ACQUIRE . UNDERSTANDING

Acquire Understanding, a talk from Mr Hatta Ismail on 8 Feb 2017 PAM public lecturers is one of the best experience sharing session from architect. The ideas and theory shared by Mr Hatta is inspiring and allow a deeper understanding on the aspect of architecture. A talk with architect or senior will always improve our knowledge in this industry and raise our passion towards architecture.

Mr Hatta Ismail believe in his design ideas and theory which will change our way of thinking in architecture. Everyone should insist their own design intuitive and at the end you will own a design that belongs to you. For Mr Hatta, he emphasize on minimal seamless design and unpretentious design that have can be seen in most of his projects or artworks.

“A design base entity of a naive origin with an intuitive attribute evolve to an intelligent design.” The design based on minimal, with precise measured judgments, contemporary to modern timeless space design, intentions of art-antiques, refine on quintessential of life and unpredictable space elements. These are the ideas Hatta try to convey to us on his understanding of architecture.

An architect, designer, artist and mentor is what we can learnt from him. In this talk, Mr Hatta focus more on explaining the artworks he had done instead of focusing on building. In my opinion, his intention is to show us the passion that lead to architecture. The artworks he explain to us is actually relate to his design theory and it can be the inspiration and source of ideas. His design intuitive based on Wabi-Sabi is new for me, art of imperfection that belongs to the characteristic of Japanese aesthetic. This Japanese tradition of Wabi-Sabi show us a new inspiring way to look at artworks and architecture that should be widely use in Malaysia.

Wabi-Sabi emerging in the 15th century as a reaction to the prevailing aesthetic of lavishness, ornamentation, and rich materials, it is the art of finding beauty in imperfection that show the outstanding characteristic of the art itself. It can be related to the honesty in material and show the respect to the materials. Mr Hatta focus a lot on imperfection. Nowadays, a mass-produced and technology-saturated culture have force everything without its own properties and characteristics. To see the raw beauty of Wabi-Sabi, beauty in flaw detail and beauty of imperfect. Mr Hatta hope we can see the singular beauty in something that may first look decrepit and ugly whether in art, design or architecture.

Mr Hatta Ismail also explain his theory by referring to the building he involved. Through Wabi-Sabi, he learnt to use different kind of material to show their beauty in construction and design. This is to gain experience and knowledge that different kind of materials will result to different kind of effect. Mr Hatta like to explore the possibilities of material in building design. For instance, the use of pivot door and glass design are his intent for using better components.

The pivot door had been used widely in Silalima, Kuantan. This will provide a better access width and at the same time, it clear the space occupied by sliding door. There are a pond designed as part of the house, an attraction, a hierarchy and an ideas of using new elements.

For the Muzium Sultan Abdul bakar, there are a lot of glass material used as the display rack. The ideas of install a totally invisible glass rack is to attract the view of users and his minimal seamless design concept.

Material should be explored time by time to maximize their potential is what I get my inspiration from Mr Hatta design ideas. This is different from typical talks that it show us the ideas and inspiration from different kind of perspectives and aspects.