|
...to
be demolished and disposed by HBP
|
|
All good things must
come to an end, and so is the life of ConDome in USM. According to the Dean of HBP, Prof Ir. Dr.
Mahyuddin Ramli, in a
letter dated 12 Feb 2008,
"It
is not safe; the components have been corroded by
weather, the rusty components may cause the dome to
collapse, and would endanger the lives of the public
especially HBP students." |
|
Can the
rusty components cause ConDome to collapse? You're
welcome to look at the
condition of ConDome, and we shall not harp on
that. We take it that HBP just wants to get rid of
it, that all. |
I therefore wrote an
email which said:
- I agree that it
be disposed from HBP.
- I disgree that
the demolition be given to a contractor
[basically when the student heard from the lab
technician that it's being sold for 50cents].
- With permission
from the school therefore, I'd like to dispose it myself.
|
|
The Dean agreed and
wanted the job to be done ASAP. |
|
Of course we can ask,
why does the Dean associate ConDome to an individual
lecturer (CikWan) and not to the Architecture
Committee, after all ConDome was a product of 15th
National Architecture Workshop hosted by in USM in
2002? Six schools of architecture prepared the
components in their own campuses, took them all they
way to USM, and built it together in HBP. Technically
the dome still belong to all the participating schools of architecture in Malaysia
then, and the Architecture Program of HBP is merely
entrusted with it. |
|
But we will almost
hear something like, "it's CikWan's babylah!" |
|
Sure it's CikWan's baby. In 2003 when the Vice
Chancellor of USM wanted HBP to transform and transfer
ConDome to Taiping, to
represent World Peace, CikWan was reluctantly called in.
And the
Proposed Geodesic Peace Dome, 2003 was prepared. Despite this
initial effort, HBP did not deliver what it had
proposed to do. |
|
|
|
Why HBP did not meet
VC's request, that I really don't know. But I
suspect one thing. I still remember how perplexed I
was when the Dean wanted a "section
drawing" of ConDome so that Dr Norizal can calculate
the sizes of the struts (...huh?).
I also found out that the Dean tried to get students
to draw up ConDome (like they do in measured drawing
class). The Dean also tried to get
students to do an animation of ConDome (sic). Perhaps it is this difficulty in trying to
understand the geodesic dome that we see the
Dean's description of ConDome as
"model of a
dome," instead of just a dome. |
|
How not to be haunted by
the difficulty to come to terms with a geodesic
dome? That may perhaps the reason for the destruction
(rather than restoration, reconstruction) of all traces of
ConDome. |
If you'e interested in
participating (even if it's just by playing the
fiddle while the transformation is happening) to
provide ConDome its new lease of life, just
email me .
 |
|
Feedback |
"A tonne of scrap metal
cannot just cost 50cents, can it?" Anon.
"Crane the dome down
in the sea and turn it into a giant man-made coral.
Environmentalists build to recycle, builders build
to destroy." Ms S.Hussein, HBP Class
of 2004, 26Mar2008, 00:08:40. |
