Staff - Part 2

Category: Staff

21 December, 2015

Arkitrek 2015 Highlights

Highlights of 2015! Scroll down for some major Flashbacks!!

Projects

The finished building of the Tinangol Kindergarten early this year.

Time Capsule designed by our intern Chris for the Sabah Forestry Department is complete!

The Mantanani Groundwater research is completed and results show that the level of sustainable water and water in the reservoir is reducing. This indicates that immediate action needs to be taken.

The Bornean Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) Aerial walkway project is progressing well and is expected to complete by March 2016.

The Heart of Borneo (HoB) exhibition centre is in progress and is looking good! Read more: Heart of Borneo

The project initiated since 2013 is finally completed!
Read more: Buayan: A Story of Serendipity

Arkitrek is all set for a new project for Bagus Place located in Pulau Tioman in 2016!

Camps & Workshops

The eco-lodge farmstay is located in Kiulu, Sabah. Read more: The Fig Tree

Located up in the hills of Gumantung, Kudat, a building is sprouting.
Read more: The Gathering Place

This year, we supervised 3 groups with a total of 31 volunteers altogether at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre!

This year’s Dissolva team from Japan helped Arkitrek to complete the Buayan project which started since 2013.

People

The Youngest Arkitrekker, Crispin was born!

This year, Tom returned to conduct a research on Arkitrek’s Design + Build.

Meet our intern Chris who joined us early this year!

We were visited by UniTAR students who wanted to learn more about Arkitrek as a social enterprise

We had a wonderful office dinner party with dishes cooked by Jason’s mom!

Meet our Interns: Beth, Sioned and Erica! Read more: Beth, Sioned and Erica

Management and Staff

Arkitrek had an amazing Team Building activity at Babagon early this year.

Arkitrekker Isaac received an offer to continue his studies in KL!

Arkitrekker Sophia received a job offer from a world class hotel chain!

Arkitrekker Jason received a scholarship to further his studies in New Zealand!

15 December, 2015

Japan has always been known for its ever evolving modern infrastructures and also its well-preserved culture and traditions. Some time ago, our very own Arkitrekker Jason decided to go on a backpacking trip to the Land of the Rising Sun as a reward for a year’s of hard work. He had always been interested in the Japanese culture since a very young age and had always wanted to experience it himself.

During his stay in Tokyo city, he was not only amazed at the integration of both traditional and advance technologies in Japan but also with the country’s architecture scene.

Jason recorded his experiences of events and locations he traveled to in a travel journal. Here are some of the cool contents of his travel journal!

22 September, 2014

The Salt of The Earth

Salt of the earth, By Sophia Rowena

Recently, during Arkitrek’s retreat/team building exercise in Pulau Maliangin all of us were given a topic; “What Arkitrek means to me”. Before the trip, I pondered “what Arkitrek means to me,” and then a story popped up into my mind, a story about the importance of salt that I had read long ago.

The story is about a king who had 3 daughters. On the day of his birthday he asked each of them how much they loved him. The eldest daughter said “I love you like sugar” and the king were pleased.

The second daughter said “I love you like honey” and this also pleased the king. Then it was the youngest daughter’s turn. She said; “My dearest father, I love you like salt”. The king was furious with this reply and banished his youngest daughter from the palace.

The youngest found shelter at an inn where she worked as an apprentice cook. Years passed and the youngest daughter became a well-established cook; her cooking is well known throughout the kingdom.

It happened that the king’s eldest daughter was to be married and the youngest daughter was commissioned to cook for the royal reception at the palace. The wedding reception came and the youngest daughter informed her cooks not to add any salt to king’s favourite dish.

The time came when the food was served and the king takes the first taste of his favourite dish. The king immediately spat out the food. He yelled for the cook to be brought before him and he asked; “Why does my favourite food have no taste”? The daughter replied “My king, forgive me but long ago you said that salt is not important and salt is only for peasants”. With that reply, the king realised that this was his daughter whom he had banished from the palace long ago. The king was overwhelmed with joy and quickly embraced his daughter welcoming her back. So the story has a happy ending, the king is reunited with his long lost daughter and also celebrating his eldest daughter’s wedding. And they lived happily ever after.

In my mind the idea of salt is the staff behind Arkitrek. Our value, or worth, is as important as salt.

The point is; we, Arkitrekkers are like salt. Although salt may appear simple and often be overlooked, without salt food is tasteless. The same is true with the human value or as I put it “the salt the earth” in Arkitrek. Each of us have the potential and value which makes Arkitrek what it is today. Let “the salt of the earth” take Arkitrek further into the future.

21 July, 2014

Arkitrek Office Retreat, 2014

With far too much work and not enough time on beaches, the Arkitrek office uprooted to Maliangin Island for a 3 day retreat. The objective; to discuss Arkitrek marketing, business development and to strengthen office bonds. Here’s how it went…

(Sadly, we were missing Rahim, who had commitments in KK)

29 November, 2011

The Arkitrek Retreat

In true Arkitrekking fashion, Arkitrek trekked into the forest around Lupa Masa last week to “Forget Time, Think Arkitrek.”

Everyone had thought of something they wanted to impart to their colleagues and had designed a task around this. Nick was first to kick things off with his programme: ‘Building Engineering Basics for Architects – Buildings need to stand up and look pretty’ Our task: to build the highest tower possible, capable of holding an egg with just 9 sheets of A4 paper. We were all put to shame by Charlie, our host, forest guide and builder friend, who beat us by about 1m in height and an outstanding 3 eggs capacity! Next up was Zhen Ron, who gave us an introduction to the Malay House and an insight into Feng Shui- both very useful topics for foreign architects working in Malaysia.

We couldn’t be at Lupa Masa long without going out trekking. Night walks gave us reddish scops-owl and Sabah pit viper and our trek on Saturday took us to a stunning 50m high waterfall with a perfect dip pool surrounded with moss carpeted rocks. Nick took the award for best dressed with his high street fashion and trendy shopping bag almost standing up against the elements until a wayward shoot of rattan caused a rather revealing problem for his swim shorts! Sadly we ran out of time to learn to make compost with Catherine or to build installations with Sally, but these will be saved for the next Arkitrek retreat.

The main objective of the retreat was to discuss the direction Arkitrek should move in. As a practice on the cusp of expanding, and nearly at the point of finalising its company manifesto, it is important to get everyone’s input into how they foresee Arkitrek. The following suggestions were made:

Nick

“Buildings [should be] provided for people and communities that need them.
Look into grants or funding from government for community projects.
Engage with architecture and engineering schools and students from the start of each project and get funding assistance from universities.”

Catherine

“Could Arkitrek be a school and a practice, something like the Bauhaus?
Could Arkitrek link to a university commercially?
Could it show architects and engineers how to work together?
Could it run projects for different levels, ie- year 1, year 2, year 3 etc?
Could it link students with communities?
Could Arkitrek give sustainability lecture and workshop tours- field tours on bikes?
Could Arkitrek subdivide their projects as ‘people’ (urban projects) and ‘planet’ (rural projects)?

Zhen Ron

“From the People, To the People
Get more exposure among the local community.
Get people to realise their ownership and sense of belonging in or throughout activities Arkitrek is doing.
Develop links with local communities so that they can suggest their needs and demands, how they want their own local community to look like and to develop, ie- in foods, craftwork, cultural and architectural heritage, tourism for self- sustaining communities.
Arkitrek acts as a facilitator, a dream realiser.
I want when people talk about Arkitrek, they will appreciate us and feel a sense of pride in themselves who were involved in the development of their community.
Develop recyclable materials as a moneymaking enterprise in Sabah. Arkitrek should help develop awareness among people. Arkitrek could build with recycled materials and villagers or people therefore put in effort to recycle, hence teaching them to take care of their environment
All in all, regardless in which direction Arkitrek grows and develops, Arkitrek should have this philosophy: ‘Engagement of the larger community as the ultimate receiver.’ In other words:
From the people, To the people”

Sally, Nick, Zhen Ron, Catherine

Thank you for all your suggestions- there are some really exciting ideas here. I hope we got everything down that you mentioned? Did we leave anything out or misunderstand anything? How do you think the manifesto is looking so far? What things do you think we should include? Any other comments? This also goes to past participants and volunteers, as well as all our friends and contributors. We’d really appreciate your input- thank you very much!!

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