Terrarium

making bricks

Thinking of conversations with a brick one evening, led me to ask myself, How hard is it to make a brick? How much energy? What makes it?

Adobe Brick (Mud Brick)

The first thing was to look for a rectangular mold, here, mom to suggested a baking tray.

Then dug up some red earth(laterites). I quickly learnt here that damp red earth is easier to dig than dry. Luckily it rained quite a bit the night before and work was left moderately easy.

Mixing the earth and putting it in the mold, I realized, I forgot to think of a way to remove the brick,so I removed everything and lined the mold with a sheet of plastic from an old plastic bag, put the clayey earth in and pulled it out of the mold. About 3 parts soil to 1 part water, mixed and kneaded like dough. There it was a brick!

Recalling the conversation with the lonely brick, it told me, "Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?"

hmm...

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Rammed Earth Brick!

Another follow up experiment, the rammed earth brick

Formwork this time with steel band reinforcements, soil mixed to a consistency best described as clumped when pressed but falls apart when dropped.

Mini tamper with a short handle to size :)

tamped with hammer, many many times

Left to dry in sun in formwork, leave in formwork for a couple days before removing,

Two test cubes on the right corner, from previous brick recipe

Louis Kahn will be amazed!

Ps. Im still drying it for 1 or 2 more days before I remove the formwork as a safe measure :)

Your Dream House for Free!

An entire city in your choice of colour, size and type to bring home! =)

At #Occupy Dataran 11.11.11

'Exile' City

Muntok is a small town on the West side of the Indonesian island of Banka. It has been well known for ages for its rich tin deposits. It is a lovely town with very friendly people and as it looks forwards to a paradigm shift towards the tourism industry,we took part through the workshop and translated it in our own way, using the term 'Exile' city as a historical metaphor to its quite and calm potential.

Swing Project

Here is a small cause I have helped set up with my classmates, we set-up swings in public spaces for the use of the public in mind.

Our idea came from the removal of the previous swing due to damage, and possible vandalism. We felt we had to restore the swing because we were deeply moved by the nostalgia and memories of the previous swing. This inspired us to recreate the opportunity for memories, for the children, people and birds... just as the previous swing had for all of us.


Swings are neutral, they provide fun regardless of who we are!

The previous swing
Picture from: alex-lim.com

We decided to paint the swing this time to add visual value to the swing and avoid the recurrence of any vandalism.

To read more about the swing-project, visit the link:
swing-project.blogspot.com

Cyanotype Print

Spilled Capitalism

Shanghai 2010

30 min exposure in evening sun

Bleached and toned

Vibro Bots

A simple robot can lead to hours of fun...

Made of just a few felt markers, a cardboard body, a cellphone vibration motor and a battery, its construction cost only Rm 6 each

Scribbling bots

Bots #1 & #2 working very hard for The Creativist recruitment day