FROM NOTHING

FROM NOTHING

mazran ismail

to something

1999the year

(USM in a decade before ‘APEX’)

the actorRUS101students

(the coordinator: Mr.1b)

the site

USM Main Campus

the site

a valley near ‘Anjung Budi’

the intentionto develop ‘a transport’ for a sloping site



the act what I did (with my teammates)

SKI-LIKE WOODEN BASE



STRENGTHEN THE BASE

MAIN STRUCTURE


SUPPORTING STRUCTURE


MAIN FUNCTION


SAFETY & COMFORT


the product..

the ‘real’ product…(on the test-day)

the ‘real’ product…

it didn’t work!

(on the test-day)

*This page is intentionally left blank

the ‘winner’…

the groupwho came up with the..

the ‘winner’…

‘UPIH PINANG’ (an old and dry frond falling off from ‘pokok pinang’) (areca nut trees)

Source: Lat (1992)

the contour of the site&

the simple gravitational law…

by ‘manipulating’

it managed to be..

the most

flexible,cheapest,simplest

and the

fastest

‘thing+man’ to reach the valley

What were they doing during that ‘struggling week’?..

(…just to come up with that simple yetbrilliant idea) ?

a question

Were they doing nothing?

Were they kept thinking to produce something

as ‘nothing’ as possible?

OR

I chose…

not to answer the question

what’s more important was…

what I learnt from that…

because in their own way,the actors of RUS101 have shown me the

‘beauty of simplicity’

long before…

I know the concept of

‘less is more’

German Pavilion at Barcelona (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1929)

*(‘less is more’ is originally ‘a phrase’ from the poem of ‘"Andrea del Sarto" by Robert Browning)

‘doing more with less’

Biosphère Montréal (Buckminster Fuller,1967)

*(Buckminster Fuller, 1895-1983: American architect, author, designer, inventor & futurist)

‘less, but better’

606 Universal Shelving System (Dieter Rams, 1960)

*(Dieter Rams, 1932- : German architect, industrial designer)

"Weniger, aber besser"

‘minimalist’ movement

Rectangular Plates, Denton Cocker Marshall (2007)

Church on the Water, Tadao Ando (1988)

Piscina Loca, Alvaro Siza (1966)

Triggering senses (mydesignfolder.com) Zen Garden Sink, Gau Designs (2007)

or even the ‘zen’ philosophy

Banryutei Rock Garden (dragonflytours-japan.com)

what I’ve learnt most

but

from that day was

what I’ve learnt most

but

from that day was

the power of ‘NOTHING’

not only because the ‘upih’

VALUE OF ‘NOTHINGNESS’

had shown me how high the

and not also because I knew that

‘OUT OF NOTHING’

we all came

‘ex nihilo’

invisibly ‘NOTHING’(‘singly’)

that we are stillbut more so when I started to realize

invisibly ‘NOTHING’(‘singly’)

that we are still

although at the same time we are

visibly ‘SOMETHING’(‘wholly’)

but more so when I started to realize

becauseas we are created from an atom

[1 atom = 340 picometer (x 10-12)]

(of ‘segumpal tanah’)

(Source: microcosm.web.cern.ch)

we actually

(because one atom is 99.9% empty space)

are still nothing

(Source: physics.fsu.edu)

‘unity / oneness’

but due to the

of thethe zillions and cabillions of atoms

(hooked up by linked electrons)

they managed to form us as ‘SOMETHING’(solid human figure)

(Source: beyondbiology.org)

so

as a ‘something’ namedhuman being,

we are ‘designed’ by the GOD to be

(we should always realized that)

too small compared with other ‘something’…


Source: After www.astronomy.org

MAN in comparison with EARTH


EARTH in comparison with other PLANETS

Source for this (UNK attribution pix): www.rense.com


PLANETS in comparison with SUN



SUN in comparison with STARS


& too big compared with some other things..


Grain of rice (8x2.5mm)

Source: After Genetic Science Learning Center, UTAH University (2010)


Grain of salt (0.5mm)



Baker’s yeast (3x4 μm) (micrometer : x 10-6 m)



Water molecule (275pm) (picometer : x 10-12 m)


that’s why we also need to create

‘something’

by using all thesetoo big & too small things

to cater for our

FOOD


to cater for our

Source: dadadastudio.eu.htm

CLOTH

FOOD


to cater for our


Source: earthmoans.com

SHELTER

CLOTH

FOOD


to cater for our


Source: earthmoans.com

Source: NST, 15.8.07; Rahmat Othman

since all these too big & too small things often come with two different

but

‘offers’

to welcome them with two different

‘acceptances’

so, we have no other choicebut

‘e.g.’

sun ‘offers’ heatwind ‘offers’ storm/draught

andrain ‘offers’ flood

if the…

of course we need to create something



roof to protect us from solar radiation Climatic Design of The Traditional Malay House (Source: After Lim, 1984)


wall to protect us from storm/draughtClimatic Design of The Traditional Malay House (Source: After Lim, 1984)


Climatic Design of The Traditional Malay House (Source: After Lim, 1984)

stilts to protect us from flood

sun offers lightwind offers breeze

andrain offers water

but if the same…

so why not we create another thing


lightpipe to provide us withnatural daylighting



openings to provide us withnatural ventilation



rain water collector to provide us with free water usage


‘in doing so’

but of course

we need to consider so

‘many things’in terms of

HUMAN

FACTORS

Vitruvian Man, Leornado Da Vinci(1487)

SOUL

BODY

HUMAN

MIND

FACTORS


SOCIAL

ECONOMY

CULTURAL

SOUL

BODY

HUMAN SOCIETY

MIND

FACTORS


AIR & WATER

LIVING CREATURES

LAND

SOCIAL

ECONOMY

CULTURAL

SOUL

BODY

HUMANENVIRONMENT SOCIETY

MIND

FACTORS


but although sometimes we seem very curious to consider

‘all those things’

‘basic thing’

but at many times we seem to ignore about more

because as in the case of us as..

‘human being’

who came

NOTHING

from nothingwho came

NOTHING ‘SOMETHING’

from nothing to somethingwho came

NOTHING ‘SOMETHING’ NOTHING

from nothing to something and back to nothingwho came

(only ‘roh’&

track record @ ‘dunia’)

so… every(some)thing

from nothingthat we produced

so… every(some)thing

should also beback to ‘nothing’

from nothingthat we produced

so that

‘the world’that we will pass to our sons tomorrow

so that

‘the world’that we will pass to our sons tomorrow

‘the same world’that we received from our fathers yesterday

is almost

but if this matter sounds too familiarto us already, so

‘how come’we still

produce a plastic bag in just

‘2 seconds’

Source: withfriendship.com

produce a plastic bag in just

‘2 seconds’but need

‘20 years’to return it back to ‘nothing’

Source: withfriendship.com

produce aluminium can in just

‘10 seconds’

Source: cans.planetark.org

produce aluminium can in just

‘10 seconds’but need

‘100 years’to return it back to ‘nothing’

Source: cans.planetark.org

& produce a polystyrene in just

‘12 seconds’

Source: lightstalkers.org/steve-barru

& produce a polystyrene in just

‘12 seconds’but with NO HOPE (non-biodegradable)

to return it back to ‘nothing’Source: lightstalkers.org/steve-barru

and so it goes to the

‘built environment’

so, if during our

important years here

we fail to equip ourselves with the full

understanding of..

Source: Wan Burhanuddin (2002)

FOR WHAT we need to do something

in WHAT WAY we will do it

are,….

Source: Wan Burhanuddin (2009)

& WHAT WILL BE the effects of doing ‘THING’

in order to make sure that what we..

PLANNED


PLANNED

DESIGNED


PLANNED

DESIGNED

BUILT


‘Fallingwater’, Frank Llyod Wright (1935)

are ‘something’ that

well worth the effort

for us to live in

‘Cocos’, J.L Mausset (1998)

well worth the effort

for us to live inand

for our children to inherit

‘Cocos’, J.L Mausset (1998)

so why not we just keep‘thinking’ and ‘find’ better ways

so why not we just keep‘thinking’ and ‘find’ better ways

‘to do nothing’

and let all these beauties

‘Appreciating Biodiversity’, Talhah Idrus (2008) ‘Kuburan Sabak’ (2006)

‘Mistycal’, Rusli Jamaluddin (2009)

sustain ?

Documents

FROM NOTHING