, we can use the Oval for the USM 37th Convocation as a production. Firstly we must determine the intention for this production. In my opinion, the intention for this production is to build canopies/tents in the Oval.
After coming out with an intention, it's time to determine the site. So, where is the site?

The site

The site chosen for the Oval is the field in front of the math school facing the Sg. Dua gate. In my opinion, site is a place where the product in the form of solid structure or event is being situated.


Who is the actor for this production?
The actors are the workers involved in building up the canopies/tents. As an actor, one requires knowledge trough listening, seeing and differentiating.
In the case of these workers, they have been briefed on how to build up the tents and where to build it. I believe that every workers were shown the method of building up a tents during their training in their respective companies. After going trough the process of seeing and listening, they have to differentiate whether are these methods right or wrong, is this the best way in building up a tents and understansding the site before building up the tents.

The worker as an actor constructing the skeleton of the stage for the oval

After having the actors, it's time to act. Act is a verb which involves doing. Acts in this production invlolve building the structure of the skeleton of the tents and put up the canopies/roof to the structure.

Acts- The workers putting up the skeleton and constructing the stage

The canopies built by the workers

However every actor who acts is govern by rule. Most rules that we see are written down as law, by-law, canon, act, enactment, regulation, etc. These rules determine what is right and what is wrong to do (act on).

What are the rules for the workers in this production?
In my opinion, the main rule and which i thought is the most important is the time of completion. The workers need to complete all the works in time. Any delayed will affect the convocation.

At last, it leads to the production of the Oval~!

The stalls near physic school

The main entrance to the oval facing the Sg. Dua gate

Brief for Assignment A

1.) Get A Virtual Site


1. Get a free virtual site where what you understand by the Built Environment and Human Settlements may be built, maintained and accessed by anyone.


2. Visit http://groups.google.com/group/alambina2008 and ensure that you can send the following info:
a. full name
b. matric card number
c. your site address: http//www....
to the group owner by 12:00 noon, Friday 15 August 2008.


3. Design and build on your site the idea of PRODUCTION and explain in detail the production of your construction.


4. Maintain you site and producr for final assessment on 22 October 2008.



2.) USM 37th Convocation 2008

From event to oval:

The production of a Built Environment

Intension: Add content to your virtual site

Act:Document change on USM oval

Actor: Student

Rule: Use production model

Site: A free virtual site

Product: Photo blog

Lecture 1-Production Model (13/08/08)

Firstly, what is PRODUCTION?

from wiktionary:
1. the act of producing
2. the act of being produced
3. the total amount produced
4. the presentation of a theatrical work
5. an occasion or activity made more complicated than necessary

6. that which is manufactured or is ready for manufacturing in volume (as opposed to a prototype or conceptual model)

from wikipedia:

Production may be:
In Economics:
-Production, the act of making products (goods and services)
-Production, the act of manufacturing goods
-Production as statistic, gross domestic product

In Entertainment:
-Production, phase of filmmaking
-Production, category of illusory magic trick

Abstract systems:
-Production (computer science), formal-grammar concept
-Production system, programming method
-Production (information technology), software or hardware in active use

from my point of view:

Production is a proccess of creating something in the form of solid object which we can see or touch or an abstract system.

There are 6 elements of production:

1. Intension

2. Act

3. Rule

4. Actor

5. Site

6. Product

Intention

-tujuan, matlamat, objektif, nak apa

There are explicit and implicit intension. Explicit intension is clear and fully expressed while implicit intension is implied and not expressed directy.

There are also consructive and destructive intention. Construtive intension have a useful purpose and it is helpful to us while destructive intension will cause damage and destruction.

There are also good and bad intension. Good intension brings advantages to us while bad intension brings damage and negative effect to us.

Act

-laku, buat, laksana, tindak

-sendirian/berkumpulan

After having an intension, then it's time to act so that we can archieve what we intended to do.

However before we act, we must first have knowledge. Knowledge can be describe as a product. We can get knowlede trough seeing, listening, and differentiating. The most important is with heart~!

see, observe, look

listen, hear (dengar)

think & differentiate

With HEART~!

Rule
-fahaman, ideologi, ....isme

-natural, man-made

-climatic, local

Every act is governed with rule. In my opinion rule is important so that we won't do something out of what is required or something which is wrong according the rule set.

-There are many philosophical isms. A few of it were mentioned during the lecture.
1. altruism-no right, no wrong

2. cynicism-everything is wrong

3. relativism- everything is right

Q1: Ada betul, ada salah. What is the ism?

Answer: After refering to this web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/glossary-of-philosophical-isms, i think that the most appropriate ism for this question is OBJECTIVISM.

Objectivism can be defined as in ethics, the belief that certain acts are objectively right or wrong.

-kebenaran wajib dicari(truth-seekerisme)

-we don't need to find the truth, just throw away all the false and lies(taosim)

-nenek-moyangisme

Q2: What ism are you holding?

Answer: As for me, i believe in "factism". Nothing is true except you can prove it with reliable facts. There is no point to argue about and no one will be persuaded by you if you are talking craps without facts. So, talk "facts" to me. :)

Actor

-individu, institusi, pembuat, pelaksana.

Actor refer to the person who act during the process of a production

Site

-muka bumi

In order to act, we must first have a site. There are real site and virtual site. Examples of real site are floor, table paper, etc. Examples for virtual site are thought, dream and website.

real site

virtual site

Product

-physical, mental, spritual

In my opinion, physical product refers to product which we can see and touch. Mental product will be all the ideas we have in our mind. While spiritual product will be all the ism and religious belief.