#230110 Petrification

During the recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, I was mesmerized by the progress: robust, diverse and vibrant. There seem to be a corner, in the city, for everyone. Abandonment, overgrowth, parasite; they were tolerated, not obliterated. Juxta positioned with new skyscrapers (straight out of an 80’s sci-fi or HK triad movie, depending on how you see it) the street walk alternates between vertical and horizontal, between noise and silence. The city is bustling with life, and death.

In geology, petrifaction or petrification is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this process, but all organisms, from bacteria to vertebrates, can become petrified.

Do we want architecture as fragmentary consolidation or abandoned adornment? Whimsically, it seems like a question between building slow (continuously with humility) and building fast (with little responsibility). Even more whimsically, a question about care, responsibility and the ego.

Nature nurtures and protects us with limited resources. We must be grateful and use the blessings responsibly, re-shaping the world with great care.

Feet, firmly planted on mother earth; eyes and hands, reaching for the stars.