Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
136, Queensberry Street, Carlton, Victoria.
The kind of terrace house Hugh Grant made his book shop in Notting Hill, or Aishwarya Rai's shop in the movie Mistress of spice.
If anyone has a chance to go Melbourne, don't just do what a typical tourist will do, like shopping at Chapel Street, sightseeing at Great Ocean Road or see national icons like Kangaroo (and Aborigines who always ask for a dollar from you), take a walk along Swanston Street which stretched from Melbourne CBD all the way to Carlton, you get to see alot of nice buildings and houses in Carlton area, where the classic mix with the modern.
If anyone has a chance to go Melbourne, don't just do what a typical tourist will do, like shopping at Chapel Street, sightseeing at Great Ocean Road or see national icons like Kangaroo (and Aborigines who always ask for a dollar from you), take a walk along Swanston Street which stretched from Melbourne CBD all the way to Carlton, you get to see alot of nice buildings and houses in Carlton area, where the classic mix with the modern.
Funky Apartment
Saw this funky apartment architecture, a little weird but I do like its simplistic internal layout and little cozy main entrance. And it's sort of cute too.
Bachelors' Den
Yon Chet's apartment's layout look something like this. I found this apartment located in the same street as where his former apartment is on Swanston Street up for sale in a real estate website. So if I were to live alone working in a foreign place like Melbourne, I would opt for such kind of apartment to live a single life :D
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Western Red Cedar Timber Louvres
I love this window. The Aristotle apartment in Carlton Melbourne where Yon Chet used to lived during early university days have something like this if not mistaken.
Excerpts from homesite.com.au:
Trend Louvres have attracted a new generation of admirers who are using them in inspiring and innovative ways to give a fashionable boost to their living areas. Versatility, practicality and affordability make them a very attractive choice.
Trend Louvres allow you to control air flow, sunlight and to exclude rain. The glass, metal or timber blades are secured with a unique patented polypropylene clip, which will not corrode. The clip is designed with a shroud that overlaps the clip below, ensuring a truly effective weather-tight seal. Weatherproofing is enhanced by the use of head and sill weather strips.
Trend Louvres can be installed as a single frame or in combination with hinged doors, fixed or sliding windows.
A new generation of style with Trend Louvres.
URL:http://admin.homesite.com.au/indoors/laundry/windows/louvre-windows/timber-louvres#
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Found it! The right design
Yup, found the perfect home design.
Design is elegantly simple yet classic, and overall the house has a good 50-50 balance of housing structures with garden and lawns (including a small tennis court), mini bungalow hidden and surrounded by lovely plants and trees in a quiet neighborhood. The house is located in Melbourne.
At first look, the ambiance of the surrounding provides a very cozy kind of feeling and topping that was the size of the house is optimal, small enough to be cozy and big enough to fill in 4 bed rooms, a study room perhaps. Will be even perfect if it's located on a small elevated land that provide sea view.
I came across this article in Trends Idea magazine at a restaurant in One Utama while waiting dinner to be serve, and noticed that they also publish it on their website. The design suits my preference, so now I have a good reference to start working on the dream home.
Article excerpt:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the house you live in has achieved iconic status, any changes you undertake will be critically followed and commented on. The owners of the home featured on these pages were keenly aware that proposed renovations to the building and grounds would have to be sympathetic to the original character of the home.
Landscape designer Robert Boden was commissioned to rehabilitate the gardens once the renovations were completed. As well as getting the gardens back into shape, the owners also needed to re-establish the tennis court, and the husband – who is a keen swimmer – wanted to extend the swimming pool to include a lap pool."
The renovations included a two-storey addition to the rear of the home and the inclusion of a basement garage extending beneath the tennis court.
With its neoclassical lines, the home has a very traditional, formal aspect that was reflected in the original gardens. Keen to maintain tradition, Boden came up with a design that stayed true to the dictates of formality, yet allowed for a modern re-interpretation, making it better suited to the young family who make the property their home.
"I think the best feature of the garden was its traditional feel, with its sweeping lawns. This is the basis I used when coming up with the new design.
"A contemporary edge was achieved through the incorporation of the paved outdoor entertaining areas, extending the garden's functionality."
Because much of the original lawn area was taken up by the addition to the house and outdoor entertaining areas, the focus was to maximise the remaining area. To this end, Boden conceived a series of inter-connected levels, augmented with low-profile planting that visually extends the green-space.
"While not symmetrical, and therefore not wholly within formal dictates, instituting the levels allowed the lawn areas to remain rectangular. Planting beds could then be established around the perimeter of each level as well as the property boundary, preserving the oases of green that had originally existed."
The multiple levels also came about as a way to incorporate the extended swimming pool, says Boden.
Perhaps the biggest challenge in the design was extending the pool to accommodate a 25m lane and making it fit the site. The only way to achieve this and be in keeping with the overall design scheme was to build up that area of the pool terrace and reshape it along formal lines."
Another challenge facing the design was as a result of excavations carried out for the garage.
In order to provide sufficient on-site parking, an area for the basement garage had to be excavated from the site, part of which is now situated under the tennis court. This required a feat of engineering when it came time to re-establish the tennis court and surrounding gardens to be in keeping with the design and within structural load requirements," says Boden.
Drawing inspiration from, and staying true to with the original garden also had the benefit of retaining a number of existing plants.
Many of the established trees were preserved, which as well as maintaining the existing charm and tradition of the garden, also acted to soften the transition from new to old. This gives a sense of longevity to the overall design and lessens the impact of change," says Boden.
Other existing elements were also retained, including the southern garden – which has a free-flowing, romantic feel – and the water feature at the front of the home, says Boden.
"After the formality of the rear garden, I felt it was important to offer an area that acted as a contrast to all that regulation. These small, separate spaces are little points of interest that give a sense of exploration as you move through them."
The resulting garden is essentially two distinct areas, both of which are representative of the original and an improvement to it, which Boden says satisfies both the needs of the owners and the critics.
Design is elegantly simple yet classic, and overall the house has a good 50-50 balance of housing structures with garden and lawns (including a small tennis court), mini bungalow hidden and surrounded by lovely plants and trees in a quiet neighborhood. The house is located in Melbourne.
At first look, the ambiance of the surrounding provides a very cozy kind of feeling and topping that was the size of the house is optimal, small enough to be cozy and big enough to fill in 4 bed rooms, a study room perhaps. Will be even perfect if it's located on a small elevated land that provide sea view.
I came across this article in Trends Idea magazine at a restaurant in One Utama while waiting dinner to be serve, and noticed that they also publish it on their website. The design suits my preference, so now I have a good reference to start working on the dream home.
Article excerpt:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the house you live in has achieved iconic status, any changes you undertake will be critically followed and commented on. The owners of the home featured on these pages were keenly aware that proposed renovations to the building and grounds would have to be sympathetic to the original character of the home.Landscape designer Robert Boden was commissioned to rehabilitate the gardens once the renovations were completed. As well as getting the gardens back into shape, the owners also needed to re-establish the tennis court, and the husband – who is a keen swimmer – wanted to extend the swimming pool to include a lap pool."
The renovations included a two-storey addition to the rear of the home and the inclusion of a basement garage extending beneath the tennis court.
With its neoclassical lines, the home has a very traditional, formal aspect that was reflected in the original gardens. Keen to maintain tradition, Boden came up with a design that stayed true to the dictates of formality, yet allowed for a modern re-interpretation, making it better suited to the young family who make the property their home."I think the best feature of the garden was its traditional feel, with its sweeping lawns. This is the basis I used when coming up with the new design.
"A contemporary edge was achieved through the incorporation of the paved outdoor entertaining areas, extending the garden's functionality."
Because much of the original lawn area was taken up by the addition to the house and outdoor entertaining areas, the focus was to maximise the remaining area. To this end, Boden conceived a series of inter-connected levels, augmented with low-profile planting that visually extends the green-space.
"While not symmetrical, and therefore not wholly within formal dictates, instituting the levels allowed the lawn areas to remain rectangular. Planting beds could then be established around the perimeter of each level as well as the property boundary, preserving the oases of green that had originally existed."The multiple levels also came about as a way to incorporate the extended swimming pool, says Boden.
Perhaps the biggest challenge in the design was extending the pool to accommodate a 25m lane and making it fit the site. The only way to achieve this and be in keeping with the overall design scheme was to build up that area of the pool terrace and reshape it along formal lines."
Another challenge facing the design was as a result of excavations carried out for the garage.
In order to provide sufficient on-site parking, an area for the basement garage had to be excavated from the site, part of which is now situated under the tennis court. This required a feat of engineering when it came time to re-establish the tennis court and surrounding gardens to be in keeping with the design and within structural load requirements," says Boden.
Drawing inspiration from, and staying true to with the original garden also had the benefit of retaining a number of existing plants.
Many of the established trees were preserved, which as well as maintaining the existing charm and tradition of the garden, also acted to soften the transition from new to old. This gives a sense of longevity to the overall design and lessens the impact of change," says Boden.
Other existing elements were also retained, including the southern garden – which has a free-flowing, romantic feel – and the water feature at the front of the home, says Boden.
"After the formality of the rear garden, I felt it was important to offer an area that acted as a contrast to all that regulation. These small, separate spaces are little points of interest that give a sense of exploration as you move through them."
The resulting garden is essentially two distinct areas, both of which are representative of the original and an improvement to it, which Boden says satisfies both the needs of the owners and the critics.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Perfect location to build dream home?
Was browsing domain.com.au for real estates in Perth, happened to come across this location, couldn't be closer to perfect I guess? Ideally located in a quiet suburb with a sea view (Indian Ocean) and within walking distance to the beach, modestly far from city (20km around?), with majority of population around the suburb made up British migrants (more class hor?) and within short driving to Joondalup golf course (where mom and dad used to stayed for 4 days as their retreat) and off course near to Joondalup train station (I can directly hop on the train and head down south to Cannington train station and take a bus to aunt's place.
The vacant land is also modestly spacious at around 7900sqr ft (double my current home size and in Aus, that kind of space is considered modest in Perth!) and the neighborhood isn't considered crowded at all, given its moderately far away from city.
Ah....perfect land to build my cozy town house in Australia, but problem is...where am I going to get the money for it? The piece of land sells for AUD$420k or around RM1.2m, by the time I can afford it, it could be long gone.Let me start finding money when I go KL....and hope that maybe in 10 years time there are still such land available there. :) Oh and by the way, this suburb is called Currambine.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Pottery Barn Workspace
Managed to get a bargain from Borders over the weekend, showing nice interior design and ideas for home office. I paid below RM24 for it, give a hard cover book like this full of colors, you normally will have to pay something shy of RM80 to RM100.Pottery Barn is famous a famous furniture chain in US, so apart from workspace, they have a series of home furnishing books, so, check it out in Borders.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Northbridge
I was thinking about the apartment photos taken at night time in Northbridge, wanted to write why I feel it's cozy to live on a second floor apartment but instead my topic went off course.
An introduction of my experience with Northbridge (Where the photos are taken, too bad I only took photos of the apartments there, not the street scenes).
I have fond memory of Northbridge because I had always frequented the Chinese restaurants in middle of night (usually 3-5am) for late night supper with Yoong Whei and Ah Neh. (And we got splash by a pool of water by the roadside when a car passing us.)
Back then was Winter 2002, I had enrolled into Saturday German language class in a TAFE institution there which I usually wake up late and always needing to run as soon as my train stops in Wellington street station, against the slow Saturday morning crowd to my college and reaching my classroom with my breath inhaling cold air and exhaling out warm breath on my lips.
Northbridge of Perth, is located directly on the north of Perth City Center. It's also known as the de facto China Town of Perth (The only capital city in Australia that doesn't have a official China Town).
On Friday nights, pub going, party happy population will gather around that area (Gangsters, aborigines, the intoxicated ones, homosexuals comes along the population but police on foot, car and vehicle patrol are everywhere,you'll see one police like less than every 300m, making it quite safe).
There is one nice old pub I've stop once at its door front watching the singer performing sway songs live, patrons dancing on the dance floor freely and enjoyably, not being bothered about the onlookers. The moment was really astonishing for me, being a cold person who refuse to show emotions in public, I must admit i was absorbed into the crowd, clapping for the dancers and the singer as the crowd's sentiment sway higher and higher by the atmosphere.
Astonishing as it can be for the patrons and singers to dance and sing with their best, like without onlookers and patrons exchange partner, dance irregardless of age (middle aged, silver hair couple dancing like when they first met each other or guys in 30's dancing with a middle aged ladies in their early 60's). At the end when the party is over, everyone walks out the pub with a smile on their face, I guess this defined how real fun party should be (not the discotheques with boom box music and youngbies shaking their heads and waving their cigarettes in the air hopelessly).
Northbridge also host wide variety restaurants serving Asian cuisine with Vietnamese food and Hongkie restaurant as majority. There you should try authentic Hong Kong dim sum and Vietnamese cuisine cooked by migrants chefs (Forget Penang food there, it's hopeless even with Malaysian chef)
Northbridge also host a numbers of Asia grocers selling Asian groceries and supplies, where Asian students loves to frequent and get their instant noodles in cartons (me included) and Asian food supplies.
You may think that this fella perhaps haven't seen the world, and all his view outside his hometown revolves around Australia, Western Australia, Perth in particular.
You are right. Because that is a place I had spent second longest time living as at today, it's a small and most of the time boring town, but I guess, I just prefer a quiet small town life. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is somewhere I look forward to explore to one day (small town like Perth too).
Not trying to be religious about the place I used to stay, just sharing nice things that I think are nice :)
What's nice about Northbridge and Perth City? Nothing, just a general pleasant feeling of the atmosphere, you need to go and experience on your own.
An introduction of my experience with Northbridge (Where the photos are taken, too bad I only took photos of the apartments there, not the street scenes).
I have fond memory of Northbridge because I had always frequented the Chinese restaurants in middle of night (usually 3-5am) for late night supper with Yoong Whei and Ah Neh. (And we got splash by a pool of water by the roadside when a car passing us.)
Back then was Winter 2002, I had enrolled into Saturday German language class in a TAFE institution there which I usually wake up late and always needing to run as soon as my train stops in Wellington street station, against the slow Saturday morning crowd to my college and reaching my classroom with my breath inhaling cold air and exhaling out warm breath on my lips.
Northbridge of Perth, is located directly on the north of Perth City Center. It's also known as the de facto China Town of Perth (The only capital city in Australia that doesn't have a official China Town).
On Friday nights, pub going, party happy population will gather around that area (Gangsters, aborigines, the intoxicated ones, homosexuals comes along the population but police on foot, car and vehicle patrol are everywhere,you'll see one police like less than every 300m, making it quite safe).
There is one nice old pub I've stop once at its door front watching the singer performing sway songs live, patrons dancing on the dance floor freely and enjoyably, not being bothered about the onlookers. The moment was really astonishing for me, being a cold person who refuse to show emotions in public, I must admit i was absorbed into the crowd, clapping for the dancers and the singer as the crowd's sentiment sway higher and higher by the atmosphere.
Astonishing as it can be for the patrons and singers to dance and sing with their best, like without onlookers and patrons exchange partner, dance irregardless of age (middle aged, silver hair couple dancing like when they first met each other or guys in 30's dancing with a middle aged ladies in their early 60's). At the end when the party is over, everyone walks out the pub with a smile on their face, I guess this defined how real fun party should be (not the discotheques with boom box music and youngbies shaking their heads and waving their cigarettes in the air hopelessly).
Northbridge also host wide variety restaurants serving Asian cuisine with Vietnamese food and Hongkie restaurant as majority. There you should try authentic Hong Kong dim sum and Vietnamese cuisine cooked by migrants chefs (Forget Penang food there, it's hopeless even with Malaysian chef)
Northbridge also host a numbers of Asia grocers selling Asian groceries and supplies, where Asian students loves to frequent and get their instant noodles in cartons (me included) and Asian food supplies.
You may think that this fella perhaps haven't seen the world, and all his view outside his hometown revolves around Australia, Western Australia, Perth in particular.
You are right. Because that is a place I had spent second longest time living as at today, it's a small and most of the time boring town, but I guess, I just prefer a quiet small town life. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada is somewhere I look forward to explore to one day (small town like Perth too).
Not trying to be religious about the place I used to stay, just sharing nice things that I think are nice :)
What's nice about Northbridge and Perth City? Nothing, just a general pleasant feeling of the atmosphere, you need to go and experience on your own.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Celosia Plumosa (Chinese calls it Rooster Head Flower)
Last week while I was wandering around Jusco in One Utama, happened to saw them selling the seeds for this plant, managed to got myself 2 little packets and with mom and dad's help, we planted the seed yesterday (cross my fingers and say "this seed will cultivate")I have deep impression with the plant because Penang's city council had done a good landscaping job using the red color species of the plant near the Island Hospital area. The plant is suppose to be easy to cultivate and maintain (hope so); a flower humid or arid environment, apart from easy maintenance, it can produce seeds up of around 200-700kg per hectare (Wikipedia says so) and the flowers can blossom up to 8 weeks (if lovers replace roses with this flower, the florist will close shop soon)
From what I searched on Google thus far, it is widely grown in tropical or near tropical climate countries, so not sure how well will it grow in a country with four seasons.If you need a reason before you decide which plant in your garden, given its bright colors and it must to be for aesthetic reason, right? (Just like choosing lavender for its scent)
Surprisingly, the plants leaves are consumable (but I'm not going to try that) and in certain countries, it can be processed into cereal kind of thing (no thanks, I still want my muesli, oats, raisins and cranberries)
And if space is ample, you may consider planting this in rows, mimicking Tulip gardens of the Dutch. (And it's so much better looking than hibiscus..ewww..)p.s. Luckily we have alternative to direct translate 鸡冠花 as Rooster Head Flower instead of Cock Head Flower.
Other name you can look for next time when you are in a plant nursery includes Cockscomb (yeah...my cock) and Prince of Wales' Feather (due to it's flowers being feather like.)
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Sycamore Ceiling Fan
There is nothing wrong with your typical ceiling fan, until you find out more about this radical ceiling fan design.
It is able to create the same effect of airflow like your ordinary ceiling fan, but at a more energy efficient way. God knows why they got the inspiration from a plant seed called Sycamore to model the shape of the radical look fan.
So somehow someone managed to mate aerodynamics studies into everyday electric appliances, finally....why we never thought of using simple aerodynamics concepts to design fans when we spent so much studying airflows and aerodynamics on racing cars and airplanes?
One thing that I will like a slow rotating ceiling fan is that it will create a slow and cozy atmosphere in my living room while at the same time giving you a same airflow effect of a high revving ordinary fan.And off course, it's energy efficient too, only needing the fan blades to do half the revolution per minute of the ordinary fan blade, by means, saving you electricity (meager but still contributive)
It's still pricey at this moment to get this fan, designed by an Aussie inventor, costing near AUD$700, the same amount converted to RM will probably buy you 10 pieces of KDK, National, Mistral ordinary ceiling from the electrical appliance store nearby.
And should the fan design becomes common and widely accepted, then I will have one more collectible classic item in my inventory: the ordinary ceiling fan.Damn.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Ahem.....launching of new bolok (blog)
You see ah, I once dreamed of becoming an architect, building nice houses, only problem is, I don't like learning tangent, co-tangent, sin et cetera...
I enjoy the aesthetically pleasing aspect of any nice architecture, interior design and decor ideas. Another reason for not picking design and architect career was because of a belief that ideas are capital, the rest are just money, so a combination of ideas and money is sufficient for me to build or design nice things in life.
I had decided (and committed) to a career path that is money and economics related, intellectually challenging career.
I only take architectures and design as a hobby where I can only generate ideas and hope to realize my ideas through someone who is passionate about this field and share my vision and ideas.
To cut it short, I started to develop sense of appreciating nice things in life when I was form 4, or 15 years old. Back then, I had always enjoy riding in dad's car touring around Faquhar Street, Weld Quay, Beach Street area, passing by the nice colonial era buildings left behind by the British or those straits settlement built by the first generations of migrant Indian and Chinese.
I have fond memories for things I had seen during my childhood from 2-5 when I was still staying in my grandparent's farm. Things like the iron cast bicycle (where rubber tappers usually peddle to rubber estate and work), mechanical alarm clock, porcelain rice bowls painted with roasters are items that are sentimental to me. (My mom had also played a big role in the influence of sentiments)
Having lived for more than 3 years in a western country had also brought my aesthetic
sense a new experience, by seeing how westerners enjoy life at their homes.
To sum up my preference or taste when it comes to homes and gardens, can you visualize IKEA's contemporariness plus British India's classical touch, somewhere between the two.
I dream of building my own dream home one day, somewhere in a quiet suburb of Australia, not too far from the city with a grand view and adjunct to a golf course, surrounded by greenery and near to a river or sea; a cozy place where family members and close friends can make themselves feel home, come for rest and vacation during the nice cool and sunny weather of autumn and spring; a place where my guests walk freely around the garden under the sunny skies shaded by trees, inhaling refreshing cool air scented by lavenders and pines and little birds chipping freely around the compound.
Apart from building a aesthetically pleasing dream home, I also believe in a home that is environmental friendly, green conducive, trying to reduce waste as much as possible to the environment and posses household items that are only necessity and stand the test of time (durable and timeless).
In essence, the blog is a idea bank, accumulating information available today, preparing for the tomorrow when I finally get to build my dream home.
p.s. The view of minimal possession of things in life is partly influenced by my experience and partly Buddhism teaching. Following and keeping up to date with trend is a tiring thing. Being a sentimental person, it will be wiser to posses things as little as possible in order not to have too much baggage in life.
I enjoy the aesthetically pleasing aspect of any nice architecture, interior design and decor ideas. Another reason for not picking design and architect career was because of a belief that ideas are capital, the rest are just money, so a combination of ideas and money is sufficient for me to build or design nice things in life.
I had decided (and committed) to a career path that is money and economics related, intellectually challenging career.
I only take architectures and design as a hobby where I can only generate ideas and hope to realize my ideas through someone who is passionate about this field and share my vision and ideas.
To cut it short, I started to develop sense of appreciating nice things in life when I was form 4, or 15 years old. Back then, I had always enjoy riding in dad's car touring around Faquhar Street, Weld Quay, Beach Street area, passing by the nice colonial era buildings left behind by the British or those straits settlement built by the first generations of migrant Indian and Chinese.
I have fond memories for things I had seen during my childhood from 2-5 when I was still staying in my grandparent's farm. Things like the iron cast bicycle (where rubber tappers usually peddle to rubber estate and work), mechanical alarm clock, porcelain rice bowls painted with roasters are items that are sentimental to me. (My mom had also played a big role in the influence of sentiments)
Having lived for more than 3 years in a western country had also brought my aesthetic
sense a new experience, by seeing how westerners enjoy life at their homes.
To sum up my preference or taste when it comes to homes and gardens, can you visualize IKEA's contemporariness plus British India's classical touch, somewhere between the two.
I dream of building my own dream home one day, somewhere in a quiet suburb of Australia, not too far from the city with a grand view and adjunct to a golf course, surrounded by greenery and near to a river or sea; a cozy place where family members and close friends can make themselves feel home, come for rest and vacation during the nice cool and sunny weather of autumn and spring; a place where my guests walk freely around the garden under the sunny skies shaded by trees, inhaling refreshing cool air scented by lavenders and pines and little birds chipping freely around the compound.
Apart from building a aesthetically pleasing dream home, I also believe in a home that is environmental friendly, green conducive, trying to reduce waste as much as possible to the environment and posses household items that are only necessity and stand the test of time (durable and timeless).
In essence, the blog is a idea bank, accumulating information available today, preparing for the tomorrow when I finally get to build my dream home.
p.s. The view of minimal possession of things in life is partly influenced by my experience and partly Buddhism teaching. Following and keeping up to date with trend is a tiring thing. Being a sentimental person, it will be wiser to posses things as little as possible in order not to have too much baggage in life.
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