The week that was 7-10th September…
Singapore, long weekend 11-13th September 2015
Monday 7th September, Singapore – Mega projects are they for real?
I have always thought that projects like Dubai’s Palm Island where excessive and unrealistic for our world, yet it was built against all odds and as far as I know still a place for the rich and famous…I have never been there, will probably never go and have no idea if it is successful or not. Yet there seems more to come…Today we have signed on for a similar project of the coast in China and honestly I have no idea if it will ever see the daylight. At the same time I also read up on another such project in Malaysia just outside Singapore, where a mega rich developer plans to develop some islands in a similar spirit, apparently in a bid to compete with Singapore in general and Sentosa’s Resorts World more specifically. With the world economy as it is, it seems like a science fiction dream.
So the question I put to myself before going into this was, does it make sense to venture my company in such business and the answer was yes, but with a big caviat…provide they pay…These pipe dreams have a way of suddenly vanishing or being put indefinitely on hold and the last thing you want is put in heaps of efforts and time in a project only to find out there is no money when its pay time…So I agreed carefully with specified steps and required payments. For now we start with a master plan and concept designs only…pay and we work…let’s see how that goes…this may well take 10-20 years to realise and a lot can happen between now and then…
Tuesday 8th September, Singapore – Coal and solar
In an interesting development in India, the government has ordered the older coal-fired power plants to help making energy produced by solar farms more affordable and competitive by bundling together the electricity generated by both technologies for sale to the grid. In other words by combining the cheaper coal-fired power with the more expensive solar power as one energy unit. The intent is to lower the price that power distribution companies pay for solar energy and so forcing them to use more of the cleaner energy…interesting initiative…
I have mixed feelings about it as it still keeps the environment polluting coal fire plants in action full action…if anything possibly even encourages them to increase the output. On the other hand whatever solar energy is being produced, is now being used to the full, at least so it seems…I just get the feeling that overall we do not really improve the situation…more solar energy usage is just being offset with more coal fired energy production…is there a winner?
Wednesday 9th September, Singapore – Renovation or reinvention Renovation projects are always interesting and challenging. Today I visited the site of one of our new projects, for a “mettre a jour”, where he lead interior designer has been tasked to reinvent the interiors of a place that has long been an institution in Singapore. The original gilded and ornamental ceilings, features and interiors are rumoured to have cost several millions of dollars and therefore not surprisingly the (re)design brief calls for keeping the features as part of the concept. A renovation yes, but also a reinvention.
While the interior design task is already challenging I think the lighting redesign will be monumental and a make or break part of the projects final end result. As the interiors date back from nearly 2 decennia ago, it is clear that a lighting technology upgrade will be needed, both in lamp as well as in lighting control technology. The current installation is predominantly conventional incandescent and fluorescent lighting and it is likely that also its electrical infra-structure will need a serious update.
The space is however inspiring and as we inspected, assessed and started to discuss the interiors the first ideas already started to bubble to the surface…there is no better place to get inspired then on location…
Thursday 10th September, Kuala Lumpur – Is the artist always right?
My first trip away since my return from leave (yes indeed it did not last longer than a week, and I had to fight for it 🙂 ) brings me to KL where I attended a progress meeting on one of our hotel projects and took advantage of being in KL to visit a new potential client and a night visit to the site of our IB Tower project that is in its final stages of commissioning. It is on this site that I saw the recently installed artworks commissioned from some of the leading artists of the world. One notably is from well-known Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei. What struck me immediately when touring the site with the project manager was the awful lighting that was installed to light up AWW’s artwork. While I reserve my opinion in regards to the artwork itself I did have my outspoken opinion on its lighting; a lighting that was commissioned directly from a local supplier, no disrespect to him by the way as he just delivered what was asked for.
In querying the PM on the lighting and that we should redesign and reposition the lights for greater and better impact I was told that they had already told AWW but that he was adamant that this was the way he wanted it lit! Which of course begs the question are the artists always right? I can sympathise a little bit as I classify myself also as an artist in which my lighting design represent my vision on how it should look like…I am the creator, so I know right? This is where holding on to your idea of what is right is potentially a form of egocentric hard headedness. So how do I convince AWW that he could improve on the lighting of his artwork…I took a picture of it (see below) and intent to make a night time rendering of the lighting effect to show him how it could be. I don’t mind if he then presents it as his idea… There is lots of art in this project with a special gallery that already opened its door to the public on level 5 with works from local artists Hoessein Enas…
This Friday is polling day in Singapore and hence a public holiday. For the first time since the birth of the nation 50 years ago, all parliament seats for the government are contested by the opposition…this will be a very interesting battle…
Have a great weekend ahead, the week that was
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