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A Decade of Architecture Education in Universiti Sains Malaysia:
Preparation for Asian Renaissance .
1. Background: Globalization Redefined
1.1 Globalization, expressed in many ways, is at best Eurocentric.
1.2 Globalization: Holistic, All -Inclusive Quranic Ideology2. First Challenge: Developing and Adopting the Model of Production2.1 From The Book of Allah, 114:1-3
2.2 From A Hadeeth
2.3 Adopting the Basic Production Model as the Model of Architecture Production
3. Second Challenge: Deploying & Monitoring Model of Architecture Production
3.1 Deployment of Production Model
3.1.1 Challenges & Experiences Conference, 2007.
3.1.2 Student Activitism: Penang Declaration of Architecture, 1997.
3.1.3 Courses: Introduction to the Built-Environment, 1997-2007.
3.1.4 Policy: UIA Accord, 2000.
3.1.5 USM Architecture Program Niche: Ekotektur, 20043.2 Monitoring Model Development
3.2.1 Architect in Practice (E2B)
3.2.2 Architect in Networking (E2I)
3.2.3 Architect in Education (E2E)
4. Third Challenge: Packaging Model for Distribution
4.1 Intention
4.2 Act
4.3 Product
Final ChallengeReferences
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1. Background: Globalization Redefined
1.1 Globalization, expressed in many ways, is at best Eurocentric.
Contemporay discourses are built on almost a single ideology identified by Edward Said as
Orientalism , an idea rooted in Eurocentrism, whose nature is extremely divisive. [1]Architecture education (hence practice) is no exception. The overall challenge inarchitecture education now is to understand and switch to an alternativ e ideology whichshall enable it to sail through the waves of globalization pre and post Renaissance of Asia.
The globe is typically represented as shownin Figure 1. Europe is centered, East and Weston its right and left respectively. The east isfurther fragmented by having the Middle,Near and Far which does not really fit in
the dictum West Is Best, hence the needfor North-South dialogs to legitimate
discourses on First -Third worlds or Developed-Developing countries, fragmentationmaintained.
Figure 1: Typical representation of the world.
More recently the Pacific Rim was coined in this already fragmented geo -graphics adding tothe collection of disinformation, perhaps the impetus for the term challenges in thisconference.
Taking a different vantage point,centralizing the Pacific Ocean, we get quitea different perspective of the world as thePacific Rim gets to be more unified henceclearly defined (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Pacific-Centered World.
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It may just be a good base map to tell
us different stories, for example, the
European Renaissance Gold, Gospel
& Glory exercise (Figure 3) which has
been embedded in many cultures.
Figure 3: Eurocentric Pacific-Splitting
Spree.
More popular readings such asencyclopedia entries add to this
disinformation library. One example is
the rendering of Asian Empires within
which the Islamic Empire is located
(Figure 4).
Figure 4: Exclusive map of Islamic Empire
in Asia.
Excluded from this entry is an
empire around MaLaKa (Figure 5),
reduced by historians to a mere city
whose name was purportedly derived
from the Malaka tree, a tall story for an
empire, MuLK (Kingdom) derived from
the divine word MaLiK (King).[2]
Figure 5: Excluded is the Islamic Empire
of Malaka.
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1.2 Globalization: Holistic, All-Inclusive Quranic Ideology
Globalization is really an age-old phenomenon described in Al-Quran as shown in
Figure 6.
He has ordained for you the diin
which He commended unto
Prophet Nuh, and that which We
revealed to you [Muhammad],
and that which We commended
unto prophets Ibrahim and Musa
and Isa, saying, Establish the diin,
and be not divided therein ...
AlQuran, 42:13. Figure 6: Part of 42:13, AlQuran.
Ordained so, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa,
Isa and Muhammad did what
they were told (Figure 7), while
you (i.e. us) have been told the
same.
Figure 7: Doing what was instructed.
The fact that all the apostlescould establish The (one and
same) Diin was primarily because
it was preceded by its downfall,
the result of doing what was
prohibited, i.e. being divided
(Figure 8).Figure 8: Continuum in establishing The Diin.
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Remnants of this division can still
be seen today from the groups of
people rejoicing in what they
have with them (Figure 9).
Figure 9: Division of Islam.
When Nuh established The Diin ,
there was a civilization it
displaced, that destroyed by the
Great Flood. That civilization was
however reestablished during the
downfall of Nuhs governance
only to crash again during the
destruction of the Tower of Babel
(Figure 10).Figure 10: Natural cycle of global governance.
The cycle repeated to witness the Drowning of Pharaoh, the Fall of Rome and the
Fall of World Order (Global Governance) and may even be extrapolated to
anticipate the natural and inevitable fall of the New World Order and theRenaissance of Asia.
Using this schema to look at explanations of History of World Architecture or World
History of Architecture it seems that a predominantly Orientalist/ Eurocentric
ideology is revealed.
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History of architecture chooses to
begin after Ibrahim, zooming in the
periods other than the periods of
Governance by People of The Book,
viz. Egyptian, Graeco-Roman,
Christian/ Byzantine and
Renaissance/ Modern or
contemporary architecture (Figure
11).
Figure 11: Linearhistory of world architecture.
Islamic architecture (by implication Islam) is disinformatively appropriated the Post-
Muhammad period, far from the holistic Islam, a term coined by Ibrahim. From the
location of the Renaissance/ Modern period following the Dark Ages (bright for
the Governance of People Of The Book), the eurocentricity of this linea r narrative is
obvious. History of architecture is therefore a narrative of the downfall of the
Governance of People Of The Book. It is within this Eurocentric ideological construct
that Islamic architecture lost its substance, reduced to merely form (Figu re 12).
Figure 12: Architecture of the dead.
And this is just one example of the of a eurocentric deconstructive exercise making
up the basis of our ideologies today and should be debunked. This constitute the
single main challenge of a series of challenges we face today.
2. First Challenge: Developing and Adopting the Model of Production
Whatever the situation Asia and the world would be in time to come, the asset of
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any program of architecture is its ideology which must depart from its Eurocentric
relatives. What is needed is a concerted effort to understand and develop an
alternative ideological seed so that all actors in the production of architecture shall
be accommodated and not excluded. To do thi s we need to look at what
eurocentrism diametrically opposes, i.e. the authority of The Book, The Reading, The
Differentiator(and 50 other lesser known titles).
2.1 From The Book of Allah, 114:1-3
In Chapter 114, Mankind, Allah defines Himself as Ruler, King and Master of Mankind
(Figure 13),
Figure 13: Allah as Ruler, King, Master.
As Ruler He outlines His RULES; as King He
sets the requisites of His KINGDOM, as
Master he defines the criteria of His
SERVANTS. While servants are actors, the
kingdom is a site on which His rules
apply; this is expressed in Figure 14.
Ruler King Master
Rules Kingdom Servants
RULE SITE ACTOR
Figure 14: Basic Elements of Production 1.
2.2 From A Hadeeth
It is narrated on the authority of Amirul Mu'minin, Abu Hafs 'Umar bin al -Khattab who
said, I heard the Messenger ofAllah said, Actions are (judged) by niyyah
(intention).
This may be summed up as follows: a
niyyah (INTENTION) is judged to
determine the value (ACT) of an action
(PRODUCT) hence the basic element of
production, intention, act, product INTENTION ACT PRODUCT
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(Figure 15). Figure 15: Basic Elements of Production 2.
Refining the basic models further, we find that an intention must belong to an Actor
(student, teacher, architect, client, community, authority); Rules (law, regulation,canon, convention, custom, rite, ritual) govern the Act (learn, unlearn, build,
supervise, manage, enable, inhabit, experiment); this produces on the Site (earth,
town, kampung, board, paper, web), a Product (idea, model, schema, building,
community, kampung, state, order).
Production must therefore involve all the six elements derived from the trinary of
Actor (with Intention), Rule (that defines an Act), and Site (Product location). This is
the Basic Production Model (Figure 16).
Actor Rule Site
Intention Act Product
Figure 16: Basic Production Model.
2.3 Adopting the Basic Production Model as the Model of Architecture
Production:
Understanding the basic Production Model, it may then be reworded - an Actor
(with Intention) Acts (by the Rules) to produce a Product (on Site). The model
/paradigm (Figure 17) may thus be stated as follows:
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Figure 17: Production Model.
an architecture production is the making of a product (located on a sitesomewhere) by an actor, acting (and going by the rules) on an intention.
3. Second Challenge: Deploying & Monitoring Model of Architecture
Production
3.1 Deployment of Production Model
3.1.1 Challenges & Experiences Conference, 2007.
This conference may be summed up as shown
in Figure 18. Actors (architects/ architectural
educators and educationists) with their
intentions (theories and models of education)
act (function in architecture programs using
methodologies and techniques) based on
specific rules (culture, economy, technology)
to generate products (practice, experience)
which would be used on a site (rapidly
changing Asia). All would be useful in the
production of the Asian Renaissance. Figure 18: Conference Framework.
3.1.2 Student Activitism: Penang Declaration of Architecture, 1997.
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As opposed to using the Renaissance
anthropocentricity, students of architecture
from ten institutions of higher learning in
Malaysia, and guests from Singapore and
Thailand, experiencing the pressure of the
globalization, agreed to shift direction by
formalizing it in the Penang Declaration of
Architecture for Millennium 3 in 1997 (Figure
19). This was held during the annual national
architecture workshop (Minggu Alam Bina),
themed 1, 2, 3 Univers suggesting the
quantum leap necessary to adopt a universal
model of architecture production.
Figure 19: Penang Declaration of
Architecture, 1997.
An analysis of the Declaration is shown in
Figure 20.
Subsequent workshops explored this mode of
production. The forthcoming workshop in
2008, again to be hosted by USM would
hopefully be taking Architecture Production
into yet another area closer to the model.
Figure 20: Analysis of Penang
Declaration.
3.1.3 Courses: Introduction to the Built -Environment, 1997-2007.
The Production Model is also deployed to
underlay the freshmen course, Introduction to
the Built Environment and Human Settlement.
Minus the nano and extra-terrestrial scales on
both extremes, the Production Model provides
an overall map of the realm of th e production
of the built environment (Figure 21) from which
students may then choose their profession, well -
aware of the overall context of environmental
production. Figure 21: Course Schema.
While some students may just study for their examinations, some who went beyond
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only to came back after their graduation to exchange ideas on the practicality of
the Production Model in architecture practice, education and networking.
3.1.4 Policy: UIA Accord, 2000.
Three years after the Penang Declaration of Arc hitecture, the Ministry of Educationof Malaysia in 2000 mustered representatives from all architecture programs in the
state universities to work out a strategy to address the UIA Accords Recommended
International Standards of Professionalism in Architec tural Practice (the Accord)
which had seemingly threatened the authority. One of the statements of concern is
That courses must be accredited/validated/recognized by an independent
relevant authority, external to the university at reasonable time interval s (usually no
more than 5-years), and that the UIA, in association with the relevant national
organizations of higher education, develop standards for the content of an
architect's professional education that are academically structured, intellectually
coherent, performance-based and outcome-oriented, with procedures that areguided by good practice.
USM took a different stand from the Ministry
as UIAs expressed intention to legitimate
architecture education programs in
Malaysia seemed to have fitted into the
Production Model (Figure 18) except for one
component; the rule, specified as
procedures that are guided by goodpractice.What would constitute
procedures guided by good practice?
Figure 18: UIA Accord for Accreditation
of Architects Education
Perhaps this is best answered with a question,
Do they then seek the law of the jahiliyah? And who is better than Allah for a
people who have firm Faith. Al-Maidah 5:50.
After several discussions and submission of proposals from all universities, the issue
was frozen. It seems that The Council for Architectural Education Malaysia (CAEM)
have adopted the Accord in evaluating architectural syllabus for the Institutes of
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Higher Learning in Malaysia; the production of yet another Eurocentric hegemony.
3.1.5 USM Architecture Program Niche: Ekotektur, 2004
Under the guidelines of the Union of International Architects now, the Ministry of
Education of Malaysia, in 2004, instructed each faculty of architecture program inMalaysia to define its niche, its specialty, fort. Again the Production Model was
used to map out areas that each staff member was working on in Teaching,
Research and Consultancy. As the predominant rule was agreed to be Natural Law,
keywords were suggested, and finally ECOTECTURE was adopted to best represent
USMs niche.
3.2 Monitoring Model Development
3.2.1 Architect in Practice (E2B)
Gary Chen (USM Class of 99), after having set
up his own practice, realized the limits of
building jobs in Malaysia. He left for Singapore
to take on jewellery design projects when he
remembered the Production Model and Year 2
projects, and started his blog (Figure 22). If at
all, the Production Model has enabled GC to
take control over the overall production, sad or
otherwise. Figure 22: GC Atelier Blog.
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3.2.2 Architect in Networking (E2I)
Iskandar Shah (USM Class of 98) chooses not to practice architecture but maintains
his intention to design by setting up his own design enterprise which implicitly adopts
the Production Model in the integration of architecture with media, film, animation
and the internet (Figure 23) to produce various proposals in various localitiesincluding the Middle East.
Figure 23: Right Hand Fingers Creations
Deploying the Production Model has allowed Right Hand Fingers to state that his
employees are all university dropouts whose intentions differ substantially from
existing architecture institutions and would generate substantially different products.
3.2.3 Architect in Education (E2E)
David Yek (USM Class of 00) runs a one-
man office and contributes to the
Taylors College Architecture program as
a studio-master which keeps generating
controversial projects. Having examined
the studio projects, it was found that
David had used the Production Mod el
within or without the studio. The intention
to explore/ experiment produced
products which are not within the norms
of conventional architecture.
Figure 24: Studio, Taylors College, 2005.
That seems to be the nature of the Production Model.
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4. Third Challenge: Packaging Model for Distribution
4.1 Intention
To prepare strategies in educating architects in this region, it necessarily involve
communities and governments.
4.2 Act
Based on the adoption of the centrality of the Supreme Power, consolidate and
share resources of participating institutions, be they education, practice or non -
practice.
4.3 Product
Global Architecture Program (GAP).
Final Challenge:
GAP generating global actors (teachers, students, architects, communities) useful in
the holistic design and management of the globe. After all
And I (Allah) created not the jinns and humans except they should enslave to
Me. .
References
1. AlQuran . Arabic & multi -lingual translation: http://www.al -islam.com/eng/ , 3 English
translations: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/, Muhammad Asad. The Message of
The Quran. Dar Al-Andalus, Gibraltar 1980.
2. Encarta Encyclopedia, Microsoft Corporation, 2006.
3. Foucault, Michel. The Order ofThings: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, Vintage
Books Edition, Apr 1994.
4. Foucault, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), Routledge, 1972.
5. GC Atelier. http://gcatelier.blogspot.com/.
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6. Imran Hosein. http://www.imranhosein.org/ .
7. Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), University of Chicago Press,
1962.
8. Penang Declaration of Architecture for Millennium 3, 1997 (unpublished).
9. Right Hand Fingers Creations Ateliers. http://www.righthandfingers.com/
10. Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books; London: Routle dge & Kegan Paul;
Toronto: Random House, 1978.
11. UIA: http://www.aia.org/about_uia, UIA Accord: http://www.uia-
architectes.org/image/PDF/Pro_Pra/ACCORD.pdf, UIA Accord, Malaysia:
http://www.aia.org/SiteObjects/files/UIAMalaysiaApplication.pdf
[1] There is a long history behind Eurocentrism, a recent explication by Imran Hosein seems
daunting.
[2] Islamization of SEAsia needs an alternative view from what is normally attributed to
commercial expansionism.