An personal values statement that I have done for my elective in university- Thinking Architecture

1. ARC 2323
THINKING | ARCHITECTURE
A narrative essay on
Personal Values Statement: Defining Personal Values for Design
LEE JO YEE
0314880

2. The idea of this paper, I believe is to provide us an opportunity to pause at this stage
of our life and take a closer look at ourselves. Too often we are caught walking at our utmost
fast pace in life, struggling to live without knowing the purpose of living, bypassing all the
moments and events that should be cherished and reflected on. Throughout the assignment,
we explore and identify our characteristics and personalities again by taking measureable
tests and observing our pasts in order to renew a perspective of ourselves.
A Worldview is a theory of the world from a person point of view and it is the basic
system by which you view life events. Over time and by experience, one will develop his
own sense of how things will eventually end up. By knowing one’s worldviews, it will not be
difficult to understand the decisions and actions he makes in everyday life. As a human, we
are blessed with an ability to able to identify our thoughts and switch it with a new
perspective.
A Personal Value Statement are sentences that reflects one character, background,
personality, and experience, which later on helps them to identify the priorities in life and life
goals. According to Mindtools.com website, values are the things that one believes are
important in the way his live and work. They (should) determine one’s priorities, and, deep
down, they are probably the measures you use to tell if your life is turning out the way you
want it to. The article also mentioned that if your action and behave matches your values, life
is usually good – you are satisfied and content because your acts align with your will. And
vice versa if you against your values. This can be a powerful source of one happiness and
unhappiness from.
Based on the Central Six survey in the book Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer
Behaviours by Geoffrey Miller, it has summarised General Intelligence and the Big Five
traits in a short and precise way. I was brought up in an upper middle-class, small size family
consisting both my parents, my younger brother and I in the Penang island. Being identified
as high on the traits of Openness and Agreeableness, I have to credit to the influences of my
parents who always engaged themselves in different opportunities and being the subjects of
the limelight for each event. Dad was once the president of the prestigious Lions Club of
Georgetown and we often help out with his charity events at the Orang Asli settlements,
sponsored hospitals, orphanages, institutions of the Blinds and etc. At that age, I was
persuaded that performing an act of kindness is part of the nature of human kinds and human
beings has no right to implement harm or death penalties to each other. It might sounds
selfish but I oppose Euthanasia even the patients are voluntary. Death is often being misused
as an excuse when you lose hope or unwilling to suffer. The values of life are depreciate
when I see patients from the hospitals hate and curse themselves in the cells. It hurts me
deeply. All these circumstances eventually build up the urge of me wanting to do something
to improve in life and actions are taken since standard one. Throughout my 12 years of
primary and secondary education, I was an extreme extrovert and involved in various extra
curriculums from being the Deputy of Head Prefect (which actually contribute to most of my
conscientiousness) to school athlete team and debate team. Egoism plays a big role back then
to be an overachiever and I have graduated at the top of my class with 10As in SPM. But
when I got to university, I have realised that people around me are just as smart or smarter.
All these external validation and popularity that I had become accustomed to suddenly
stopped. And I crumbled for a period of time. I have come to realisation that I do not have an
identity beyond making people proud of me. So I changed. I have lowered the ego in me. I

3. learned to cope with failures. I learned that it was OK to rely on others and ask for help. It
happened in the first year of my university life and it was a significant lesson that I learnt it
by hard.
Penang Island, where I am born and raised. This beautiful island is located at the
northern- west of Peninsular Malaysia and considered the smallest state out of Malaysia.
Perhaps, the island itself has taught me something very valuable since young – the place and
its soul. My younger brother and I used to stay with my grandparents during weekdays when
my parents are away with works. It is a small kampong (village) where neighbours greet each
other and most of us speak the one language – Hokkien regardless of races and religions. My
favourite thing to do was accompany my grandmother to the wet market every morning,
which we have to walk around one kilometres from home. It is lively and noisy there as
everyone from the neighbourhood gathers and mingles. They love this place and so do I. I
love to walk in the crowd and listen to the noises because I know this place is alive. In my
opinion, the best living compound is the one you had a deep relationship and connection with
it. I personally believe urban planning can contribute a lot in manipulating the behaviour of a
city. It has to allow the residents to create memories for themselves. Nowadays I saw
condominiums and bungalows with high-tech security gates and cameras guarded. To me,
there are signs of urbanism and a trace of solitary.
My father passed away on the 7th
of December 2010 after the year my grandmother’s
life has ceased. Both of them were heart attacked. Their deaths are followed by my
grandfather and another aunt of mine due to cancers. Four deaths in three years. I was 15
years old back then and just in the stage of adolescences. With little or no understanding
about deaths at that time, the grief did not hit me immediately but slowly it immersed me in
sorrow for years. I realised the worst thing about death is, you cannot stop yourself from
imagine it and you can do nothing about it. When someone has passed away, you look at the
chair he used to sit and imagine he will be back but nothing happen ; When my grandfather
was in the hospital, he was too weak to speak and you have already imagined bad in the next
few days but all you can do is sit there and watch it happened. It had become my core
memory and undoubtedly shape who I am today, especially being the eldest in the family. At
first, I have decided to overlook the grief due to my inner ego by focusing on these external
events and gradually, I have broken down when the sadness is beyond my control. My family
does not practice any main religion except Taoism so I walked myself to the counselling
room for the first time to pour out my feelings. That was the unique experience that I first
learned it is alright to let others know how I feel. I have gotten -1 for my emotional stability
in the survey. I easily become emotional and quick to cry when it is related to death and life,
family values and relationship matters.
My worldview can be sum up as Idealism which is the belief in or pursuance of ideals.
I have been searching the notion of life after high school, pondering the characteristics of a
perfect life are. To my discovery, there is no such thing as “perfect” life, you cannot avoid
bad things to happen (the passing away of my family members) and too many good things
will lead you to the other side (the egoism that I have in high school). Hence, I have come to
a conclusion that the state of balance in every aspect of one life is the key to ideal living: we
must have the bad ones to cherish the good ones, the sport and the academic, the speaking
and the thinking etc. Each value cannot be dominant as to achieve an all-rounded human
being. Hence, below is my PVC:

4. Balance as the key to the ideal of life or to achieve the peace in mind.
We know the principle of Ying and Yang, that every element has an opposing element. If
Balance was considered as a value, I think indecisive is the opposite. I have always found
myself in dilemma to make the right (perfect) decision to attain a Win-Win situation. But as I
said, there is no “perfect” choice in life. Sometimes, making a “balanced” choice seem like a
challenge and I need a whole afternoon to ponder on.
My favourite architect varies at different semesters of my studies. I started off
admiring Starchitects like Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid when I just started my study in
foundation. Now, more humble and intellectual designers like Tadao Ando and Kevin Mark
Low have become an inspiration in my design. Their buildings do not shout or assert strong
opinions to the users but focuses on the sophisticated atmosphere in the space and details to
the users. I have studied Kevin Mark Low after attending one of his talks recently, and there
is one part of the article (Mihaly, 2013) that has discussed the client as the top priority of any
project. But Low’s disagreement has captured my attention, explained that because he pays
the bills, it does not mean that his interests are paramount. In his opinion, the top priority of a
project is the project. The building we design will outlast our client as surely as they will
outlast us. He mentioned that we owe it to the built environment to leave a more lasting and
sustainable legacy. Another one of his design statements stroked: “Good architecture
establishes the garden at the beginning of its spatial theory”, placing an extensive importance
of garden has on a dwelling. Such examples can be seen in most of his works like Garden
Shell house and Safari Roof House. He explained (Low, 2013) that architecture does not end
with the front door or wall. It is about the space and space is a continuum. He viewed the
garden, as part of nature that does not project any gestalt. It is what it is. So the mind wonders
less and contributes to the tranquillity of the space.
I admire Kevin Mark Low’s attentive consideration to construction details and nature
as much as Tadao Ando’s sense of poetic and practicality coming from a carpentry
background. Both individuals contribute much to my learning process to design. My
architectural values place much emphasis on Social that I believe the soul of the users should
react with the surrounding environment. Most of my design consists of communal spaces. A
public place that allows interaction between men but at the same time provides complete
freedom to enjoy by oneself. Inspired by one of Ando famous quotes, “If you give people
nothingness, they can ponder what can be achieved from that nothingness “implementing his
way of conceiving space as a dark, heavy and powerful void. The idea of Idealism in
architecture can be implied when the design suits in three aspects: the client, the site and the
architect’s thoughts. At one point, one can find the critical thread that links all the factors but
in the other hand I sometimes doubt the possibilities in achieving the ideal state of the
building. How about time factor? How about political issues and economic crises? Or even
the vision of the designer could never be realised because only 2% of the people could afford
architecture where the rest hid themselves in the cave? As an architectural student, I still
struggle with my own design values and dare no to bias with any theories or philosophies.
Lastly, I have come to a conclusion that any journey in my life, no matter how small it
is will eventually cause ripples in my life. By knowing this, I should be able to plan and
decide my next voyage in order to allow myself to change from the decision I have made. I
am glad that I have chosen architecture as my major which is a balance between art and

5. functionality. If architecture were to be considered as an art, I would say it is an invisible art.
A good design consists of rounds and rounds of brainstorming behind has nothing to do with
the realisation and appreciation of the end users. Because of the good ergonomics and
craftsmanship has adapted to them so well that they are too comfortable using it. Moreover
they complain what is the fuss over a small adjustment and accusing us being overly
conscientious. Blaming them is like making another joke on us as they cannot tell the
differences. Hence as a designer myself, I believe there is no wrong having the ego flows in
you as the moment you know, the people are always not the masterminds behind. But we are.