Link to the online article here

More information about this project would be shared soon

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I am officially an Malaysian Architect (..finally) who is governed under Lembaga Arkitek Malaysia, and a Corporate Member of Pertubuhan Malaysia.

The following are some photos of the process of obtaining the Part 3 certificate:

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A full-day event with 5 sessions of speaker sharing their thoughts regarding “Architecture for Resilient Communities”

Event Details:
Date: 28 April 2023
Time: 8:00am to 5:00pm (GMT+8)
Venue: Penang Town Hall

Registration Link at:
http://architecturemalaysia.com/events-seminars-details.aspx?id=237&uid=fb073ff5-3785-4a5d-acf6-35aa8a66bd49#menu

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A full-day event involving 4 main speaking parties to share regarding architecture education and business in architecture, with the student of United Architects of the Philippines Student Auxiliary, Adamson University Chapter (UAPSA-AdU).

Event Details:
Date: 23 April 2022
Time: 9:00am to 2:30pm (GMT+8) over a private Zoom session

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Invited by Ian Aik-Soon Ng, Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sarawak (UCTS), I am invited to give an open, intimate, and honest sharing on “Why I want to be an Architect” to the Architecture Students of the School of Built Environment, UCTS.

While sharing my own personal journey and life lessons, my focus is more on the question of “Why do YOU want to be an Architect?” instead. (to the students)

Content is revolved around my honest declaration of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, from the clear ups and downs, lessons, and business aspects of running my own design studio, to the pleasurable and the current seemingly depressing nature of the current Malaysia’s building industry.

Event Details:
Date: 30 March 2022
Time: 1:30pm (GMT+8) over a private Zoom session

As expected, I end up learning a bit more about myself by end of the sharing with the students.
How about you? Why do you want to be an Architect? Why are you reading this?

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Participated as a special speaker in this round table discussion under the theme “Beyond Tomorrow” of ARCHIDEX 2021.

Event Details:
Date: 6 November 2021
Time: 3:00pm (GMT+8) over a Zoom session

More information regarding the many Archidex webinar sessions over at:

https://archidex.com.my/webinar-conference/

Feel free to join us!

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3-hour workshop session with Students from Foundation in Natural Built Environments, Taylor’s College.

Event Details:
Date: 30 October 2021
Time: 10:00am to 1:00pm (GMT+8) over a private Zoom session

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In this sharing session, me and my Co-Speaker Ar. Axxu Hoi shared a few of our BIM + IBS concept projects with the internal team in UDA. The sharing covers the core concept, and design process till the current state of the several projects relating to innovating the BIM + IBS system in Malaysia.

UDA Holdings Berhad

UDA Holdings Berhad is a Malaysian Holding company served to launch and oversee urban development projects related to business, industry and housing.

Event Details:
Date: 11 August 2021
Time: 9:00am to 5:15pm (GMT+8) over a private Microsoft Team session.

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I would be giving a talk about “How to: Design” alongside Ar. Lee Cherng Yih from Formzero in the "decnstrct" - Taylor's University Architecture Graduate Exhibition 2021.

Event Details:
Date: 16 May 2021
Time: 4pm to 6pm (GMT+8) over a Zoom session
You may join via: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7414285209?pwd=TlNsOXJ5RHJ2SDVmb1R6Mm5NVXQwdz09

Feel free to join and hang out!

The talk can now be watched over at Facebook :
https://www.facebook.com/decnstrct.2021/videos/888308248394828

“decnstrct”- Taylor’s Architecture Graduate Exhibition 2021 is a 9-day event showcasing works from the graduate class of August 2020 for both the degree and masters program.

The event is on the 15th May 2021 (Saturday) to 23rd May 2021 (Sunday). This exhibition will be a celebration of our individuality in architectural design & flair, and consists of an online virtual exhibition, talks and workshops.

More info about the event:
Event Website
Event Facebook Page

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I will be speaking about my project casually over a chat in this M+P Episode 4 podcast. It will be premiered on Dec. 31.

The youtube link would be updated here shortly. Stay tuned :)

Link to the podcast on youtube : https://youtu.be/5zZrM2Mug2M
Link to the podcast on Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/episode/2miDdaninJJfGPEkf3IpMe?si=9a8ztF7NQSeFrZ1iY7p3Lw

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The Unending Square has won the Drawing of the Year from Archisource!

extracted from the competition statistic:
from https://archisource.org/drawingoftheyear2019/competition-stats

Archisource was founded in 2017, and we now have 179k followers around the world. We launched our first international competition ‘Drawing of the Year 2019’ to celebrate the talent of our growing community and designers globally through a single drawing. The competition was in no way limited to architecture and we very much welcomed those from other arts and design industries as we wanted to celebrate the extensive variety of drawings that are created around the world each year. 

As the stats show we are excited to present that Archisource Drawing of the Year 2019 was truly international with entries from 6 continents and 45 countries! We saw entries from a huge range of people from different industries, stages of their careers and ages from 15-43 years old!

To view the other finalist drawing:
https://archisource.org/drawingoftheyear2019/finalists

For info about the Drawing of The Unending Square: https://calebong.com/projects/marchadt

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I am honored to have been one of the top 10 commended entries of the One Drawing Challenge 2019. I have received the prize shipped to me from Architizer’s Office and I have mixed emotions unboxing it.

I am trying to be more active across Social Media recently. Trying my best to make time and be motivated to create content and sharing the projects done from 2018-2019!

As 2019 is ending, I wonder what is awaiting us in the year 2020?

To see the article regarding the One Drawing Challenge 2019 eBook, head over to: https://architizer.com/blog/competitions/one-drawing-challenge-ebook-2019/

To view and download the eBook: https://architizer-uploads-production.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/One+Drawing+Challenge+2019_eBook.pdf

Previous post about the One Drawing Challenge 2019: https://calebong.com/news/2019/8/26/onedrawingchallenge

For info about the Drawing of The Unending Square: https://calebong.com/projects/marchadt

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The Unending Square is featured and being exhibited in the Master Thesis Exhibition 2019 organized by Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia.

It was the third time after being graduated that the project is being presented in a formal setting. The feeling of presenting a one-year-old project as though it was created in what felt like yesterday made me realized how much my perception towards the project has changed.

I was grateful that all the parts and pieces of the project along with the thoughts are recorded and stored online that enable me to reassess the project from time to time. I wonder what would I think about this project in my 40s? 60s? 80s? (if I live that long?)

It was great knowing that PAM (Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia) is starting to select and compile graduate and thesis work. I hope they would continue the effort in archiving the Malaysian works from student graduate work, post-graduate, and architect in Malaysia while at the same time keeping them openly and publicly accessible for all to gain value from. The state of PAM might be far from perfect as compared to other more developed nation, but like every other entity, everything needs to be built little by little from all the help it could gain from the community that it serves.

The continued loss of local talent overflowing to the overseas country is staggering, to say the least. After participating in the event, it is illuminating for me to know that the committee and community are continuing their effort in finding ways to further improve the local industry and educational system. I am looking forward to seeing what’s yet to come for the Malaysian architecture industry.

For more information of the event or on the list of selected thesis among Malaysian Universities in the year 2018, check out http://www.pam.org.my/mte2019/
(although some student and their works are not fully uploaded yet at the moment)

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I took the chance when Professor Robert Powell suggested my name to do a sharing on my architectural thesis “The Unending Square”. I presented myself as a fresh-grad student to talk about the project in the DOMA Initiatives Breakfast Club of June 2019.

DOMA Initiatives Breakfast Club is a monthly casual event on one Saturday of each month for the club community to share their latest project, ideas and resources.

In the past, the speaker varies from designers, architect, photographer, and other interesting people. This is the first time (that I am aware of) in the Breakfast Club session for a fresh-grad architecture student in sharing the work done in their academic year. The next upcoming breakfast club on 13th July 2019 would be featuring Pamela Tan and Jun Ong of Pow Ideas, who are both super talented and have only recently graduated in the last 5 years.

For more information regarding DOMA Initiatives or the upcoming breakfast club event, check out https://www.facebook.com/doma.initiatives/ !

Feel free to also check out the upcoming SHIFT 2019 Conference by DOMA Initiatives at https://domainitiatives.org/
It is highly anticipated and is coming soon on 23rd June and 24th June 2019, to be held at Taylor’s University.

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I was approached by the social media team of Taylor’s University in May to collaborate and come up with a video towards audience who might be interested behind the architectural or creative programs in Taylor’s University.

The video is an experiment by the social media team to test interest from the audience. If the video were to receives positive feedback, there might be more video coming up by the university to showcase student’s work from all creative program such as architecture, interior design, performance art, culinary art, etc.

The 4m41s-long video is published on Taylor’s University Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/p/ByOfQrolq4V/ on 3rd June 2019.

The video is directed by Darren Arvid @darrenarvid and filmed by Razlan Yusof @razlany of @creativematch. (check them out!)

Darren had helped me with the with the scripts, gestures, postures, facial expressions, video editing and taking in charge for turning the project into a reality. Razlan took care of the cinematography, lighting, filming, recording, and coping with me on the many video retakes.

As it was my first time speaking towards the camera, the 4 minutes video took a whole day to be filmed from morning to late evening. I have plenty of experience doing public speaking, but talking to a camera lens is a whole new experience. Nevertheless I knew that I needed to overcome this and embraced the experience as much as I could.

Note: the script was summarized from a text body of 3000 words. While filming there was’t a screen to look at. It was more of presenting from a few key memorized terms from the script, and trying to speak about them into the camera as naturally as possible in each of the video take.

The content of the main video held true in regards to the origin of the video. If it wasn’t because I share and show the work on Instagram, it wouldn’t have captured the attention of Taylor’s University social media team, and consequently being converted into a video to further amplify the potential value of the project.

I am so grateful and honored to be able to contribute back to the school. I am looking forward to continue exploring and improving the ability to amplify and convert knowledge and experience into values.

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Architectural Thesis “The Unending Square: Disjunctions & Cospacing for Coworking” has won PAM-ZSR Architecture Prize 2018 in Part 2 category!

PAM-ZSR Architecture Prize is an annual competition open only to local architecture students. It is hosted by Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia (Malaysian Institute of Architects) and funded by Z&SR Architectural Ventures.

This year for part 2 category we see only a total of 35 entries from all the university. The award runs in a five year cycle and the year 2018 is the fourth year out of the five year cycle. However, it is rather saddening to know that the award would probably get discontinued if the number of entries continue to decline. Despite numerous complaints from the local student regarding the lack of support and architectural event hosted locally, the response and hype of the event seems to be lacking when opportunity is given for the students to interact, participate, and compete.

Regardless how much effort and money is invested into promoting interaction and architectural education excellence by the relevant authority, we as student and actual benefactor should show our support as much as possible.

The two main questions remain the same:

1. Why should people/student care about architecture/architecture education?

2. How do we make more people/student care about architecture/architecture education?

Would the answers get stronger or weaker as time goes by? it is entirely dependent on the effort and passion of the individuals living and breathing the relevant field within the current generation.

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Some thoughts about the process behind drawing, representation, thesis, academic and theories of The Unending Square are discussed over an interview between Caleb Ong and KooZ/Arch.

Check out the interview at https://www.koozarch.com/interviews/the-unending-square-disjunctions-and-cospacing-for-coworking/

KooZA/rch is a Visionary Design Discussion Platform for Architects and Curious People Worldwide. Do check out their website for constant update on latest student works around the world.

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As written in the certificate above, I am awarded for having academic excellence and best overall performance of a student in an accredited school under Lembaga Arkitek Malaysia. (Board of Architects Malaysia)

The award is given out during the PAM Annual Architecture Student Works Exhibition 2018 held at 1 Utama Shopping Centre. Each accredited local architecture school was to nominate one student from Part 1 and Part 2 architecture program of the year 2018 to receive the award. When I was on the stage and looking at Ar Mohd Zulhemlee passing me the award certificate, I still couldn’t believe I am being awarded.

I still has flashback when I was only 20 years old that I first attended PAASWE. Being acknowledged as best overall student is the least expected outcome prior and during my stay over at Taylor’s University doing my Part 2. (Masters in Architecture) This post is made to show my deepest gratitude to Taylor University’s School of Architecture, Building and Design, readers, and all the peers (especially taylor.tribe) for the support and acknowledgement. Thank you.

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The Unending Square is one of the honorable mentions (TOP10) for Tamayouz Graduation Projects Award 2018! It is the largest annual graduate student works competition with 587 graduate entries from 164 universities and 74 countries.

Winner: https://www.tamayouz-award.com/news/tamayouz-international-graduation-projects-award-2018-winners-announcement

Long list: https://www.tamayouz-award.com/news/tamayouz-for-international-graduation-projects-award-2018-the-longlist

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