So, hi.
I'm Sara.
I'm a senior, majoring in architecture,
with an emphasis in civil engineering.
As Michael mentioned, I will be presenting on The Little Things
in Architecture.
So this past summer, I spent two months
interning with Dr. Ken Yeang.
He is an Asian architect and pioneer in eco-architecture.
And I worked with him at his firm, TR Hamzah and Yeang,
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I'm from.
So I got this internship through a friend of mine
at Mount Holyoke who is also Malaysian.
Her mom knew Ken and put me through
and I applied and got it.
So that was great.
Went to Mount Holoyoke.
So this seems to be a recurring theme,
but the first week of my internship
was then trying to develop the digital skills that I would
need throughout the internship.
So at Mount Holyoke, we're supposed
to Rhino and 3D modeling software
and Adobe Illustrator, which is more of a vector-based program.
But at TRHY I got to learn AutoCAD.
And this is one of the first projects that I did.
So the project is I-Care, a care and rehabilitation facility.
And my task was to draft sort of the typical ward layouts
to be shown to clients.
Besides doing architectural intern stuff,
I also worked with publication.
So this the Roof Roof House.
It's Ken's own house.
He self-designed it.
It's down the street from the office.
And it was completed in 1985.
So in 1985, most of the drawings and documentation was by hand.
So my task was to digitalize that.
And I came up with this section, included details
like where the sun path would be,
and the wind coming through the building.
And this rendering ended up being
used in a magazine publication about the Roof Roof House.
I also got to go on a site visit to Putrajaya
2C5, another project.
It's a mixed development that gives space for offices
and commercial spaces.
So during the site visit, I took pictures and I made a drawing.
And those photographs ended up being used
for submissions for awards.
But the bulk of my internship was
spent drafting architectural schedules.
So, architectural schedules are a detailed list
of architectural components that coordinate with drawings
that an architect would already have.
And during my time there, I was put
in charge of the supplies and finish schedules
for one of residential projects, the G- Residences.
It's a high-rise, 40-story project.
And I worked on the schedules for doors, Ironmongery,
and door finishes.
So this is an example of one of the door schedules.
As you can see, there are the different types
of doors that would be in the building.
And then here is kind of a list of all the different door
types that correspond with the drawings,
the description of the materials,
how many door leafs the door has, what size,
what the sizes are, and then the location of these doors--
so female toilets, in the living, outdoor play area--
and then quantity of the doors that
would be in the whole building.
I also liaised a lot with product suppliers.
So the whole process basically was
I would get a list of architectural components
from the quantity surveyor.
And a quantity surveyor is someone
who is very well versed with costs and budgets
and how much of this do we need in a building.
And so I would get that list.
And if I didn't, I would go through the floor-plans
and create one myself.
And then I would look through our library of catalogs
for different products of finishes, products or finishes
from different brands that are available to us in Malaysia
and then pick products that I thought would the project best.
And then from there, I would create a list
and then send it out and contact suppliers to set up
meetings with the designers.
So I got to sit in on a lot of these meetings
and it was a very interesting process listening to them talk
and listening to them explain and try to sell you
their product as well.
And then after these meetings, I would maintain correspondence
with them so I could get quotes for these products
that we would ultimately choose at the end.
So this is a little bit of the sanitary-ware supply sheet
that I created during my time there.
So I would get from the quantity surveyor
a list of the things that we need, and then a quantity,
and how many we'd need.
So I would go and look through catalogs,
pick products, list out their specifications,
and then send this back to the suppliers
to be like, hey, if i want.
20 of this, how much is it going to cost?
Can I get it for a cheaper price since I'm
doing it for a project and I'm not buying individual pieces?
So I did many iterations of this and I
think by the end of my internship,
I was very well versed in the different brands of toilet
bowls that we had [INAUDIBLE].
[LAUGHTER]
But yeah, another fun thing that I got to do
is I got to go to ARCHIDEX, which
is an annual exhibition that's held and organized
by the Malaysian Institute of Architects during the Kuala
Lumpur Architecture Festival.
It's an exhibition with booths for products suppliers
and sell us their products, and aimed primarily
at architects and designers.
They also open it up to contractors and students.
But I was very lucky to be able to go as part of the firm.
And that's a picture of me after many hours of shopping
and my many bags of brochures.
So throughout this whole process,
my colleagues were constantly asking me, Sara,
don't you want design?
Don't you want to incorporate some sort of design element
into your internship?
You've been doing a lot of making Excel sheets,
talking to suppliers?
To which I say, there's so much opportunity
to design in Mount Holyoke.
There's always a chance for me to improve my design thinking
through Mount Holyoke Studios.
And at school we design for thoughts.
We think about programming of rooms.
We think about how to orient spaces based on sun paths
and things like that.
But we don't really think the smaller details
and how that could impact someone's experiences in space.
And I like to use this example of the different doorknobs
and door handles.
So on the right, you have a doorknob.
And on the left, you have a door handle.
And how you open a door with those different
handles changes the experience that you have.
And things like putting a handle on a door
would require you to pull it, versus not having it
would make you push it.
So that changes how you would go through and experience
the space.
And through this, I realized that architecture
might vary across countries and cultures
in terms of the approaches and the styles.
But something that remains a constant is the little things.
When you design a bathroom, you're going to need a sink.
When you have a door, you're going
to need some way to open it and close it.
Even like the sockets, power sockets,
the fact that it's painted that dark brown
was a conscious decision to draw your attention to it
and show you that it's there.
And it's all these little things that sort of make or break
architecture.
So what's next for me?
This semester I'm taking a class on AutoCAD
at U Mass under their BCT department,
sometimes just to keep myself going with the program.
And then I'm also pursuing an independent study
with Michael, that might hopefully
lead to a thesis on the influence of materiality
on architecture.
And then after graduation, I've decided that I want to work.
I don't want to go to grad school right away.
Ken has been very generous to say
that, hey, when you're done, come back if you want to,
so I have that going for me.
And then hopefully within a year I'll be in grad school.
So thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Question?
[LAUGHTER]
[? Not fast enough. ?]
It was perfect.
[LAUGHTER]
Yes.
Hello.
Were there any challengers that you experienced
that you'd like to maybe share and how you overcame them when
you were in your internship?
Yeah.
I think for me, talking about all these things
now, having gone through, is OK.
But I think at the beginning, [INAUDIBLE],, hey,
can you contact suppliers with this,
can you make a sheet of this, I was very--
it was out of my element completely,
because I was so used to design.
And having to go through all of this
was an eye-opening experience for me.
It was challenging in the beginning,
but I feel like my colleagues at TRHY
were very, very helpful in a sense,
where they would sit me down and be like,
hey, do you need help with this, I
can show you where you can find this information,
and things like that.
Hi.
I was thinking of your presentation in relation
to Ruth's.
She showed the sort of wonderful overview
and you're taking us so close.
And I was wondering what might be difference.
Is there a way in which--
I see that there's a possibility of exploring architecture
as a tactile thing from your point of view.
Yeah.
And I thought if that occurred to you.
So when you're making that beautiful example
you gave of the handle, you're actually
thinking of architecture as a kind
of physical, material thing.
Mm-hmm.
And is it less visual or more visual
or different from visual?
I think it's less visual, just because it's so experiential.
You don't really think about all these things that you're doing.
If you're opening the door, you're not really thinking,
oh, I'm going to turn the knob.
It's just something that you do.
And it's all-- like it comes together with materiality
and how that feels.
And I think that's also something
that I'm trying to explore through my independent study
on materiality and how that influences architecture
as a whole.
Thank you.
Sure.
Thank you.
Were your engineering studies helpful in your internship,
or did you bring a different kind of sensibility
from the engineering studies that you found that you drew on
in your daily tasks?
So with my Nexus in engineering, I've
taken classes with U Mass' BCT department.
So last semester I took one on construction materials
and methods.
And I didn't really get to bring that here,
but I feel like that's--
I don't think I brought much from that engineering
into the internship, but I feel like taking from that-- taking
away from that, there's a lot more that I'm
able to do now within that engineering spectrum
because of what I learned during my internship.
Yeah.
[INAUDIBLE]
Yay.
[APPLAUSE]