astaka + MSSA competition

i joined astaka competition about more than a year ago. but i just had to blog this down. in this competition, there is the preliminary round where there were supposed to be hundreds of submission but that year (2005), with no representatives from UiTM so they were only 50 competitors. my school, UM school of architecture sent 3 group representatives. for those who don't know what astaka is, it's a stage where people held the annual 'Tilawah Al-Quran' competition. every year JKR (Jabatan Kerja Raya) hold this astaka design competition so they'd use the winning design as the official astaka for the Quran recital competition.

we were told only one week before the submission. we did the design n model all within the week. it was so chaotic that it even crossed my mind to forfeit. luckily we didn't. we had problems with the 3rd member n then appointed Soon Yau, who has the greatest magnificent workmanship in the whole world, to do our model. and the submission day was nerve-wrecking, all the designs were terrific n brilliant with superb craftmanship on the models. i presented to 2 judges but wasn't sure if we would get chosen for top10. then the next day was the official day for the submission, presented to a lot of people but i lost count. most of them werent judges though. my mother n my 9-month pregnant sister actually came! as i said, i was glad we didn't forfeit because when the announcement was made, ours were announced in the 2nd last. so we made it. n i was happy... all that lack of sleep and hard work completely paid off. but unfortunately we lost in the 2nd round. i guess the judges didn't want anything too unconventional or contemporary like ours. anyway, lots of other architects and managements complimented on our design. we didn't make it to top5. but overall, i was satisfied with how my team worked together and made it through a tough moment and then beating 49 other competitors to make it to the top10.

currently i'm joining this biotech centre competition organized by Malaysian Steel Structural Association (MSSA). i did the design and presentation board in less than a week. i was pretty stressed out because the submission was so close to my final submission. but somehow i managed to pull it off and submit both on time. i was pretty sure we wouldn't get through to the top10 for the MSSA competition but just last week, a friend, a teammate rang me up and told me that we made it to the top10 out of 70 submissions. it was shocking because i really didn't give my all for the design. so there you have it... i'm proud that i made at least to top10's for both competitions. Not to flatter myself but it makes me wonder how i could flunk my final semester when i've been reaching top10's for design competitions. hmm... hmmm...