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Hey there! Wow… there’s only so many hours in a day, and with all the workshops and activities that were lined up over the last few days, it was hard to find time to blog. (… if you think I’m writing this post on Day 2 itself, look at the date the first post was posted, and the date this post is written on… they are exactly a week apart =P)
So, pardon me for the delay, but here I am… making up for the missing days, and doing a little catching up =)
Now… where did I left off?
Ah… OK, let’s start with Day 2 of the CYX ^_^
With little to no knowledge about GardenAsia, it is only natural that we started off the 2nd day with an orientation of the company. Kenny shared with the youths what GardenAsia is about, the business model and the future development plans GardenAsia plans to embark on. One of the main plan GardenAsia has for the future is the farm stay. GardenAsia is going to be the first farm in Singapore to have farm stay facilities, I’m DEFINITELY looking forward to the opening of that because it’s going to be a totally new experience for all Singaporeans ^_^
After a short and sweet presentation, the youths were brought on an exclusive tour around the farm stay area by Kenny.
Psst… Let’s follow them!!
Youths heading to the farm stay area…
Do you see the farm stay huts?
Come on, let’s have a look inside…
Hmm… not quite done yet, but it’s going to be FANTASTIC once all the furniture is in. I can just tell! =D
At the end of the orientation session and tour, Kenny shared an inspiring story with the youths which I found very meaningful… and I’m going to share it with you here:
“Whether or not we realise it, there is a secret garden in each and every one of us. From young, we have been taught to appreciate and love mother nature. Whenever we are stressed out and under tremendous pressure, we long to go to the park, or to the beach, or anywhere close to nature. This is because going back to nature allows us to connect with ourselves in a peaceful, calm and natural environment. However, as we get older, we start locking the doors to the secret garden inside of us. What’s worse, we loose the keys to these doors and have no way of unlocking it again. As youths and adults, we are often too caught up with our lives, with work, with responsibilities, with commitments to appreciate the little and simple things in life. The Green Secrets of the CYX are the keys to unlocking these doors. We need to help people find the keys to unlock the doors to the secret garden within them. Only then, will they be happy. Only then, will less harm be inflicted on our environment.”
An amazing analogy, isn’t it? Frankly speaking, I fall victim to this too… having the tendency to get too caught up with my busy schedule to care for the environment. With these Green Secrets, I hope to be able to be more mindful of our environment through all the many little ways.
Moving on…
Now, remember the Osmoxylon Lineare plant the youths planted on their first day? It’s time to give it some attention once again =) I’m going to reveal the importance of this plant… are you ready to find out? ^_^
After spending the morning scouting out GardenAsia with Kenny, Johnny took over the next activity. First, he instructed… I mean, told (instructed sounds too domineering) the youths to bring their plants from the garden into the Country Rose function room. He then got everyone to sit around on the floor in a circular formation. A “Plant Line” tracking sheet was handed out to each of them and what they had to do is to observe the plant’s condition, and then describe the status of their plant on the tracking sheet. Having not watered and cared for their plants since they were planted, many of the green leaves are now turning yellow. They took turns describing to Johnny verbally what they thought was different about their plant from the day it was planted, until today. Most of them realized that their plants weren’t looking very healthy at all =S Uh oh… what happened to “I hope for it to grow straight, tall and healthy”?
“Skimming” Johnny finally revealed to them the purpose of this plant and the significance of it in the CYX =P The youths are responsible for the health of their plant, that is watering it and making sure it gets enough sunlight, for the whole duration of the CYX. How do they tell if the plants are healthy? By keeping the leaves of the plant green, of course!
On the “Plant Line” tracking sheet, the youths are to record what they observe each day. They were told that it is important that they water the plants EVERY day, as one of the characteristics of the Osmoxylon Lineare plant is that it dies easily and requires constant watering every day. After having heard what Johnny said about the plant, everyone rushed to water their plants.
(Xuan watering her plant with a glass of water)
At first, you would think that Johnny is someone who’s only fluent in English… don’t ask me why, that’s the first impression I had =P As cliché as it may sound, looks CAN be deceiving and is very much the case here. In fact, Johnny is fluent in BOTH English and Chinese.
*school bell rings* Time for “Chinese class” with Johnny 老师。
“Does anyone know what the phrase 天工开物 means?” asked Johnny 老师。
OK… for the benefit of those who don’t know Chinese, I’m going to just tell you the answer *wink*
天工开物directly translated into English means ‘the work of nature and open up matter’. However, what it actually means is, heaven made nature (天工), and we should understand it, and craft it to beauty. By using what heaven gave to us, and by learning to create something magnificent out of nothing, we are able to unravel the secret within.
Johnny went on to “tickle the minds” of the youths a little more. (“tickle your mind” is a phrase I came up with which I felt best explains how I feel when new information is provided to further inspire a person). He said the word ’secret’ can also be turned into the word ’secretion’, which is the process of segregating and elaborating. Like a snail, it leaves behind a trail of gooey substance as it crawls. So, what kind of secretion would you release to turn the GardenAsia farm stay into a unique experience?
Green Challenge #2: Design a unique farm stay experience
Remember our tour of the GardenAsia farm stay area earlier this morning? Well, there’s a purpose for everything we do in CYX =) At this point, not much information was given to the youths about the challenge. Sooo… I’m not going to tell you more about it either =P Hey hey… but let’s not get too anxious now, it will be revealed soon enough *cheeky evil laughter*
For now, we have in the house with us our very first CYX mentor, leading international design consultant, the very charming…. Mr Brian Adams!! =D
CYX Workshop #2: Brian Adams – Inspirational Design Concepts
Who is Brian Adams??? O_o Nope, nice try, but he’s not a singer…
He’s a renowned designer! =D
Brian has spent many years in the region acquiring the expertise of working with tropical and natural materials for furnishings and interiors. He is also an accomplished glass designer and has worked with Czech glass blowers and European factories, culminating in the Liberty Collection showcased in showrooms in America, Middle East and Europe. Other outstanding glass structures which he has designed include a 30-metre high crystal tower for the Sultan of Brunei.
Why is he here at GardenAsia? What can he offer to the CYX participants? Brian is here to share with the 12 youths new design concepts and ideas… basically, putting the C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E in the Creative Youth Xchange =)
“My design philosophy is ‘Taste in all things’”, says Adams. He is here to share with the youths his view of design. He believes that design is all about aesthetics with a common sense view of function, and a true understanding of the nature of materials and processes to create.
During the workshop, Brian covered many different aspects of design, and showed the youths his very own sketches, drawn and coloured by hand! Not being in the creative industry nor a student in the design industry, all of this is DEFINITELY something new to me.
Here’s what I picked up from Brian… and I’m sure everyone who was there learnt something new from him…
- Designs should be ergonomic (… the application of scientific information concerning humans to the design of objects, systems and environment for human use)
- Designs of chairs and tables differ depending on the function it serves (E.g. an office chair is for doing work and should have a straight back and sturdy structure, whereas an armchair is for relaxing and should be softer and more comfortable. A coffee table is for smaller items and need not be as big or as tall as a dining table or study table. And so on and so forth…)
- Function is the purpose an object serves. This is important and should always be thought of first before designing a creative design
- Form is the design of the object and the way it looks
- Form VS Function is always a common dilemma for designers
- Proportion, colours and material used is important to achieving desired results
Now that the youths have learnt something new, it’s time for them to put their new found knowledge to immediate use =)
Green Challenge #3: YOU Are A Designer… Design A Chair
Brian gives youths a short brief for the new challenge…
They have exactly 5 hours to design a chair, AND then build a life size one big enough for him to sit on it and test it out.
Off they go into the scorching hot sun to gather their materials…
At this point, each of them are probably clueless as to what the design of their chair is, let alone build a life size version of it =P
Everyone looking for materials they could use for their chairs…
WHEW!! Now… THAT was hard work! But looook, they’ve got their materials =)
So, it’s time to get down to building their chairs…
1 hour…
2 hours…
3 hours passed…
Time for the professionals to step in to show them a thing or two =P
At this point, the youths have their creative cap on tight, TOO tight, and their minds are bubbling with creative ideas. One problem though… they’ve got FORM down, but it seems like most of them have forgotten about FUNCTION =(
Brian, Johnny and Kenny decided to build a bench of their own…
and they set a time limit for themselves that is shorter than that given to the youths.
Not 4 hours… not 3 hours… not 2… not EVEN 1…
Time Limit for 3 guys to build a bench = 10 minutes!
VOILA!!
In less than 10 minutes…
they’ve built for themselves a fully functionable bench =)
Simple, yes… but functionable.
And that was the point they wanted to bring across to the youths. That a product is only good if it’s functionable. Hence, designing and creativity should come in after the function of the product is fulfilled.
I really liked their method of guiding these youths. Instead of merely telling them that their chairs are not practical, they chose to guide them by actions =)
With 2 hours left on the clock, the youths went back to their chairs and refined the design to make it more functionable.
Brian went around to guide them along…
Hmmm… erm, Johnny… what are you doing? =P
Tick…
Tock…
Tick…
Tock…
Tick…
TIME’S UP!!
Time to put the chairs to the test ^_^
ARE YOU READY TO SEE THEIR AMAZING MASTERPIECES??
*DRUMROLL* (… an extra loud one please because these youths have put in their sweat and heart into designing and building these chairs)
First up, Linda’s “Summer”…
Ling Han’s “Secret Garden”
Next, we have Xuan’s “Station”…
and Xiao Xiao’s “禅石”.
Not forgetting, Chien Lin’s “Lazy Bone”…
and to balance things out, Sangeeta’s “Ying Yang”.
There’s more… Li Min’s “Fireplace”,
and cheerful Admira’s “Chill Bill”.
Next, we see in front of us Yu Shan’s “Flipsides”…
and Oooo…. Calvin’s “Mummy Chair”.
Mikko’s “Back To Nature”…
and last but not least…
Ming’s “Chairman”!
A round of applause for these talented youths and their creations =D
OK… I am now ready to reveal the details of Green Challenge #2. See… I couldn’t have told you earlier because I would have confused you. Green Challenge #2 is linked to Green Challenge #3 =P
The youths were split into their respective groups of 3 once again for Green Challenge #2 (i.e. Pre-emptive, Reactive, Adaptive, Failsafe). In this group, they are to brainstorm and come up with a product, a service and a programme that GardenAsia can implement for the farm stay. The nature of the product, service and programme has to be related to the names they have chosen for their chairs. Since there are 3 different people in a group, with 3 different chairs and 3 different names, they have to decide which is to be used for the product, which for the service and which for the programme. In the end, their entire farm stay proposal has to be inter-related and linked.
Dateline? Pitch Night is Sunday 11pm @ Farm Stay Amphitheatre… that’s less than 2 days away!
After a well-deserved dinner, the youths were back in Country Rose… No more hard physical work for the day though. This time, all they have to do is sit and listen to Mr. Samuel Seow =)
CYX Workshop #3: Samuel Seow – Intellectual Property protection
To end off the wonderful day, we are honoured to have with us Mr Samuel Seow. He did a short workshop on intellectual property, and explained to the youths how they can apply for intellectual property protection. He covered issues on copyrighting, trademarking, registered designs and patents. He is an entertaining and humorous speaker, and the youths were definitely charmed by his charisma and enthusiasm… something which is important to have for without it, the youths would probably have fallen asleep during the workshop (… afterall, they did spend their day making furniture =P)
Tired, exhausted, but filled with new knowledge and the sense of satisfaction of completing their chairs… the youths headed back to the Singapore Sports School on a bus to rest their little heads and to prepare for Day 3 of CYX =)
