Few weeks ago I took a day off just to give myself a break from the tiring routine office works. I spent few hours walking around the busy old town stretching from Ewe Hai Street to the Carpenter Street. It was a very nice treat for me since i can throw all those messy paperwork out of my mind and shoot whatever I saw and I like. I like those old fixtures along these timeless street. Felt like see the yesterdays once more.

Do you ever see this building? I believe all the Kuching people did saw it just never notice of it’s unique facade. If you are interested to have a look, it is on the right hand side of Sekama Road as you drive from Mendu Road.

This building features the metal frame casement window infilled with matte finished glass panels which are rarely seen in new shop units nowadays. Like many old days design, the concrete protrusions on top and sides of each window panel serve as the sun shade and create interesting shadows from the moments of sunrise till sunset.

The other architectural feature that caught our attention is the glass blocks that used at the stairwell facade as shown in the photos below. These blocks are arranged in patterns that not only allowed certain amount of sunlight penetrates into the stairwell but it also add some awesome appearance to the otherwise dull facade.

This is the 1st building Tze Yong showed me when we went to shoot the series of “Facade” during the Gawai holiday. Actually i pass by this building almost every weekend as i fetch my mother to my uncle’s grocery shop which used to be just opposite to it. I always look at it but never realised that it is so unique.

The facade’s design taking into consideration of the building orientation and the sun path. The protruded window panels not only diffuse the harsh direct sunlight in the afternoon but it also create a great facade which seldom seen on modern shop lots nowadays.

It you are interested to see this building, just drop by the Kaya & Toast at Petanak Street to have a cup of coffee and slices of toast, you will see it on your left.

Frankly speaking this small SESCO subtation is easily neglected by anyone. May be many people are wondering why Tze Yong and I spent our time on this little building. The answer is that we will never see any new substation building of this type anymore. This building was constructed using small precast concrete blocks which were arranged piece by piece to form the walls. Compared to the new substation which solely built with reinforced concrete frame infilled with plastered brickwall, this precast block walls give the attractive visual of form and depth as the sunlight direction change from dawn to sunset.

Actually I did not plan to take these photos since those buildings along Gambier Street market are the famous spot for most photography enthusiasts all the times. I can always find those nice pictures of these buildings over the web.

However as I pass by the Gambier Street market everyday on my way home seeing those workers demolishing the building, I realised that I should take some photos of these buildings before they disappear forever.

I got to show it to my son when he grew up someday, telling him the story of these buildings and sharing with him my memories. I believe many people do share the same experience with me whereby we sit on the low long bench in the messy wet market just to have a plate of famous chicken rice in the late night or tasting the delicious “Ali satay” in the morning. Those are the unique memory which I believe our next generation is not going to have a chance to experience simply because of the word of “Development”.

I am not offending development. Just that people tend to ignore those good old things or memories simply for the sake of better living of next generation. While they initiated to provide something which they believe is better, they actually destroy those good things that existed long before we all are here.

I am not questioning the waterfront project’s feasibility and I know it going to revamp the whole stretch of the riverbank just to be another hot tourism spot just like the Albert Dock in Liverpool, Thames River in London, Clarke Quay in Singapore, Victoria Harbour in HongKong and Sydney Harbour in Australia. I am doubt whether the tourists especially those from western countries are interested with our waterfront. I believe they have much more architecturally better planned and designed waterfront attraction in their countries than ours. In stead, those old colonial era buildings along the Gambier Street should be more attractive to them.

Unfortunately Sarawak is a very strange place whereby they demolished those valuable historical buildings to give way for development or rebuild them again rather than doing the conservation works. I am doubt that those rebuilt “historical buildings” such as the TuaPekKong Temple and FungShanShi Temple still can be classified as historical buildings anymore. How are we going to tell our friends that these are the historical buildings when we cant even see a single piece of aging brick or tile on them.

Another question? What will happen to the newly completed D.U.N building by the year of 2089? Should we demolish it to give way to development just like what they are doing now?

Continue reading »

Recent year shop lot development projects have dominate the property market in Kuching. There is always shop lot on construction wherever we go. These new shop lot always give people the dull impression as a rectangular shape building with plain façade finished with minimum brick wall and huge glazing. The architectural rendering are minimum except those decorative cornice, arch and huge box-up column that simply designed for esthetic rather than serving any practical purpose.

Many photography enthusiasts love to shoot the uniquely architect old shops instead of these plainly designed new shop. Those old shops along Main Bazaar, Market Street and India Street which are built long ago are much more attractive with lots of architectural detailings that give great impressive images. Unfortunately lately saw lots of renovations and reconstruction are carried out which turns many of these shops’s façade into the plain glazing finish as well.

During the recent Gawai holiday, Tze Yong (a freelance architect and part-time course leader in a leading college in Kuching) and I spent an afternoon drive around the city just to show me those valuable old shops’s façade architectural designs that I seldom notice even I live in this city for almost 30 years.

The photo below was taken at the Kenyalang Commercial Centre that I visited almost every week. I have to admit that i saw the facade whenever i was there but i never spend a little bit more time to go deeper onto it until Tze Yong explained to me. The façade of these shops are hard to be found anywhere else any more. The panel protrusions on every window give the harmonic and perspectival view as the sun move across. These panels which finished with the granolithic not only present an esthetic appearance but serve as the sun shade device that shield the harsh direct sunlight from penetrate into the interior for better comfort.