End of ALP – Back in Singapore

By Chun Yong

*click*

*Deleted 10GB worth of files from ALP folder*

Finally, back in non-40 degrees Singapore. So much to wrap up, so many people to thank, where should I start.

Hmm… I think I’ll start from the end then. We designed fans. Like, absolutely cool leaf-blowing arduino-controllable epic whothehellcouldhavethoughtofthis fans. I don’t have many photos of the actual prototypes that were made (even more awesome, by the way), but here are the equally amazing 3D renderings we did:

 

Pretty cool huh? Okay, I’m exaggerating, but still! We all learned a lot about 3D modelling and rendering and the pain one’s computer will have to go through every time it has to render one of our works of 3D art.

Doing these 3D models really take up someone’s time! They can be very challenging since it’s like you’re drawing in 3D space. Here’s a 3D model of a sports car that I tried to do.

 

Not all renderings turn out as nicely though. (Notice how I show you nice ones) If one does not have an idea of what he or she wants to create, it becomes quite the abomination. Thankfully, our skills in sketching for quick idea generation and communication has vastly improved (or at least the interest has been sparked).

 

Tip: Draw with thick marker pens on big A3 paper. That way, whatever you draw looks nice. On a more serious note, it really did take a lot of drawings and sketching to get to some presentable level. It takes a lot of exposure and practice to get that line to curve the way you want it to. At the rate we were using paper however, we were starting to get pretty concerned about the environment. That’s why I decided to get….

… a drawing tablet!! It may not be a wacom, but it definitely does it’s job in letting you produce digital sketches.

All this was done using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. It was really cool to get to learn how to use all these software that allowed us to express our ideas and design products that could one day be made a reality.

It was in all a great experience, not just because of the projects we helped with or the facilities that were provided to us by our generous ZJU hosts, but because we had 4 really really (did I mention ‘really’?) long months to pick up any new skills and perspectives to be better designers for people.

As a show of our gratitude, we organised a pizza party a few days before we flew back to Singapore. Sadly, I lack the photos of the party (and the exhibition, and many other occasions.. was too busy experiencing everything to take a photo), I’ll just have to count on your imagination for now, so just picture sixty pizzas, twenty bottles of drinks, and music blasting from some speakers and people playing NBA 2013 in the middle of everything. I know, awesome party, you had to be there.

Every group also made a small memento for our ZJU mentors, most were decorated cards or photos to remember the 4 months of shared memories. As for our dear professor Ying…

… TA-DAAA!! You can imagine his face when we gave this to him. No? Well, me neither, he didn’t turn up at the party unfortunately :(. We passed it to the other ZJU people to pass it to him the next time he was there.

And so, after all the goodbyes, and packing, and checking out of the hotel, and getting on the bus, and yadee yadaa, we are all safely back in Singapore. As far as product design experience goes, it was extremely enriching, not because they guided us every step of the way, but precisely the opposite: we were given freedom (almost) every step of the way. Freedom to explore, freedom to learn, and most of all, freedom to fail. Should anyone who is considering embarking on this journey stumble across this blog, the only advice I can offer is to always have an open mind and to be willing to try out new things that could possibly just continue to not only give you that drive to do something great, but also to figure out what great things you can and want to accomplish.

See you in the upcoming Term!

Summary of our ALP adventure

By Yoong Jia Jun (Industrial Design theme)

Hangzhou is a beautiful city. In the three and a half months in Zhejiang University, I have had a lot of fun while in the process of learning. It was spring when we arrived and autumn when we left. The first two months were rather relaxing; we had a lot of time to travel around Hangzhou and the neighbouring cities. The last month was really hectic for the students in my theme as well as in many other themes. We had to design something and model it on rhino, and eventually make the physical prototype. There was a report and video to submit too. This entry is a summary of our time there and the things I’ve learnt. I’ll first talk about Hangzhou, Zhejiang University and the things we do during our free time.

We were there to experience the record-breaking temperature in Hangzhou.

Amazingly, beautiful sunsets are not uncommon in Hangzhou. The sky was really pink that day. The building in this photo is International Design Institute of Zhejiang University (IDI / 月牙楼), the place we go to every day when we do not go to our internship companies.

These bikes were so useful while we were there. It is free to rent for the first one hour and costs 1RMB for the next hour.

These are two dishes from 外婆家, one of the more affordable and yummy restaurants in Hangzhou. The food in Hangzhou is really good, I must say. I am missing the steamboats we had ever so frequently already.

Speaking of food, the BBQ (烧烤) there is super good. Although the food is really unhealthy, it is something not to be missed. My theme members have had countless shao kao sessions with our ZJU mentor Liu Yi. We’ve even had it once with Angelvin (from the SUTD Student Life department) when she came with the SSUE students. Usually, we would walk over to the nearby KTV to sing after we had shao kao. This is just about how we spent our nights.

Our other mentor Han Lei brought us around the pond area in ZJU and we chanced upon some geese and black swans. The school is really huge and beautiful.

Just some photos of Bei Jia and Chia Wu, members of theme 10.

Hakim got sick during the first few weeks and he had to go to the hospital which is located inside the school compound.

The members of theme 10 – Industrial Design are mostly Engineering Systems and Design (ESD) students, 10 out of 13 of us to be exact. We all signed up for this theme thinking that we would be doing something more system related. However it ended up being more like product design. Although it was not what we expected, it was still a good experience. Our theme members interned in three companies, namely Feish (飞鱼工业设计公司), Bole (博乐工业设计公司) and TOOUT (凸凹工业设计公司). We worked on integrated kitchen appliances, lighting and culture, and lighting and emotions respectively. We went through the entire design process, from ideation to realisation. We picked up a lot of software skills including Rhino, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign and these skills are useful for us in the future especially during our pillar years.

At Feish (飞鱼工业设计公司)

Another photo at Feish (飞鱼工业设计公司)

Bole (博乐工业设计公司)

Bole (博乐工业设计公司) office

At Bole (博乐工业设计公司)

TOOUT (凸凹工业设计公司) office

Group photo at TOOUT (凸凹工业设计公司)

At TOOUT (凸凹工业设计公司)

 
We also practised sketching (by starting with line-drawing) at the beginning. Sketching is an effective way to convey thoughts and ideas and it is very useful if we are able to sketch well.

In order to gain more understanding and knowledge about design, we have been on some outings. Some of us went for the IxDC talks which were held in Hangzhou this year. The Bole group visited many museums so as to get inspiration.

In order to produce the prototype, we had to work with an external company. We went down to the prototyping company to confirm our design before we started production. It was truly a good experience as we were working directly with a Chinese firm. Luckily for us, we have Han Xiao in our group so communication was not much of a barrier.

SUTD Provost at our exhibit

To conclude, the entire ALP experience was a very rewarding one. Being in a different environment forced us to break boundaries (such as using Chinese as the main language) and exposed us to a culture that is unlike our own. What I liked about the Chinese as I could see in the ZJU mentors and teachers is that they were ready to help even if it meant having less sleep. They were very passionate in what they do and I really appreciate the help they gave us.

ALP – National Day

By Benjamin Lee

Hi everyone,

It’s not every year that we’re a few thousand kilometres away from home on national day. Nevertheless, we still got together (and got the live stream working) to catch the parade. So without further ado, here are a few photos of this special occasion. Wishing one and all a Happy (belated)* National Day.

* At this point of writing.

SUTD gathering in IDI to watch the live stream.

Because the lounge was too crowded.

Happy National Day! (though not everyone is in red or white)

And of course, what’s national day without some fireworks.

ALP — The Journey to Suzhou

Our theme is about Chinese traditional crafts and artifacts design, therefore, visiting museums becomes an important part of our tour. To make us get more familiar with Chinese traditional architecture and improve our aesthetics thinking, our group leader, Tao Ye, decide to let us have a journey to Suzhou, which is regarded as Oriental Venice. Then, on the morning of May 30^th, 2013, our two days journey starts.

We took bus from our hostel at 0730am, after around 3 hours traveling, we get to Suzhou. It is a typical southern town located in southern and eastern part of Jiangsu Province. The city was divided into two parts, the inner city is old and original part which has 2500 years history, and an interesting thing is all the old buildings in the inner part are not higher than 6 floors, therefore, we can still feel the traditional culture and the atmosphere of ancient China.

Buildings in Suzhou.

This old town is famous for its gardens. There is an old saying “江南园林甲天下，苏州园林甲江江南”, which means the gardens in Suzhou is the best in the world. Hence, our first stop is a well-known garden, 狮子林 (Lion Grove).

Lion Grove Garden.

We have learnt Chinese traditional architecture culture and get involved into the picturesque scenery. The fantastic stones showed us the strength of history. The only disappointing thing is that the temperature is a little bit low because of the rain, but every one still can’t wait to go to the next stop. After ten minutes plus traveling, we then got to a harbor and take a boat to experience the traditional daily life of local residents.

On the boat. “Look here! Guys!”

The river and the local housings.

Then we visit the Han Shan temple (寒山寺), which is famous for a poem, “姑苏城外寒山寺，夜半钟声到客船”. The guide showed us Chinese Buddhist culture, and showed us around the temple.

Outside the Han Shan temple.

We got to the hotel at night, and after taking a rest, we went to a night market, the long street is filled with red lanterns, walking along the street, you can feel that you were walking in the ancient China, and pretty girls will passed you at any time. (However, because of illness, I didn’t go with them, but according to their description, I can feel the atmosphere in the street. A friend said, if you go, you must fall love with it.)

Second day, we went to the Suzhou museum which is the main purpose of the journey. The museum is built by a celebrated architect, Bei Yuming , and it is also the last work of him. Therefore, the museum is quiet famous for its architectural style.

Suzhou Museum.

Scenery of the museum.

The tour finished after we had launch on a street near the museum. In Suzhou, every street, every corner could become a landscape. We deeply feel the ancient Chinese culture during the journey. Unlike the modern city as Singapore, Suzhou gives us the feeling of peace and silence. Tired but excited, we came back. Good night Suzhou, Good night Hangzhou.

ALP — West Lake Hangzhou

If you come to Hangzhou, you must visit West Lake (西湖).

I visited West Lake every weekend with friends or alone for cycling, eating or just relaxing. West Lake looks different at different times and under different weather conditions.

Summer, sunny day.

Summer, rainy day.

Summer, night.

This weekend, our group decided to go to West Lake together. Firstly, the weather is nice and we could see the whole lake. On the other hand, and it’s also the most important reason, we wanted to eat the famous dish in Lou Wai Lou.

However, we took two taxis and met at a shopping centre, and then the tragedy happened……the low prices and different kinds of clothes aroused people’s desire of shopping, and then the happy afternoon passed quickly at the shopping centre. 😀

Around 7pm, we walked to the restaurant. Along the way, we saw the beautiful scenery of West Lake as it transited from day to night.

After a long walk, everyone was hungry and tired. Food was the best motivation to keep us going. We got to the restaurant while the sky turned dark.

Lotus root with honey.

Other food around West Lake.

Performance around West Lake. Unfortunately, we didn’t see it. It was taken by Li Hanwei.

ALP – After class

by Benjamin Lee

Hi everyone,

This is our third week in Hangzhou city. Lessons have already started, but I won’t elaborate much about it, since what my teammates and I have been doing so far is quite similar to the initial stages of our design course back in Term 2. The main difference is that we have a lot of sketching to do. Oh and that’s on top of the usual homework that is assigned.

Anyway, here’s a short photo essay about Zhejiang University’s Zijingang Campus and what we’ve been up to last weekend.

Group photo near the peak of 老和山, with 西湖 visible in the background. And yes, that branch at the top right should be chopped off -_-

Most of us had already explored the neighbourhood and other famous attractions in Week 1, so a few of us decided to follow in the footsteps of our peers from 2-2 and go hiking for a change. On Saturday, the weather was surprisingly good (it was foggy / hazy / raining for most of the past few days). We climbed to the West Lake scenic area from a road behind the Yuquan Campus, and walked down the ridge.

This was the view facing the west as we were reaching our destination, 北高峰. You definitely don’t get to see this kind of scenery with atmospheric perspective back home.

The following day, we were still slightly tired from the hike (I blame all that oily food we’ve been eating ._.) so we just hung out at the campus. When exiting the canteen after lunch, we ran into a large crowd right outside. It turned out that the roller blading club was putting up a performance (on a Sunday afternoon), so we stayed to watch. Personally, I have never seen such stunts and techniques being pulled off on roller blades, so it was definitely an eye-opening experience. Guys, time to learn from the CCA culture here.

After that, I took a solitary walk around the campus. It’s supposed to be the end of spring, but the weather is still relatively cool and flowers are still in full bloom. The parks and green spaces were filled with people (not just students or staff, there seems to be other members of the public too) having picnics with their families, flying kites, or just chilling around.

I nearly forgot to mention: the Zijingang campus is huge. Can you imagine what we felt like on our first day: students from one of the world’s smallest universities, stepping foot into such a large campus? And this isn’t the only campus; Zhejiang University has 5 campuses (we’re based at Zijingang, and as mentioned earlier we’ve visited Yuquan).

It started raining again on Monday afternoon. The rain here isn’t like that of a tropical thunderstorm; it’s gentle and long lasting (some call it 长命雨), and is somewhat like a fine mist settling on the ground. It stopped as we were walking out of campus after dinner. For some reason, I turned back to look at the School of Architecture (this is where we currently go for lessons), and stopped in my tracks. Despite walking here just about everyday, the building and the sky have never looked this awesome before.

And after another one or two hot days, the skies became overcast and the rain started to fall again. Today was surprisingly chilly, given that summer is supposed to be just round the corner. With the wind chill, the experience did not seem too far off from winter. I guess that’s why most of the locals all wear jeans and covered shoes, and always have an umbrella with them at all times.

It’s time to get back to work. I’ll try to post more photos again after the next few weeks (when the internet is reliable >_>).

ALP – Before a new journey starts

by Li Hanwei (Theme 9 – Plant Factory)

For theme 9, plant factory, the weekend is quite relaxing (same for the last whole week?).

On Monday morning, we had a dialogue session with our Singapore Education Minister, Mr Heng Swee Keat, together with another group of students from Singapore. 4 student representatives shared their observations in China. Then in the Q&A session, our minister shared his idea of education on some issues.

The dialogue session with Education Minister, Mr Heng Swee Keat

Education Minister, Mr Heng Swee Keat, sharing his ideas on education

This afternoon, our ZJU group leader will  prepare some final material (Thanks to our volunteers!)

While the rest of us may pack up our stuff and get ready for the new journey.

Tomorrow we will go to ChangXing and stay there for at least 10 days. We are excited and curious about what we will experience there. Farming? Movie nights? or some tough days?

Let’s wait and see.