LONDON- DAY 8

Our first visit in the morning is to King's Cross Station, one of the main train stations in London. And to the Harry Potter's Platform 9¾. Fans would get a heart attack when they come here. Not me unfortunately^^''

There is a Harry Potter gift shop in front of the platform

And you will see wands, wands and wands. There are T-shirts and keychains available too.

Often long queues will be seen here and when its your turn, the staff will let you choose your favourite scarf and you just lift your leg up and say cheese. The photo will be printed out immediately like the Insta camera and you can have it.

The next location will be the Arsenal Stadium. Okay, I'm not an Arsenal fan too so just tagged along with everyone here. This football stadium is mainly for the die hard fans, incorporated with the modern facilities. There are tours offer you the opportunity to get a sense of what the Arsenal stars feel like on a match day, how the luxurious changing room looks like, what happens behind the scenes before and after the match and many more.

The Arsenal Store has just about anything you could want in regards to Arsenal merchandise. For the die hard fans, there is enough here to deck out your house and really show your love for your team.

Next visit is to Tate Modern Museum where lots of contemporary arts and sculptures from all around the world.

Notice the giant ramp from the entrance? This building is disable friendly and the entrance is free.

Lockers are available to store your heavy belongings. Who would want to carry 5kg around just to look at artworks right?

Information area

Honestly, it did not turned out what I expected a contemporary art museum to be. So I just take a one glance look of every art pieces without taking photos as they did not captivate me.

Some are even as simple as this. (which I could even do better than this lol)

These are quite a catch so I took a shot.

The only thing that captured me is the interactive zone near the cafe. There is a big screen where visitors could let their imagination run wild and show off their creativity and skills.

Below the screen is where visitors can draw on the tabs using a touch screen pen. 

After completing your own artwork, just click 'Publish' on the bottom right and your artwork will be on the screen in public. How cool is that!

Creative comment booth by visitors. 

Visitors get to see your artwork while they enjoy a cup of latte here. I found this area interesting because not only it enhance the love of art to the visitors and those who had no chance to publicize their artworks and skills but it also creates an interactive atmosphere between the artist and the audience and of course a leisure time for a cup of hot latte.

The Millenium Bridge to cross over to the other side of the city

Tower of London, a historic castle which functioned as an armory, treasury, home of the Royal Mint and the home of the Crown Jewels of the UK. During the peak period, this castle was used as a torture chamber. Thousands of ceramic red poppies were planted on the moat to commemorate the many lost lives of the outbreak of World War I. It is also known as the 'Blood Swept Lands or Seas of Red'.

Tower Bridge

No idea why is it painted in blue though = =

And we came to Southbank Centre Square, The Real Food Market. If you are a foodie, this place is definitely a must visit. Quite similar to Malaysia's night market except they only sell food and not accessories or clothings. This market had variety of sustainable and ethical fresh produced food by small producers and traders such as cheese, wine, cider, jam, bread, fruits and vege and many more. It is open from Friday to Sunday from 12pm to 8pm except on Sunday it closes at 6pm.

Fresh hotdogs

Wines and ciders

That's all for today. Tomorrow is the last day so all of us take out own sweet time back to the hostel and get ready for tomorrow's agenda.

DESIGN PROJECT 1 & 2: PAVILION

DESIGN PROJECT 1

To produce a conceptual art piece based on the keywords and the animal chosen in Zoo Negara. My animal is the Malayan porcupine or in Malay known as Landak Raya.  

Pamphlet

DESIGN PROJECT 2

Final presentation board. The problem is that I used too dark colors for this, making the words quite difficult to read. Should tone down the color scheme.

Final models

A walkthrough animation of the Pavilion created using 3ds Max, a new software that I learnt for this semester.

DESIGN PROJECT 3: FINAL PRESENTATION BOARD

My project for this semester is Visitor Centre. We are given the site which is an office building at Zoo Negara near Taman Melawati, Kuala Lumpur. We are suppose to fill in the programmes that we created based on the 5 pillars of Zoo Negara.

The programmes

The theme for this design is sustainable. It can be seen from the materials used like plant wall and concrete for the facade wall, timber and recycleable steels for the interior. The problems of this board is that:

-The arrangement of the programmes should be together with the perspectives so that readers will understand and imagine the space better

- Perspectives should be shown clearly and big enough for readers to see what is going on inside the spaces

As this is the first time my project is a real building compared to pavilion and pavilion and pavilion during previous semesters, there are a lot of things to be considered and analyzed. There is always a first for everything. But I don't think I did that bad though. Practice makes perfect.

LONDON- DAY 7

We started off our morning journey at the Buckingham Palace which is the residential place of Queen Elizabeth. This palace is famous for its "Changing the Guards" where the process involve a new guard exchanging duty with the old guard. The overall process takes about 1 hour and its very interesting to watch how the guards move here and there and switching places. Reminds me of my high school marching troop lol.

Below is the time schedule of the process:

• 11:15 - Guards with the band arrive at Buckingham Palace
• 11:30 - Official start time for Changing of the Guard
• 12:00 - Changing of the Guard ceremony ends

Front entrance. Off limits to visitors. 

Queen Elizabeth memorial. The crowd are patiently waiting for the Change of Guards to start.

Manage to stretch my hand between the grilles to snap this beautiful palace facade.

Starting the Change of Guards

Band playing

Principles reciting session

Security also march like them? Nah just passing by

 Ending

Bye bye guards!

Different dress codes for different positions of the guards

Beautiful park near the palace

Ignore the photobomb people and embrace the mystique feeling of trees and greenery lol

Lunch at one of the Chinese restaurant. Food is reasonable. Price is cheap. Services are good. Corn soup with starch, meat and egg.

Duck with gravy and fried rice. I was famished and manage to lick the plate clean. The meal comes together with a dessert where you can choose either tea or ice cream and of course i chose the ice cream! Did not take the ice cream photo cuz my camera memory was full =_='' Anyway it was a very satisfied meal so far.

This door reminds me of a chocolate bar. Feels like standing in front of the house of Hansel & Gretel lol.

The next location is Children's Story Discover Centre, a learning center for children aged between The objective of this visit is part of a research study given by our lecturers to our seniors. And I just tagged along with the rest of the juniors. This centre helps to develop children's spoken language, listening, reading and writing skills. There are a lots of programmes available for booking like drama, story telling, exploration and interactive sessions. 

The design theme is based on the story created by the children themselves like: There's a land by the sea where a UFO has landed not far from the ship where pirates live. There is a taxi by the road to carry the passengers around the city.

The colorful design brings out joy and fun and at the same time, a learning environment for the children. Not to mention the interactive spaces for them to engage better in learning and absorbing. Very nice place to visit.

Next location is to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park a sporting complex built for the 2012 Summer Olympic. A very nice place to chill out and enjoy the nature.

 The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 114.5 metre tall sculpture and observation tower where you can view London from the east.

London Eye

St Margaret's Church at Westminster Abbey. Look at how fine the details are. Of course, the rose window, stained glass windows and arches are never missed out.

Beautifully sculptured even from behind. British royalties usually held their weddings here. In 2011, here was the venue for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton!

Big Ben in the evening

That's all for today. Good night!